Grand Tour Part VII: The Nation's Capital

Is it capital or capitol? I'm never sure and don't care quite enough to bother looking it up. Either way, what DC is to the States, Madrid is to Spain. It's also the largest city in the country, with over 3 million inhabitants and an extensive rail/metro system. It is also one of the most expensive places, and between high rents, metro tickets and everything else I can see why the Madrid Auxiliars get an extra 300 euros a month. Since we couldn't find a hostel that looked nice and still within our price range, we went with an alternative and stayed with a nice couple who lived in the afueras and rented out their spare bedroom to travelers. We did this in Gijón as well, I just didn't mention it.

We arrived late in the afternoon on Sunday, chatted with the couple who lived in the house, and went for a walk to recuperate from the bus ride from Sevilla. The next day we planned our excursion and headed out into the city. The cercanias train station was a short five minute walk from the house, and after some initial confusion it turned out to be quite convenient. (there are three seperate systems of things that run on rails and look like trains in Madrid: the metro, the national railway system RENFE, and the cercanias, which I guess could be translated literally "closenesses" or better "train that services the neighborhoods at the edge of the city")

The word for royal in Spanish is real, while the word for real is real.  hmm...

Our first stop, and the thing I was probably most excited for was the Royal Palace. This is one thing that we most certainly do not have in the states: royal palaces with real live royals living in them. Our founding fathers might through a fit if we did, but it'd still be pretty cool.

Of course, since the royal family actually lives here, not all of it is open to the public. But the parts that are are very impressive. Photos are not allowed, so I'll try to paint a picture in words. (this is a test of my memory more than anything else) 

Once you pay for your ticket and go through security, you walk across the big stone courtyard pictured to the left and go through one of the three sets of double doors at the far end. From there you go up a grand marble stair to the first floor (second for Americans) and begin your tour of the public rooms. 

The rooms themselves are edged with gold where the walls and floor and ceilings meet (no, the ceilings and floors do not meet) and each one has a different theme, usually pulled from mythology or biblical scenes. The ceilings are painted with huge, detailed frescoes that are equal parts work of art and optical illusion. Sculptures erupt from the molding and take part in the picture, in what Rick Steves calls a "multimedia extravaganza." The whole place is lit with crystal chandeliers. And although these are beautiful today, I can only imagine how they must have looked with changing, flickering candlelight making all the facets sparkle, rather than blaring, static electric lights. 

Also featured is the biggest single dining room tables I have ever seen. With a table like that, I could invite my entire extended family over for thanksgiving, including all the Mormon cousins and their babies and still have enough room for a NWICSA-wide flip cup competition. And place settings, my goodness! Like five different glasses and twelve different silverwares! 

I don't want this to go on for too long, so I'll leave one last tidbit: the Royal Stradivarius collection. There are a few hundred Stradivariuses (Stradivari?) left in the world, and the Spanish royal family has six of them--a full quintet made by Antonio Stradivari specifically for the Spanish royal family (two violins, two cellos and one viola) as well as a child-size violin. When the Queen is in the mood for some chamber music the instruments get pulled out and tuned up, but most of the time they are on display in atmospherically-controlled glass boxes. 

For lunch we went to another cultural site, the museo de jamón or "ham museum." I'm being deliberately misleading here. The museo de jamón is a restaurant chain that specializes in ham products. Again, we had to wait in line, but not that long and without any surprising coincidences. 

Looking down at the bar/butchershop. I can't even count the number of pig legs hanging up

Madrid, like DC (apparently. I've never been), is home to some of the biggest and best museums in the country. The two really famous ones that we saw were the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum and home to the Guernica, and the "classical" art museum the Prado, home to two versions of Saturn Devouring his Son and much much more. 

Both museums are free to the public the last two hours before they close, but two hours is really not enough time to appreciate everything there, and especially at the end of the day when your feet are sore and you're ready to go home. I won't say anything more about these two because I know I can't do justice to the art inside.

For dinner we had tapas and churros con chocolate. Churros con chocolate (which consists of a plate of deep-fried churros and a cup of thick, pudding-like hot chocolate) is usually a breakfast thing, but breakfast for dinner is just about the best dinner option, even if you feel slightly sick afterwards.

In Amsterdam, I think my favorite thing we saw was the botanic garden (I'll admit, the warm greenhouses played a big part), so the Royal Botanic Garden of Madrid was on my must-see list. As a result, I think I took way too many photos. A lot of them were under the presumption that I could later go back and look at them all and become more well-versed in plant and tree identification, but we'll see if that actually happens. 

I don't think I can even read all those little signs

This is my favorite photo

We then retired to Parque del Retiro for a picnic, where we saw a crazy man, made friends with some cats and were attacked by hundreds of baby spiders. We also stopped for an ice cream just next to this big lake.

There were fish in the lake

We did see two more cool things while we were in Madrid: the Naval Museum and the "La Caixa" Forum. I've been to boaty-type museums before and they just haven't done it for me. Kind of musty-smelling with a bunch of model boats and nothing is explained very well. But I should have figured this one would be above and beyond the Maritime Museum in Victoria. Spain's naval history goes back hundreds of years--battling the British, pillaging the Americas and fighting off pirates... It was all very exciting! They even had the first ever European map to feature the "New World." Not super accurate, but it's the thought that counts.

The other thing, the La Caixa Forum, was surprisingly good as well. It's this big building in the center of the city that houses 2-4 rotating exhibits year-round and is free for bank members (like me!). When we went, there was a photo exhibition on infrastructure, and a more museum-y piece on Mesopotamian mythology, art and architecture. The photos were okay, but the Mesopotamian stuff was incredible. Maybe it helped that I had recently read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, but I was blown away by the delicacy, the complexity and the ancientness of the things on display.

And that was the end of our trip. We sat outside the Forum for a bit, hoping the pigeons would fall into the water feature as they tried to drink (one did, but it was missing a foot) and discussed the stuff we'd seen and done, got the money squared away and made our plans for the next morning when we would head to our respective homes.

Looking up at the garden wall outside the Forum

I think what I liked most about this trip was how easy it was to fall back into being with someone from back home because honestly, that has been something that I have been worrying about. People change, and I can only hope that I haven't and won't become insufferably snooty even if I do drink wine and give little air kisses when saying hello and/or goodbye.

kiss kiss