Madrid, Day 1

Friday, 29 June 2012

Friday morning came way to early for my tastes, especially since I wasn’t able to go to bed until around 1:00 am because of the excitement. I woke up at 3:30 to get ready and get absolutely everything packed away before heading down to the bus stop at 4:30 to catch a bus to Luton for our 6:40 flight to Madrid. It was exhausting! But luckily, one thing I’ve gotten really good at on this trip, is sleeping when sleep can be gotten. So I was able to sleep during the bus ride to the airport. I stayed awake just long enough to get seated on the plane before passing out again. I think I slept all of the two and half hours of the flight.

Surprisingly, when we landed in Madrid, things went quite smoothly. I had looked up a few ways to get to the hotel from the airport, but I wasn’t sure what was easiest or cheapest, so I decided to ask the information desk. We got lucky, and the hotel had a shuttle that we hadn’t noticed when we looked at the website. So I called the hotel to arrange the shuttle, which is when I had to begin using my Spanish skills. The lady on the phone didn’t speak English, so I had to switch into Spanish mode and tell her what we needed. Luckily for us, I was able to communicate well enough that she understood me and I was able to understand her.

La Puerta de Alcalá

Once we got to the hotel, we checked in, dropped off our stuff, and promptly headed back into the city. We were starving, so after hitting the ATM to get euros, we headed to lunch. Ordering was an experience. None of the people at the restaurant spoke English, and only a portion of their menu was available in an English translation, so I was forced to translate for the both of us. However, because we learn Latin American Spanish in school and not Spanish Spanish, a lot of the words I didn’t know, because they’re not in the cuisine of Latin America. So we stuck with something I knew for sure was something we would like: pollo y patatas (chicken and potatoes – or as they turned out to be, French fries).

After lunch, we went sightseeing. I had compiled a list of all the cool things to do in Madrid prior to our trip, so we set out to see some of those things. The first stop on the list was the Puerta de Alcalá, which is the cool arch thing dedicated to King Carolo III of Spain, who was king in 1778 (if I can read Roman numerals correctly). The arch itself was really impressive, but it was made even more beautiful by the landscaping surrounding it.

El Parque de Buen Retiro

The Crystal Palace

After the Puerta, we walked across the street because we saw some cool penguins that were painted funky colors and designs. When we got there, we realized that we were at the entrance of the Parque de Buen Retiro (Park of Good Retirement/Rest). The park, which is one of the largest in Madrid, was absolutely gorgeous. The flowers were in bloom and the day was beautiful, which made our walk through the park all the much better. After six weeks in London, we aren’t really used to warm, dry weather, so the weather in Madrid is a wonderful change of pace. Half way through the park, we cam across the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), which is a replica of the Crystal Palace that was build in England for the World Fair. Unfortunately, the original in England was destroyed, but they built a replica in Madrid. The entire building is made up of window after window after window. It felt a bit like being inside a greenhouse. There really wasn’t a lot to do in the actual building, but it was really pretty, so I took a lot of pictures.

La Palacia Real de Madrid

When we finished walking through the park, we headed to la Palacia Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid), which is the official residence of the King of Spain and his family, but they choose not to live there. We didn’t go in because we didn’t really have the time to dedicate to it, plus we didn’t really want to spend the money considering neither of us knew that Spain had a king until we got there. But we walked around for a while and took pictures of the outside and the gardens out front.

La Catedral de la Almudena

Right next to the Royal Palace is la Catedral de la Almudena, which is a really pretty cathedral. Unlike most of the churches I’ve been in on this trip, this one didn’t have a guide of any sort, so I was just kind of left to wander around on my own. It was okay though because I was able to have some time to slow down and reflect as I looked at all the artwork and decorations in the church. My favorite part of the cathedral was the huge organ that is on the top of the back wall. It was really cool to turn around and see that.

After the cathedral, we wandered around for a bit and ended up hitting two of the major square//plaza areas in Madrid, la Puerta de Sol (literally, Port of Sun) and la Plaza Mayor de Madrid (the Major Plaza of Madrid – such a hard translation!) I’m not really sure exactly what I took pictures of but both areas had a lot of cool looking buildings and statues that I have to research to figure out what they are.

After wandering around, we headed back to this market area we had found, which had a lot of different food vendors. We decided to eat there because everything looked so good, and on top of that, it was cheap. I ended up getting a bowl of chicken paella and some white sangria. When we visit different countries, I really like to try to eat what is stereotypical of that country, and thought that paella and sangria fit the bill. The meal was great, but by the end of it, we were barely able to keep our eyes open after the long, so we headed back to the hotel and promptly went to sleep despite the fact that it was only like 9:30.