Europe and Cruising 2016: Madrid

28/11 to 1/12/16

We arrived into Madrid’s huge and architecturally impressive Atocha train station about lunch time, managed to find the Metro station, buy a 10 trip ticket from the machine, catch the right line, get off at the right station and negotiate a maze of streets and plazas (thanks to Google Maps and the little blue dot!) to reach our apartment. After settling in we headed to Mercado San Miguel, intending to do some shopping. It is beautiful, fully enclosed in glass, but the stalls were more cafes than shops and it was very crowded. We ended up just eating lunch there and then heading back to the apartment for siesta. When the shops reopened at about 5.30 pm, we explored our neighbourhood a little and found a Carrefour supermarket nearby where shopping was finally achieved.

Next day we walked to the Palacio Real. We went via the “Viaducto” which turned out to be a modern bridge over a deep valley rather than the Roman ruin we were expecting. Nevertheless it offered great views over Madrid and nice gardens at one end. Once in the Palacio Real, we headed straight to the Armeria Real, the Royal Armory. There was an interesting collection of 15^th to 18^th Century weapons and armour in a building that was very beautiful (and remnants of Phil’s saliva on some of the displays. Ha, ha, just kidding, Phil!) After a coffee break, we headed to the palace itself which was very opulent, huge rooms with beautifully painted ceilings, tapestries on the walls, chandeliers, furniture and gold everywhere. Like lots of palaces, many of the items were beautiful individually (especially a table inlaid with different types of stone) but altogether it was too busy, things clashed and demonstrated more money than taste.

We then strolled around nearby Plaza de Oriente, had lunch, and then continued on to Plaza Mayor where they were setting up Christmas markets. In the evening we went to the Mercado de la Cebada, which was much more the local food market we had been expecting yesterday. They sold meat, seafood, cheeses, fruit and veg, deli items and much more, over 2 levels. No English was spoken by anyone but us but we managed to buy what we needed between pointing, our limited Spanish and the support of Google Translate. Lots of fun!

Wednesday was dedicated exclusively to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Over 3 ½ floors it was one of the best museums we have been to, with well laid out and explained displays from prehistory, protohistory, Roman Hispania, late antiquity, the medieval world, Egypt, Greece and the modern era. Also an interesting section about the history of the museum itself, including how they coped with the Spanish revolution and WWII. Museum viewing was broken only by coffee in the cafeteria at morning and afternoon tea and our yummy market food for lunch, eaten in the garden out the front.

On Thursday we tackled the Naval Museum in the morning. Lots of great models of ships, some weapons, and history and colonialism from a Spanish perspective. Even they had to admit however, that the Spanish Armada was “unsuccessful”! We had planned to tackle the Prado Museum in the afternoon but were just too “museum-ed out”, so we walked to Parque del Buen Retiro, ate our lunch and spent the afternoon walking around a really lovely and peaceful park. The name translates directly to “Good Retirement” so Gary identified! On the way home via the Metro we had a chance to see the amazing indoor garden at the Atocha railway station.

While we have enjoyed Madrid, we haven’t loved it as much as Granada and Sevilla. It is much more a cosmopolitan, big city type of place with some impressive monuments and museums but without the relaxed and friendly feeling of the smaller places.