The rest of the week in Madrid.....

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Trip Start Aug 11, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End May 22, 2006 Next
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  Madrid, Spain
Thursday, September 8, 2005

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Day 2: Madrid

Tamalyn
We had a great sleep in our double bed. When we crawled into bed, I was a little worried. Our room was quite warm and there was neither a/c nor a fan. I crawled back out of the sheets and hoped not to be too hot all night long. How soon we forget! It actually cools down at night in this part of the world! Somewhere in the middle of the night, we put the blanket back on the bed...it's been a while since we needed a blanket! Ah, natural cool air.

We enjoyed sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast which was included with the price of our room. We then spent some time uploading pictures and our latest journal entries onto the Travelpod site. It's great having Internet right here at the hostel. We didn't leave the hostel until past 2pm, no guilt though, this is part of enjoying travelling...keeping in touch and taking it easy. We're getting the hang of it!

We had donairs for lunch and headed to the Prado Museum. It is renowned for its collection of paintings including Spanish, Italian, Dutch and also some Greek sculptures. It is THE art museum to see in Spain. It was very large and did have a great collection of art, but I am ashamed to say that I think that most of its significance was lost on us. The majority of the collection was religious based and unlike the Louvre in Paris, none of the paintings had any English descriptions. The little bit of Spanish I remember from the course I took in BDA wasn't getting us too far.

Alfonso XII´s Monument

We're still glad we saw it, but wished to have gotten more out of it.

We strolled along in the pretty streets until we reached Plaza Mayor. This was not what we were expecting. Essentially, it is 4 large buildings that enclose the square. It has about 8 tiny pedestrian street entrances and a large statue in the center. One of the buildings, the Mayor's building, has beautiful paintings on its walls. Once again, our expectations were exceeded.

We decided to take a longer route home and came across a proper grocery store. We ended up picking up everything to make a pasta dinner complete with bread, cheese and like Paris, the cheapest wine we could find. We have hit a new record: 0.51 Euros. Not bad either. We really enjoyed making dinner, I know that it sounds weird, but we did.

Walking through Plaza Isabel/Opera (seconds from our hostel), we noticed that they were setting up for some sort of outdoor performance. We returned at 8pm to find a graceful little 2 person ballet. In 25 minutes, the dancers portrayed the courtship and marriage of a young couple. The entire crowd was mesmerized.

En route to finding some water, we stumbled upon Palacio Real (The Royal Palace). This has been so cool, just stumbling on places! This was on our list to visit tomorrow, but we hadn't mapped it out yet. Guess there'll be no need for that now.

Back in the hostel, it was one more check of the emails, the quick laundry in the sink, and off to bed. Hopefully, the 11pm "quiet time" will prevail like last night.

Cafe Con Leche

At 11pm, the whole hostel went quiet. I'm not so sure this will happen as an entire co-ed team of some sport only arrived later this evening. They seem to be pretty rowdy. This may just be the first night that the earplugs will get used. Oh well, we were expecting some of this along the way.


Sept 7 - Spain 1 : 1 Serbia & Montenegro

Day 3 - Madrid

Our plan today was to visit the Royal Palace. Upon arrival, we found out that Wednesday is a free day for all members of the EU. Our first thought was how we were going to prove that we are EU citizens. Knowing that wouldn't work and we were going to have to pay for the admission regardless; we decided to pass on the Royal Palace for today. If we were going to pay to see it, we decided to pay for admission on a day where we wouldn't have to share the Royal Palace with a bunch of people on a free ride!

We then decided to go to Parc del Retiro. From what we could see, this was Madrid's equivalent to Central Park. We walked along the Gran Via one more time as we made our way from the west side of the city to the east side. After yet another square, we came upon Peurta de Alcala and as it turns out, we had been seeing this gate in a lot of prints for sale on the street and in tourist traps. We took the required photo and entered the park. It was really nice to be in a green space with birds, trees, flowers and pathways. For a moment, we could almost forget that we were in the middle of a metropolitan city.

Throughout the park, there were again playgrounds and little cafes with wrought iron chairs and tables.

Cathedral de la Almudena

They were serving coffee, pastries, drinks and some even had full meals. Before we knew it, we came across a large man-made lake. Cute goldfish were frantically coming to the surface to nibble the pieces of bread that the children excitedly threw into the water. The water was a mix of rowboats with families out for a fun paddle and couples gliding through the water on a romantic ride. The opposite edge of the lake had a very decorative area of large Romanesque columns, a wide staircase, a statue of King Alfonso XII and the usual lions guarding either side. We simply enjoyed sitting on the edge taking in all of the activity and people watching.

Continuing on through the park, another lake appeared with a huge jet of water spraying high into the air. In the background was the Palacio de Cristal. Its walls are all glass. We are unsure as to its significance however it appeared to be an art gallery. Unfortunately, the new exhibits were still in crates. We took a moment to rest on the steps and watch the children shriek with delight when the black swans would swim close to where they were standing on the edge. Occasionally, the wind would change directions and the mist of fountain would fall upon us, again producing more shrieks by the children.

We took yet another route back to the hostel. Stopping along the way to pop into some local shops, window shop and grab a quick snack to tide us over until we prepared dinner.

Gerald
On the flight from Cairo to Madrid, I had read in the only English paper onboard that there was a World Cup 2006 qualifying match in Madrid on September 7.

Football!

Serbia & Montenegro would be visiting Spain and the match was take place at the Vicente Calderon Stadium, four metro stops from our hostel. Being avid sports fans of most sports and especially live sporting events, Tamalyn & I decided to try our luck at getting tickets to go see the match.

Thinking the game was at 8:00pm, we headed to the stadium shortly after 5:30pm. Having been burned buying fake Raptors/Knicks tickets from a scalper in New York a few years ago (thanks for those memories Phil J., Dave C. & Les!), we both preferred to buy tickets only if they were available from the official ticket counter. Also, the language barrier and not being able to read Spanish too well put us at a disadvantage in dealing with scalpers.

I walked up to the ticket counter at 6:15pm where I was mildly amazed to find out that there were some seats still available in the nosebleed section. That didn't matter to us. At least the seats were in a covered area, and given the ominous looking clouds, these seats were likely to provide us with some shelter in the event of rain later on.

We loitered around the gate area for a little over an hour. I was surprised that there were not more people hanging around, after all, wasn't the game going to start in twenty minutes? I walked back to the ticket window, and asked if the game was to start at 8:00pm, which was printed on the ticket. I was told that the gates opened at 8:00pm, but the game was scheduled to start at 10:00 pm, 10:00pm? And here I thought Monday Night Football started late.

Gate Entrance

We had time to head back to our hostel to get our camera, which we initially thought we would not be allowed to bring in with us, and a couple of bottles of water.

Returning to the stadium around 9:00, and getting to our seats very shortly thereafter, we were amazed at the change in atmosphere surrounding the stadium in only 75 minutes. People were chanting everywhere, moving around, singing songs, beating on drums, and basically, just tailgating (except, there were no vehicles to be found!). Everyone took the metro to get to the stadium as parking was non-existent around the stadium.

The atmosphere in the stadium was electric as game time approached. The crowd had about 3 songs that they would break into and a few more chants as well. Everyone was into it. It was deafening. And when they were upset, the whistles and jeers forced Tamalyn to partially block her ears. They whistle instead of boo to show their displeasure. It was all a little surreal.

I had read that Spain was ranked as high as #3 in the world by FIFA just a few months ago, and that Serbia & Montenegro were actually leading the standings in this qualifying group. Serbia & Montenegro had 13 points, and Spain had 11 points. If Spain was to take over top spot, it needed to win today's game. A tie would favour Serbia in almost assuring them first place, which would guarantee them a spot in next year's World Cup in Germany.

The first half of the game was very exciting with Spain carrying the play. They must have had possession of the ball for 80% of the time.

Gerald at Field Level

Raul scored in the 20th minute of the game, and a few minutes later, he actually hit the goal post with a deflected header. Spain also had 5 or 6 corner kicks in the first half which gave an indication of their aggressive attack. The whistle blew at half time with the score 1-0 for Spain.

The second half was a very spirited affair, with 7 yellow cards and one red card being handed out. The refereeing seemed fair from my perspective, probably one of only two impartial people in the stadium (Tamalyn being the other). I had read about football (soccer) players embellishing infractions, but I was very surprised at the extent of this until this game. I mean, I haven't seen this much diving since last week in the Red Sea, haha! Seriously, a player would go down if there was the slightest contact with an opponent, and then he would grab his shin or his leg, roll around and appear to scream as if he was about to die. If an infraction was called, the player would then stand up gingerly, limp a couple of steps, and then resume running and then return to playing normally. Twice players were hauled off on stretchers, but miraculously once the stretcher got to the bench, the player was able to walk! In a couple of instances when a penalty was not called, the referee would run by the player and make a motion for the player to get up and start playing. From our vantage point, it was actually a little comical.

Back to the game, Serbia scored on a free kick, which brought the mostly partisan crowd to a hush.

Gran Via

In the far corner of the stadium, about 500 Serbia supporters went nuts. The intensity level was raised again. The time expired, and the game went into injury time. (For those of you not familiar with this concept, at the end of regulation time, the play keeps going. The referee is the only official time keeper. During the half, when injuries occur, or when penalties are called, the referee stops his official watch. Unfortunately, no one else in the stadium knows how much injury time is being added.) Given the number of yellow cards assessed, there would be a few minutes of injury time added.

We could see the Serbian manager/coach continually pointing to his wrist watch during the play, pleading with the referee that enough time had been added. The Spanish players continued to apply pressure, actually missing on two good scoring attempts in injury time. And then, 7 or 8 minutes into injury time, the referee blew his whistle, signifying the end of the game. The jubilant Serbians all rushed to their keeper, and the dejected Spaniards all left quickly keeping their heads hung low. The Serbians had upset the Spaniards, playing to a draw in Madrid.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no parking at the stadium, which means that everyone takes the metro to attend the game. Before the game, when arriving at the stadium, this does not pose too much of a problem, as everyone arrives sporadically. But after the game, it is quite the scene. Over 80,000 people are walking two blocks to the metro station, which, conveniently, only had two entrances, and can only fit a couple of hundred people at a time on the metro platform.

Palacio de Cristal

Needless to say, we were not moving at a very quick pace. When we decided to return to our hostel to get the camera, the return trip from the Stadium to our hostel and back to the Stadium took all of fifteen minutes. After the game, it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get from the Stadium to the metro, travel four stops, and then walk a block to our hostel. We now know exactly how cattle feel when they are corralled and moved from one pen to the other or from the pen to the truck.

All in all, it was a very exciting evening. We were able to see first hand how the football fans in Europe are very passionate about the sport. This evening was enlightening and entertaining, all in one.


September 8 - The Royal Palace, or as the Spaniards call it, Real Palacio

Tamalyn
The day began with the loud wake-up call of the doors of the dorm room next door slamming causing the glass doors to vibrate loudly followed by the thundering footsteps of the Polish something or other youth team sharing the hostel with us. Did I mention that they were yelling down the hallway to each other? So much for sleeping in after our late night. Is this payback or karma for all of those teenage years? We both can remember being told not to slam doors around the house.

Breakfast, a quick load of "sink laundry", and updating our journal from yesterday filled our time until 10am. Off to visit the Royal Palace. Sorry to say that we didn't even realize that Spain still had a monarchy...so uncultured.

Luckily, our student passes from Egypt still worked to get us in half-price! Hey, we could be doing our masters or something.

Plaza Mayor

Having not appreciated the beauty of the Prado Museum, we paid extra to get the audio guide, which helped us tremendously. Going up the main staircase took our breath away. Gilded painting frames, gilded decorative features, an inlaid ceiling painted with a beautiful fresco, a gorgeous tapestry and a statue forced me to stop and take some photos. Who knew that each room would just get better and better?

Every single room of the palace was both somewhat similar and yet different in style. Most ceilings had beautiful frescos depicting either religious scenes or Greek mythology. Almost every room contained beautiful statues either on pedestals or mounted in the corners of the ceilings. Lighting all of the rooms were massive, sparkling chandeliers. Oh, the poor lady who had to dust and polish all of that crystal. All rooms had some type of portrait, landscape painting, or tapestry to adorn the walls. And talk about walls. Other than a couple of rooms panelled with beautiful wood, the walls were covered in velvet or silks with custom designs weaved into them. The original "wallpaper".

My favourite room was definitely the Porcelain Room. This is exactly what it is. Wood paneling covers the walls up to about waist height. Beautiful off-white porcelain covers the walls, including the ceiling. Onto this gleaming background, an intricate design of green, yellow, red, orange, blue (pretty much all colors of the rainbow) porcelain adorn the room. Spectacular. Grandma (Faulkner) would have been in seventh heaven.

Puerta de Alcala

The room was so decorated due to the amount of exploration and trade going on with China at the time. Because the Chinese were trading porcelain and commissioned to use porcelain in these ways, their porcelain became known as "China", hence the origin of the term "China" for porcelain-made objects! The things we are learning!!

The dining room was again breathtaking. One of the kings decided that his dining room was just not big enough so he had 3 rooms adjoined to enable 140 guests to dine at one long dining table. Imagine having to have the salt passed from one end to the other!

Most surprising was the room filled with armour, swords and guns. This included many different sets of armour as well as armour for the horses. It ranged from very simple and functional in style, used for battle, to extremely elaborate and intricate designs mostly used for parades. It was unbelievable to think that we were looking at swords that once drew enemy blood. Very gory.

Other things we will remember are the many clocks, one grandfather clock stood 7 feet, the twin harps in the Music room, the four string instruments (cellos and violins) commissioned by none other than the famous Stradivarius himself, the china, cutlery and crystal dating back hundreds of years, the gorgeous furniture, the interesting pharmacy, the beautiful marble inlaid floor designs, the massive throne, the beautiful chapel and the sheer size and opulence of it all. Nana would have loved every single detail. I'm sure it would have taken her several days to visit this palace.

We strolled next door to have a quick peak at the Cathedral de la Almudena. The façade has 6 huge columns dividing up a large painting of a beautiful blue sky and what appears to be the Virgin Mary. The interior was less decorated than many large cathedrals however there was some very interesting and colourful porcelain tile work on the ceiling.

Feeling a little peckish, we headed to Plaza Mayor for a light snack. Taking Lynn's advice, we had "dos cafes con leche y dos churros, por favor". This was the most I had said in Spanish the entire trip. The coffee was superb and the "churros" were scrumptious. Churros are like skinny, stretched out doughnuts. We sprinkled some sugar over them and bit in. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. Standing at the barra, we almost felt like locals while the tourists ate out on the terrace.

We spent the next half hour sitting on a bench staring at the stunning painted walls and giggling while a little boy snuck up on unsuspecting pigeons and then growled and charged them until they took off in flight.

Some more window shopping, more strolling around, a stop at the market to pick up our dinner and it was home again, home again, jiggidy-jig. We "dined" on shrimp and calamari paella (a la Knorr), sangria, bread and balsamic vinaigrette for dipping. Delish!

Later in the evening, we took a short walk to admire the Palacio Real lit up at night. Unfortunately, the gardens weren't open, but the view from street level was phenomenal with the lights shining on the outside walls and the crescent moon resting above.

We are off to London tomorrow where we are connecting to Dubai to visit with Leo & Tracey.

TTFN

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Royal Armory

Tam´s Treat

The Royal Palace

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