Madrid

The first impression of Madrid, is one of grandeur. The Barajas Airport by Richard Rogers Architects was fantastic. This is an airport of such size, it has its own internal railway system to carry passengers through the airport. A series of rainbow colored colonnades make up the main passageway. Unfortunately, I was too fearful of being pulled up by customs to take any photographs of the building.

We continued into the city via a very easy to navigate series of metro lines, and arrived at out Hotel at around 4pm in the afternoon. Exhausted, we (my wife and I) had a shower and went to bed with the full intention to get up in a few hours and head out for dinner.
I then woke up at 6am the next morning…. Needless to say, I was jetlagged!

19/08/10
After a quick breakfast we headed straight into the city. From our hotel we walked along some of the narrow streets of Madrid to the Puerta Del Sol, a main road junction that is considered the nerve centre of Madrid. Here, there are a number of icons which have been associated with the square over many years. Namely the clock that rings in the new year and a statue of the bear and strawberry tree (the symbol of Madrid)

There was also an interesting Metro entry which sat just off centre in the square.
It was then onto Plaza Mayor which is a porticoed square at the focal point of the city since 1561. In the centre of the square sits a statue of Phillip III on horseback. No sooner do we get there and I drag out my camera a woman who appeared to be talking to herself on a bicycle stops and starts ranting at me in Spanish. At first I think she is asking if I would like her to take my photo. No sooner do I decline and she then (I think) is warning me not to take my camera out as thieves might pinch it. She carries on her merry way and starts harassing other tourists in the square.



Hot Tip #1, Don’t talk to crazy people!.


We then headed up to the main thoroughfare in Madrid, the Paseo Del Prado. This is a beautiful tree lined roadway which extends from the south of the city to the north where the newer developed city lies.



To the West is the botanic Gardens and the Parque del Retiro. A huge park in the city which is free to enter containing museums, palaces and lakes. We spend quite a lot of time in this park, partly due to its size, but also touring the free museum within it which had an interesting display including Food art and Art of war. Of particular interest was a room full of furniture covered in Toy Soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of white toy soldiers were placed in differing patterns covering a number of items. Of particular interest was a wardrobe. See pics.






The park itself was meticulously maintained including many pathways and areas with unique functions and themes.

Onward from there we passed the Puerta de Alcala, Madrid’s version of the Arc de Triomphe.

It was not long before our feet began to ache, so we headed back toward the hotel late in the afternoon during the siesta period.

It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel I realized the seriousness of the pain in my feet. I had spent the most part of the day, walking around in a pair of thongs, my feet filthy and aching severely. I could barely walk!. I decided to “Harden up”! After all, I’m in Spain!!

The sun here doesn’t go down until after 9pm, so we headed back out, aching feet and all towards some of the oldest parts of the city. First down to the Plaza de Espana and then up to watch the sunset at the Debod Temple, an ancient Egyptian temple presented to spain as a gift over 2000 years ago.





My feet now in excruciating pain, we headed over to the Royal Palace built in the 18th century and houses treasures comparable to other great European palaces.

Getting hungry, we headed baack over to the Plaza Mayor for dinner on in the terrace of a small restaurant within the square.

Hot tip #2: Don’t eat at restaurants that mainly have tourists in them. The food is horrible!!

Bizarrely, all of the restaurants have pictures of the food on their menu. In Australia, this is a sign of bad food in my book, and it seems that this may be similar also over here!

After getting up from dinner, I was in so much pain I literally hobbled back to the hotel and went to bed hoping that my feet would be better in the morning….. They Weren’t.

Hot Tip #3: If you are going to walk around a city for an entire day, don’t wear thongs. Weirdly they don’t provide any support for your feet?

The next day, I gingerly rose back onto my swollen and aching feet and headed over to the Reina Sofia Museo. Here houses many fantastic artwork by Salvatore Dali and Picasso. Sorry, no pics as photography was prohibited.

To the rear of the museum lies a 3 part extension by Jean Nouvel incorporating exhibition space, Library and Auditorium. The 3 buildings are arranged to create a central courtyard space which is partially covered by a roof with open air skylights creating an interesting light pattern on the ground whilst illuminating the space and allowing natural ventilation.



To my disgust, My feet were hurting so badly, I could only stand for a few minutes at a time, So unfortunately I did not get to look around this building much at all.

After we left the Reina Sofia Museum, we headed up to the newer part of Madrid, Or what we thought was the newer section. Here, along the Paseo De La Castellana we found 3 highrise towers which looked as though they were constructed in the late 80’s. Not the Forster and Partners Tower I was looking for!

I could no longer bear the pain in my feet and we headed back to the hotel via the fantastic metro system weaving its way under the city.

Hot Tip #4: Use the metro system. It is cheap and easy to use… It also saves your feet!

That night, we got some dinner close to the hotel and went to bed early in the hope that giving my feet a rest would make for a better journey tomorrow.

Tune in for my next post. We leave tomorrow for Valencia. Cant wait to lay my eyes on some Calatrava!

PS. Im still learning this Blog Software, So I apologise for the awkward Formatting. I will try to get better at it for next time!