Random Adventures: Madrid

After four days in Barcelona, we decided to take the train versus the plane from there to Madrid as we wanted to see more of the countryside. We were surprised to find, as the song goes, mainly “the plain in Spain.” Long stretches of the plain were only occasionally broken with a vineyard or small herds of roaming cattle but otherwise, only gently rolling hills. I wasn’t sure what I expected but still, the ride was quiet, comfortable, and restful. Once we entered Madrid, all that changed. From the quiet of the countryside to the chaos of the city!

Traffic flow, as in Barcelona, was helter-skelter. That’s probably the best description. Possibly, unorganized chaos! The mix of tour buses, regular city buses, and truck traffic mixed with motorcycles, bicycles, motor scooters, and yes, even electric scooters makes for a real mess but they seem immune to the disorder. All these are merging and flowing like leaves in a stream. Fortunately, it looks like most of them survive. We think Chicago traffic is bad, mainly from the volume, but if it were anywhere near the randomness of traffic flow here in Spain, it would be a true mess and everyone would be using Sky chopper transportation!

We stayed at the Leonardo Boutique Hotel near our granddaughter’s college. Our son had stayed there when he visited with her to start the fall semester and suggested it both for location and comfort. It was generally a quiet neighborhood with plenty of shops and places to eat nearby.

It was very interesting walking through the neighborhoods as we found all these very unusual shops. Unusual in that they generally only sell one type of product. Across from our hotel, there was a shop that sold nothing but fruit. Another one sold nothing but household cleaning products and another, a bakery. All of these are very small with, often, just a front window or garage-type door, and yes, they seem to be everywhere. Pharmacies are different from our drug stores as they just provide prescriptions at a drugstore. I went inside looking for sunscreen. They didn’t have any sunscreen but they did have shampoo! Finally, I found after walking a few blocks, a true supermarket and was able to get some of the things I was looking for. Walking is also different in that there are no rules of the road. People walk on both sides and in the middle of the sidewalk and everything flows around just like water flowing around rocks in a river. Ah, just like the traffic. Now I understand.

Do be prepared to walk. We believe we walked miles every day. While taxis are inexpensive, you see more by walking. Very few things were handicap accessible so check if that’s a requirement. I didn’t take a hat because the last time we lost one on the bus tour. Too much wind but I observed that few men wore hats but if they did, they were generally not from Spain or very, very old. I also figured out the elevator nomenclature. The ground floor of a building is zero, not one.

As in Barcelona, we started our tour with the ‘Hop On-Hop Off’ bus. Again, we started with the red line and after several hours, completed the circuit. We then decided to see if we could also use the blue line and were told ‘yes,’ so we hopped on. The two circuits gave us a great introduction to the city, one that we will use on our next trip to Madrid. It’s the easiest way to see the city for a total of $25 (with the senior discount). There were too many museums, too many squares, and too much to try to visit everything on this trip. We considered this one a ‘scouting’ trip as we will be returning.

Major stops were the Plaza Mayor, Palacio de Cibeles, Templo de DeBod, Gran Via, and Palacio Real.

The Plaza Mayor was once the center of old Madrid. Built in 1580, it now serves as a major public square for the city. Another square is the Plaza de España in the center of Madrid and at the base of the Gran Via. What’s a vacation trip without a shopping event? Well, Gran Via is essentially the “Magnificent Mile” of Madrid. Shops and restaurants from one end to the other. Eileen was in hog-heaven and the store prices were good. I stuck to the restaurants.

The Palacio de Cibeles has served many purposes, transitioning over the years from The City Post Office, think Chicago main Post Office, to the present cultural center complete with public rooms supporting musical venues and a restaurant.

Templo de DeBod is an ancient Egyptian temple disassembled, transported to Madrid, and rebuilt. We did visit the Temple as it was within walking distance of the hotel. Situated on a hill overlooking the valley, it offered a beautiful view of the valley below.

Palacio Real is the largest royal palace in Europe and has been home to the royal family. It is open for tours and with over 3,000 rooms, will take up a lot of your day to see. The royal palace is acknowledged by some as the most beautiful building in Madrid.

If you plan on visiting any of these or others, we suggest you pre-purchase ‘skip the line’ tickets and yes, you’ll need your smartphone to present them to the ticket taker. At other sites, lines of regular visitors wound up, down and around the street waiting to purchase entrance tickets. We were told that it sometimes took 2-3 hours just to get inside with a regular ticket due to crowd control and that’s after waiting to get one.

As previously I mentioned, we will be returning to Madrid and will actually visit more of the sights on our next trip. With hundreds of places, there’s more than enough to entertain you. We spent a lot of time with our granddaughter and ate great food. Great ham is everywhere but we had wonderful Asian food one night and on our last night there, we were entertained by the manager at Sagaretxe. Excellent food, and good conversation even though we had to struggle a little with the language. Fortunately, our granddaughter is fluent and saved us. We’ll have to study more for our next trip.

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