Spain - Madrid

29-Mar to 2 Apr 2015.

After a long drive(5 hrs) from San Sebastion we arrived at our apartment, right bang smack in the centre of Madrid which itself is located in the exact geographic center of Spain. Yet again I had been overly optimistic in choosing an apartment in the historic centre. Great location but hard working getting to it or actually reaching it through the insiders one-way system of streets.


5 hour Trip from San Sebastian to Madrid

Santa Ana Square at the end of our street.

 



Lunch in Santa Ana Square.



'Tag' in Santa Ana Square.

View from our apartment - it was 'loud' outside even on the fourth floor

Outside of Appartment







Enhanced by our weight-training session of unloading the years worth of luggage from our car in the car park(located under Santa Ana Square at the end of our street), dragging it through the square and street and finally lifting it up the four flights of stairs to our apartment,  we decided to quickly  throw ourselves back into the enticing chaos outside. The boys stamina has to be applauded. My head-space went into it's dream-state as we wandered  through the squares and lanes venturing towards the main 'tapas' area lured by the anticipation of some of the 'best tapas in Madrid'.  The liveliness and temptations of the streets proved too tempting, the distractions of the street performers all part of the delights of Madrid. Far outperforming any street performers I have seen in any city. Constant squeals of surprise coming from passer buyers who had ventured to close to a human statue, people looking intrigued trying to fathom how such impossible human poses could be possible(all very clever tricks). 

Lachlan running excitedly from the 'Bronze Man'.

Within a very short time I had come to my conclusion that this was a very beautiful city, full of  beautiful looking people, with beautiful cobbled lanes and squares endlessly connecting together the beautiful shops, building and restaurants that spill out onto the lanes and squares. People were enjoying their lives here in a city alive with Spanish flair!

Soon we were inside a huge Plaza, this had to be hugely significant, it was ringed with tourist (even though we are just this, 'tourists', we like to think we aren't) restaurants and shops and contained a mass of people. With later research I discovered this to be 'Plaza Major', the most  famous plaza in the city. This plaza was once host to bullfights, markets, symphonies, tournaments, and even executions.

Just outside of Plaza Mayor we reached our dining destination. The Beaux-Arts market 'Mercado San Miguel ' - a reported 'must-do'. This impressive glass and iron structure housed a multitude of tapas stalls, we could understand why it had such a reputation. A little overwhelmed by the choice the boys opted for cones of chips and Chris and I for a selection of little skewered goodies like giant green olives with fish, cheese and tomato. Of course this where the variety of olives are enormous - huge and utterly delicious. Also too a wonderful and affordable selection of wines. High marks for it's non-touristy feel it was a great way to observe the locals. Chris and I managed a quick adult revisit another evening when we got a seat. Unfortunately the lack of anywhere to sit this evening with the boys and no great space to stand either drove us onwards.

We observed the religious Easter procession through the streets as we left. How odd, the boys stood on the concrete bollards to get a better look at the white-robed and hooded people slowly carrying religious symbols through the street - the costumes gave me a sense of discomfort.

We finally found a wonderful spanish place for dinner down one of the lanes (packed with local-looking people, it had to be good). Here I enjoyed the first of many Sangrias to come (now Lachlan's 'favourite wine'). The boys delighted the staff. A bright light shot into the dimming sky and caught the attention of the boys.
Three of these flying-quizmos in hand proved a great way for the boys to interact with the vibrant night-life in the squares, except from the odd surprised glare when they flew too close to someone.


The following morning we walked through Madrid, on the way I finally broke my camera lens with another drop - opps. I later did some shopping in Madrid and purchased a Nikon lumix(just a little robust camera that I anticipated I could later drop without such dire consequences). We made our way to Retiro Park (Parque del Buen Retiro)   - “The Retreat”. What an amazing retreat it was. 350 acres of park, used to be speckled with palaces -- where the royals rested after gallivanting in their green space -- but many of these were destroyed in the early 1900s. I couldn’t quite comprehend how fabulous these gardens were. The formal gardens quite incredible, so amazingly maintained. I suggested to the boys that we join in with the others and have a lie down in one of the multitude of inviting hedged off grassed spaces, each perfectly maintained with only one hedge entrance per space causing impatient people to jump them.  The heat got the better of the boys and myself and after a few over-priced ice creams we left.




Retiro Park, unexpectedly fabulous - a wonderful oasis in the centre of the city.

Wondering why we all seemed to be staggering in the heat, I was quite relieved to see an electronic sign displaying the temperature to be 34C, we weren’t all complete wimps after all. How could Madrid possibly be 34C when San Sebastian had been 11C two days earlier?

Having read that the Prado has one of the largest art collections in the world (some of Spain's most famed artists, including Velazquez and Goya), I decided that the boys and I were in need of some artistic enlightenment. I set them a task of drawing a piece of art in their journals and writing it up in their blogs. Lachlan looked particularly adorable sitting on the floor of the gallery drawing sculptures, amusing himself by finding the  ones with the largest ‘privates’. Jarvis choose a Goya painting, Saturn eating the head of his son to prevent the line of succession – sounds like appropriate material for an 11year old.

We all took a walk via le Grand Via (Madrid’s most famous street) to the “Palacio Real de Madrid” (Royal Palace of Madrid). 


Grand Via

 This former home of the Spanish royalty is an opulent over-the-top rococo palace. It sits on the site of a 9th-century fortress, called “mayrit”.The palace has 135,000 square metres of floor space, the largest palace in Europe by floor area and contains 3,418 rooms.  Though it’s the official residence of the royal family, they don’t actually live here anymore and the palace is only used for official state functions. It is owned by the Spanish state . We started our walk through the palace at the grand stairway and wandered through the lavishly decorated staterooms. We knew our limits (well we actually went over the boys' limit) and only managed a little of the 50 visitable rooms. The green porcelain room and the dining room (two overly elaborate rooms joined together to house state dining functions) were pretty amazing. In some very surprised by the luxuriousness and the grandeur of the palace, but also quite disturbed by the extravagance (so extreme) which presumably came at a public cost (maybe I am wrong).




Lachlan and his 'grin' in the hedges of the Royal Palace Gardens

   




 We enjoyed our last evening meal in square at the end of the street where we were staying, ? Paella, buffalo mozzarella salad, calamari and a dish recommended by the staff for the boys of fries topped with cured meats topped with fried eggs. Last impressions of Madrid were that it is a beautiful vibrant city, designed for people to enjoy. More classically ‘grand’ than San Sebastian, but with the lack of beaches and breeze, I suspect that the heat of the summer to come (still 2 months away) might be too much.

Last nights dinner in Santa Ana Square.