Spain - Madrid - I Heart This Place

By the time I left Barcelona, I was having an inkling of travel fatigue. And after blitzing over to Toledo from Madrid, the inkling had manifested into a solid sense of weariness. Fortunately, it struck at a very opportune time, namely after I had discovered the greatness that is Madrid. Now Madrid does not have the big river, the big landmark monuments or the renown of other capital cities in Europe, but it has plenty to offer. I have found it an extremely pleasant city to slow the pace and savour the moment.



So instead of doing all the tourist sights in three days as usual, I settled into my fantastic hostel for more than a week. Instead of rising early to pack in my days, I sleep in until whenever I feel like getting up. Instead of reluctantly eating yet another free white bread toast and strawberry jam hostel breakfast, I can cook myself a cheese and tomato omelette with proper toast. Instead of jetsetting about town, I can leisurely peruse one attraction at a time, with siesta breaks and sidestreet ambles abound. Instead of trying to fill myself up on tapas or some fried or cured ham related product, I can defend myself against the onset of scurvy with an all vegetable stirfry. It´s definitely the little things that refresh the travel spirit.

And Madrid has some pretty great things to explore, many of which are free. I went to the Prado museum, a massive labyrinth of masterpiece paintings dating from 1100-1850, with some big names in the bunch. I don´t know a ton about art, but courtesy of my Spanish minor in university, I am familiar with the Spanish Greats, so I was delighted to bump into old friends such as Velasquez, Goya and El Greco. Nerd alert sounded high when I recognized Velasquez´Las Meninas and Goya´s Saturno (a painting of Saturn eating one of his children - so much grosser in real life than in the prints!). I do have to say that while the Prado has a very impressive collection, I wasn´t super keen on it... a lot of portraits, a lot of Jesus dying horribly on the cross, a lot of dark themes.



In contrast, I absolutely loved the Reina Sofia museum, the home of Madrid´s modern art. Again, big names abound... Klee, Miro, Kandinsky, Dali, Picasso, and many more. It´s also home to Picasso´s famous Guernika painting depicting the gassing of the Basque town. Four marvelous floors of all kinds of different art, a little something for everyone. Lovely.




My wanders have also taken me by the Palacio Real which is the official residence of Spain´s monarchy despite never living there, to Plaza Mayor where street musicians have been known to play entire tribute sets to the Beatles inspiring random 50 yr old British tourists to sing along loudly, and into the Mercado de San Miguel for tapas and sangria, along over to Retiro Park where Madrilenos pay to ride a ferry on a pond and upwards of twenty African drummers beat in unison on weekend afternoons, and into the circus that is El Rastro, a massive sprawling flea market that overtakes La Latina´s neighbourhood every Sunday selling 2€ pashminas, antiques, harem pants (still not happy with the popularity of these universally unflattering pants in Europe), bootleg DVDs and CDs, art, fans, and everything in between.