A True Spain Experience?

Kiki & Snake had a week off for February break. Many of their friends went to ski but we decided to go to Madrid. We hadn't yet been to Spain, at least I hadn't - the kids went there earlier in the school year on a school trip. Since they are both taking Spanish in school I thought it would be a good opportunity to put that to use.

It is fairly easy to get to Spain, a little under 3 hours from London. Since we are seasoned travellers we decided to take the metro train from the airport to our hotel. Oh, who am I kidding - it is way cheaper to take the metro from the airport to the hotel. 2 euros per person as opposed to a cab. So the kids managed to figure out the automated ticket machine and we bought 3 tickets. Now the procedure was not without some complications. We needed to transfer twice. The first transfer was a piece of cake, we got to the next line with little complication although we did think Snake had lost his ticket and we were concerned about whether he would need to spend the next few days in an endless loop around Madrid. While we were waiting for the next train, the station started to fill up with various travellers, commuters and people just going about their business. When our train came, we worked our way to the door along with quite a few other people. One young woman just came right up on Snake and was pushing him trying to get in the door. It frustrated him because he didn't think there was a need but she just pushed him right in the train car. He was complaining about it to me when he realized his wallet was gone. We looked over at the girl, she made eye contact with us and then jumped off the train right before the doors shut. Snake was pickpocketed within 45 minutes of our leaving the plane in Spain. Hmmm. When we got to the hotel, we asked the clerk if we should put a report in at the train station and he had to stifle a smile. He said it was of no use. We were lucky, actually Snake only had a few shekels in his wallet - the wallet was worth more and he lost his London transit pass and his school ID card. Well, lesson learned. We decided not to let it ruin our trip but we also vowed that we all three would keep an eye on each other and be a little more vigilant.

The next day we set off for the Prado Museum. It wasn't that far from our hotel and the weather was surprisingly good so we walked. We had decided for simplicity sake I would carry a back pack. At one point, we were crossing the street and I had the pack slung over my shoulder. When we got to the other side, Kiki turned around and said to me "watch it Mom", at that point Kiki reached behind me to the backpack and caught a woman with her hands in the back portion of the backpack, the little section that has a place for your cell phone, and wallet etc. (although we only had a bottle of water in there). She had unzipped the pack while I had been walking across the street. The thief/woman was good, she had a map in her hand and she and her partner tried to make themselves look like the rest of us tourists walking down the street. She made some comment under her breath in Spanish to Kiki and then walked across the street, shooting us dagger looks the entire time. Like she was mad at us!! "Sorry, we should have put our wallets in there to make it easier for you to rob us blind!" So we stared them down for a few minutes and the thieves/women decided to move on. I think they thought I would have told a policeman if I found one. And they are right I would have. So Kiki saved the day!! Yay Kiki!! So two times in about 18 hours, we had one successful and one attempted pickpocket. After that I carried a large tote bag that zippered and kept the zipper to the front of me so I could see it at all times. And we stopped wearing the "WE ARE TOURISTS" t-shirts with the big red bullseye on them. We thought it best. The rest of the trip went without a hitch. Not to say money didn't disappear from my wallet but unfortunately it was I who spent it!

We enjoyed quite a bit of the Spanish art, it was interesting to compare the differences between what we saw in Madrid to what we see at the museums in London. The color alone is breathtaking. These Spanish paintings have some of the most vivid reds and blues that I have ever seen. El Greco, Goya, Picasso - we saw them all. I was surprised to find that in his early years, Picasso actually painted in a rather pedestrian manner. It wasn't until his later years that he became all wacky. (And yes, wacky is a specific art term). At another Museum we saw his painting, La Guernica which depicts the 1937 Nazi bombing of Guernica Spain, killing many people. (The Nazis provided support to Franco during the Civil War) The painting is just huge and all in black and white. In this particular exhibit they also had his sketches done before the painting. You can see where he tried out different parts over and over again and how these sketches were different from the finished work. It was fascinating to try and see how his mind worked, not that I could but I found it interesting as well. They also included photographs of what Madrid and other parts of Spain looked like during the Spanish Civil War. You can see what this war did to Spain and how dangerous it must have been to live there during these times.

We had dinner that night at a restaurant that bills itself as the oldest restaurant in Madrid. It is claimed that the artist Goya worked there either as a dishwasher or a busboy. It was also a favorite of Hemmingway's. We had a very nice meal and a little bit of Sangria. A group of musicians came by later and serenaded the tables in our section and we enjoyed that quite a bit. For our first full day and night in Spain, it was a great way to get in the mood and give us a flavor of things to come. And no one tried to steal anything from us that night!

We also made a side trip to Toledo, which is a medieval village about 1/2 hour train ride out of Madrid. I much prefer trains rides to planes because you can really get a good look at the countryside. Toledo wins the most beautiful train station award (if there isn't one, there should be and this station should get it.) Of course we had loads of time time to observe the train station as some of the trains were sold out when we came back and we had to wait for about 2 hours for a train. One thing about Toledo is that the architecture is amazing. I could walk all over for hours and look at all of the buildings. And we did. There is a beautiful cathedral in town, which housed some amazing Greco paintings. Apparently Cervantes, of Don Quixote fame, spent quite a bit of time in this area. There is a pretty good size statute of him there. Toledo is definitely a walking town and I think we managed to walk just about all of it looking for a good place for lunch. On the way to lunch we also manage to stalk this monk. It seemed like a fun thing to do, I guess you had to be there.



I love to visit churches and palaces and so in Madrid I managed to find a few of both. The Palacio Real is technically the official residence of King Juan Carlos and family but in reality they don't live there, choosing to live in a smaller palace on the outside of Madrid. What a problem to have, which palace to live in. We headed over there one morning but couldn't go in right away because they were just finishing up with some kind of ceremony. We couldn't really figure out what was going on, although later we found that the crown prince had been there at some kind of event. There were all kinds of press there and people marching around in all kinds of uniforms. I took a picture of this guy, who was obviously some kind of dignitary because of the way the people around him reacted. I thought his get up reminded me of the soliders that hung out in Rick's Americain Cafe in Casablanca. What do you think? I really enjoyed going in this palace. I think it has to be one of the most striking that we have visited. The rooms are all very beautiful with lots of art and gilding all over the place. The throne room looks exactly like you would imagine a throne room to look, big huge chairs (i.e. thrones) on hugh platforms, gold fixtures, red velvet everywhere, red rugs all very plush.


As usual one of the fun parts of traveling to new places is trying the local cuisine. In addition to the sangria I mentioned previously, one of the must dos in Madrid is a chocolateria, which is a little place that sells hot chocolate and churros or other pastries. We went in one afternoon and tried it out. The churros were good and the hot chocolate is good but a little different. It was not as sweet as the hot chocolate we are used to and it was fairly thick. Snake pointed out it was as if someone took a baking chocolate bar and melted it. You can drink it but most people we saw, ate it with a spoon like soup.

One of the things I really wanted to do was to see some flamenco dancing. Coincidentally, hat was also right up there on the list of things that the kids wanted to do as well. Not! But I persisted because it is one of those cultural experiences that you should have when you visit a new place and you will always remember. We went to a small little restaurant in Madrid that has dancing just about every night. It was very interesting. There is a real connection between the dancers and the musicians. I was surprised how much they interacted and seemed to feed off each other's energy. To be truthful, I thought the music for each dance was very similiar but the dancing was a bit different each time. It is powerful and I am glad we did it. I think Kiki and Snake are glad too, way, way, way down, deep, deep inside. Ask them.


I thought these street signs were interesting. On all the streets named for individuals they had these little plaques that had an illustration of the person and their year of birth and death. I didn't see any streets named after any live people so I am not sure if you have to be dead to have a street named after you. It would make sense because if you were alive when the street was named, it would seem rather cumbersome for someone to have to get up on a ladder and paint in the year of your death after you passed. Just a thought.


This is Plaza Mayor in Madrid, one of the main plazas. Quite a few towns in Spain have a Plaza Mayor (which means Major Plaza). It is a central meeting place, artists working, perhaps a street performer or two, lined with cafes and people "people-watching". In the old days, the plaza was apparently used for bullfights and they claim you can still see some of the blood on the walls but I didn't see any. During the Inquistion they held impromptu executions of heretics in the Square. Interestingly enough, they don't claim you will find any remnants of those killings in the square.

One thing that you never get used to in Europe is how many people still smoke and how much it is allowed in public places. In fact I read a statistic the other day that indicates smoking is on the rise again in young people. It is surprising in this day and age. But Europe is slowly but surely catching on. In the UK and other countries they have enacted strong no smoking statutes,restricting smoking in some bars and restaurants or at the least providing non-smoking sections. But they still have a long way to go. We routinely ask for non-smoking hotel rooms which would normally mean you are on a non-smoking floor. However, in a few hotels this just means your particular room is non-smoking but you might be right next to a smoking room or you can smoke in the hallways. Our hotel room in Madrid was a non-smoking room on a non-smoking floor but recognizing that people don't always follow the rules, the hotel made sure we knew it was non smoking by putting in no fewer than 4 little reminders. How did the remind us? By putting in these:


Non- Smoking Ashtrays, of course!


We had a wonderful time in Madrid and felt like we got a real feel of the city. Our initial brush with the seamy, sleezy underbelly of Spain ended up not getting in the way of enjoying all the things it has to offer. ¡Madrid era grande!