MAY 4-5 2016, HOUSTON TO MADRID, SPAIN

May 4-5, 2016  Houston to Madrid

Buenos Dias!
Our neighbor, Cheri, dropped us at the airport this morning for our flight to Dallas.  After two hours in Dallas, we headed for Madrid.

 Smooth flight, though we didn't get a lot of sleep in those "roomy" seats for 9 1/2 hours.  Small children in front and behind, though the one in front was cute as a button and very quiet.

 The one behind wasn't too bad either but his Dad never learned the lesson on using his inside voice!

The basic pasta or chicken dinner, and I watched the movie Heart of the Sea, which was so-so.  An hour before landing we had a nice breakfast with yogurt, a muffin and juice.  Landing was smooth and we sailed through customs.  We found the agent for our shuttle and had about a 15 minute wait before heading to our airbnb place.  We dropped two other couples at their hotels, so got a little bit of a tour. Arrived at our airbnb about 10:30 on Thursday morning.

Two other gentlemen, from Costa Rico, were arriving at the same time and staying just down the hall from us.  We were greeted and shown around by Gabriel whose English was quite good.  We have a smallish room with a wardrobe and a dresser with a tv atop, and a chair.  One small window opens onto a courtyard. Very clean and neat. Bathroom down the hall, living area and shared small kitchen.

Though tired, we don't want to go to sleep now, so after talking with Gabriel, map-in-hand, we head out to explore the area.  We are north of the historic center of the city, but within walking distance of many sights.

We walked first to a pleasant park that is home to the Tempo de Debod.  This is an actual Egyptian temple from 2200 years ago, which was a gift from Egypt for Spain's help during flooding when the Aswan Damn was built.  Some nice inscriptions and carvings!

From here we walk through the park and into some gorgeous gardens, Parque Del Campo Del Moro, and end up at the Royal Palace - Palacio Real de Madrid.

  This was built by the first of the Bourbon Kings (French) and is based on Versailles.  We had a little difficulty getting in because Greg couldn't get through the metal scanner.  I finally found someone who spoke English and they used a wand scanner and let him in :)  There were about 24 rooms open to the public, with very elaborate painted ceilings, many tapestries and paintings, intricate flooring, lamps and clocks, ceramics, crown and scepter, thrones, statues and more.

 Very beautiful and over the top!  Two young men, from Australia I believe, gave us their phones which contained the audio tour - how nice!  Although after the first dozen rooms we were getting pretty tired and kind of "skimmed" through the last few and the armory.  Above is the grand entry hall, the only room that allowed photos.

We hiked back through Plaza Espana where we visited Don Quiote and Sancho Panza. Cervantes is celebrated often, we will find.

  Talked with Vanesa and Gabriel a bit and then when back out for something to eat.  We went to a tapas place called Montaditus where we had a sampling of four tapas, while Greg had cervasa and I had a a drink called tinto which is a mix of red wine and lemonade and tastes a bit like sangria.  Just about anything can be a tapas - we had a mixture of potato, ham, cheeses, tomato and maybe turkey?

The architecture is amazing, with most streets very old and  narrow, with many being one-way. Most of the buildings are old like ours, with a main entrance and apartments (here's ours- probably quite grand in its day) The black at the back is the wrought-iron elevator cage.  We are down one floor so didn't use the lift. Lots of wrought iron all over the city on windows and doors, balconies, etc.

Some of the beautiful buildings:

There are a mix of businesses, bars and restaurants mixed in among the residential areas.  The two major streets to our east (about 5 blocks and west about 3 blocks) are nice wide and busy streets with many stores, businesses, etc.  Lots of people out and about, both driving and walking. Many taxis, buses, vespas and motorcycles, and of course, metro stops. The main streets have some trees, but the small narrow streets do not - instead there well established parks with tall trees, benches and some playgrounds.  Today is quite overcast so a jacket feels good.  Though people here don't eat dinner till after 9:00, we are in bed about that time!  Time to catch up on sleep!



May 6  Friday

We grab a few small muffins from the kitchen here and walk to Plaza Mayor - well, actually we walk to Plaza de Sol, just past Plaza Mayor by mistake, to meet up for a walking tour.  We are early, so pop in to a bakery and have a coffee, juice and  yummy pastries at a stand up bar.

 We are told later that it (La Mallorguina) is the best place in Madrid! It was delicious, though coffees here are tiny espresso size.  Interesting cafes and many shops selling fruit.

We find Marta from Sandaman's tours and head over to the Plaza Mayor with her.

 There are nearly 60 people here for the  this morning's free walking tour of Old Madrid, and and we are divided into 4 groups - two Spanish speaking, two English.  Sandman's does these tours all over the world, and the tour guides work for tips only so generally do a great job.  We have a young Scottish woman named Naomi who has been in Spain for about 2 years.  She is great, self-deprecating with a great sense of humor and just filled with enthusiasm and knowledge!

We learn quite a bit of Spanish history as it pertains to this part of Madrid.  Moors, Christians and Jews lived peaceably here for a long time, until the Spanish Inquisition begins, during which Jews and Moors were expelled.  They could stay only if they converted to Catholicism.  The Inquisition was meant to find out whether these converts were true Catholics and used horrendous means of doing that. If any two people accused someone of being false, that was taken as proof and thousands of people were executed, most by garroting.

Naomi points out the oldest restaurant, perhaps in the world, which has been open daily since 1725.  Goya, the painter, was a dishwasher here and Hemingway frequented it as well as using it as a setting in part of his The Sun Also Rises.

We look at the outside of the cathedral.  It is an odd amalgamation of moorish, christian, gothic, renaissance and other styles since it was begun in the 1560's and took till 1993 to actually finish.   A serious case of mañana, Naomi says :)

We stood in a plaza where hundreds of people were tortured and publicly executed. The green cross on this street sign is a symbol of the Spanish Inquisition.  For a long time, talking or writing about this period was forbidden as it was put firmly in the past.  Only more recently is it acknowledged as a dark part of Spanish history.

 And this inquisition continued for almost 350 years!!  Thousands of people just disappeared and there is still some movement today to try to find out what happened to them.

 One interesting bit was that during the inquisition converts were watched carefully.  One sign that someone was sticking to their old religion was that they did not eat pork (Jews and Muslims), so to deflect suspicions, the entire populace of Spain became major eaters of pork.  This remains today, with pork and ham being very popular.  There are many ham shops, this one was in a market.

It is raining lightly on and off during the tour and we stop at a restaurant, Dehesa Santa Maria,  for a quick bathroom break and some hot chocolate.  These people take their chocolate seriously and it is some serious  chocolate chocolate, even after they added some milk! At breakfast they often dip long doughnut-like churros in thick chocolate.

Naomi points out remnants of moorish architecture, these are called key-hole windows.

 The moors were quite tolerant  for the 700 years before the Inquisition, and as skilled craftsman they helped build many christian buildings which subsequently have moorish qualities.  She lines up several volunteers who act as the Hapsburg Spanish monarchs and does a quick synopsis of their personalities, contributions, and deaths.  Philip I, Carlos I, Philip II, Philip III and Carlos II.

Naomi touches a bit on the dictatorship of Franco, and Spanish Civil War.  Juan Carlos is appointed as successor by Franco and he begins the process of democratization.

When the tour ends, Greg and I sit in a park and plot our next moves.  The rain starts again, so we head to the nearby Cathedral to see the inside. Quite impressive!  Some of the art is quite modern.

I loved the painted ceilings.

We go to a little place  Naomi mentioned called  Retrogusto for lunch and enjoy a great salad, which consists of greens, cherry tomatoes and a huge hunk of a yummy mozzarella-type cheese, along with bread and the ever-present olive oil.  Kind of like make-your-own bruschetta!

 The rain still hasn't let up and though Beth has a hooded rain jacket, Greg has no hood, so we spring for a nice little fold up umbrella.  Sales are brisk today!

We walk some more, towards the Prado Art Museum and Retiro Park.

 On the way there the rain stops.  But the lines are very long at the Prado and we decide to go the park instead since it isn't raining.  A beautiful park and many people out enjoying it, strolling with babies and children, walking dogs, rowing boats, etc.

  Not a lot of flowers, but some nice blooming trees and even a few lilacs - my favorite.

There is a duplicate of the English Crystal Palace in a beautiful wooded setting! It contains a few pieces of modern art.

We decide to go by Neptune's fountain and then try to find a tower that Naomi mentioned that has great views of the city. Neptune wasn't a problem,

 however we have to ask three different people before we find someone who speaks little English but draws us a little map of where to go!  We pay our Euros and take the elevator up.  There is a nice little restaurant/bar and various seating.  We sit a bit,  and look out over the city.   One large office type building has a huge banner on it saying "Welcome Immigrants".

From here our tootsies are screaming, so we decide to attempt the subway, which turns out to be pretty easy to negotiate.  We buy our tickets, change lines from red to yellow at Sol, and end up just a few blocks from home.  Their metro is very clean, trains run frequently,  and is very popular.

We decide to try dinner at Campanera's, a restaurant we had passed on our wanderings.  We order a service for two which includes 2 free tapas, (many places you get free tapas when you order a drink), then 4 that we ordered, followed by an ox steak (looked like flank steak and tasted divine).

 Sounds like a lot of food, but remember that tapas are generally two to three bites of something, or maybe only one like our smoked salmon wrapped around a small piece of cheese.  The steak was probably about 6-8 ounces and sliced into pieces which we shared.

Still, it was plenty of food.

We wandered home, showered, downloaded pictures and zonked out.  This place is a little noisy from time to time with doors closing and various noises.  Folks here are notorious for staying out late too, so we heard everyone coming home.