07-Jun-2005
Robert got up early (well, 8am ... early by Madrid standards) and headed off to BBiGG to update the website. While waiting for the place to open, he walked down to the Plaza Mayor and took some pictures (this was the place where we had dinner last night - picture below).
06-Jun-2005
We arrived at Madrid Bajaras Airport around 9:15am local time. The airplane parked on the tarmac sowe climbed down stairs and got into a bus to take us to the terminal. We were very lucky at immigration as a new lane opened as we arrived and we were 3rd in line! As a result, we got to the baggage claim area quickly but as is the case with many airports, had to wait a while for our baggage to appear.
We breezed through immigration and then had to find the Metro Office so we could pick up our tourist passes. That was a bit of a hike as we arrived in Terminal 1 and the Metro office was in Terminal 2. Once that was taken care of it was off to the taxi lane.
I guess our hotel isn't very well known as our driver had to ask several other drivers how to find it. We arrived after several wrong turns. As it was before the checkin time, we left our luggage and went out to explore a bit until our room was ready.
After returning and settling in, we set off for a short walking tour of the old part of Madrid (which is not very old by the standards of Spain as a whole).
We ran into a family of South Africans on their way to South Africa from Ireland staying at our hotel. It's a small world!
We took the Metro to the La Latina station to start our short tour. After a couple of false starts we had our map oriented the wrong way and hadn't figured out where the street signs were (they're mounted on the buildings in striking tile pictures - see an example on the left) we began the tour,
walking down several narrow streets and past many plazas with cafes and outdoor seating (see examples of both to the right). As it was Monday the museums were closed but we were just planning on getting oriented so that wasn't a problem. At the Plaza de la Villa we saw one of the oldest surviving buildings in Madrid, the Casa de Cisneros (see picture to the left).
We ended our tour with a light supper at the Plaza Mayor and found a place to connect to the internet (yay!).
Editor's Note: these pages would have been uploaded today but Robert forgot to replace the wireless card after removing it for the flight. His penalty is to get up in the morning to do it :-).
That afternoon we headed out and visited El Prado and the Botannical Gardens. We saw many portraits from various masters such as Goya, Rafael and El Greco, as well as an artist painting a copy of one of the works. In the bookstore we saw a replica of Carlos V Book of Hours - we didn't purchase it but it is available on the Libro Artes website.
A nice lunch at the museum finished our visit and it was off for a stroll through the Botannical Gardens (quite a variety of plants, unfortunately we weren't there when all the plants were flowering, there were just a few).
A quick stop for ice cream and it's back to the hotel for dinner as we have an early start for our trip to Toledo.
The walk from the local Metro station to our hotel is rather nice (here's a picture taken in the morning on the way back from uploading the web pages). Also, the Metro itself is great, including the occasional musical entertainment, not only in the stations but on the trains themselves!
We planned to have dinner at the hotel that night but the restaurant was closed. The hotel receptionist told us of a nice restaurant just around the corner (La Alpargateria). The menu was unusual -- written in the form of a letter rather than the usual format -- and the food was the best we had so far here.
09-Jun-2005
Well, this is our last full day in Madrid. It is definitely a city worth visiting! We hopped the Metro and headed off to Parque El Retiro for a short walk on our way to visit the Museo de Libros. The park is very big and has various theatres and athletic fields scattered throughout. While walking we saw some jugglers practicing their act (many people were just sitting or lying down to enjoy the shade - another hot day!).
On the way we passed through the Plaza de Independencia. The red banners on the arch are promoting Madrid's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. These banners can be found throughout the city.
Due to the 400th anniversary of Don Quixote de La Mancha, the Museo de Libros was closed and there was an exhibition about Don Quixote (a large collection of various editions of the novel and other works by Cervantes) in its place.
Our next stop for the day was the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). The palace has over 2800 rooms of which only a small portion are open for viewing. The king does not live at the palace and nowadays it is mainly used for official ceremonies. We stopped for lunch at a cafe that bordered the grounds and took a short walk through the gardens before heading back to the hotel for a nap so we would be ready for our dinner and show that evening.
We left around 8pm for our show at Casa Patas. The dinner was very nice and we then went to see the flamenco dancing "El Espectaculo". All the pictures had to be taken without using the flash so they are a bit blurry but even viewing with the naked eye it was difficult to make out all the movements of the dance. We purchased a DVD of one of the performances held at Casa Patas for later viewing. Back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before our flight to London.
10-Jun-2005
A quick note before we complete the packing and head off to the airport. Our taxi is arriving at 11:30am and we're headed off to breakfast. Somehow it looks like our baggage shrunk a bit since it seems to be fitting better. (Of course it is probably just my imagination since it is common knowledge that everything never fits into the space after the original packing :-).
