Nicole schreibt...

Madrid 2007

Madrid has never been a no.1 tourist destination like other European capitals and once you get there, it's rather obvious why: The main sights can be taken in within one day, after that you will need to hit the road and look around elsewhere. So much like Athens, it's better to use Madrid as an entry point to the country and then go on a tour. However we only had three days to begin with, arriving in Madrid in the early evening only. So after arriving at Madrid's ridiculously oversized Barajas Airport, we took the metro into town and to the Puerta del Sol, the heart of the city where plenty of restaurants, bars and hotels are located. I had been tipped off about the Hostal Marlasca, a cheap but clean and nicely furnished place in a side street of the main square. After a first stroll and dinner, we went to bed to be ready for a full day of sightseeing. Entrance to the Prado museum is free on Sundays, so that's where we headed first. A wise decision because we could immediately enter at 9.30am, but when we came out three hours later, a queue wound around the place in front of the museum half a mile long. The Prado holds one of Europe's biggest collections of art including the usual suspects such as Raffael, Rembrandt, Tizian and Rubens. and many paintings by Spain's great artists such as Goya and Velasquez.

After taking a break in a cafe on Madrid's big avenue, the Gran Via, we went to the Palacio Real at the other end of the city, the former royal palace and neighbouring Almudena Cathedral, although the king resides out of town most of the time these days and the palace is only used as a couple of representative events every year. You get to see the mind-bogglingly lavish state rooms of Carlos III who obviously had an inferior complex towards Versailles to deal with, the royal pharmacy and armory and make sure you don't dare to take a photo or some bitchy person in uniform will not only call you to her side in a tone that makes the Spanish Inquisition sound like gentle whispering but actually demand of you to delete the picture (I wonder what they do to people who don't have digital cameras but actual film rolls...).

Since the weather was surprisingly warm and sunny, we took a break in the Sabatini Gardens then before heading on to Plaza Mayor and dinner. Since I am not a fan of Paella and tapas can only fill me so much, I mainly stuck with tortillas and croquetas for this trip. Sadly when it comes to food, Spain can't really match its Mediterranean neighbours to the east... Next morning we went to Toledo, a place I had wanted to see for a long time. The capital of medieval Spain Toledo mostly achieved fame as the one place where Christians, Jews and Muslims managed to live in peace together for a few hundred years until the uber-catholic couple Ferdinand of Castile and Isabella of Aragon cracked down on the latter two and forced them to either convert to Christianity or leave.

Not surprisingly it is the Cathedral that towers over Toledo these days, as well as the Alcazar, which was mostly destroyed during the Spanish civil war and later rebuilt. Here's the mind-boggling alterpiece of the cathedral to the right. Toledo had altogether a strangely rebuilt feel, instead of dark crumbling medieval alleys, everything was surprisingly clean, freshly renovated and light. We ended our tour with coffee and sandwiches on the Plaza Zocodover, which now looks like any other Spanish town square but dates back over a thousand years and played host to witch burnings and other forms of medieval entertainment. Then we returned to Madrid for some more modern entertainment in the form of shopping.

On the last day we went to El Escorial, the huge complex Philipp II. had built for him in the hills outside Madrid in 16th century, which goes by the full name of the Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial and even today parts of it are still a monastery and a school respectively. The former palace area is now accessible to the public, as is the Basilica, the tombs of the Spanish royal family and the gorgeous library that houses thousands of ancient books and manuscripts. Here's a picture of the bedchamber in which the great man died and a look across the verdant gardens that seem so untypical for this generally rather barren part of Spain.

After this last outing it was time to return to Madrid for one last meal before we had to go to the airport. Germanwings surprised me by being on time for the time ever on one of their evening flights, but it was a bumpy ride home. As a few pleasant days out Madrid is certainly a good place to go, but if you're keen on history and sightseeing I guess it's better to use it as a departure point for a week's tour around central Spain in a rental car. And having been to Andalucia, Mallorca, Barcelona and Madrid in the last years, I welcome suggestions where to go next in Spain :)