Final Thoughts of Madrid

Our final two nights in Madrid took a remarkable turn.  Saturday, which I expected would be the wildest and craziest of nights outside our room, quieted down shortly after midnight.  I was totally amazed to wake up around 8 in the morning.  I was surprised because I had actually fallen asleep.  Taylor, who is always an early riser, reported that the streets were almost deserted.  It seems that everyone was in church.  I guess you have to close down the party early on Saturday night to be able to drag yourself into church on Sunday morning.

As we headed out to go to a local flea market, we also discovered that Calle de la Monterra was closed down and Puerta del Sol was set up for a marathon.  Perhaps that is another reason the street in front of Hotel Atheneo was quiet in the night.  We watched as thousands of marathoners started off to lots of enthusiastic cheering and loud music.

Sunday night was also quiet and I slept.  I wonder now if I was imagining all the ruckus of our first nights in Madrid.

Final memories of Madrid:

The fruit stand where we bought our daily oranges.

Hotel Europa where we had breakfast in the morning.

Cafe con leche and croissant at the bar.

Chocolate and churros at the Chocolateria San Gene after a tour of the Royal Palace.

This man is cranking out churros in this hot steamy room behind the glass door.  Fresh churros dipped in chocolate are wonderful.

Sunday morning flea market.

The flea market reminded me of Portland Saturday Market, with the addition of old crap from every one's basements.

I was surprised to find a spinning wheel at the flea market, along with old sewing machines.

A final memorable dinner near Plaza de Mayor.  We finally tried vermut............a drink I can get used to (I had two). As a final treat, our waiter brought us liquor of madrona in little chocolate lined wafer cups.

Every bar in every restaurant is quaint.

The Madrid bear feasting on madrona berries.

The grand finale of Madrid - madrona liquor in chocolate lined cups.

Sleepless in Madrid

The governor's office

A protest

Puerto del Sol is a large  square in the symbolic center of Spain.  It is surrounded by lovely buildings 3 or 4 stories tall.  One of the buildings is the former post office, now the governor's office, complete with guards stationed out front.  It has several fountains and statues, including a bear eating madronna berries.  Puerto del Sol is where you go to catch the Metro, listen to Mariachi bands (I thought they were Mexican), view street performers of all ilk, people watch or participate in political protests. Many streets, including ours, radiate from Puerto del Sol.  It is the place to be, and to be seen. It always busy.

Hotel Ateneo before Calle Monterro wakes up.

Hotel Ateneo is on Calle Montero.  It is about two blocks from Puerto del Sol, and is a perfect location for walking everywhere.  The hotel is on a corner, and our room's quaint little balcony faces the alley.  The alley is pretty quiet, although cars pass through on their way to a parking garage on the other side of Montero.  Monterro is lined with restaurants, bars, dress and shoe shops, ham shops, souvenir shops, farmicia, etc, etc.

Our room is behind one of the balconies on the left.

 Around 6 a.m. the street becomes somewhat quiet as street cleaners start on their rounds to straighten up the area.  Garbage trucks roam up and down, delivery trucks make their rounds.  Some folks walk to work, some folks return home from a night out.  There are even ladymen still trying to strum up business.  As the day wears on businesses reopen and the street wakes up.  The street is always humming. By mid afternoon, Monterro looks like this:

As night approaches the crowd grows and the sound becomes louder and more discordant. Just as I start relaxing, loud male voices will erupt in song, or female voices will shriek, startling me back to consciousness.  It's like an unpredictable beast out there.  The crescendos seem loudest between midnight and 6 a.m.  I feel safe inside, but the noise is not at all comforting.  Nor is it conducive to sleep.



Forever yours,
Sleepless in Madrid.

Madrid

I'm still in love with Madrid, but oh, are my dogs barking!  I think we overdid it today.

We started out by walking to the Prado, where we admired centuries of art.   After a few hours of sensory overload there, we ate lunch at a little local dive, and moved on to modern art at the Reina Sofia. The star there is Picasso's Guernica.  That was the highlight.  I think I would have enjoyed it more, if I hadn't already spent several hours on my feet viewing the classics.

As if two museums weren't enough for us, we then walked over to the Jardin Botanica.  Lovely , but when the feet are tired, everything is tired.

We still need to go out to round up some dinner and then we can retire for good.

Here's hoping I can sleep tonight.  We are living in a big party neighborhood.  The party went on all hours last night, and then the garbage trucks and street cleaners went to work.  That made for a very restless night's sleep.

Preview of Madrid

I'm newly in love.  With Madrid.  We arrived around 3 o'clock.  We took the Metro to Puerto del Sol and walked a few blocks to Hotel Ateneo.  It's quite a few steps up from the Continental in Barcelona and in an excellent location.

Taylor took us on a walking tour to get the taste of the place, and the taste is good.

Our room is very modern with no chintz. We have a little balcony overlooking a side street. Thank goodness for the side street because the main street is very lively.

Taylor is the designated tour guide.  He does a very good job.  I am learning about the main square - the center of political Madrid.

 Nearby is a pastry and candy shop.  We found our way back here after dinner. We stood at the bar and ate our treats with the locals.  We were having dessert.  They were having an afternoon snack since they probably wouldn't have dinner until 9 or 10 - well after our bedtime.

Can you see what this is?  It's another yarn store.  I think it was called the Black Cat.  I didn't go in.  But, I know where it is.

Street musicians playing, "Hit the Road, Jack."  I love the melodica. Syvart used to play one in high school.

A bookstore built into the side of a church.

A chocolate shop near the same church.  We'll be going back for some sipping chocolate later in the week - for sure.

The Leaving Is Slow, But the Train to Madrid is Fast

We left our hotel in Barcelona two hours before our jet train to Madrid departed.  Fortunately, we allowed plenty of time.

Taylor and I like to experience everything local when we are in a new environment. Since we felt we were already familiar with the Barcelona Metro, we planned to take it to the train station to catch the Ave train to Madrid.  We knew we could take either the L1 or the L3 to Sants Estacio Station.  We randomly chose the L1.  Well, we found we needed to transfer part way there to the L3.  If we had taken the L3 in the first place we would have gone directly to our destination.  So, after 2 trains and lots of walking (and I mean lots of walking, upstairs, downstairs and cross country, with 2 suitcases) we arrived at Sants Estacio.  We found our train platform, and guess what?  We were an hour early.

It didn't matter that we were so early, because the train station was delightful.  Here's the coffee shop right out in the open.

My white coffee even came with a real cup and saucer.  I'm a happy traveler and I haven't had any allergy meds today.  Life is good.  See you all in Madrid.

"Leaving on a fast train..................

......don't know when I'll be back again." Hum along with Peter, Paul and Mary.  With regret I leave Barcelona.  I love this city.  We barely scratched the surface.  Instead of focusing on all the sights we didn't see, I have to remember everything we experienced.  After getting my allergy meds from the farmacia, I was able to enjoy myself thoroughly. Here are a few of the highlights:

To get to the Picasso Museum, we walked through the Barri Gotic  (Gothic Quarter) early in the morning.  I loved seeing young children with their parents walk to school through the narrow alleys.  As we got closer to the museum, I paused to take some photos of the charming restaurant fronts, and graffiti filled shuttered stores.

By day the shops look charming - like this one.

After the shops close they look like this.  It's hard to remember what charming shop lies hidden behind these doors.

As I took my pictures, Taylor called my attention to a shop that I missed.  Low and behold, it was a yarn store!!!  I sometimes miss these, but Taylor always seems to zero in on them.  It was too early for the shop to be open, and when we went back after Picasso, it was still closed.  It's a good thing I have my knitting with me and didn't need to make a purchase.

Later that day, we mastered the Metro to get ourselves to the Sagrada Familia -  Gaudi's unfinished cathedral.  I can't find words for it, and it was hard to fight other photographers to take decent pictures.  It was also hard to feel holy, and generous with the huge crowds of noisy tourists.

Here's the main altar.  Follow the columns up.  Notice that they branch apart like the limbs of trees.  The idea is for the worshiper to feel as if he is in a forest.  I'm not sure I felt I was in a forest, but I was in awe.

Religion is huge in Spain.  As if we didn't have enough church viewing in Barcelona, we took the train to Montserat.  This was an adventure because we took a train, a cable car and two different funiculars to visit this mountain monastery.  It was well worth the effort and we got to hike as well.  I'm afraid our walking through the streets of Portland didn't prepare us for clambering up and down these hills.  We figured if aging hermits could make it to their caves, so could we.  Can you find me in front of the Chapel of St Joan, in the top picture?  And there is Taylor getting ready to explore the actual caves where St Joan (John the Baptist) and St Onofrio were next door neighbors. We took the funicular up the mountain, and then hiked to see the caves.  Thrilling.

Chapel of Saint Joan.

Stairs to the hermits' caves are on the left.

 I'm checking out the remains of one of the two saints' caves.  It's hard to imagine that anyone would live here unless he was planning to die soon.  It would be really hard to find food and water.  The shelter was minimal.

This is what the monastery looks like from the funicular coming down from the Chapel of St Joan.

And now it's time to experience Madrid!!!

Jet Lagged in Barcelona

We left our house in Portland at 4 a.m on Sunday, and arrived in Barcelona on Monday at 8 a.m.  We are tired and punchy, but we love this city already.  We've already walked La Rambla from our hotel to the harbor and explored some side alleys.  I had to take a break due to a horrible allergy attack.  I've now taken two allergy tablets and hope to go out for more adventures once the drugs kick in.  I'm writing this from our room at the Hotel Continental.

Our room is kind of horrifying, but it's in a great location on La Rambla, it has a 24 hour source of included food, and the price is right.

We had Cappuccino at a fabulous square off La Rambla.  This is when the allergies kicked in full force.  The coffee was great and the square boasts two of Gaudi's first works - street lamps. Taylor took the photo in between my sneezes.

Here's a peek into a doorway off of one of the alleys.  It was all I could do to stay out.  I think it was an apartment building.

Mercat de la Boqueria.

Mercat de la Boqueria is like Redding Terminal Market in Philly and Pike Place Market in Seattle, but on steroids.