Sunday - Art and Travel

Sunday 19th May 2019

It’s our last day here and we are determined to see that blasted Picasso!

We tried to get into Chocolateria San Gines - the most famous place in Madrid to eat Churros. It was packed and I was the only one that really wanted to go in, so we bypassed and found a pleasant square with a cafe and had delicious omelettes.

We then walked back to the friendly (not) Reina Sofia gallery and FINALLY saw the Guernica - it is very very impressive and huge. We got told off for taking photos (they really do need to lighten up). The gallery itself is a beautiful building and would be nicer if some people smiled.

We walked to our next stop the Caixa Forum - an art centre which has a beautiful living wall. We went in and the inside was very similar to the Barbican and Festival Hall - really striking. Andrew got told off for bouncing a ball in the gift shop (read the sign - oh no, it’s in Spanish) and we left. Not happy about being told off twice before lunch.

Our final stop before leaving for the airport was the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (the Thyssen).

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection is one of the most important private collections of paintings of the 20th century. Although originally a private collection, today it belongs to the Spanish public after its acquisition by the government in 1993 In 2004 a significant part of the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection was added to it; a collection of over two hundred works. It is SO impressive - really something for everyone. Carpaccio, Dürer, Caravaggio, Rubens, Sargent, Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Kirchner, Mondrian, Klee, Hopper….you name it, they have it.

There was a temporary exhibition of the works of Balthus - not an artist we were familiar with. It started off ok, some nice pictures in a quite a strange style, The pictures then seemed to take a rather unpleasant turn - focusing on a young boy and girl that lived next to the artist and were borderline erotic. We left. Andrew said '‘he was basically a pervert’ - yes, basically.

We particularity wanted to see the Hoppers, so made our way to where they were and then through to the more modern art of Lichtenstein.

Time to make our way back to the airport and head for home.

It’s been a lovely little trip. Madrid is great city with lots to do. They just need to cheer up.

Saturday - bikes and palaces

Saturday 18th May 2019

We had a wonderful sleep. All well rested. Whilst Oli and I dozed, Andrew went out for a walk and came back armed with breakfast goodness. Ham, cheese, pastries and strawberries, as well as fresh orange juice. So we ate a delicious breakfast in our lovely apartment.

We had originally had a trip booked with a local company for 12:30 for a two hour bike ride around Madrid. We had received a message from them the previous evening asking if we would change to an earlier time and join a longer ride. 3.5 hours. Being a small business owner, I really dislike when other businesses do these things. Clearly they didn’t have enough participants on our trip, so decided to combine groups. It’s part of being a business owner, some you win, some you lose and ideally the customer shouldn’t have to change their plans for you.

Anyhow, we agreed to change, and met the your guide at the bike shop which was two minutes away from our apartment. We were shown by our guide, Miguel, how to work the electric bikes and waited for the latecomers before starting our tour. 

The first stop was Plaza Mayor. Obviously we were already familiar with this square, but it was nice to hear some history behind it. Miguel had a REALLY strong Spanish accent and was quite tricky to understand, plus as we had three non English speakers on the trip he had to say everything in English and then everything in Spanish. It was going to take some time!

We took the bikes through a cobbled buy area, and cycled to Puerta del Sol, a square full of tourists and people dressed as various dodgy looking Mickey Mouses and Mario characters. Miguel explained about the symbol of Madrid and the reason it is a bear.

We cycled through some pretty hairy traffic and roadworks (and not all of the group were confident cyclists, which added a twist to the experience). Headed south east to Fuente de Cibeles. This is famous for Real Madrid football team and fans who congregate here to celebrate their many victories. The team would often get into the fountain and fans could cheers and celebrate. The local government have now put a stop to getting into the fountain, but it’s still the unofficial place of celebration. We were shown the Palacio de Cibeles Centrocentro, which used to the the HQ of the post office, but is now government offices, of which there seem to be many.

Back in the saddle, we headed east to the vast Parque de el Retiro. What a beautiful place. It was like stepping back to the 1940s (I should imagine), a huge boating lake in front of a fountain under a monument to King Alfonso.

The park was busy with runners, families and dog walkers, and it was a beautifully sunny day. We negotiated the crowd and cycled into a tree lined area to another lake to view the beautiful Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) originally built in 1887 as a greenhouse, but now used for exhibitions. We did not have time to go in sadly, but it looked beautiful.

We cycled through the remainder of the park which was beautiful and had a beautiful canopy of huge trees which would be welcome on the August sun.

We cycled by the Fuente del Ángel Caído (fallen angel) which is famous for being the world’s only statue dedicated to the devil. Madrileño are very serious, almost humourless people, so I can imagine that this is perfect for them.

We left the park cycling rather fast and getting the full use of the top speed of the bikes in the wide open pathways.

We crossed a busy road and arrived at the entrance of a large open space with a water tower displaying the sign Materdero (literally translates to ‘Slaughterhouse’) which is now a beautiful art centre. It was busy with food trucks and families, but our guide did not allow us to stop. Which was a real shame as there were beautiful brick warehouses that looked really interesting. No time to stop!

We cycled through some rather ugly areas, eventually crossed the Manzanares River, and finally came to a wide open path. This was originally one of the busiest roads in Madrid, but in 2011 the city of Madrid dug 43 kilometres of tunnels into which the exit routes and motorways of the six-kilometre section along the River Manzanares disappeared - now all the cars are underground and the people are happily above it!

We passed Athletico Madrid’s impressive stadium, surprisingly in the heart of the city.

By now, we were getting a bit tired and a bit grumpy. Listening to every commentary in two languages and waiting for folk that weren’t the best cyclist was starting to grate.

We set off north through another large park (so many open green spaces) and arrived at Madrid’s version of the Space Needle. Faro de Moncloa. It’s a 90m high observation deck. As part of our bike tour we gained free entry and made our way up the lift.

There were some spectacular views. Not sure what of - everything was written in Spanish. I KNOW. IT’S SPAIN - but maybe a nod to the millions that must visit that don’t speak Spanish? We had a nice rest from the bikes anyway.

That was our final stop of the tour, so it was just a case of cycling back, via the Royal Palace and back to the bike shop.

On the whole a good tour, and no way we could have covered so much of Madrid without the bikes and a guide.

We had a wonderful lunch of baby quid stuffed asparagus and a welcome beer.

After the food, we decided to see what the queue was like for the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family at the city of Madrid, although they no longer live there. The palace contains a whopping 3,418 rooms. We queued for a short time, and when we got to the front we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was free entry day!

The rooms that we were allowed to see were very grand and ornate and full of collected momentoes of their travels. We were not allowed to take any photos of the inside.

We spent a happy few hours brushing shoulders with the royals, before walking back to the apartment via La Mallorquina - a beautiful 1950s looking cake shop that has been in the same place since 1894 - and I think our waiter may have been there when it opened. Oli and I had chocolate cakes, and Andrew had his usual plain pastry.

We took some time to rest before dining at the restaurant opposite our apartment - Amicis. A wonderful meal, and it was owned by a British couple. We walked back to the market for a nightcap and a cake and the flopped into bed.

A day well spent

Friday - Travel and Art

Friday 17th May 2019

The good thing about having a husband that travels with his job, is that Oli and I often get to tag along, and visit some great cities.

Andrew had already arrived in Madrid a few days before and had been saying how much he thought we would love it, so we were excited to see what it had to offer.

An early start, and my teenage travelling companion did not let me down by getting out of bed after me asking ONLY ONCE and we were on the road to Gatwick by 6:30am. We arrived with lots of time to spare and had a nice breakfast and boarded a packed Norwegian flight to Madrid.

When we arrived, we sped through passport control, and with only hand luggage did not have to wait. I had decided to get the metro into Madrid centre, which meant negotiating a ticket machine! Easy peasy! As it was at the airport, all the ticket machines were in various languages, so we were soon ready to travel.

The undeground in Madrid is made up of 12 lines, all in familiar London Underground colours, and called simply “linea 1”, “linea 2” etc etc. We took Linea 8 (lilac) from the airport terminal to Nuevos Ministerios, and changed onto Linea 10 (dark blue) two stops to Alonso Martinez. Here we needed linea 5 (lime), but the station was heaving with people and we had to let two trains go before we could squeeze on. Four sweaty stops later we were in Opera. Our station. The underground was very very clean, as are the stations, but it’s worth noting that there are 3 rush hours a day for Madrid. The early (7am-8:30), the late (7:30-9:30pm) and, in true style of any food loving city, a mid one (1-2:30).

Andrew’s meeting had finished early, so we met him at our apartment. We are in a lovely old block with a HUGE wooden door to a lobby and large staircase with flats on 4 floors. Very similar to the old apartment blocks in Paris. The apartment is lovely. Modern and clean, with one bedroom , a kitchen diner and sofa bed for Oli. We set down our bags and headed off for some food. We are very close to a beautiful old covered market called Mercado de San Miguel. It was built in 1915, and it is very art nouveau in design with its wrought iron frame and glass. Most travel itineraries or programmes will mention this. It didn’t disappoint. Despite being packed, it was still a delight. Stalls selling ham and salted cod, which you can buy in small amounts and eat there and then. Vermut stalls are also in abundance where you can try the different types by the glass. It’s a place to be seen, and there were lots of beautiful people sharing time with friends.

We then made our way to Plaza Mayor, which started life as a market square, but is now full of cafes and restaurants. It’s bustling and full of tourists, hen parties and people going about their day. We found a cafe, and had some food. Oli had pizza (his taste is a work in progress) and Andrew and I shared calamari, and chorizo with potatoes. We had a glass of vermut to share, which was delicious, and a beer each.

Fully refreshed we made our way to our first earmarked art gallery. Madrid is quite the place for art lovers. It has three major galleries , Reina Sofia, Prado and the Thyssen. They are all quite close to each other and are called the Paseo del Arte (art stroll). We started at the Thyssen. Mainly because it has some Edward Hopper. Unfortunately, we were too late to go in, and were told that we could no longer buy a ticket. Hmm. Madrilenos (residents of Madrid) are a bit grumpy, and also totally averse to speaking anything but Spanish. I get that, it’s Spain, but when I look blankly at them, they still speak in Spanish. Nope. Me no understand.

Our next stop was to be the Reina Sofia museum, but first a stop at an old railway station, Atocha, that has served its purpose due to size of the trains, but is now repurposed as...a greenhouse. It’s small, but beautiful. There are birds flying inside and people eating their lunch or chatting to friends, and it’s full of exotic plants. Amazing!

The attraction of the Sofia is Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, plus some Dali. On Fridays at 7pm, the gallery is free, so there was a queue, but it moved quickly, so we were soon inside. Has to be the worst signposted place ever. It is arranged by collections, but only in Spanish, so it was hard to know where to go. No apparent guides either. We wandered around before seeing a sign for a collection called “Is the War Over? Art in a divided world”. I challenge you to tell me what you’d find there!

After much wandering amongst white rooms with one twig on the floor (art), we found a few nice pieces from the 40s and 50s and a few Picasso, but not the Guernica. We finally figured out that it would be in the collection called “The Irruption of the 20th Century” - of course. We made our way down a Escher style staircase to that collection. Guess what? Closing in 15 minutes. You can’t come in. In Spanish , naturally.

What a shame!

By now, we were really tired. It’s a long day of travel and walking galleries is a killer, so we made our way back to Plaza Mayor, and had a glass of wine and some small tapas dishes. We walked back via the market again, and this time there were less people, so we stopped for a try of the traditional Churros dipped in hot chocolate and Oli had chocolate mousse. A real treat. We wound our way back to the room, fell in to bed and immediately asleep!

Looking forward to tomorrow and exploring the city with more energy.