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