I had arranged for our group to have a private guide to show us the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum on Monday, Sept. 9th. Mayte, a charming young lady, met us in the lobby of our hotel at 8:55am and we grabbed two cabs and off we went.
Our first stop was at the Puerta del Sol (Gate to the Sun) and is , Madrid's central square, here Mayte explained about how Madrid was built and this was the central point.
This is marker is "kilometer zero" the symbolic center of Spain (with its six mail highways indicated).
This statue in the middle of the square honors King Charles II (1716 - 1788) whose enlightened urban policies earned him the affectionate nickname "the best mayor of Madrid". He decorated the city squares with beautiful fountains.
This building with the bell tower was Madrid's first post office, founded by Charles III in the 1760's. We were told about the crowds that fill the square on New Year's Eve the locals will eat twelve grapes (to bring them good luck) as the clocks strikes midnight.
The bear pawing the tree is a symbol of Madrid since medieval times. Bears use to live in the royal hunting grounds outside the city. The madrono trees have a berry that makes the tradition Madrono liqueur.
This shop sells beautiful fans from 30 Euros up to a couple of thousand…it's fun to watch women flip open their final fan choices before buying.
Plaza Mayor……….
This large cobbled stoned square is for pedestrians only. In medieval times, this was the city's main square.
The equestrian statue honors Philip III, who in 1619 transformed the medieval marketplace into a Baroque plaza. The square is 140 years long and 102 yards wide, enclosed by the three-story buildings. The building have slate roofs, steeped towers, and symmetrical windows and balconies. It reminded of something in Vienna, Austria than in Spain.
The square's building have private apartments ….. it's a great place to live. The cost of a small tiny attic studio runs about 400,000 Euros to a large 2,500 square foot apartment for 2 million Euros!
Church & Convent of Corpus Christi -
There is a large coat of arms over the main entrance of the church. It belongs to the rich family that built this church and convent in 1607. In those times the most prestigious thing a noble family could do was build and maintain a convent. Just down the side of the building is a big wooden door with a door bell next to it. To buy goodies from the cloistered nuns, buzz the button, then wait patiently for the sister to respond. This morning we were told the cookies would not be ready for an hour and then had to cool, so we missed buy from them.
We continued our walk to Plaza de la Villa
The statue in the garden is of Philip II's admiral, Don Alvaro de Bazan. He was the mastermind of the Christian victory over the Turkish Ottomans at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571. This pivotal battle, fought off the coast of Greece, slowed the Ottoman threat to Christian Europe.
This beautiful structure features Madrid's distinctive architectural style…symmetrical square towers, topped with steeples and slate roof. This building still functions as Madrid's ceremonial Town Hall, though the city council have moved elsewhere.
We now continued our walk down hill toward the Royal Palace - our first view from the hill…..
Theresa Blazek and Sheila Klein in front of the Royal Palace
I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the Royal Palace…
This is Europe's third-greatest palace, after Versailles and Vienna's Schonbrunn (I've been to both of those). They say this is the most sumptuous original interior, packed with royal antiques. It has 2,800 rooms and I'm sure I walked through all of them!
The palace is the product of many kings over several centuries. Philip II (1527-1598) made a wooden fortress on this site his governing center when he established Madrid as Spain's capital. When that structure burned down, the current structure was built by King Philip V (1683-1746). Philip V wanted to make it his own private Versailles, to match his French upbringing, he was born in Versailles, the grandson of Louis XIV.
Just a short distance down Calle Mayor is the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena …. this cathedral was opened in 1993, 100 years after workers stated building it.
The church is modern and has a beautiful colorful ceiling.
Lunch and time to rest our weary bones and drink a cold beer. Our guide selected the restaurant and had a lovely outside cafe that had a beautiful view of the Royal Palace.
I was so tired from all our walking and trying to remember just a part of Mayte shared with us about all we saw, I didn't remember to take good pictures of our lunch…sorry!
The grand finale….. The Prado Museum
I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the museum and that was probably better because I had to listen to what Mayte was telling us about several of the master pieces of artwork.
It was time to return to the hotel for a nap before we went out for our night of tapas hopping in Madrid.
September 5, 2013
Our United flight arrived at 10:05am on Thursday, September 5th. We had been in the "travel mode" since 3:20 Monday afternoon. We found the Madrid airport much like Miami, where you have to walk a mile to get anywhere. Upon leaving the plane on our way to Baggage Claim, we had to walk a mile, climb a flight of stairs and then down a flight (we both had a couple of pieces of hand-carry luggage), not an easy task. We hooked up with Ed's sister and hubby (Theresa & Jim Blazek) in the baggage claim area. Their Delta flight had arrived 30 minutes before ours (perfect timing). Ed and I claimed the two pieces of luggage we had checked that were the last pieces off the plane. The four of us were now eager and ready to begin this new journey together and we would meet the other couple, Sheila & Tony Klein, joining us at the hotel because they had arrived the day before.
We got a taxi in front of the baggage claim area and was positive it would take two to get the four of us and our baggage into town. We ended up with the greatest packer and we all fit into one car. We each did have a small piece of luggage on our laps. The ride into town was 50 Euros ($67.50) but the driver did save us the expense of the second taxi so he received a nice tip.
We are staying in the Melia Madrid Princesa Hotel. The hotel is located just within four blocks of two Metro stations, easy to get all over the city. Our rooms are a nice size with a little storage for our suitcases. We all are pleased with the hotel and its location. After we got checked in, the four of us just wanted a nap. We got together and went to lunch at 2:00pm. The hotel suggested a nice local place, La Cueva 1900, just three blocks away.
The Melia Hotel Lobby - I love all the Asian art work…
Off to our late lunch with Jim & Theresa…...
These are the "little plate" they start off your meal with - here it was different slices of meats
I love the Sangria in Spain - like drinking CoolAid
I found out that Sheila & Tony had not arrived because their flight out of Denver was canceled due to technical problems. They finally got into JFK and had to be re-routed to Paris and then into Madrid and that had put them 24 hours behind their arrival time. Tony's suitcase had also not made the flight and the airlines was trying to locate it for him. Since, they had not showed up on their arrival date the hotel had cancelled their reservations…I had to fix that problem quickly. They ended up being upgraded one category in room because that was all the hotel had left (Sheila & Tony didn't seem to mind). Thursday night we all just wanted to go to bed and get ready for our first tour.
Friday I had planned a day trip to Segovia, about 55 miles north of Madrid. The AVE train travels at a speed of over 100 miles per hour so the trip takes about 45 minutes. But first we first to figure out how to use the Metro system and buy our tickets. We got that figured out and ended up on the correct line but going in the wrong direction. So, that meant we had to exit at the next station, go up a flight of stairs, cross the track, and down to the other side. Then, we had to transfer to a different color line at a different station to only learn when we arrived at that station the line we needed was closed. So, a local gentleman helped us out and gave us directions on how to get to the train station to get to Segovia. We ended up getting to a train station (Atocha Train Station) but that station only had the slow local trains that would take us 2 hours to travel the 45 minute ride on the express train (we needed the Chamartin Station). It would mean that we had to reenter the Metro system, figure out where we were suppose to go to and get there before the express train left in 39 minutes. We all believed there was an excellent chance that we wouldn't make it to that station on time and the next express out of that station to Segovia was two hours from then. So, we decided that the local train was going to get us there in time for our lunch reservations….we took the slow local train! It gave us a couple of hours to chat and get to know one another.
Upon our arrival in Segovia, we grabbed a couple of cabs out in front of the train station and got into the center of town. Our restaurant, El Bernardino, was located in the walking only section of Old Town. Our taxi dropped us off just below the Roman Aqueduct, the 2,000 year old exposed section with 118 arches and stand 100 feet tall. It was made with 20,000 granite blocks without any mortar, and still can carry a stream of water. What a spectacular sight!
Our restaurant was only 5 blocks north of the Aqueduct. The restaurant was founded in 1939 and was a charming place.
Sheila and I enjoyed an excellent glass of sangria, others had beer or the local red wine. I had a whole grilled trout that was perfectly cooked. Ed and Jim had the biggest grilled veal chop (looked like a very large T-bone steak) I had ever seen, must have weighed a pound or two. Theresa and Tony had beef steak that was very flavorful and tender (Theresa would have liked hers left on the grill longer). Sheila had sea bass with an onion/garlic sauce, she thought hers was good but sauce a little strong. We all linger over our meal and getting to know one another, two hours passed quickly.
The Cathedral
Well, we did come to Segovia to see a few of the sights so we needed to get going. We walked to the Cathedral built in the Renaissance times (1525 to 1768) and is the third church on that site. This cathedral was Spain's last major Gothic building and is embellished to the hilt. The inside in spacious and elegantly simple when compared to the exterior. There are many side chapels all with big locking iron gates. These were the private sacred domain of the rich families and guilds who "owned" them. It seemed that each one was a mini art gallery.
We needed to walk to our final destination in Segovia, the Alcazar. In the Middle Ages this was a fortified palace, a key fortress for controlling the area. It was one of the favorite residences of the monarchs of Castile and grew through the ages and its function changed many times. After it was a palace, it was a prison for 200 years, and then a Royal Artillery School. It burned in 1862 and since that fire its been basically a museum.
Sights of Segovia city…...
We were taking the AVE train back to Madrid and it was time to get to the station. We called the taxi company to send two to up us up and take us to the Guiomar Station just outside of Segovia. We arrived on the train with 3 minutes to spare. We all were amazed at the speed and the quiet smooth ride of the train.
Please note the speed our train was traveling….249km/h that is about 149 miles per hour….FAST
We even transversed the Metro system and got back to our Metro station with ease! On the walk back to our hotel it was time to stop for a beer and tapas to finish off the night. We stopped at the same restaurant that Theresa, Jim, Ed and I had lunch the previous day and they recognized Jim's cool Stetson hat. They provided a variety of sliced meats (thin Spanish Ham, a salami type, a sausage type) and lots of fresh crusty bread. It was almost 9:00 when we departed for our hotel again.
Another fun filled day……
The next chapter of this story will begin with our first day we tour in Madrid city…..
Peggy
