Madrid 18th May

Tuesday 18 May

For 4 days the Bandits have become the Banditos! We arrived around 1pm Spanish time at Barajas airport and were welcomed by brilliant sunshine and a balmy 28 degrees. Coming from London this was heaven.

We successfully negotiated the Spanish Metro system to get ourselves to where we staying, on a main road just off Plaza Mayor called Calle de Atocha. Our hostel (Hostal de Horizonate) was definitely unique, decorated in an ornate style that bordered on kitsch! Our host was Julio complete with sleazy beard and long ponytail. It was decent enough, and had amazing views from our balcony.

We were keen to get exploring Madrid, as we knew we didn’t have long. We started by wandering around with no real sense of direction and soaked up the sun. After over a month in London with no sun to speak of this was amazing.

We quickly established that ordering any food in Madrid would become an exercise in itself. Only a very few cafes and bars had English menus and since the extent of our Spanish words were Hola, Gracias and Hasta la Vista baby this would definitely be a mission.

Walking round the narrow cobbled streets and open plazas found the famous San Miguel markets, an indoor food market selling every single type of Spanish food you could think of, all of it delicious. Spaniards tend to eat Tapas at lunch, (picking a few small entrees and sharing with friends, usually with a glass of wine). So we did the same, using the point and nod method, we found a delicious salty ham roll and a selection of seafood on French bread – Hamish’s first taste of caviar! 

  

The biggest surprise we had was when Hamish discovered that banana passionfruit were being sold in Madrid! They are called curuba, and cost around NZD$1.40 each. Not as good as the ones from the Sugar Loaf but pretty good.
 

After our extremely satisfying lunch, we checked out the famous Plaza’s of Madrid. These are kind of like town squares, with residential apartments on all sides looking down on a selection of bars and cafes. Plaza Mayor is probably the most famous one in Madrid, and is jam-packed with tourists. Back in the day, a huge amount of activity happened here such as bullfights and executions. Nowadays it is all restaurants and souvenir shops. The statue in the centre of the square is of Felipe the third that ordered the square to be built in 1617.

Next we hit up the Palacio Real (The Royal Palace) and the accompanying Cathedral. Both were huge and extravagantly decorated, the Spanish seem to love to show off their wealth. Lucky for us the Palace had free entry on that day for some reason, and we were able to take a tour around inside. There was more gold on that building than I have ever seen in my life. Every room was full of expensive furniture, massive chandeliers, and huge paintings and of course gold everywhere. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside. Here are some of the outside.

The Palacio Real was built over 26 years starting in 1734, commissioned by Felipe the 5th and is the largest palace in Europe. The present King Juan Carlos the first does not live here anymore but it is still used for state occasions.

The Catedral de la Almudena is adjacent to the Royal Palace, although it was not completed until 1993, due to various architect changes and the Spanish civil war holding things up. This was the largest Cathedral we have ever seen, as Spain is a Catholic country they are very into their patron saints and in this Cathedral there were about 10 different saints you could pay homage to in their own little area. And gone are the days where you donate to light a candle for your patron saint, nowadays you simply put your one Euro into the machine and an electronic light bulb in the shape of a candle lights up. Magic.

After being inside for awhile we wandered around in the sun, like England the Spanish do 

their parks very well and people seem to use them a lot, especially for their siestas. Believe it or not this still happens, shops shut down during the day and re open when they feel like it. It’s pretty annoying when you want to buy something not food related between 2pm and 6pm.

One of Hamish’s must do in Madrid was to see a Bull fight. So on a whim we hopped on the Metro and found the famous Bull fighting arena – Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas. Luckily, it was just the right time to buy a couple of tickets to see the nights show. The stadium itself was pretty amazing; it was built in 1929 to replace the original one that was falling down. It was still stinking hot (about 28 degrees at 7pm) and bright sunshine so we were still rocking the singlets and shorts, and the locals were all dressed up in their suits and dresses so we did feel a bit under dressed. The bullfight itself was quite brutal but epically awesome; it seems to be worse when you see it in real life. It was also a bit confusing as we didn’t really know if we should be cheering or booing. Hamish made friends with the guy sitting next to him (lets call him Alfonzo) and he said that the night’s fight wasn’t very good, as “Madrid demands powerful bulls”.

 

  

Each "fight night" consists 6 bull fights. Each fight consists of 3 acts where the execute various formal moves in order to subdue/axe the bull. Three matadores ("killers"), each fight two bulls, each of which is between four and six years old and weighs no less than 460 kg. Each matador has six assistants — two picadores ("lancers") mounted on horseback (pic of one above), three banderilleros ("flagmen") - who along with the matadors are collectively known as toreros ("bullfighters") - and a mozo de espada ("sword page"). Collectively they comprise a cuadrilla or in English the "entourage"). So 2 hours and 6 dead bulls later we headed back to the Old Madrid quarter for dinner.

We passed through Puerta del Sol, which is a central meeting point for many Madrid locals. It is said to be the location of ‘Area Zero’, which is the centre of all of Spain’s roading system. It also has a statue of a bear and a strawberry tree, which has become a symbol of Madrid.

 Spaniards tend to eat very late, so we fit right in when we sat down to eat at about 10.30pm. We picked La Lusia in the Plaza de Santa Ana, mainly because it had an English menu, and Louise finally got her wish of having paella and sangria in Spain. Unfortunately they were both pretty rubbish.

We headed back to the hostel and thought we would go straight to sleep but it seems that people in Madrid don’t go to bed and stop tooting their horns until very very late….

Highlight: The sunshine! Everyone seems in a much better mood when it’s sunny

Highlight: BULLFIGHTING - Hamish loved it.
Lowlight: Seeing a woman verbally abused on train. We couldn't understand a word of what was going on but every man in a 3m radius had a go at her including amigos in their 60's.

Lowlight: There are lots of beggars in Madrid and they don’t take no for an answer.
Interesting fact: Bullfighting consists of three different specific acts. The first where the matadors tire the bull out running it around in circles, the second where the matadors on armoured horses spear the bull in the neck and the final act where the main matador stabs the bull down through the heart.