Madrid 20th May

Thursday 20 May
 

Today we woke up early to get the train to our day trip destination – Toledo. We headed down to the Atocha train station about 20 mins before the train left and stood in line. And then we were told to stand in another line. And then another line. Until we finally got to the front of the queue and were told that the 9.20am train had gone and then 10.20am train has been sold out. Unbelievably bad system and communication.
 

Louise decided that she needed a coffee at this stage so she ordered a café mocha and was presented with a shot of melted chocolate, a smaller shot of coffee and then filled the rest of the cup up with whipped cream. Not ideal.
 

We then headed to a park bench in the sun to decide what we were going to do, and to have our breakfast that we had bought from a local café. Not understanding the question we were getting asked when we bought them, we had cold cheese and ham toasties. Again not ideal.

We started walking to the West of Madrid and came across the CBD district which was very different from the old part of Madrid where we had spent most of our time. There were many more newer buildings and modern shops; it could have been any city in the world. We walked through the Plaza de Espana where there is a monument to Miguel de Cervantes, writer of the world famous story of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his trusty squire, Sancho Panza. Below is a picture of Don, Sancho and Hamish.

From Plaza de Espana we headed to the Templo de Debod in the middle of Parque del Oeste. This was really interesting, mainly because it was an Egyptian temple in the middle of Spain. The temple was built in the 2nd century BC and was given to Spain in 1968 by the Egyptian government as a tribute to Spanish engineers involved in rescuing ancient monuments from the floodwaters of the Aswan Dam on the River Nile. It had some pretty mean hieroglyphics in it too.
 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets, having ice cream and the most amazing strawberries ever. Below is an artistic picture by Louise...

 

That night Louise got to pick the activity, so we trotted off to a Flamenco show at the Cardamomo after a quick tapas meal (we were slowly getting the hang of this tapas business). This was incredible, we were squeezed into a tiny bar with a little stage at the front where the band and singers (5 in total) and 2 dancers. The passion and dancers were so intense it was amazing and I think we were both quite blown away by it. We also learned that you can say ‘Ole’ at any stage and you don’t sound weird.

  

Again we had the argument about if Hamish could be a flamenco dancer. Him trying to show me his moves and then falling down the stairs proved my point.

Highlight: The flamenco show – much better than expected.
Lowlight: The antiquated train system in Spain.

Interesting fact: Parque del Oeste (where the temple is) is a place where many Spaniards lost their lives to Napoleon in 1808.

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.

Madrid 19th May

Wednesday 19 May
 

As we had had a late night the night before we decided that we would treat ourselves to a sleep in and wouldn’t set the alarm thinking we would wake up around 8 or 8.30am. We woke up at 11.30am....
 

We quickly headed out not wanting to waste the day and found a café for breakfast. A traditional Spanish breakfast is called churros and chocolate, which are essentially donuts in long strips and a cup of melted chocolate, which you dip the donuts into. It was awesome. Fueled up on chocolate and saturated fat we headed towards the Museo del Prado which houses the most famous works of Spanish artists particularly Goya and Velázquez. It was pretty amazing building with a huge number of paintings and sculptures but again there was no photography allowed. Notable paintings we did see was ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Bosch and the 'Clothed Maja' by Goya.

 

The Museum adjoins the Botanical gardens and as the weather was insanely good again we wandered up to the Parque del Retiro. Once the playground for Royal children, the park opened up to the public in 1869. The main feature of the park is the Monument of Alfonso the 7th, with a large man made lake where people can hire rowboats and laze the day away. We bought lunch from one of the many overpriced lunch places in the park, and caught some rays.

A short stroll from there and we came across the Puerta de Alcalá gates which is the ceremonial gateway erected by Carlos the third in his effort to improve Eastern Madrid.



On that side of town was also another famous art gallery, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. This collection was a private collection assembled by Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, and was bought by the Spanish government in 1992. As the collection goes from the 1600s to the 1990s, it is regarded as one of the most complete illustrations of the history of Western art. Louise was pretty stoked to see many of the artists she studied in art history at school, like Pollock, Kandinsky and Picasso.

Again we wanted to take full advantage of the sun so we went back to the gardens. The Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) is also situated in the Royal Gardens. This very random building was designed to stage an exhibition of tropical plants from the Philippines in 1887. Now it is used to show exhibitions of art.

The lake in front of the building is home for many turtles, probably cousins of Myrtle and Max.



In need of a rest and some shade, we headed back to Plaza Mayor and got ourselves a Cruzcampo (Spanish beer) and some las aceitunas (olives). The olives were disappointing. On the way we passed by the (supposedly) oldest restaurant in the world called Botin (the Guinness Book of records states this is true, started in 1725). As it was quite expensive we weren’t allowed to have dinner there.



Dinner, we were back in the Plaza Mayor getting ripped off and constantly getting asked for money. Getting a little tiresome.

Highlight: The Gardens, the number of random statues and fountains in them are just awesome.
Lowlight: Getting ripped off, it sucks being a tourist sometimes.
Interesting fact: Spanish people like to eat an incredible amount of cheese, ham and bread, they eat sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Interesting fact #2: Hamish had had enough of getting ripped off and wanted to swear in Spanish so then we could at least express our true feelings and be understood. We jumped on Google and our pick which was in the top 10 was - Cago en tu leche!!

Oxford

Our first day trip we hit up Oxford, a town made famous by its prestigious University, about an hours train ride north of London. First impression of the city was that it has amazing architecture. Oxford University was founded in 1167 when Henry II prohibited all English students from attending the University of Paris. The students then set up camp in Oxford and continued their love of learning. The University is made up of impressive buildings that were built from money donated by the rich and famous of the time. There are now more than 20,000 students in Oxford attending the University. We started our adventure with a visit to Oxford Castle (below).

Built by a Norman baron in 1071 the castle has a rich and colourful history. We took a guided tour (Oxford Castle - unlocked) to find out more about the castle. Most notably it was where Empress Matilda escaped a 3 month siege by being lowered from the walls dressed completely in white to camouflage her against the snow after a small disagreement on who should have the throne. The castle was eventually fell into a state of disrepair by the 14th century but done up again in 1888 to become a county jail. This jail housed some famous criminals including one of the Great Train Robbers. The view from the top was also one of the best in Oxford, to see all those 'dreaming spires'. The picture below is of us on a massive earth mound that used to house another stone tower.

The jail was only closed as recently as 1996, and has since been used as a film set for many movies and TV shows including Inspector Morse and Midsummer night murders (Dave, you can actually take a tour around Oxford specifically devoted to film locations for the show).

After the Castle we visited Christ Church (Christchurch, NZ's namesake) which is one of the largest of the 38 colleges that make up Oxford University. We had to visit here as a lot of the Harry Potter scenes were filmed here. Again, England showed how well they looked after their gardens.

These gardens were also the gardens that Lewis Carroll met Alice (Alice did actually exist), it was also here that he took photos of her on one of the first cameras in Britain. We then headed back to the covered markets and tucked into a great traditional lunch of home made pies and mushy peas.....mmmmm.

After lunch up we joined in the walking tour around the University and a select few Colleges. Lots of quirky interesting facts came out of this tour (too many to mention or write about!) and we also got a chance to go into the Colleges (we call them Halls of Residence in NZ) where students lived. Each college was unique but share the same features - rooms, dinning room, small chapel and a quad. Lou found it hard to look at these students and not feel stupid, as you know that they must be incredibly bright. Hamish on the other hand for some reason thought he could "smoke the exam" if he "wanted" to. Below are some of the pictures from the walking tour. Far left is inside one of the chapels (have forgotten exactly which one). Centre pictures is a sweet bridge connecting one of colleges and far right is Radcliffe Camera. 

We finished the evening up with a cider at a local pub and then onto dinner back at Oxford castle, where they have renovated some of the jail cells into a boutique hotel and restaurant - the Malmaison. It was very well done, and a good feed.

Highlight: Seeing the countryside after weeks of city scape

Lowlight: It was freezing! 3 layers of thermals for Louise.

Interesting fact #1: The Bodleian Library receives 1 copy of every single book printed in Britain, meaning they have over 9 million books.

Interesting fact #2: Penicillin was invented in Oxford. There is a garden commemorating/thanking them for the achievement.

Interesting fact #3: During our time here we have noticed that things in England seem to take awhile to get going and people start work really late in the day, this was even more apparent in Oxford when we arrived at 8.30am ready to have an action packed day and nothing opened until 10am.

Interesting fact #4: Uncle Joes mint balls are pure good.

 

Tower of London

Now that Hamish has got a job, we decided we could now loosen the purse strings and do some sight seeing that cost money. Tower of London was first on the list. This ancient fortress was founded by William the Conqueror and almost 1,000 years of British history has been played out within its walls. It was here that Guy Fawkes was interrogated, Richard II and Elizabeth I were incarcerated, the 'Princes in the Tower' disappeared without trace and numerous people tortured and beheaded.

It was a pretty amazing place and we both found it quite hard to get our heads around that we were standing on places that Kings and Queens of England had stood over 700 years ago.

Pictured above is Hamish outside the Towers walls. The grass used to be a moat that help defend the fortress. 

Upon entering the fortress we joined a guided tour by one of the resident Beefeaters. This was much more interesting and we learned a lot as opposed to reading info on signs. Below is picture of our Beefeater for the day.

We learned all about the towers where prisoners were held before they were executed, including Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Most of the towers had carvings in the walls by the prisoners, graffiti from 500 years ago...

The Tower of London consists mainly of the White Tower built by William the Conqueror in 1078, the Inner Ward which includes the Salt Tower, the Beauchamps tower, and the Bloody Tower. The Bloody Tower is the supposed location of the brutal murder of the Two Young Princes, Edward the 5th and Richard of Shrewsbury who mysteriously disappeared in 1483. Then more than 200 years later the bones of 2 young boys were discovered in the White Tower - I wonder who they were...

The Tower itself is a mix of different architectural styles, as random buildings were added and destroyed nearly every century for the last 1,000 years. Below is a picture of Hamish with his Pikeman's helmet on ready to defend the tower with Thunder (left) and Lightening (right).

Every evening, the Yeoman warders (BeefEaters) participate in the Ceremony of the Keys as the Tower is secured for the night. All warders have residence within the Tower, and must also own a residence outside of the Tower, so that upon their retirement, they may return to a home outside of the Tower. It would be pretty sweet to have the address 'Tower of London'.

The Crown Jewels are kept in the Tower of London under close guard. The original ancient crown jewels were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649, but these ones were still pretty impressive (says Lou). The collection includes the Cullinan diamond which is the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carat. The diamond is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross.

The White Tower also housed exhibits from the random collections from Royal families over the years, including armor, weapons and horses. Royal children also had suits of armor made which definitely beat hands down the wooden sticks and cardboard armor we used as kids back in the day.

The Tower is also a great spot to get a good view of the London Bridge.

Highlight: Best touristy thing Louise had done, the guided tour was awesome.

Lowlight: Even on a random Friday, the numbers of tourists there was amazing.

Interesting fact: Six Ravens are kept at the Tower in accordance with the belief that if they fly away "the kingdom will fall". To be on the safe side ten ravens (6 on duty and 4 young spares) are actually housed at the Tower of London at the expense of the British government. To prevent the birds from flying away one of their wings is clipped by the Ravenmaster. How very British.
Interesting fact (2): To become a 'Beefeater' you must of done at least 22 years of service for the Army, Royal Marines or Royal Air Force. Members of the Royal Navy cannot apply because while members of the other services take oaths to the Crown, members of the Navy take an oath to the Admiralty.