We made it to Madrid. Our Air Europa flight from Lisbon could not have been more uneventful. We are in a taxi in a traffic jam between the Airport and central Madrid. So far, it has much more of a European feel. Once you fly to one EU country, you can visit all of them without going through
customs until you leave the EU. It's like traveling the United States. Flying from Portugal to Spain is like going from Tennessee to Kentucky. Like Americans, Europeans are over COVID-19 and have no masks except on public transportation and flights in the EU Zone. Going through security at the Airport was a breeze; it's highly automated, and the trays automatically come to you. No laptops or other devices out of the bag. No shoes or belts off.
Well, we are settled in for the next 5 days. We are beat; I went to the grocery store after we checked into the Apartment. I took some pictures on the way. Madrid is much busier and more modern than Lisbon. Can't wait to get out to see it. For dinner, we had a store-bought empanada and sautéed Pumpkin in butter with Dates and Raisins. I bought the Pumpkin by accident and thought it was papaya. It was very good.
We visited the Madrid Central Market for some Tapas on our first day. We then walked Rick Steve's Historic Madrid City Walk. Then, we took the Metro down to the Toledo Gate.
The original Central Plaza Mayor was from the 1500s when the Spanish Inquisition executions were held. Up to 50k people would crowd into the square to watch the new creative ways they killed them. Most were burned alive, but some were slowly strangled with a garrote while a priest prayed over them. Phillip III is on a horse in the center, and you can buy an attic studio apartment on the Plaza for around 500k euros, and the prices increase from there.
After the Plaza, we walked by The Royal Palace of Madrid. Europe's largest palace, with 2800 rooms and 1.5 million square feet, was very impressive. When the capital of Spain was transferred from Toledo to Madrid in 1561, the seat of the Church in Spain remained in Toledo, and the new money had no cathedral. Plans for a cathedral in Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena were discussed as early as the 16th century. The cathedral seems to have been built on the site of a medieval mosque that was destroyed in 1083 when Alfonso VI reconquered Madrid.
Still, even though Spain built more than 40 cities overseas during that century, with plenty of cathedrals and fortresses, the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first, and the construction of Madrid's cathedral was postponed. Making the cathedral the largest the world had ever seen was a priority. So, the structure of Almudena did not begin until 1879.
Visiting the Prado was the highlight of our week in Madrid. It is one of the great museums in the world. There were no photographs in the exhibition rooms. The building is being renovated, so it's cloaked. I did get some photos in the lobby of the Prado. The Prado contains extensive works by Rubens, Goya, Titan, and Poussin, to name a few.
The guidebook says to allow 2 1/2 hours, but more time was needed. We arrived at 1345 and left the museum at about 1745, about 4 hours, and we still needed to see everything. It was fabulous. The Goya and Rubin collection is the biggest I have seen. And the haunting El Greco's. It is well worth the 50 euros with a 500-page guidebook. Below is an original sculpture of the Roman Emperor Augustus and Hadrian. I walked Hadrian's Wall in England, which was very interesting. They had a whole room of Roman Sculpture dating back to 10 BC.
The Gran Via. Called The American Gran Via, Madrid's 5th Avenue. It is an upscale shopping district built in the Chicago Art Deco style. The Schweppes building dominates the Avenue. I've been to Nutbush, Brownsville, Tennessee, where Tina Turner was born, and some clubs she started singing at in Memphis. A Gran Via musical show highlighting Turner's musical career caught my eye in Madrid. This street seemed to be their Broadway.
Spain's most famous writer, Don Quijote, is their Mark Twain. Much like North America is a product of England and France, South America is a product of Spain and Portugal. Although it ravaged the indigenous communities in the north and the south (9 out of 10 died from European diseases within 80 years after 1492) and some colonial injustice continues today, The Columbian Exchange was inevitable. It would have been someone else if it wasn't Columbus.
On two hot days, we visited El Retiro Park, an expansive park in the heart of Madrid. It is their central park. We sat in the shade and walked by the lake and the Crystal Palace. We ate ice cream overlooking the central lake. This was a refreshing break from the regular sightseeing schedule.
It was a fabulous week in Madrid, a busy and cosmopolitan city. I'd recommend that everyone spend a week there.
