The month of May has two bank holidays so we headed to Madrid, Lisbon, and Porto to feel the sun on our faces again. Warren, my mom, and I spent two days touring in Madrid. We started out with a tour of the Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid).
The ceiling above the Grand Staircase is made of frescoes depicting Religion Protected by Spain. Photos were not allowed anywhere else inside the palace but most of the rooms lived up to the standard you see in the photo below.
Next we headed to the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande where we accidentally went on a Spanish speaking tour of the entire church. It was built in 1760 by King Carlos III and stands on the former site of Franciscan convent. The Basilica has the largest dome in Spain, even larger than the one at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Plaza de la Villa is a quiet but pretty square and home to Casa de la Villa, the former Town Hall.
It seems that every building in Madrid has a really interesting exterior. Most apartments have balconies, too. I bet they get a lot of use with how amazing the weather is!
The plaza was rebuilt in 1790 after it was damaged by some fires. The statue of Philip III in the center of the square dates back to 1616 but was only placed in there in 1848. The square is surrounded by three-story residential buildings with 237 balconies facing the Plaza.
We stopped at Chocolateria San Gines for some churros and chocolate. This place has been making churros since 1894. These were amazing and some of the best food I had the entire time in Madrid (spoiler alert: I don't really like Spanish food).
We also went to the Puerta del Sol ("Gate of the Sun"). This square was originally one of the gates in the city wall that surrounded Madrid in the 15th Century. Now it is one of the busiest places in Madrid and is known for the Tio Pepe lighted sign.
The original city name of Madrid was "Ursaria" (meaning, "land of the bears" in Latin) because there were so many bears in the nearby forests. The city emblem features a bear eating from a strawberry tree (being from Nebraska I can say with certainty that strawberries don't grow on trees).
One museum I was excited to see is Museum Cerralbo. It is the former home of Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa and houses his collection of prized objects. Enrique was a Spanish archaelogist and politician in the early 1900s. His collection is often described as "a study in 19-century opulence," jammed with "fruits of the collector's eclectic meanderings."
The entire house is filled with diverse objects: 16th to 19th century European paintings, sculptures, drawings, watches, rugs, armour, furniture, and tapestries. Throughout a lifetime of collecting, Enrique amassed around 28,000 objects, one of the most complete collections in Spain at the time.
The ballroom is the most beautiful and most elaborate room of the house. The room is arranged so that when the balcony is opened the sound from the ball would spill into the street to show off their wealth and prestige to the neighbourhood.
Warren and I went out early on our second day to see some modern bridges. The Arganzuela footbridge was especially interesting, and Warren's favourite.
One of my favourite parts of Madrid is the street signs. We found a shop that sells smaller versions of these tiles and bought two as souvenirs.
Along one of our walking tours we happened upon this salamander made entirely out of CDs. It took up almost three stories of this building and was quite impressive.
Throughout our two days in Madrid we saw a lot of street performers, especially ones performing for drivers in the crosswalk at stoplights. We saw a few jugglers and also this guy who did some amazing tricks.
The Alcala Gate is one of the most well-known monuments in Madrid, and is classified as a National Monument. The statues on the top represent four great virtues: Prudence (with her mirror), Justice (with her balance and scales), Temperance (with her stirrup), and Fortitude (with her spear and shield).
Inside the Buen Retiro Park ("Park of the Pleasant Retreat") is the monument to King Alfonso XII. This photo does not nearly capture how massive this area is in real life. It put Hyde Park to shame! There were so many people out enjoying the sunshine and the lake.
Also in the Buen Retiro Park is the Palacio de Cristal ("Crystal Palace") which was built in 1887 to house exotic plants. It is currently used for temporary exhibitions but we just admired it from the outside.
My all-time favourite site in Madrid was the Metro Museum at Chamberi, a station that was closed in 1966 since it was impossible to lengthen it to meet the longer trains needed to accommodate the increase in passengers.
The station was built in 1919 and was included in the original eight stations that formed the metropolitan network of Madrid. It was inspired by the look of Parisian stations of the time and had amazing tile throughout.
The advertisements were especially fascinating as they are preserved in practically the same condition as they were when created in the 1920s.
I haven't mentioned much about food so far. Sadly, I was not a big fan of the food in Madrid, so basically I lived on churros and chocolate. We went to Samm Restaurant just before catching our night train to Lisbon. They were out of calamari so instead they brought us Ensalada Rusa, a traditional salad. The bottom layer consists of potatoes, peas, and carrots, then a whole bunch of mayonnaise, followed by sliced boiled eggs and tuna. The entire salad is served cold.
We ordered the "Gentleman's" paella which has pre-shelled seafood. It looked amazing and both Warren and my mom loved it.
Gross salad! Go for the ensalada mixta next time. Way better. We got the same paella this last time too because we were too lazy to peel the shrimp, but I was disappointed. Not as good as the traditional paella. You saw some amazing places!
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