The directions for the metro were easy. Finding the street when I walked out of the metro… not so easy. But I did find it and checked in. the keys were super annoying to use. You had to swipe the key on the knob then turn the knob either left or right till the door opened. The fist time it took me about 5 minutes to get in the room. Thank goodness no one was there while I was trying. I was in an all girls dorm so obviously just girls. I talked to a few of them. They were from England, Australia, and France. They were nice but totally girly so I stayed in instead of going out with them for drinks.
I had set my alarm early in hope that I’d get a good start on sight seeing. I had seen a poster for a free walking tour offered by my hostel and I wasn’t sure if I’d go or not. So I struck out on my own. I took a few streets and ended up in Puerta del Sol. I took a few more streets and came to the conclusion that I’d rather go on the walking tour. I pulled out my map and navigated back to the hostel where I ate a power bar for breakfast and waited in the lobby. And off I went on a grand tour of Madrid. My tour guide was an English girl with red hair. Her head popped into a lot of my pictures.
What did I see on my tour? Well I saw a lot actually…
Puerta del Sol
This used to be where the gate to the city was and it was decorated with a brilliant sun. sadly it was knocked down when they wanted to expand the city. But they still call the square Puerta del Sol.
And in Puerta del Sol is the official symbol of Madrid.
The Opera House
Before Isabella II the arts were mainly funded by the church and the church saw plays and acting as the devils work so there were a lot of poor actors. Then Isabella had a lot of money to throw about and funded the royal opera house. Today it’s on the major opera circuit so you can see all kinds of major operas there. It’s also really boring looking. But that was the style…
Palacio Real
The Royal Palace was cool to learn about. Today it’s also a huge museum that you can visit with tons of priceless works of art and history. It also has a funny history. I’ll try to keep it short I promise. So remember the Moores? They had a royal palace of their own in the spot that is now the royal palace. When the capitol was moved to Madrid (it used to be Toledo) the king thought it was shabby but the Madrid-ians loved it so he couldn’t wreck it and start all over. Instead he threw a huge party for new years or something (I forget) offered free wine and food and obviously the whole city went out of the city to party. When they came back they found their precious Moorish royal palace burned to the ground. Suspicious right? Even more suspicious before it was burned all the art work and treasure was taken out. And that’s how the new palace was started.
Cathedral de la Almudena
This is just as boring looking as the opera house… apparently the inside is amazing. I didn’t get a chance to go back and pop inside. But the back of the cathedral is so much prettier it’s like a normal cathedral.
Plaza Mayor
This has another rather funny story to go with it. You see the king originally built it to make his people happy as a place for recreations and so on. But he built it of wood. So the first winter rolled around and it was burned to the ground. They built a total of 5 wooden Plaza Mayors before they got the grand idea to build it of stone and that’s the one we see today. Sadly there was an exhibition in the middle of the square so I don’t have very good pictures…
Gran Via
This is the road you go to splash some cash as my tour guide said. I walked up it after the tour and there were some pretty cool buildings.
The old Post office now the Town Hall
Check out this huge building. It used to be the main post office hub, it’s not anymore because the post office has down sized and it’s the new town hall. It’s huge inside as well there’s a couple floors underground as well.
Fuente Cibeles
This is where the football (soccer) team goes to kick off the celebrations. It’s the unofficial symbol of the city.
That rounded out our tour. After I grabbed a Starbucks I headed to my hostel to have a rest before going back out. If I was smart I would have gone right after the tour but my legs were so tired. Instead after I had a snack of another power bar I headed back toward where we ended the tour. There were 2 other fountains on the road that were part of the same commission. So I saw Fuente de Apolo
And it started raining at this point. Fun right? I thought Spain was always warm and sunny. But I really wanted to see the Crystal Palace. I got lost in the park, got soaked to the bone, sloshy shoes and only managed to find Estanque and a monument to Alfonso XII.
By the time I got back to my hostel I was rather miserable. I set my shoes out to dry. Hung up my coat and took a very hot shower. Then I went to reception to see how to get to the airport. The metro started running at 6 and it would take 45 minutes to get to the airport. My flight left at 7h45. Me being nervous I wanted to get there plenty early. Turns out there was a bus that left at 4h30 to the airport. I just had to walk about 20 minutes to the stop. No biggie. I’d just have to wake up early.
I went to bed early and got up even earlier. On my walk to the bus I realized I had no reason to be nervous or jumpy about walking so early in the morning by myself. There were still a bunch of Spanish out partying and drinking. I was hardly alone on the street. I made it to the airport and made my flight to Santiago de Compostela.
Cheers,
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