Madrid

After being so tired last night, we took it rather easily this morning and pottered off to breakfast about 9.00. We had the usual, which was very pleasant, then returned upstairs to finish the packing. We checked out leaving the bags with the concierge and set off for the Royal Palace on a beautiful sunny morning. On the way down we picked up another PC at the Thyssen, and walked down Carreras de San Jeronimo where we came across a little shop selling every kind of violet sweetmeat, La Violeta. We decided that we would call in on our way back to the hotel. When we arrived at the Royal Palce there was a bit of a queue, but soon we were inside, and again, no photos of the interior, but I could take in the plaza de armas, with its arched west side with views across the countryside outside the city. We had taken audio guides here, and proceeded into the palace on the north side of the plaza. We mounted the grand staircase up to the official apartments, and followed the natural route through the sumptuous rooms with the guide as a running commentary. Everything is quite magnificent, and although several groups whisked through with or without a guide, we never felt completely overtaken. Only in the last room, where there is a display of ceremonial china, did one guide appear almost shouting her head off, but one among so many wasn't so bad!

The route now took us to the royal pharmacy where we walked through several rooms of ancient flasks and bottles  made from glass and pot with gilded labels. In the far recesses there were travelling trunks for medicines, distillation retorts, balance scales and other apparatus on display. Some of the bottles had strange labels such as asparagus extract and hoof of the beast, but there was also quinine bark from Peru. Apparently, Spain had the monopoly on quinine bark - a good little earner for the royals. Leaving the pharmacy we crossed the plaza de armas to look at the view out to the west through the archways, and then entered the armoury. To start with it was very interesting, but as we descended to the lower floor, the standard of commentary also descended. Instead of having extra numbers to press if one wanted to hear more about certain objects, the whole story just went on and on, and we just gave up in the end. It was definitely time for a little lunch, and we found our way to the palace cafe for a small roll with salami and cheese and a cup of coffee.

It was now about 2pm, so we planned a slow route back to the hotel via the oldest part of the city along and to the south of Calle Major. The oldest buildings are around Plaza de la Villa, and just down one of the side streets we came across a beautiful little shop selling produce from convents and monasteries across Spain, El Jardín del Convento. We had to go in and have a look, and we were not disappointed, finding jams, biscuits and cakes on sale but also, incongruously, Yankee candles! We bought some jams and biscuits as gifts before continuing. Our next spot was 'stronginthearm' street (for TP fans), up which we found the bikeSpain shop, closed.

The next plaza along Calle Major was Plaza de San Miguel and just behind it is the Mercado de San Miguel and we had to go and have a look. It is full of delis selling all sorts of delicacies that people were buying and eating standing at the counters. There were also wine places and juice counters. after a stroll around, we stopped for some juice, it would have been a great place for our snack, if only we had known! So on we went, crossing Puerto del Sol and going back up Carreras de San J, looking for the violet shop, which sadly was shut until four thirty, too late for us.

We decided to head for the Retiro park and maybe tea or an ice cream. when we got there, after some photo taking of buildings, we voted for ice creams and sat at a shady table enjoying them. Back at the hotel we collected the bags and put our treasures inside, then walked up the street to the metro, which would take us to the airport. We arrived in good time and sat in the lounge for a while. Then we discovered the flight was delayed for half an hour, so we sat a little longer, then took our time walking to the gate. The passengers from London were just disembarking so we thought we would soon be boarding, only to discover that they would delay our flight (8.50), to 10.20 with no announcement, apology or explanation. Thanks very much BA and Iberia.

Eventually back at Heathrow, A called the valet parking and the man said the car would be waiting for us when we got through customs. He handed over the keys and we drove home down a fairly busy motorway. What a great break Madrid has been!

Palacio Real

Mercado San Miguel

El Jardín del Convento

La Violeta

Madrid

Alarm at eight and breakfast at nine. They have the classic Hospes service with cereals in little jars, wonderful fruit, an amazing selection of pastries including macaroons and their preserves that include violet preserve. My yoghurt had a garnish of passion fruit, but surprised me by having a little violet preserve right at the bottom. So delicious!

Then it was time to walk down to the Prado, to collect our tickets, audio guides and museum plans. We had the most fantastic time discovering all sorts of treasures from a special exhibition of Picasso's Acrobat on a Ball on loan from the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, to Albrecht Deurer; Dutch masters to Italians; British artists and Flemish painters. It is just full of major works of art as one would expect. We had to have a couple of breaks during our five hours, and although we reached pretty much every corner, we had to skim passed some of the many, just taking in major pieces suggested by several paper guides and the audio guides we had hired. A great discovery were some of the Spanish painters of the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century. They are not widely known outside Spain, on the whole, for example Fortuny and Rico.

When we had finished our visit, we made our way to the exit and crossed the street to the Real Jardin Botanico, where we strolled in the shade of the trees, breathing in the scented air and looking at the lovely flowers and plants on display. The rose garden and dahlias were in full bloom; the veggie/herb garden was getting to the end; but we did find the tribute to Carl Linneaus as he overlooked the tranquil lake.

We took the high walk through the steamy glasshouse, which proved to be much cooler at ground level, and found an area dedicated to carnivorous plants, where snails seem to be the regular food. At the end we did find the 'pantaloon' tree, an elm that has a divided trunk resembling a pair of inverted trousers!

We came back to our room for a short rest before taking our postcards to the restaurant/ cafe where we started with tapas, and progressed to main courses of steak and hake before calling it a day and collapsing into bed at nearly midnight. Another big day tomorrow with, hopefully the Thyssen and the Reina Sofa Museums to see.

Museo del Prado

Real Jardin Botanico

Madrid - arrival

We flew in from London just a little late. We had dropped the car off with valet parking, narrowly avoiding arrest for following the signs to the wrong side of the drop off area! Breakfast was in the no1 Lounge, where we had cereal, yoghurt, pastries, a bacon roll (Alan) and coffee.

The metro into town was very good, two changes, but only a couple of minutes between trains. At our stop, Retiro, it was a two minute walk to the Hospes Madrid Hotel. We were soon booked in and unpacked before talking a walk in the park.

With Retiro Park just across the road, we decided to stroll down it's shady avenues, perhaps even getting as far as Sol. But the park was so interesting, we just managed to walk through by the Estanque, the boating lake with its impressive Monument to Alphonso XII and the numerous rowing boats hired by intrepid rowers; passed the Palacios de Velazquez with it's tiled friezes; around the lake with turtles and a great view of the Palacio de Crystal; into the Rosaleda and down to the statue, El Angel Caida, by Ricardo Bellver, believed to be the only public monument to the 'fallen angel', Lucifer, in the world.

We came out of the park onto Calle de Alphonso XII  and crossed over to see the Real Jardin Botanical, but the entrance was diagonally opposite, so we walked down Calle de Claudio Morano where we found a row of antiquarian book kiosks, some open and stuffed with all sorts of old books. At the bottom of the street is the Estacion de Atocha, the station which houses a tropical garden. It is an amazing place filled with palm trees and a pond just full of turtles. We stopped for light refreshment at a station cafe, before exiting again and heading up Paseo del Prado, sussing out where we will be coming tomorrow. We made it back to the hotel in time for a quick freshen up before we were due out to meet the people from Adventurous Appetites who were going to take us on a tapas tour.

We walked down to Puerto del Sol, taking in the architectural gems along Calle de Alcala as we went. As we came into the circle that is Puerto del Sol, we discovered the bear and the arbutus tree statue that is the symbol of the city. As we had some time to spare, we walked around the area and found the point where all distances in Spain are measured from.

Soon it was time to meet our guide who turned out to be a Dubliner called Paul. He definitely had the gift of the gab, and lead us on a merry tapas tour, with a running commentary of historic facts of the places we walked through, punctuating the walk with stop offs at various tapas bars from different regions of the country. We began with Asturias, sampling cider we had to pour from a height into a glass held down low, to give the cider the correct flavour! With this we had potato salad and Iberico ham. Paul suggested we then order some typical dishes - bread and cheese, tuna empanadas and some spicy chorizo, all very delicious, but we had to move on. It was decided that we should run a kitty with Paul, starting with twenty euros per person.

So off we set and we arrived at the plaza Major with its long buildings, touristic restaurants and horse mounted figure in the centre. Lots of chatter from Paul, including pointing out the oldest restaurant in works le Botin, from 17something. But we made tracks to a tapas bar that s famous for its delicatessen. The Walls and ceiling were lined with four kinds of am wrapped in blue, green, red and white coverings. They look like decoration, but apparently get used up in two months in a constant rota! Here we were introduced to Summer Wine. Not Sangria, which should be prepared a day or two in advance, but red wine with lemonade poured over ice and a slice of lemon. It was wonderfully refreshing. This came with sliced chorizo and whacking big green olives that were extremely tasty. We then ordered some of the ham - a sort of iberico, and manchega cheese. We placed a slice of ham on a slice of cheese and ate down to the rind of the cheese that then gets thrown on the floor with the olive stones and the tissues - all part of the experience, apparently. On we went, down interesting pedestrian streets passed several shops with tiled edifices. We came to one bar that Paul decided would be our next stop and here we chose some beer and wine to our taste. A bottle of Ribera del duero served us all coming with a dish of fresh salty prawns, and here Paul ordered (with our agreement) some green peppers, meat balls and for all the world Dutch croquet ten. What fun, especially as here we sat down for a while. It was already getting Kate, but once again we were off to see more interesting sights and bars, and down the street of letters to another bar where we waited to be seated.  Already we were reduced to six from eight, having lost one of the Canadian couples. Now we were choosing individual drinks as well as ordering a second round of tap water! More white wine for me and A to go with squid ( not for A), and mushrooms with lardons. But it was really getting late and we decided to call it a day, as did the Swedish couple, leaving Paul and the young Canadians to go on to find mojitos and maybe chocolate and churros to finish.  Back to the hotel to crash before our visit to the Prado tomorrow - or actually today!

Madrid

Hospes Hotels

Adventurous Appetites