Madrid, Spain

Madrid, Spain:

               When I told my husband that I always wanted to go to Spain, he said, “Okay, so where do you want to go?” Prior to this trip, I really didn’t know too much about Spain, so I told him, the coast and Madrid. Madrid is the capital of Spain. According to my “AAA Europe Travel Guide”, it was one of the few capitals that was not developed but chosen. This was an excellent place to start the Spain trip. Ticket prices were fairly reasonable, the night life is there but not too strenuous for “old at heart” people like us, and some of the museums are must sees.

People:

Figure: Left to right: 1) A street Performer dressed as predator. 2) A man playing Christmas Carols on glasses filled with water. 3) Protesting the lack of transparency in the Santiago Train Crash.

               Out of everyplace we stayed, the people of Madrid spoke the least amount of English. Still, the random people we spoke to tried there hardest to help us out when we were asking for directions. If you are traveling here know some basic Spanish: milk, backpack, bag, where is, map, numbers, etc. There were a few times we would have really been stuck if we had not known these words. The streets were crowded and filled with shoppers and street performers, including people dressed as goats, the predator, Simpson’s characters.

For a nation’s capital, there really were not too many protest. Perhaps this was in part due to the Christmas season. We did see one, where the people were protesting the lack of transparency in the investigation of Santiago train crash, where 79-81 people died after a high speed train derailed. Protest Details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Compostela_derailment

Hostels:

Figure: (Left to right). 1) Christmas lights in the middle of Puerto del Sol. 2) The Shower and sink in our room at Barberi Sol. The streets outside our hostel. 4) Me sleeping in our dorm room at Barberi Sol.

               I feel that you cannot go to Spain without staying in at least one hostel. This was supposed to be an experience for me. I had never been in a hostel before. There were many hotels and hostels in Madrid. We chose to stay at Barberi Sol (www.barbierihostel.com/).  This was a cute little hostel with an amazing terrace. The desk attendant was one of the most helpful people we met while in Spain, giving us many suggestions on where to go, where tourist traps were, and how to save money during our stay in the country. Almost everyone using the hostel was from other countries. Breakfast was the best time to talk with them. While there, I talked with people from Mexico, Belgians, and a young Japanese woman. In our room, bed clothes were included. Since the hostel wasn’t full, the attended upgraded our room for free without us even asking.

The stay wasn’t perfect, nor did we expect it to be, for the price. Being that it was winter the rooms were extremely cold. In addition to this, the noise coming in from the street seemed louder in our room then it was on the actual streets. It made sleeping at night extremely difficult. This was not entirely unexpected, many of the reviews warned us about this. My recommendation if staying here would be to go to bed really late, sleep in, and utilize siesta time (a little after lunch) for naps when it is slightly warmer.

Places to Visit:

Another nice thing about this hostel was its central location. Many of the locations we wanted to go where within a 15-30 minute walk.  We were located just off Puerto del Sol, a big shopping area right in the heart of the city center. The train stations and major museums were located 15 minutes to the east of us.

Museums:

Madrid was all about museums for Arvind and me. Before we even checked into the hostel we visited Museo del Prado, where we saw classical Spanish art. Pictures of the paintings that you may find on the internet do not do the paintings justice. Many of the works we saw were massive, and the level of detail in many of these paintings were awe inspiring, often making the painting appear three dimensional.

Our first night we had found out that there was a free exhibit at the Museo Nacionak Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. The exhibit was free after 7:00 pm on that particular day.  It was a modern art exhibit, which quite honestly, was mostly over our heads. We found out later that there were much of the work in Spain by Salvador Dali is housed here. Prompting us to revisit the museum again before we left. Salvador Dali, a 20^th century artist, is one of my favorites. His art is twisted portions of reality into a whole new world.

 

 

Figure: Works by Salvador Dali displayed at the Rena Sofía.

Museo de Arte Thyssen also had quite a few great 20^th century paintings. At the time that we went they were barrowing a few Dali paintings from the Reina Sofía. We were not here on a Monday, but if we had been, it would have been free.

The least expensive museum we visited was not an art museum, but a history museum- Museo de America. It was also the only museum that was a little out of the way for us, prompting us to get a cab to get there. The museum features exhibits highlighting the Spanish exploration of the new world. Exhibits cover pre-Columbian artifacts from both North and South America.

 If you only had time or money for two museums, I would defiantly recommend the first two I mentioned, The Prado and the Reina Sofía. However, all four of them were interesting and well worth visiting.

Parks:

               There were two city parks that were completely worth going to. One was the Parque de la Montoñia, where we got a great view of the Palacio Real, and the Parque del Oeste where Arvind and I got to see the a beautiful sunset over the outskirts of Madrid.

Figure: (Left to right) 1) View of the Palacio Real from Parque de la Montoñia. 2) Parque del Oeste.3) Outskirts of Madrid from the Parque del Oeste. 4) A marry go round in the Plaza de Oriente.