5/4/11 - Another Day in Madrid

Pictures

Wednesday we slept in and lazed around until about 11, eating oatmeal from America and looking at hostels in Andalucia, so it was noon when the train dropped us off downtown. During the hour long train ride I pulled out my computer and blogged for a while. Once downtown, we went off to find the Conte Duque (pronounced Doo-Kay but which we pronounced Duke) which is a barracks that had been converted into a cultural center with a library and museum. The place was being fully renovated when we arrived, and even some of the security guards were wearing hard hats. Workers had built scaffolding around much of the building and concrete blocks were everywhere in the courtyard. There was a security guard in uniform at the door, and we asked whether the library was open. He pointed us through the door, and we went off happily into the empty and deserted buildings. I said the security guard wasn’t very good - he’d let us walk right in!!

After a while of weaving into and out of the barracks (where there was nothing at all to see because all the furniture had been removed), we eventually came out into the courtyard. It was becoming clear that we weren’t really supposed to be there, and when we passed another entrance, the security guards ran after us. They said the place was closed. One asked if we were tourists (touristas) and the other rolled his eyes and said of course they’re tourists. And they ushered us out of the barracks.

This took until about 12:25, and we wanted to have lunch nearby, but the place didn’t open until 1:15. We wandered through the little cobblestone streets for a while and then found the Plaza Espana. We sat in the shade of the trees around a fountain along with many others who were taking an early Siesta. We blogged a bit, and then made our way back to the restaurant.

The restaurant’s name was Los Dos Fogones. Many restaurants in Spain feature a lunch menu which is around 10 Euros and gives a drink, an appetizer, an entrée, and dessert. Tricia and I sat down in the cute little restaurant and found an outlet to plug in my computer. The nice and very patient waitress helped us translate the menu (since the lunch changes every day at the chef’s whim, it isn’t translated into English). We ordered two lunches, getting one wine and one beer, salad with potatoes (not to be confused with potato salad), fish soup with ham (thick like tomato soup but served cold), cous cous, codfish with peas, fried bread with honey, and mojito sorbet served in a glass with a straw. We couldn’t finish most of it, and decided next time to see if they would let us share.

By the time we’d finished all our courses it was past 3, so we walked over to the Royal Palace. It is free all day Wednesday, but unfortunately everyone in Madrid had the same idea and the line was around the corner and well down the block. Unlike the line at the Reina Sofia, this one didn’t move hardly at all. People had their passports out as well, and we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to get in since I didn’t have mine with me. I walked to the front and asked a man who had come out of the palace to smoke whether I needed the passport. He said Americans were fine without it, so that was good. In the line (which took 45 minutes) we again pulled out our computers to pass the time. When we finally got to the front, the man in front of me pulled out a copy of his passport. “Ha, that’s brilliant!!” I have copies of my passport everywhere, and showed a copy to security. (I’m pretty sure the man with the passport copy was American and understood my exclamations of his intelligence as he was wearing a Cleveland Indians t-shirt.)

Once inside the museum we were corralled into a line and could only walk through roped-off sections of the rooms. It was fairly crowded, but we were able to see all the tapestries and ornately painted ceilings and furniture where the royal family had lived. We even got to see the room where Charles III had died in bed. Most of the rooms were very masculine - covered in red and black or blue tapestries and with dark wood or black furniture and even black statues. Interestingly, some of the rooms were devoted to other countries - there was a Chinese room with black lacquered pictures and tapestries covered in lotus blossoms and storks. There was also a Roman room with white Roman statues. Finally, there was a “porcelain room” where the walls were entirely made of porcelain. They were built in square pieces with vines and flowers covering all the joints.

It was nearly 6 when we were through visiting the palace, so we jumped on the metro and went to the Prado, which is free from 6 to 8 every day. There was a long line here as well, but it moved very quickly and we were inside within minutes. As in the palace, pictures were not allowed in the Prado. It is full of older paintings, many of which are Catholic in nature. We saw tons of paintings of Mary and the infant Jesus, the Immaculate Conception, the Crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, the saints, and the apostles. Some of the artists were creative though - in one painting of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, the artist modeled Joseph after himself, Mary after his wife, and Jesus after his baby daughter, with the onlookers modeled after his parents and in-laws. In another painting, an angel visiting 4 women at a well provided an opportunity for the artist to paint a scene from his hometown in Andalucia. Many paintings which were supposed to tell religious stories also showed scenes from the artists’ own lives.

At 10 to 8 an alarm went off throughout the building and the guards immediately began ushering us out. I initially thought it was a fire alarm, but then realized it went off every day so they would have 10 minutes to chase us out of the museum. Once outside, we decided we should take a walk down the Calle de Fuencarral which was full of cute clothing stores and cafes. We passed an ice cream shop and each had a scoop of brownie ice cream in a giant cone. We sat by a fountain in the Plaza de Sol with our cones and took pictures of all the people still out at 10 at night. Then we grabbed a couple of slices of ham and cheese pizza (they love ham here) and hopped back on the metro. We returned to Jose and Sole’s apartment and sat up chatting for a bit, and then we planned our day trip into Segovia.