Hello City Living! We caught the bus in the right place this time, leaving Granada at 8 AM. A five hour bus ride to Madrid was not so bad. Rolling hills, a bit of rain, intermittent wifi. Still beat driving it in a car.
Of course, the night before we left Granada we began to miss it. And everyone we seem to meet talks about how they wish they could move to Granada. Us included. It was wonderful.
But here we are in Madrid. First stop, Pans & Company. P&C is a Spanish fast food chain. I had been wanting to try some authentic Spanish fast food. It did not disappoint. Soggy fries, incredibly heavy on the mayo/aioli, oddly shaped piece of chicken. Felt like being at a Subway.
This was yet another poor choice by me (Clay) for restaurant food selection. For a while in Atlanta, we stopped allowing Elizabeth to choose her own meal because she was often disappointed in the selection. Going out is too expensive to make that kind of consistent mistake.
We are about to enact the same policy for me here in Spain. For every good dish eaten, we are all but guaranteed to endure a serious food blunder during the meal.
We will keep you updated.
After our hearty lunch, we headed to the largest bullring in the entire world (with the exception of the ring in Mexico City). Seating about 25K, the ring is a beautiful interpretation of Neo-Mudejar design. The circus is not Neo-Mudejar, it is more Contemporary-Barnum and is usually not part of the bullring.
We chose to do a tour as opposed to a fight. We both agreed that watching a bull get murdered was not on our bucket list. The tour takes you around the ring providing insight into the fight, the history of the sport, and how bulls and man have both perished inside the ring.
They also show gory videos of the bulls being stabbed. Not great to watch.
Because the circus was in town, our pictures also contain a big top in the middle of the ring. We saved a few bucks on the tour because we couldn’t see all the sand on the floor of the ring.
After the bullring tour, we caught the metro again back to our Airbnb to get settled and sorted before out first walking tour in Madrid.
The tour for the evening was a Spanish Inquisition tour. Elizabeth enjoys tours with a more sinister side. I just goes along for the ride. I was not thrilled though when our tour began and the guide indicated that only one of the buildings we would see tonight was actually a part of the Inquisition.
Doesn’t sound like much of an Inquisition tour does it? Well as it turns out, after the Inquisition was stopped in the early 1800’s, those in charge made the decision to tear down all the buildings associated with the Inquisition. So our tour consisted of going to the locations where buildings were located and learning about what took place at each spot.
It was an interesting and depressing tour about the history of the Spanish Inquisition. We learned a great deal. The tour guide was excellent in providing us with quite a bit of info on the dynamics of what took place and how it shaped Spain. Mostly through executions and death sentences.
He also took us on a couple of streets to show us non-touristy places to visit and have tapas. After the tour, we inquired about other tapas places and away he went. Leading us across who knows how many streets, past the bums and the hookers, to the “gay”borhood (as our guide so eloquently stated). This is where our guide lives and eats.
It was here where we learned we had been doing tapas wrong the entire time. Oh well, silly Americans. “True” tapas only happen when the bar gives you food for free after you order a drink. So we let our guide do the talking. He ordered a couple of glasses of wine and immediately a couple of plates of food arrive. One plate of chorizo, potatoes, and peppers. Another plate of chicken, potatoes, and peppers. And plenty of bread.
We stood in amazement as our small investment of six bucks manage to turn into two drinks and enough food for our dinner. After our guide left, we ordered two more drinks because we were enjoying the atmosphere. Of course, two more plates arrive. We could barely finish them. Honestly, you don’t even want to drink anything else because you can’t eat another thing.
One small dirty note on tapas, after you finish your bite of food, whatever remains in your hand, bet it a napkin, toothpick, bone, olive pit, etc., you throw it in the floor. It makes no sense. Everyone throws their trash down on purpose. We talked to several people about this because it seems so counterintuitive. We were told the more trash in the floor, the better the tapas place because more people have been there.
Another dirty note. We learned that American politics is a very big deal internationally. We are both glad to be avoiding American politics while on this trip and the nonsense that comes along with extreme bitterness between politics parties. Spain has plenty of issues with their own politics, but they are also keenly aware of US politics, candidates, and how our government, for better or worse, shapes the global landscape.
It was an eye opening experience for us to have people share their concerns about the threat of Donald Trump as POTUS. These people were discussing the primaries as if they had a vested interest in the outcome. International citizens are increasingly worried about the future of America.
Another Day, Another Tour Arising the next morning, we had a full slate of activities. First up, another tour of the city. This tour was a general city-of-Madrid tour as opposed to the more specific Inquisition tour. We try to have at least one walking tour to every city we visit. It helps us get our bearings around a nice sized section of a city. The tours tend to hit many of the highlights of the history of a city. In Spain it mostly covers executions and the crown. The best part about this tour is that we had the same guide as the night before.
From the tour we headed to the Royal Palace. This is the main royal palace in Spain for the monarch, even though they don’t live there. Fabric walls, gilded ceilings, no pictures allowed. The rooms were large and generally over the top with dressings and design.
We shared an audio guide because we are cheap and enjoyed the odd looks people gave us while we huddled together discussing how to overthrow the monarchy. Or probably so we could get as close together as possible so we both could hear about what century the tapestries were made in.
If you go near the top of an hour you can hear the clocks in each room chime. Not all at one mind you, but every so often because the clocks area all off by 1-5 minutes so each room you visit has the chance for bells.
From the Palace we had no plans for a few hours, but it had been suggested to take a free trip to the cathedral across the plaza. It’s the Cathedral of Madrid so it’s a big deal for the city. Since we had some down time, and more importantly it was free, we thought we would try it out.
We have been pleasantly surprised that most of the cathedrals visited thus far were relatively different. I would have revolted had each church been identical. This church might have been my favorite thus far. Odd stained glass, boldly painted ceilings. I can see why a traditionalist would hate this church. No English guide here so we walked around and enjoyed the quiet.
After the Cathedral, we stopped by the house to get sorted before heading out for tapas. Not on our own of course. We are both too timid to try to navigate ordering tapas on our own. But with the help of a translator/caretaker, we were able to gorge ourselves on tapas and wine.
Who new trying to eat such small things would be so difficult?
Oh and more politics.
cornetravel 