Day 12, Madrid
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| Plaza Mayor |
Barcelona is like a crazy teen, while Madrid is her wiser sibling, with an elegant Balenciaga dress covering up a tattoo from her wild past, so to speak.
There aren’t nearly the crowds, though there are still groups of tourists converging upon famous landmarks. Like at the Plaza Mayor, this morning, while we waited to meet our apartment manager so we could check our luggage in early.
Spain has a lot of walking areas for great people-watching. Spaniards are a beautiful people. Most of the women here have long glossy black hair and could pass for Penelope Cruz’ double. Of course, they could also just be Americans, like a lady we asked for check-in help this morning…in Spanish, and it turns out she speaks flawless Wisconsin English.
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| Palacio Real de Aranjuez |
After being checked in by a friendly apartment employee named Adrian, we took the train to Aranjuez, which is 44 minutes away. The Metro here is truly amazing. For 8 euro round trip we were able to get somewhere that has always been my dream of seeing in person, the Palacio Real de Aranjuez. It’s a bit of a walk under a hot sun and not very well marked as to how to get tickets, but once we got on a private tour with an English-speaking tour guide named Antonio, it was so worth it!
I don’t have pics to show of the inside but I do have a guidebook. My favorite room was a vibrant yellow one that was a conversation room for the Queen’s consort. One room had porcelain art like 3-d wallpaper. Yet another room made me think of my daughter Sabrina, because of the bird art. The queen’s bedroom furniture was the most beautiful, in my opinion.
For my research on Aranjuez, I had hoped to learn more about Charles III, but the succeeding monarchs changed up the style to theirs. The amazing thing is that today, the country owns the buildings, not the royalty, which I thought was awfully down-to-earth of them.
Back in Madrid, we caught the last 45 minutes of the Prado museum. (They are open to the public for free on evenings 6-8). It was fun to get to see famous paintings up close and personal. Even if it is quite whirlwind. I saw works by Goya, Velasquez and Titan.
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| Sierra the navigator and her Tita Joy |
Sierra has always had a good sense of direction, and it’s come in handy as we’ve made our way on the Metro. Joy, too, has been in Spain before and speaks quite a bit of Spanish, which has helped us as we have made our way around.
Tonight, we had to use our Spanish quite a bit as we were Joy-less (she had gone to mass), ordering at a restaurant and buying at the supermarket. But it was fun trying to make myself understood, and felt good when I actually got what I needed. Dinner didn’t translate very well. I somehow gave Sierra the impression that callos was a yummy dish, until they brought it out and I remembered that it had tripe. Sierra was sweetly game, and ate a bit of it. I got some delicious fried chicken (they called it something more exotic, but I forget what it’s called) tapas and potatoes.
Our apartment street has a bit of interesting characters hanging about, though not enough to make us feel unsafe. I told Sierra that hopefully, by seeing others with these rough lifestyles as she’s traveled, she isn’t enticed to be like them, and she said with a little laugh not at all. But the apartment itself is nice, with a little kitchen so we can eat in a bit, and a little washer. Joy has her own space in the dining room and we have a bedroom.
I’m looking forward to more Spain experiences over the next couple of days, but I’ll be honest…I miss home-cooking and being in my home together with my family!
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