A week off work for Easter holidays, and since my mum is a teacher in a country where they get two weeks off she decided that it was about time she got to go to Spain for Semana Santa (Holy Week).
Semana Santa is a huge deal here in
Spain. As it is a Catholic country and
Easter is the basis of the Catholic faith lots of traditions have been passed
through the generations here but the most visible has to be the processions and
the hooded people who march as penance, but more of that later on in the week.
We had a rough plan of action for
the week. I would go up to Madrid on the
Saturday, she would arrive late Sunday night, Toledo on the Monday, Salamanca
on the Tuesday and Wednesday, back to Madrid Wednesday night and back to Baeza
on the Friday afternoon.
So on the Saturday morning I set off
for Madrid and a day and a half of sightseeing by myself. I arrived into Madrid around half past one
and went straight to my hostal, which was very conveniently located just off of
Calle Atocha – right next to the Retiro park, the art museums and only a ten
minute walk from the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. I set off for a walk in search of food. After a long while of tramping around the city
to no avail…I feel extremely awkward eating somewhere proper by myself…I had to
give up and head to McDonalds.
During my walk I ended up at the
palace. It was lovely in the overcast
light and there was a violinist playing.
It was so peaceful and perfect that I wanted to freeze that moment
forever.
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| Palacio Real in Madrid |
After my lunch I was still
swithering about what I wanted to go see.
Being a student, with student ID, and armed with a Young Scot card – yes
this thing actually counts for something here – means that a lot of things are
either reduced or free and on weekends in Madrid there are free hours for most
of the museums as well. I walked up to
the tourist info to grab a map and to see where I was going to go.
As it was a lovely day I decided to go to the Botanic Gardens
and not to waste the good weather. The
entry was reduced with my student card and I took some of my hayfever medicine
and was good to go. I spent a couple of
hours wandering around the different plants and trees, recognising some, and
all the time being thankful that they weren’t all olives. I’m sick of the sight of olive groves
now. They are too similar to each other
and the uniformed lines mean that whilst it is nature, it isn’t natural.
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| Little ducks |
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| Brocolli plant!! |
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| One of my favourite "false friends" |
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| Tree of Love proves that its on the inside that counts |
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| Tulips |
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| Me at the Botanic Gardens |
After the Botanic Gardens I went to the Reina Sofia to see
the one painting that I wanted to see in Madrid – Picasso’s Guernica. Picasso painted this inspired by the
aftermath of the bombing of Guernica, in the Basque country, in 1937. Franco essentially gave the German and
Italian forces the town to do some target practice because the Basques have
always been outspoken and separatist from Spain. The bombing happened on market day when the
streets were lined with civilians and none of the areas bombed were of
strategic importance. They just wanted
maximum casualties to crush their spirit.
The painting occupies its own room, with the rooms around it giving more
insight into Picasso and the Civil War.
I decided that since I was alone in Madrid that I wasn’t
going to go to a bar etc. so I may as well find some food and then head for my
hostal. There was a random little bar on
calle Atocha that had a 7 euro menu del dia, and it didn’t look terribly busy
or creepy, so I went in (after walking past it several times). The bartenders gave me strange looks but the
food was good and cheap. I headed back
to the hostal, skyped home and called it a night.
The next morning I woke up pretty early, probably in
anticipation and couldn’t really force myself to stay in bed. So I got up and headed to La Mallorquina
bakery just off La Puerta del Sol, bought a pastry and sat in the square in the
beautiful morning sunshine.
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| Pastries from La Mallorquina, best enjoyed in the Puerta del Sol |
The bakery
is very old but even for being in such a tourist area the prices aren’t dear at
all. I took advantage of the sun to go
on a little walking adventure around Madrid, getting lost a few times, having
to re-climb massive hills before deciding to head to the Egyptian temple that
is in Madrid – Templo de Debod – in the Parque Oeste, up past the palace.
This Egyptian temple was brought to Spain in 1968 because the
site where it had stood through the ages was being turned into a dam and Egypt
sold off or donated the temples that were going to be destroyed because of it. The temple is pretty small but there is
enough information available in various languages to make it worthwhile…also it
is free. One of the remarkable things is
that when they dismantled the temple they didn’t number the stones so when they
arrived in Madrid the re-construction was like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
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| Hieroglyphics |
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| The Arches...or a time machine? |
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| Me at the Temple |
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| If this is a time machine..is the old lady really me? |
Now it was just after 2pm and most of the museums were
shutting. I ate some lunch and then
looked through my options. I opted for
the Naval museum because Spain, like the UK, was once a power in the waters. Spanish Armada was something to be feared…
The museum would have been better if the information sheets
were all in their correct boxes. But the
collection of model ships, treasures from the New World and from the Far East,
the Muslim weapons and the modern technology were fascinating.
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| Ceramics from the Far East |
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| Moorish weaponry. They do not like it up them sir |
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| Gibraltar... |
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| The Spanish Armada is alive and well |
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| Another time machine? |
Once I was done here I took full advantage of the sun, bought
an ice cream and went and sat under a tree in the Retiro. Very peaceful. And there I waited until it was time to head
back to the hostal, collect my stuff and head into the airport.
I was of course early getting to the airport, even though I
made myself wait, not hurry and make sure I had everything sorted for out train
the next day. And then of course my mum’s
flight was delayed. By an hour. Bloody BA…but eventually, after hours of
waiting she arrived. We caught a taxi to
the hotel and crashed.
We got up early and then prepared ourselves to get back to
the city centre, check into the new hostal and then head to Toledo.
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