We had mixed advice on Madrid- you MUST go- skip it for sure....but I think one of my friends put it best when he said, it's a great
city but you can't really relax. As far
as a metropolis city goes, it's one of the better ones we've been to in that it
was still clean and pretty scenic. I
think if we were more into museums, we would've enjoyed ourselves that much
more, but we have a short attention span when it comes to most museums we
encounter. Overall, I am glad we went,
but I don't feel the need to go back.
I think we agreed on our favorite part of town being near
Paseo del Prado and the Parque del Retiro.
The street was tree lined and scenic with many gorgeous buildings. Even better was the beautiful big park where
you can kind of escape from the city. We
went running here and also just strolled around...stumbled across a little pond
where we saw a black swan couple! They were SO beautiful and enchanting. The momma was nesting and the dad was
swimming around, gathering nesting material.
It was adorable. And at one end
of the Paseo del Prado is the museum, Caixa Forum, which we didn’t go into, but
we thought the vertical garden outside was pretty cool!
The highlight was absolutely going to the legendary Estadio
Santiago Bernabau to watch one of the sport’s most talked about games: Copa del
Rey- Barcelona vs. Madrid. The energy
was hard to explain. Before we even got
in, the streets were packed with supporters from both sides, happily chanting
songs and waiting for the teams to arrive in their team bus. We wanted to go into the official team store
to buy my brother, a long-time die-hard Real Madrid fan, some gear, but there
was absolutely no way of getting through. So when we made our way into the
stadium I think Matt’s heart broke a little when they informed us that there is
no alcohol allowed in the stadium! He
actually spent money on non-alcoholic beer, “just for the taste, it’s a sports
game after all”. We were shocked to find
how great our seats were, and further amused to find that everyone around us
were season ticket holders who knew each other. A series of old Spanish guys, which I was
totally hoping for. These guys were SO SERIOUS, shouting out
profanities that I can only imagine what they meant, waving their hands in the
air, holding their heads in their hands…too good. The man next to Matthew was more stoic. He
didn’t say much, was quite calm. However, by the time Barcelona had one goal on
Madrid and less and less time was left in the game…Madrid took another shot at
the goal and it didn’t go in. The man
turned to look Matt square in the eyes and just stared at him for a moment with
a look of pure agony and panic. No words necessary. Priceless.
From Madrid we took a day trip to Toledo, which I’ll write
about later. Aside from the freaking
amazing oranges, I’d say the food in Barcelona made it really hard for Madrid
to compete with. We didn’t have any
meals that left us wanting more. However Malatesta was a great find for big
portions and yummy food at good prices.
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| Yeaaaaaah buddy! |
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| Great loft style apartment made it easy to choose meals at home |
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| Vertical garden at Caixa Forum |
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| Along Paseo del Prado |
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| Black swan dad! |
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| Parque del Retiro |
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| Domestic responsibilities |
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| Madrid's Royal Palace |
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| Official store |
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| Streets pre-game |
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| WOAH our seats ROCK! |
