SPAIN – MADRID

December 14-21, 2022

It was pouring rain the day I left Porto for Madrid. It was a good day to spend on a bus. The 9-hour bus ride only cost $24.50.

SIDE NOTE: The torrential rains seemed to hit whatever city I was in the day I left or a day or two later. Good timing on my part! Lisbon had such heavy rains they called a state of emergency. Porto also got flooded.

I got to the Madrid bus station in the evening. While I was in the terminal I texted for a Bolt to pick me up. I asked 3 different security guards if this was the location for Bolt. I was assured that the taxis stopped on one side of the meridian and Bolt stopped on the other. Outside of the terminal, I found that my phone did not work. The SIM card I had bought in Portugal (and assured it would work all over Europe) had no data. I had no way of knowing when the Bolt arrived. I had to go back into the terminal to use the Wi-Fi, but that left me out of sight. He was texting that he had arrived. I raced outside. No one was there. I texted for another car. Thankfully it was the same car that responded. Again, he texted that he was there. Again, no car was out front. Finally, someone pointed out that Bolt does NOT stop in front of the terminal, but on the street beside the terminal. I rushed to the side of the building and saw my car. Thankfully I had a screenshot of the address of the guesthouse.

The host had left instructions to push the buzzer for apartment 6C when I arrived. I pushed 6C. Nothing. I pushed again. Nothing. It was a gated apartment but someone opened the gate and let me in. I pushed 6C again on the panel on the exterior of the apartment door. Nothing. One person even let me into the building and I went up to 6C and knocked on the door. Nothing.

I had no way of contacting him via the Airbnb app because my phone data was not working. I was nearly at the point of tears. A young lady happened by and asked if she could help. She spoke excellent English. (I can get by in Spanish, but this situation was far above my communication level) She allowed me to hook up to her HotSpot to call the host. He came down and let me in. I asked him why he did not respond to the buzzer. He said he was in his bedroom and waiting for me to call. I pointed out that his instructions were to push the buzzer. He said he did not hear the buzzer; he was waiting in his room for me to call. What a gong show excuse!

At this point, all I wanted was to get a good night’s sleep. I went to pull out my pyjamas and found that my entire backpack was soaked through. Obviously, the baggage hold of the bus leaked and the backsplash from the road had gotten into it. I stung my clothes out all over the bedroom, like a Chinese laundry, and slept in my clothes. The next day I found a launderette nearby and dried everything. I put in a claim with FlixBus but they did not compensate me.

The next day I woke up eager for new adventures. But I did not count on it coming from the kitchen. It was beyond filthy. There was a frying pan with old grease congealed in it sitting beside the stove. The cupboards had old grease and dirt embedded into the self-liners. The cupboard under the sink, with the garbage can and cleaning supplies, had not seen those cleaning supplies ever administered. I had to wash everything before I used it. Thankfully there was lots of soap.

He did have a good lock system on the door.

After drying the clothes I went on the hunt for a phone shop. Why was my SIM card not working? First of all, I found a Lyca/Orange outlet. He could not understand why my Portuguese card was not working in Spain. He wanted to sell me a new SIM. From there, I went to a Best Buy kind of store. An English-speaking employee seemed a bit disgusted with me for bothering him. He said I had to call the number that was sent to me to activate the data in Spain. I asked if he could do it for me since it would all be in Spanish. Again, he looked at me like I was an idiot, but he called. Within a short time, I could tell from the tone of his conversation that it wasn’t as simple as he had anticipated. A co-worker came to his aid. Finally, he hung up and explained that he was told that in order to activate my number for Spain I had to call from Portugal. We all agreed it was a ridiculous situation. In the end, I had to buy a new Vodafone SIM card – that I was assured would work throughout Europe, without the need to call and activate between countries. (It did work)

I was finally set to start exploring Madrid. My clothes were dry and I had a phone that worked. I just hoped that I didn’t catch some dread stomach bug from the kitchen. (I didn’t)

The metro station was a 10-minute walk from the guesthouse. I bought a 10-ride pack that gave me a slight discount per ride. It was an easy 25-minute ride to the city centre. Or not….. The train stopped about 3 stations from my destination. Everybody out! Even the locals seemed confused. People were gathered around a security person, peppering him with questions. I didn’t understand any of it. A young lady asked where I was going. I told her. She said follow me. She was a student and was heading in the same direction. We got to a certain spot where we parted ways. She told me the Cathedral was straight ahead. I was very grateful, once again, for the kindness of strangers.

I was headed to Almudena Cathedral. When the capital of Spain moved from Toledo to Madrid in 1561 the seat of the church remained in Toledo. Plans were made to build a cathedral dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena (Virgin Mary) as early as the 16^th century, but Spain was busy building cities, fortresses and cathedrals overseas. Expanding and maintaining the empire came first. Construction finally began in 1879, on the remains of a medieval mosque. The Spanish Civil War halted construction until 1950. It was finally completed in 1993 when it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II, which would explain the modern stained glass windows.

I found the side of the church more beautiful than the front.

The huge metal doors had elaborate scenes moulded into them.

The inside of the cathedral had high vaulted ceilings that looked old, but finer details gave away the newness of the structure. As previously mentioned, the stained glass windows, as well as wooden sculptures.

The dedication to the Virgin was along the back wall. I had to climb a few stairs to stand before the altar.

One thing that really struck me was that this cathedral had Wi-Fi. Talk about the Catholic Church getting modern!

Exiting the Cathedral, I walked to the front of the church, across the promenade and entered the Royal Palace of Madrid. As with many fortress / palaces in Spain, the original palace was built by the Moors. It was expanded and remodelled many times by many conquering kings. A fire broke out in the original palace in 1734, with much of the works of art lost. Construction on this particular palace began in 1735. It is the official residence of the Spanish Royal family but they don’t live there. It is only used for state ceremonies. The palace has 135,000 sq meters (1,450,000 sq ft) of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the largest royal palace in Europe.

It was crazy opulent!!

The floors had elaborate designs made of granite. The walls were covered in gold guild and friezes. The ceilings had paintings, friezes or glass skylights. There were huge crystal chandeliers in every room.

It was hard to focus on one thing, there were decorations and paintings and stuff all over the place. Every room had a security guard that made sure you took NO PHOTOS! I managed to sneak off a few, feigning ignorance. When the guard caught me I apologized and offered to delete them, to which I was waved off. No problem.

I was leaving the palace, through the gift shop, when I noticed a postcard of a horse and knight in full armour. I asked the receptionist where that was. She pointed across the courtyard to another building. I would have totally missed it. Again, there were no photos allowed, but the guard didn’t seem to give a damn.

The next day I took the metro to the city center again. This time I made it to my destination and exited at Puerta Del Sol. It is the busiest place in the city. There was a heavy police presence with three or four officers in full riot gear positioned throughout the square. The streets leading away from the square were all pedestrian. I don’t know if this was only because of the Christmas season, or a year-round thing.

I walked along and came across a protest march with a riot van following. I asked someone what was going on. It was a protest by seniors wanting an increase in pension payments.

I came across a very interesting building and went inside. It was the Atocha train station. Wow! What a fantastic place. It looked like a greenhouse full of trees, shrubs and flowers. To enter the actual station I would have had to go through security – just like an airport. From what I could see, it looked like an airport, with waiting lounges and shops.

I came across an interesting street market that sold only used books. There were dozens of kiosks set up. Some shops had books stacked to the ceiling.

I spent an entire day at Buen Retiro Park. It is one of the largest parks in the city. It covers 350 acres. It belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19^th century when it became a public park. It has gardens, statues, monuments, galleries, and an artificial lake where people could boat.

GPS MyCity had a great route set up for me to see all that the park had to offer. It even had a small version of Kew Gardens Crystal Palace near London, UK.

Next to the artificial lake stood the Monument of Alfonso XII. It was 30 meters (98.5 ft) high, 86 meters (282 ft) long and 58 meters (190 ft) wide. Alfonso XII was known as the Peacemaker.

I purposely planned the trip through the park to exit at Puerta de Alcala. It was formerly the city gate. It is now a monumental gate and is similar to the Roman Triumphal Arches. The entire structure was covered in building wrap painted to look like the actual thing. A bit disappointing, but I got the idea of what it looks like.

The walk back to the metro station took me down streets that had the most beautiful buildings. I took so many pictures of nice buildings I told myself to stop, only to walk a bit further and see yet another beautiful building.

The next day was the Fifa World Cup. I went to the pub across the street from the guesthouse to watch the game. The bartender was also cheering for Argentina (vs France). We both felt that Messi deserved a World Cup win. She kept bringing me food (tapas) and a few beers. When Argentina won in the shootout out we both jumped up and hugged each other. The entire day of entertainment and food cost me under $20.

I spent another day wandering Madrid. I went to Plaza Mayor – a public space in the heart of Madrid. It was once the center of Old Madrid (15^th century) and used as the main market. In 1561 it was transferred to King Philip II. A Christmas market was taking place. A huge Christmas tree stood in the center.

Leaving the Plaza I came across Mercado de San Miguel, a covered market filled with every culinary delight you can imagine! It was built in 1916. As recently as 2003 private investors renovated the iron structure and reopened it in 2009.

I had a skewer of olives and peppers. It cost $8. It was good, but not that good. I guess I paid for the presentation….

The sign says: Gum takes 5 years to disappear, think about the trash for a second.

Sign over a pub.

Medrano Hat Shop since 1832

I found that food delivery was a huge thing throughout Europe. Many fast food places had a fleet of delivery motorcycles parked in front of their shop.

It rained one day so I decided to spend some time in the nearby mall. It had the biggest grocery store I have ever seen. The ham section was as big as the entire meat section at Safeway.

The deli section was even bigger.

It had a massive produce section, fresh fish, and 4 aisles of beer, wine and whiskey.

I found Madrid to be a beautiful city with its old churches and magnificent buildings. I should have stayed longer. The only drawback was the dirty guesthouse. I had to give a bad review through AirBnB for the first time.

I took the high-speed train to Barcelona for $22.