Madrid...Enough Said.

DAY 1: Friday, Oct. 19

I headed out of Sevilla on the 8 a.m. Socibus. The drive took six hours, so thank God I slept the first three hours. On a good note, I only paid $25 for the trip. When I arrived I took the metro to our hotel, Best Western Premier Hotel in Santo Domingo. When I walked through the doors, my Aunt Dee-Dee and her friend Liz where waiting in the lobby with open arms. (Sidebar: Aunt De- Dee, the senior editor for multimedia at The Charlotte Observer, will give a presentation to European journalists on how the news industry in the U.S. is trying to identify and best serve its online readers.) Given that it was 3 p.m., our first mission was to eat lunch. So we headed out into a busy Puerta del Sol, full of tourists, shoppers and diners. To see the diversity of people and hear the variety in language was amazing. I think it's much more prominent in Madrid then Sevilla.

At lunch, I officially became the translator for the weekend. Liz, whose parents are Ecuadorian, spoke a little Spanish, but gave the main Spanish-speaking to me. Aunt Dee-Dee and Liz enjoyed their first plate of paella (the rice, meat and seafood dish) and croquetas (small often rounded masses consisting usually of minced meat, fish, or vegetable coated with egg and bread crumbs and deep-fried, basically the Southerner's hush puppies). We also shared a pitcher of sangria (iced punch made of red wine, fruit juice, and soda water; named after blood o sangre for it's rich red color). For desert, we hit up Chocolatería San Gines for churros and warm chocolate sauce.

After gaining about five pounds from lunch, we walked through the various shops and passed the opera house, the Royal Theater (Teatro Real) to the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) and its statue-filled Plaza de Oriente. This area is obviously a tourist attraction, so we were among the many who took pictures in front of the statues of former royalty and government officials. It's simply grand, the palace. King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofía, don't live in the palace, but they host formal gatherings there. We entered the court that connects the Palace and Cathedral of Almudena and peered through the gates, marking the schedule to memory so we could tour them on Saturday.

DAY 2: Saturday, Oct. 20

Our first stop: La Plaza Mayor, the central, grand square that currently houses popular restaurants and the tourist office, was once the stage of royal coronations, mass killings and bullfights. Over breakfast, we tried to figure out if the 39 €-Madrid Card was worth it. We figured it was. The card offers free access to almost 40 museums, short waits in lines, discounts, unlimited rides (for one day) on the Madrid Vision tour bus, etc. That tour bus was hot! It a double-decker that allowed you to give off and on wherever and whenever you wanted. We toured the the palace first. I wish I could show you pictures of the ornate grandeur of it all, but picture-taking wasn't allowed. It's beautiful, of course. Every room had it's own decor and own purpose, like King Carlos III smoked in here and wrote letters in there. That's the kind of extravagance I'm talking about! I've never seen such a great amount of gold in my life. The tour was long and tiring, so we ate afterwards at a place designated in our Madrid Card. We thought we would get a 15% discount, but no. It was alright, though. As we ate, we looked at the Shiatsu masseures and masseuses messaging the heck out of people's heads and feet. So we partook in the action too. The messages were great. Just what we needed to prepare us for more exploration.

We headed back on the tour bus and looked over so much - the Paseo del Prado (the stretch in which you'll find the most important art museums), the shops (Gucci!) in modern Spain, the skyscrapers, Plaza del Colón (dedicated to Christopher Colombus) and Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (the home of Real Madrid, the world-famous soccer club and David Beckham's former team). (Sidebar: I wish I had time to tour the stadium, but maybe another time.) That night we hit La Gran Vía, literally the "Great Way," to eat dinner. La Gran Vía is the Broadway of Spain. It houses many theatres, to which people were headed to see the Spanish versions of "Jesus Chirst Superstar and Beauty and the Beast. Aunt Dee-Dee didn't enjoy the hustle and bustle, but I found it all exciting. We ended the night eating burgers, drinking sangria and surfing the net at Zahara. Everyone in Spain nor every hotel in Spain has Internet access. Therefore, we had to access the Internet and long-distance calls at Internet cafes called Internetías. Zahara happened to have one below its dining area and bar. My friends - Dianna, Abby and Laura - sent me a video of them at the homecoming game at Kinston High School. (We lost, of course.) Anyhoo, they sent greetings from home and had me laughing in this public Internet cafe in Madrid. I love technology! (Sidebar: It was cold in Madrid. I'm definitely going to look up the weather before traveling again.)

DAY 3: Sunday, Oct. 21

We finally made it to the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center on Sunday morning. Wowza! ¡Qué guay! The museum housed more contemporary art of the 20th century and of today's artists. I was most excited about seeing the work of Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, and I was not disappointed. And "Guernica" does exist! I've seen it! (Sidebar: I stole that tagline from a postcard.) You could easily spend more than four hours in the museum. We only could muster two.

Dalí - "El Gran Masturbador"


Picasso - "Guernica"

We were pooped after the Reina Sofía tour, so we ate the bomb ham and cheese sandwiches at El brillante. Spanish or Iberian ham is on another level of great taste. Anyhoo, we then headed to the Prado. There we saw a vast amount of paintings from several centuries. Some notable painters were "El Greco," Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya and Rembrandt. The paintings were usually of the same themes - royalty, Virgen Mary, the Cruxificion. I didn't like it as much as Reina Sofia, but I can now say that I've seen the famous Prado Musuem. The other visitors gave me something to look at too. We represented so many different countries and cultures, so I looked and listened to how people commented on the paintings in Dutch, Britiish English, Italian, etc. That was an experience within itself. After the two-hour tour, we had to go back to the hotel so I could retrieve my bags and head to Atocha to catch a train.

On the Metro from the Prado to the hotel to get my bags, Liz's wallet was stolen from her purse. Some gypsies pushed her into the car and got on either side of her. Liz said it was her fault because her purse was wide open. Hopefully, everything will turn out fine. But we all learned a good lesson: be careful and be aware of your belongings and who's watching them.