Spain Part VI: Madrid

From Cordoba, we drove straight to Madrid. It was about 4 ½ hours in the car, but it was a super easy drive. When we arrived in Madrid, we checked into our hotel. The hotel was designed by world-famous architects, with each architect designing one floor. All of the lobbies and rooms are artistic and crazy, as you might expect. When you check in, they actually hand you an iPad at the reception desk and let you pick which architect's floor you like best. Our room was all black with an Asian-style screen on the entire wall covering the windows and our bathroom had a wooden tub. It was pretty strange but also cool to stay somewhere different. They also have an indoor pool on the top floor of the hotel and the pool is made of stainless steel. We went for a quick swim one night before dinner and it was pretty awesome.

After checking into the hotel, we dropped off our rental car (finished with the driving portion of the trip) and headed off to explore the city. We spent most of the first afternoon in the “Barrio de las Letras” quarter of the city, which is known as the “literary” neighborhood since so many famous writers have spent their lives here. It is filled with quaint streets, hip bars, and modern restaurants. We also explored the luxury shopping district of the city known as the Salamanca neighborhood. Later in the evening, we chose a Thai restaurant for dinner. At this point in the trip, we had eaten Spanish food for 8 days in a row, so we thought it would be nice to switch it up a bit. It was delicious.

The next day, we did a walking tour of the main sights in the city center. Madrid is the capital of Spain and the largest city in the country with a population of a little over 3 million. We learned all about Madrid’s history (well, as much as you can learn in 3 hours, anyways). It was originally a Muslim settlement, until it was conquered by Christians in 1085. Although Madrid was the original capital of Spain, it was one of the worst cities as far as cleanliness and crime. Boy, has it changed since back then. The city is just stunning. In some ways, it reminded us a lot of Munich. Although it is much bigger (Munich is only about 1.5 million people), it has a similar feel to it – just a very liveable city. However, you can definitely feel more of an international presence in Madrid. Though we love Munich, is does feel very “German” most of the time. And we had just spent 8 days in cities that felt very “Spanish.” So it was really fun to spend a few days in a city that felt a bit more international and diverse. Anyways, since we were pretty worn out from all of the walking on the tour and the day before, we took it easy the rest of the day. We strolled through the busier areas and took some more photos. For dinner, we chose a Spanish restaurant that was a bit outside the city center. Since it was further from the tourist center, it seemed like there were only locals there, which is always a good sign. We shared two traditional Spanish dishes and a nice bottle of Rioja. It was really great.

Sunday was our last full day in Madrid and we started off the day with a morning stroll through Chueca, another chic neighborhood. There were so many cool buildings in this neighborhood. We were also surprised at how many of the shops were open on Sunday – we’re so used to Munich requiring all stores to close on Sundays. Since Spain is still pretty Catholic, I had assumed it would be similar. Not so in Madrid.

After strolling for a few hours, we stopped at an American 50’s diner for lunch. Matt was skeptical, but I was really craving some American food. We felt a bit silly being Americans at an “American-style” diner chain while in Spain, but we just don’t have this kind of stuff in Munich and it was nice to have a taste of home. Matt had a peanut butter shake and I had an Oreo one, and wow, they were so delicious. After lunch, we checked out the Parque del Buen Retiro. It used to belong to the Spanish monarchy, so it’s full of beautiful gardens, fountains, statues, etc. The weather was so beautiful, which made the afternoon even more perfect. The park is near the main art museums, so afterwards, we visited both the Reina Sofia, for modern art, and the Prado, which is the main Spanish national art museum. We visited the Reina Sofia first. Although I never really understand modern art, it still interests me and the Reina Sofia did not disappoint. The most famous piece at this museum is Picasso’s Guernica, which is a painting that was influenced by the bombing of a Basque village during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. If you don’t know much about the Spanish Civil War (we didn’t either before Madrid and Barcelona), this particular bombing incident was done by German and Italian warplanes in support of the Spanish Nationalist forces led by General Franco, who would go on to become the dictator of Spain after the war. The painting is huge and pretty emotional. It was amazing to see it in person. After the Reina Sofia, we headed over to the Prado. The Prado is one of the most famous European art museums. It is huge. Since we were limited on time and pretty exhausted by this point, we browsed the galleries, but focused on two main points: the painting Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings. I won’t go into too much detail since I don’t think any of our readers are passionate art fans (correct me if I’m wrong), but I will say that both were stunning. Even non-creative nerds like us could appreciate these works.

After the museums, we stopped at a cool restaurant back in the Barrio de las Letras. Since we were still pretty stuffed from our milkshakes, we enjoyed some wine and split a pizza. Then we headed back to our hotel to pack and prep for our final stop – Barcelona!