Walking Madrid as Wellington Society members

April 12, 2011

The morning and early afternoon of our second full day in Madrid was spent with the Chairman of the Wellington Society, Stephen Drake-Jones, on a private walking tour of old Madrid.  While I was researching places to see in Madrid, I stumbled upon the Wellington Society of Madrid website (http://www.wellsoc.org/).  The benefits of membership, plus the tour options and the focus on history made the choice to become members easy. It was a perfect fit for what we wanted to have in Madrid--not a typical "tour" led by a typical tour guide, but rather an experience. And an experience is exactly what we got, tailored to our interests. 

Stephen was more like a host than a tour guide, sharing his favorite places and his love of Madrid and its history with us.  Stephen met us at 10:30 at our hotel, and after we finished our coffees, we started walking.  Stephen kept up a steady stream of stories, historical facts, quirky information, and jokes, all while answering our questions as they occurred to us.  It was all so fascinating, I didn't want to interrupt our discussions to take pictures.  Interspersed with the walking and talking were stops for refreshment--a sandwich with specialty spread at a deli, wine and tapas at restaurant that was bombed by anarchists before WWI, sweets at a neighborhood bakery, a bite of tortilla and cheese at the restaurant the King and Queen frequent, a stop at a Hemingway haunt, and much, much more. It felt like a free-wheeling adventure, open for spontaneity, rather than a typical structured tour.  We had a lot of fun, while being enlightened on the history and cuisine of Madrid.  Our time with Stephen was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

The unfortunate part of having such a diverting time is that I did not take as many pictures as I should have.  I took a few pictures during the tour, then later we retraced some of our steps, so I could get additional pictures.

This building was the site of a 1906 anarchist assassination attempt on Alfonso VIII and his new wife as their royal wedding procession went by. There are still bomb scars on the building. Casa Ciriaco is on the ground floor and is one of the many tapas stops we made on our tour.

This depicts San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid.  One of San Isidro's miracles was finding water; we visited his well while we were on the tour.

Yes, you can even be royalty for the moment on a Wellington Society tour. Greg and I are seated at the King and Queen's table in the Restaurante El Schotis, sipping the reserve wine of which the royals partake. Here they make a wonderfully tasty tortilla that requires 33 eggs (I am glad I don't have to try to flip that!).

Stephen and I at the end of our tour at one of Hemingway's haunts at the Plaza Santa Ana.

We had a wonderful time this day, experiencing Madrid, learning some of its history, and visiting some of its unique sites. What I have mentioned here is just a smattering of all we saw and learned in our four hours with Stephen.  I took notes during our time with Stephen, including book and restaurant recommendations, but I do wish I had taken more photographs of the experience.  I guess that just gives us an excuse to go back for more, especially since our Wellington Society membership is good for a year.

First day in Madrid: Plaza Mayor and Reina Sophia

In Madrid, we are staying at Hotel Europa on the Puerta del Sol.  This is the center of Madrid, and the center of Spain.  Kilometer Zero of Spain is located just across the street.  This is the view from our window, and this view was our first real look at Madrid.

At this point in our adventures, we were both very tired, and so our first day in Madrid, we took it easy.  We took a stroll down to Plaza Mayor.

Greg with one of my favorite buskers, a puppeteer (I can't imagine doing how they do it in the heat!):

Another busker, making music with glasses filled with water. I guess the coin I had tossed in was not enough for a photo, or he forgot that I had already tipped him since he is pointing to his coin box.

After walking around a bit, we returned to the room for a nap.  Many shops close down in the afternoon,  which I love. It allows me to take a nap without feeling like I am missing out on anything.  After recharging our batteries, we took the Metro a couple of stops to the Reina Sophia Art Museum.  

I have wanted to see Picasso's Guernica for a very long time.  It is one of the first modern art pieces I remember seeing in books, and the images stuck with me, because they are so striking. As a child, I thought the painting was odd and the images funny, but after I grew up and learned the history behind Guernica and why it was painted, nothing about the painting seems funny. It is a strong statement on the horrific cost of war, especially to the innocent. The bizarre images convey the pain and emotion in a powerful way, perhaps even more so than a realistic image would. The surrounding galleries display the sketches Picasso did for Guernica.  All them are powerful by themselves, and evoke powerful emotion, but put together in the final painting, they are almost overwhelming.  Guernica is huge, and standing before it, seeing it in person, and understanding its history brought tears to my eyes.   

Being moved emotionally by art is a good way to spend any day, and it was a good way to start our visit to Madrid.

Last two days in Paris: Montmarte and the Louvre

Saturday was spent hanging out in Montmarte, shopping in boutiques, and checking out the different markets. It was a relaxing day spent near the apartment. I left the camera behind to travel as light as possible, and did not even carry a handbag.  One of the most interesting things about shopping abroad, besides seeing the different products, is seeing the different shopping etiquette.  I spent a lot of time observing the shopping before I purchased, so I didn't make too many mistakes.

Sunday, we had to be out of the apartment at 10 am, but our flight to Madrid did not leave until 7 pm. What to do for several hours with baggage in tow? Why, go to the Louvre for a second round, of course! The Louvre will check your baggage for free all day with a purchased ticket. What a great deal!  After depositing our bags, we went searching for some familiar faces in the French sculptures wing of the museum.

We rounded the corner and saw a couple of famous Americans. Sculptures by Houdon:

Benjamin Franklin, my favorite Founding Father:

Greg contemplating the details of the Ben Franklin and George Washington sculptures:

I had forgotten that the Code of Hammurabi was displayed in the Louvre. We stumbled upon it after exploring the French sculptors.

Code of Hammurabi:

From Louvre, we caught the Metro to Porte Maillot where we took a shuttle bus to the Beauvais Airport to catch our Ryanair flight to Spain. The only problem I have with traveling by subway is that I get very disoriented traveling underground, and it always takes me a while after returning to the surface to figure out which direction I am facing (I am one of those types of people who always needs to know which direction is north).  Porte Maillot has several exits from the Metro, and we thought we were taking the correct one. We emerged from under the earth to find ourselves in a park in a middle of one of those huge roundabouts with about 5 lanes.  Hmmmmm.  I had drawn a map so we would know where to go, but the map I based it on did not show a Metro exit in the middle of the roundabout.  We were toting our suitcases, and it was hot.  We couldn't wheel our bags because the only walkways were gravel paths. The roundabout was huge and the street signs were too far way for me to read and try to orient myself to my map. After parking Greg with our bags in the middle of the park, I wandered around a bit to try to figure out which direction we needed to go. I finally saw the bus park in the distance, but it was across the very wide, very busy street from where we were and there was no crosswalk. We searched for a crosswalk, but the only exit we could find was a pedestrian underpass on the opposite side of where we wanted to go.  We saw other people with suitcases disappear in the direction of the bus park and not return, so we followed them.  Their solution to reaching the bus park? Jay walk across five lanes of traffic. What could we do?  Backtrack and walk at least a half mile in that heat using the underpass and walking all the way around that roundabout hauling our bags? No way! We waited for an appropriate lull in traffic, and together with a bunch of other people with the same problem, ran across the road before we got creamed by a tourist bus or the speeding taxis. Whew!  

After that little adventure, the flight to Spain was quite relaxing.