MADRID

Our Easter in Madrid is over and we have many memories of a great time. We had four days there, and we really made the most of them. We got to know the bus and metro system and I got to practice Spanish again, but with a decidedly Italian accent. We took the double-decker tour bus all around the town, and saw some gorgeous churches, plazas, castles, statues, arches, parks, and roadways. But above all, the buildings will stand out in my mind, along with the Spanish painters from the Prado, Thyssen, and Reina Sofia museums. There is a huge variety in the style and materials used in the public buildings. And I had heard that the weather there might be “iffy,” this time of year, but for our stay it was quite moderate with some clouds, just a little rain and a little heat, nothing uncomfortable. But the crowds of tourists were outrageous! They were the only thing that made the trip at all negative, as we had to queue in line for almost everything.
Since we could not choose which museums to go to from the brochure, we chose the three most famous and the only regret we have is that we had to miss some “downtime” in Retiro Park because we could not get it all in. With such a busy sightseeing schedule, we did not check the restaurants out as we might have, but relied on paella and calamari sandwiches in Plaza Mayor on many occasions, and some were good, some not-so-good. But there was a Ben and Jerry’s also there, so that filled in the empty spaces. That and our “room food” purchases at the famous Corte Ingles department store, with pate, cheeses, wines, breads, and sausages making most of our late dinners. We got Chinese take out our last night there because we don’t have that opportunity here, and we could have skipped that, in both our opinions. Chinese-Spanish is just not as good as Chinese-American, or even the Chinese-Italian we have had in Rome and Siracusa. We found our best meal just by luck, in a real Peruvian food restaurant next to a recommended restaurant that was closed.
As I try to choose among the pictures, I see I took multiple ones of the same buildings from different perspectives on different tour buses. And I am sorry that I did not take even one picture of the Rastro, a real flea market that we went to on Easter Sunday morning after battling the crowds at the Prado. The Ministry of Agriculture building, the old Post Office that looks like a palace, and Atocha station were naturals that I could not resist shooting over and over. But the painted building in the Plaza Mayor, with classic nudes several stories high was probably my favourite. In fact, the Plaza Mayor was the best hang out and so that is where we chose to go Good Friday night to see some of the dozens of processions scheduled to go through there. But the rain delayed things and made it impossible to see the processions of followers with candles that came after the horses and the hooded figures that presided over the festivities. It is not the KKK, but the trade guilds in various colored hoods, and we are used to them in Italy.
Anyway, we were about to give up and go home when, from an upstairs lavoratory window, I heard the drums, and looking out, saw a procession coming. I quickly ran out and got some shots and a short video of the moving scene.