We slept in and fiddled around a bit in the morning and so we discovered that it can be a little difficult to get breakfast in Madrid after noon. We ended up with the Spanish jamon, huevos and patatas again, which is definitely filling.
We went to the Sol Metro (the subway in the Plaza del Sol) and caught a train to the gardens of the Palace Real (the Madrid Palace). The trains are very similar to the Parisian ones, not much seating, but very clean with some sort of deodorant pumped through them. I should say, everyone in Madrid smells very clean despite the heat. Maybe everyone showers a few times a day due to siesta, we sure were, but all I could smell everywhere was deodorants, aftershaves and perfumes.
We came across an arch (Glorieta de san Vicente) and a view of the suburbs beyond. There was a cable car off in the distance, but we didn’t have the time to go and check it out and we haven’t been able to find any information on it either. We headed over to the parks behind the Palace, thinking that we could have a nice wander through them up to the Palace itself. As we entered, there was a fabulous view straight up the gardens towards the Palace. Very regal to say the least. We strolled in, and around, and around some more, and then up and down, and around, and in and out. There was no entrance to the Palace though, or even the street, so we had to stroll around a little more to get back to where we came in. When we got there, we read on the sign that this was the only entrance and exit to the Palace gardens. All part of the experience right? In 36 degree heat, right? The gardens were nice though and we saw a very cool little … thing. I have no idea what it was, but he was about the size of a small squirrel and he was very cute. He stayed very, very still and I am sure he thought I couldn’t see him.
So, up to the Palace we went. I tell you, if you think the walk around the gardens looking for the entrance was a long one, you should have seen the walk up the hill, in the sun, and then (of course) around to the OTHER side of the Palace was. I did a little victory dance once we made it up there. I had read on tripadvisor to go to the Palace in the afternoon to avoid the crowd and the two-hour queues. This was/is a class A piece of advice. We walked up to the ticket booth and then straight into the Palace, with no queue whatsoever.
There was a very large plaza in front of the Palace, inside the gates, with the fabulous lamp posts we are discovering all over Europe. The other side of the gates was the Catedral de la Almudena and there was a guy playing beautiful classical music on his cello which created a wonderful atmosphere to wandering around. There was a series of arches on one side of the plaza which look out over Madrid – great views indeed.
We had an audio guide (don’t waste your time with this one) but headed into the armoury instead of the Palace first. Mainly because we were already over near it and the plaza was bloody hot to cross. The sun is a bit different to the Aussie sun, and the sidewalks and pavers in Spain seem to absorb and radiate the heat, so one minute in the sun is kind of scorching to both feet and shoulders. Anyway, the amoury was probably the best part of the Palace complex. It was such a shame that we couldn’t take any photos. They had hundreds of suits of armour, from the King’s through to your every day kind of fighting man. Most were highly decorated, and being a silversmith must have been a very demanding profession back between the 15th and 17th centuries. I would go so far to say that the suits of armour were a work of art. The even had suits for children, probably from around age six or seven judging by the size of them (taking into account that kids were smaller back then). Most impressive though, was the amour for the horses, I was fascinated. It was like Crusader Rabbit in real life. Horses helmets with devilish horns and angry faces on them and lots of nasty looking spiky bits sticking out everywhere. There was armour that covered most of the horse’s body, head and neck and this was just as highly detailed and decorated as the men’s armour. There were even “Knight and Me” matching horse and fighter outfits – matching engravings and all. The suits for both horses and men, were just so intricately detailed, with so many moving parts and layers – they would have looked both beautiful and terrifying in battle.
We braved the hot square and made our way into the Palace. I had read many reports saying that this was a finer palatial display of rooms than at the Palace of Versailles, so we were very excited. It was very baroque and rococo and extremely well preserved. We automatically compared it to what we saw at Buckingham which may be a little unfair really. Everything on display here was from the 15th-17th century, whereas Buckingham and Windsor was more 18th-19th century. The quality of the preservation here was amazing though – the textiles and tapestries were in a much better condition. I think my issue with it all was that the rooms were all empty rooms, except for one or two, and I liked it (in the UK) when they had furniture and ornament displays as well as the rooms themselves. Either way, these were impressive rooms. They let in a lot more light than the UK Palaces, and had many more rooms which were all much smaller. These rooms had frescos on the ceilings all by Spanish artists and walls done in stucco, or actually, whole rooms done in stucco. There was also a whole room done in porcelain. Porcelain walls and porcelain ceiling as well. We both agreed that this was all a little gaudier than the UK palaces, but again, we think that has more to do with the design era than anything else.
After following the palace room trail, we came out into the plaza again and into the pharmacy. This was small but interesting with hundreds of jars of all sorts of concoctions lining the walls from floor to ceiling. All of the names were in Spanish though, so I can’t tell you what was in any of the jars! We ducked over to a Polish exhibition that was included in our ticket price, but sadly we were just a little too exhausted to really enjoy it properly.
We left the palace complex and were trying to work out which way we should go (need tapas and sangria after a day walking around in the sun) and we decided we should take a quick look inside the Cathedral before we left. We went inside and saw an incredibly European Catholic altar – lots of gold leaf, lots of icons.
We made our way back to the motel to have showers and get organised for dinner. We wandered back down towards the Plaza del Sol and found a little tapas restaurant. We ended up with fried anchovies (which we would call sardines) and garlic prawns. We ate enough omega 3 fish oils that night to last us for the next three months!
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