The 14 hour ride from Paris to Madrid was actually pleasant (for me at least). I slept on the top bunk and was able to plug in my phone so it would be charged when we arrived. before we called it a night I was able to chat with a British ex-pat who was now living in Spain. he is an arsenal fan, and we discussed football and satellite tav and the progression of football in the united states. he told me the story of going to the Arsenal match in Madrid (I think) in the champions league and how the stadium was so impressive, no to mention the fact that he got tickets in practically the third row since someone he knew (a friend of a friend i believe) was filming Gol 2, and had some spare seats with the extras.
In the morning we relaxed at the train station for a bit while we waited on Diane who was meeting us there. After we met up, we made our way via metro to our hotel. Granted my sense of direction though useful, was a bit turned around and I picked the wrong station to get out on, meaning we had to walk about 10 blocks instead of 3. But i wasn't sure what way the numbering on the streets went so it could have gone either way. After settling into the hotel and changing, we wandered out into the city. The churches in Spain, being the catholic country it is, were impressive. We started at the fransician basilica (cathedral?) near us, and then made our way up to the cathedral at the royal palace. The cathedral was immense, proper in fact for a King and Queen's daily mass. The face of the cathedral opens into a courtyard which is also the courtyard of the royal palace. A neat fact I learned before we left for Madrid was that the Palace has two flag poles, and if one flag is up, it means the king is not present. In the case that two flags are raised, it means that the king is in residence. The present king was raised by the dictator Franco, and had a rough childhood (accidentally killed his brother who happened to be the King's favorite.) A cool thing about his home is that there is a window in it that opens into the courtyard from which you can see directly into the cathedral and have a clear view of the altar if the doors are open. That's pretty neat if you ask me…
After that we went to the Prado Museum. Though well organized and the art was pretty, it's not really art I enjoy. The Dutch Masters painted dark scenes, sad faces and painful religious scenes. The spanish painters were better, but i think that the time period between the 1200s-1500s were just a depressed time in history, the paintings just showed that. There was a painting mentioned in a book I had read, The Siege of Breda, the painting was called "The Handing Over of Breda" by Velázquez it was interesting because in the book they described the painting and how two of the books characters were present, and in the epilogue the author went into detail recounting how scholars of recent times have gone about trying to disprove that the characters are present. The book is historical fiction based on the journals of Iniago Balboa.
That night, we went to a midnight show. It was a flamenco show, and the dancing and guitars were spectacular. The singing was interesting, and the entire show was impressive all around. It was like tap, but not the 20s kitche that you think of, big smiles and huge swinging arms. There was lots of stamping and quick steps. We got home around 2:30 am, and crawled into bed.
The next morning we hopped on a bus and went 45 minutes south, to Toledo. It's an ancient town, and the old fortifications from when they were fending off the Moors are still standing, and the city's built up on a hill in a bend of the river. It's a stunning location, and quite protected too, it's the kind of place the Medieval spaniards would have seen as the ultimate fortress.
As with most old fortified cities, there is a cathedral. This cathedral is a bit different…. It was proper huge. I don't remember when it was built, but in the description of it, they mention the five naves. Because of the alignment of the pillars, the church essentially has 5 aisles (there are 4 rows of pillars) and I feel that there are some churches that consider themselves a good size that would have fit in this church at least twice. As we wandered around the town, eventually getting lost, we just enjoyed the hilly windy streets, with tall buildings on either side.
The next morning we got mom set and said our goodbyes in the subway station. Diane and I got cleaned up and then made our way to the Museo Renia Sophia, where the modern art museum is located. Picasso and Dali were our main targets. Some of the art was definitely different: a series of transparent hoses arranged on the floor that were connected to a pump that pushed water and bubbles through them, a gigantic framed set of newspaper headlines, large monochrome canvases… Not my cup of tea but Picasso was great, it was different because instead of just showing the final piece, they often had his planning drawings, a starting point. I really liked that, seeing his work before it became "picasso'ed". After that we found Starbucks (bad idea) and sat down for a coffee. It was a bad idea because that's where Diane's backpack (which had her passport inside) was stolen. Frustrating, but we found out where the Embassy was and went to talk to them. It was closed, which I was confused by, but they called someone on staff at home who told Diane what she needed to do, and we went to the police and filed a report. It was a rough end to a great trip, but to be honest i was happy that nothing bad happened until the last day. Spain is notorious for pickpockets and thankfully her wallet wasn't in the bag, so it could have been worse.
I caught my train home that evening hoping that my First Class ticket would be just that, First Class. I was wrong. Yes, it said first class, and yes we were at the head of the train, but I would have much rather been in a bed rather than a recliner… So between my little bit of sleep and the tossing and turning it was an uncomfortable night. To add insult to injury, the train arrived in Paris 2 hours behind schedule. I had 2 hours and about 15 minutes to transfer from where we arrived to a different train station initially, but because we were s late as we were, I was going to miss my train to Amsterdam. I got a refund for the ticket and just took the next train home to Strasbourg.
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