Madrid, Spain

August 14th - 16th

Madrid, Spain

So we had a full day in Bilbao, Spain exploring the Guggenheim and the city itself before we trained to Madrid.  We arrived in Madrid quite late at night, but made our way through their metro system to get to our hotel, we saw that the train was packed with people and were curious as to what was going on in Madrid on a Tuesday night!  Everyone gets off of the metro one station before our hotel, and we are realizing that whatever is happening, must be happening near our hotel.  So we make our way to our hotel and find out that there is a huge celebration in the streets...like seriously, blocks of bars  with music in the streets, and you think its going to end, but you just get to the beginning of a new block with new music and more people...Spanish style fiesta, all ages, from 1-80, dancing in the streets, pretty incredible!

Flags in celebration of a Saint...Steve enjoying his Cervaza Fresca (Cold Beer!)

We found out that the next day was a holiday; therefore, the party continued in the streets until at least 4am, when we crashed!  Thinking that the celebrations had ended, we were quite surprised to see people out and about the next day.  We started off with a traditional Spanish meal, tortilla espanol, also known as a potato omelette. 

Traditional omelette...quite good!

We spent the afternoon touring around the various sites of Madrid.

This is a main square, Plaza Mayor, that restaurants and shops are in, and since it was a holiday (in the middle of the week), it was quite busy with locals, as well as tourists.

Steve was really feeling the heat in Madrid and knew he needed to chop that mop.  By chance, Jenna spotted a barber that was not on Siesta, and was willing to cut Steve's hair!  The barber had such attention to detail that even Jenna wished she was getting her hair done!

We believed that since everyone partied the night before the holiday, that people would rest tonight before they had to go back to work.  Well, apparently that is not the way Spain celebrates a holiday!  First of all, out of all of the hotels that we could have picked in Madrid, our hotel was the main street for the holiday parade!  

 

The holiday was to celebrate one of the local saints. We were told that this was one of Madrid's biggest holidays in the summer

Before the parade began we decided to find some local delicacies!

Delicious Chocolate covered Churros!!!

Best seats for the parade in our hotel room!  Could we have picked a better street to stay on?

There were so many people watching the parade!  The people were dressed in traditional costume, and people were all chanting Viva la Fiesta!  The picture on the left shows a Nursing home across the street and all of the old people excited for the festivities.  The picture on the right shows all of the people following the end of the parade!

So the parade is over, and everyone goes home to rest right?!  NOPE!  Fiesta AGAIN!!  We go out into the streets to get a bite to eat for supper, and run into more dancing and music and bars and even a midway!  It was about 11pm when we were out and about, and it looked like the party was just beginning!      VIVA SPAIN!

August 16th - Last day in Madrid

Jenna on the sweet 'Alice in Wonderland' chair in the hotel

We visited the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte - Reina Sofia.  This was a modern art museum, that featured a few great artists, such as Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali.  There were so many amazing works of art...some that would be considered art, and others that seemed questionable.

Works from Picasso and Dali

Modern art...what subject matter won't it include?

We spent lunch at this amazing Tapas Market, just outside of the Plaza Mayor.  Spain is famous for little finger foods called Tapas.  They are generally served with drinks at all of the Spanish pubs.  This market was quite unique, as it was an upscaled experience for Tapas.  Basically, a normal Tapa is something, whether fish, ham, beef, fluffy mozzarella, olives, etc, served on a piece of fresh Spanish bread.  This market went over the top and offered tapa style drinks, desserts and a huge variety of the traditional tapa.

A nice open style market...We think we will bring this to Granville Island in Vancouver!

Steve enjoying his garlic stuffed green olive with sun-dried tomato and chilli pepper

So many different tapas to choose from!

Can we say Fresh?

Architectural Highlight

We got so caught up in the festivities of Madrid that we did not spend as much time exploring all of the traditional tourist locations.  We experienced the singing, dancing, and joy-ish culture of Madrid.  One of the most interesting buildings we came across really embraced the preservation of historic buildings, while implementing a modern twist.

The original building from around the 1600s was given a new foundation, creating the illusion that it is floating above the ground.  It was given a geometric oxidized iron 3rd and 4th floor, which juxtaposed the living green wall.

An interesting contrast of materials

On the left, you can see how the building looks to be floating, and on the right, the perforated iron adds a unique detail

The green wall was actually about 5 feet deep and carried full grown shrubs and small trees...very impressive!

 Next Stop:  Relax on the beach in Portugal!!