March 10, 2012
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Madrid, Spain
It was still early (at least for a Saturday, and at least given the fact that we’re on holiday) when we left the hotel in order to find a place to have breakfast. It turned out to be the same restaurant where we had the chorizo yesterday, except this time we didn’t sit outside and we also didn’t have deep-fried chorizo for breakfast. We opted for the boccadillo with jamon (ham) instead, and it turned out to be equally delicious.
For the Saturday I had figured out in advance that it might be a nice idea to walk towards the Atocha station, just east of the city centre, have look in its impressive halls where a botanic garden now is where trains used to wait, and then – after that – have a leisurely stroll through the adjacent Retiro Park, with its many wonderful paths and nice vistas. I figured that we could easily spend the entire morning and part of the afternoon there, because typically when I’m in Madrid on my own, an entire afternoon in Retiro can happen quite easily.
So, after breakfast, we walked towards the Atocha station, carefully avoiding the busy Calle de Atocha, and choosing the much friendlier Calle de las Huertas instead. I noticed that Günter was doing more than strolling… he was walking quite fast, as if he had a mission (which he probably did: see as much of Madrid as possible in 2.5 days) so we arrived at Atocha at around 10 in the morning already. We had a quick look in the botanic garden section and at the turtles in the pond there, and not much later left the station again. This was going much quicker than what I had anticipated!
An equally quick stroll took us to the beautiful Retiro park, which we entered from the south side. We walked toward the Rose Garden but of course it was too early in the year for roses, so from there we headed north, basically crossing the park. We had a rest at the rather megalomaniac monument to King Alfonso XIII, enjoying the wonderful sunshine, but not much later, Günter, still on a mission, suggested moving on. Instead of crossing the park in southbound direction via a different route, he suggested leaving the park at it northwestern corner and returning towards the city centre. It was just after 11 in the morning. This had gone much, much quicker than what I had expected. That wasn’t a bad thing, but it did mean that I was a bit at a loss at what to do next.
“So, what’s the plan?” Günter asked, “where do we go from here?”
I had to admit that I had no idea, and pointed in the general direction of the city centre. We ambled through some of the quieter streets, towards the Puerta del Sol, where we ended up at around lunch time. We found a nice restaurant close to the Plaza Mayor and sat outside in the warm sunshine, having boccadillos calamares and sipping wine. It was superb! the hasty pace of the morning calmed down to a leisurely walk – much better indeed. It was with difficulty that we decided that we had to continue after lunch, but in the end we managed to get up from the table and continue.
We did so by having a look in some of the shops in the main shopping streets that spin off from Puerta del Sol. We also went to a typical Spanish bar on the Plaza de Santa Ana, and at the end of the afternoon again ended up having some more drinks and delicious olives on the square where we’d been yesterday already, very close to the hotel. There, we discovered that they also had a nice dinner options, so after a bit of a rest we returned there once more to have dinner… and yes, some more drinks. It was well and truly time then to go to some of the bars, which we did with gusto. Some midnight Iberico ham snacks kept us going to well after one, when finally we saw our hotel room again…
