Today I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel at a leisurely hour, since nothing in Madrid is really open on Mondays save a few places. Therefore, I used the morning to be a cautious traveler and go to the train station to get a legit ticket to Sevilla for Wednesday. I bought the Eurail flexible pass, which gives me 5 days of travel in any given 2 months, but you´re never guaranteed a spot on any of the trains unless you pay an extra couple of Euros for a real reservation. Since I´m trying to fit five destinations in, I don´t have THAT much wiggle room, so I was completely willing to pay extra to make sure my schedule goes off without a hitch. Luckily, after an hour of waiting for my number at the RENFE office at the main Atocha station, I had a nice English-speaking lady who got me a seat on the Wednesday 8:30am train. That will get me into Sevilla with plenty of time to get settled at my hostel and also have a productive afternoon seeing places.
After coming back from the train station on the East side of town, I was all ready to go on a walking tour and get some local stories and fables about the city - similar to what we did in Amsterdam, Prague, and Berlin. However, for no apparent reason they cancelled it and I was left to my own devices again, so I metroed over to the Palacio Real and got in line for the tour of the royal palaces. It took me about 40 minutes to get in, but for middle of the day I wasn´t surprised given it was one of two major attractions open on Mondays.
Like Versaille, the Palacio has a huge open courtyard in front of it where, nowadays, all its used for is annual Christmas inspections of the armed forces in their full regalia by the royal family. Most of the time, though, the place is just thronged with tourists. I first made for the Royal Armory, which was started when Phillip II bought the armory of his father, Charles V. Phillip´s things were then added and over time, it has grown to an impressive collection.
I was especially impressed by the Moorish artifacts, spoils of war taken in victories against the Ottomans. I got in minor trouble for taking some pictures of weapons and flags presented to the Spanish court after the allied naval victory at Lepanto, which I´ve studied many many times. After the armory, I went through the entirety of the palace and, though very intricate and beautiful, it didn´t quite hold up to Versaille. It was more lavishly decorated than the Palazzio Medici in Florence, but it still fell short as the Bourbon´s attempt at outdoing the other European monarchs homes.
After the palace and looking out onto the royal hunting grounds, Casa de Campo (miles and miles of untouched land just west of the palace), I went across the courtyard to the Catedral de la Almuhada. It was a mixture of an old Gothic cathedral and modern art inside, for example the frescoes of the cupola and a lot of the stained glass were modern. I trekked up to the top for a closer look at the dome, and then snapped some pictures from the rooftop.
From a Frommer´s recommendation, I walked into the middle of town to Plaza de Santa Ana, right south of Puerta del Sol (Madrid´s ¨Time´s Square,¨ according to Frommer´s, even though I didn´t see it). I had a tapas lunch there and then took a lengthy, lengthy break. Having had such a productive morning, I needed some time off my feet and just walked back West to Plaza Mayor for some sangria and reading. Overall, I spent about three hours at a cafe there munching on olives and drinking sangria that, while not worth the price, was worth just giving my feet a rest and relaxing. What kind of vacation would this be without some of that?
Eventually, I mustered up the energy and liquid courage to go see some modern art. Reina Sofia, one of Madrid´s ¨Big 3¨ museums, was the only one open on Mondays. I was willing to give it a chance, but for the most part I hate modern art... and I absolutely detested the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Anything that can take a less-than-average-talented artist about 30 minutes to complete should not be in a musuem. However, there ARE a few notable Picassos and others in there, so I figured I would go since nothing else was open.
I figured I´d had enough sangria to appreciate contemporary art more, but that was not the case. I think I would have needed a pitcher or two more (or hard drugs) to see a canvas PAINTED SOLID BLUE is considered art. I did like Picasso´s painting on the Spanish civil war (Guerrera, or something similiar?), and a handle of other cubists´ work, but a lot of stuff in there I thought was pure garbage. Like this Joan Milo character. I think that I should be in a museum before he is.
I went back to get cleaned up before heading to Casa Patas for a flamenco show. I was too cheap to buy dinner there, so I just stopped at a kebob stand on the way over to that neighborhood. I was put on the waiting list since I hadn´t made a reservation, but when you´re a party of one, getting squeezed in isn´t usually a problem. Travel tip: if you fail to plan ahead, traveling alone can have it´s benefits (but don´t take that sentence lightly).
The flamenco show was pretty intense - but not as much so as the bullfight - and I really enjoyed it. There were 3 dancers, two women and a man, but they only performed all at the same time at the end. The band consisted of four guitarist-singers that were playing crazy fast Spanish classical guitar rhythms. The performance was really passionate and occasionallly evocative; at one point the dancer spun so fast her hairpiece sailed five rows deep into the audience and then, a few moves later, a bunch of bobby pins did too.
One hit a guy´s beer glass as he was drinking from it, which got a laugh out of the crowd. The show didn´t start until 10:30, so by the time it ended it was back to the hostal and straight to bed so that I could wake up early for the Prado on Tuesday, now that museums would be back to being open again!
After coming back from the train station on the East side of town, I was all ready to go on a walking tour and get some local stories and fables about the city - similar to what we did in Amsterdam, Prague, and Berlin. However, for no apparent reason they cancelled it and I was left to my own devices again, so I metroed over to the Palacio Real and got in line for the tour of the royal palaces. It took me about 40 minutes to get in, but for middle of the day I wasn´t surprised given it was one of two major attractions open on Mondays. 
Like Versaille, the Palacio has a huge open courtyard in front of it where, nowadays, all its used for is annual Christmas inspections of the armed forces in their full regalia by the royal family. Most of the time, though, the place is just thronged with tourists. I first made for the Royal Armory, which was started when Phillip II bought the armory of his father, Charles V. Phillip´s things were then added and over time, it has grown to an impressive collection. 
I was especially impressed by the Moorish artifacts, spoils of war taken in victories against the Ottomans. I got in minor trouble for taking some pictures of weapons and flags presented to the Spanish court after the allied naval victory at Lepanto, which I´ve studied many many times. After the armory, I went through the entirety of the palace and, though very intricate and beautiful, it didn´t quite hold up to Versaille. It was more lavishly decorated than the Palazzio Medici in Florence, but it still fell short as the Bourbon´s attempt at outdoing the other European monarchs homes.
After the palace and looking out onto the royal hunting grounds, Casa de Campo (miles and miles of untouched land just west of the palace), I went across the courtyard to the Catedral de la Almuhada. It was a mixture of an old Gothic cathedral and modern art inside, for example the frescoes of the cupola and a lot of the stained glass were modern. I trekked up to the top for a closer look at the dome, and then snapped some pictures from the rooftop. 
From a Frommer´s recommendation, I walked into the middle of town to Plaza de Santa Ana, right south of Puerta del Sol (Madrid´s ¨Time´s Square,¨ according to Frommer´s, even though I didn´t see it). I had a tapas lunch there and then took a lengthy, lengthy break. Having had such a productive morning, I needed some time off my feet and just walked back West to Plaza Mayor for some sangria and reading. Overall, I spent about three hours at a cafe there munching on olives and drinking sangria that, while not worth the price, was worth just giving my feet a rest and relaxing. What kind of vacation would this be without some of that?
Eventually, I mustered up the energy and liquid courage to go see some modern art. Reina Sofia, one of Madrid´s ¨Big 3¨ museums, was the only one open on Mondays. I was willing to give it a chance, but for the most part I hate modern art... and I absolutely detested the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Anything that can take a less-than-average-talented artist about 30 minutes to complete should not be in a musuem. However, there ARE a few notable Picassos and others in there, so I figured I would go since nothing else was open. 
I figured I´d had enough sangria to appreciate contemporary art more, but that was not the case. I think I would have needed a pitcher or two more (or hard drugs) to see a canvas PAINTED SOLID BLUE is considered art. I did like Picasso´s painting on the Spanish civil war (Guerrera, or something similiar?), and a handle of other cubists´ work, but a lot of stuff in there I thought was pure garbage. Like this Joan Milo character. I think that I should be in a museum before he is. 
I went back to get cleaned up before heading to Casa Patas for a flamenco show. I was too cheap to buy dinner there, so I just stopped at a kebob stand on the way over to that neighborhood. I was put on the waiting list since I hadn´t made a reservation, but when you´re a party of one, getting squeezed in isn´t usually a problem. Travel tip: if you fail to plan ahead, traveling alone can have it´s benefits (but don´t take that sentence lightly). 
The flamenco show was pretty intense - but not as much so as the bullfight - and I really enjoyed it. There were 3 dancers, two women and a man, but they only performed all at the same time at the end. The band consisted of four guitarist-singers that were playing crazy fast Spanish classical guitar rhythms. The performance was really passionate and occasionallly evocative; at one point the dancer spun so fast her hairpiece sailed five rows deep into the audience and then, a few moves later, a bunch of bobby pins did too. 
One hit a guy´s beer glass as he was drinking from it, which got a laugh out of the crowd. The show didn´t start until 10:30, so by the time it ended it was back to the hostal and straight to bed so that I could wake up early for the Prado on Tuesday, now that museums would be back to being open again!
Picasso painting is called Guernica, after the Basque spiritual center bombed by the nationalists during the Spanish civil war
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