Spain, Day 2: Red Noses, Royal Functions, and Holy Toledo!

Day 2 started with a run through the dark streets of Madrid. Some of my favorite memories of Paris were running, so it was a bummer to run without light, but daylight does not hit Spain until about 8am, and we had things to do!

We started off with our good friend, Rick Steves, and his walk titled, "Welcome to Madrid." Mock if you will, but I adore Mr. Steves and his geeky guidebook humor. (Granted, the third time I read his jokes, I'm just irritated.) The walk started at Puerto del Sol--Madrid's hub. The building below is currently a governor's office, but started as Madrid's first post office and is most famous for being Franco's police headquarters.

It seems like I have seen pictures of Franco out on this balcony. Whether that is true or not, Franco did speak to the people from this spot. Rick points out that quite a few people questioned by Franco's men "accidentally fell" to their deaths from the balconies.

This is a statue of Charles III, who ruled through 1788 and is famous for cleaning up Madrid--making our beloved Retiro Park (see yesterday's post) a public park rather than a royal sanctuary, putting the beautiful fountains throughout the city, and establishing public schools. (Incidentally, Spain requires compulsory education through age 16.)

We mentioned one of the Prado's great works--"The Second of May" painted by Goya. The event depicted occurred at Puerto del Sol. When Napoleon appointed his brother as king of Spain, the Spanish people gathered in this square to protest. The French guard massacred them. The plaque below memorializes the tragedy.

On our brisk, chilly walk, we saw European parking in action. Really? Is this van really going to get into this tight space? How? All these questions were answered within moments. The van bumped into the car behind, then in front, over and over again until he was successfully situated.

Perhaps the best part of the walk was reaching the cobblestone streets of Plaza Mayor. The square was constructed in 1619, and is the home of many historical happenings--like bullfights, royal processions, and the monstrosities that occurred during the Spanish Inquisition.

Brief History Note: Ferdinand and Isabel established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478. Up to this point, rulers had been generous to those of other faiths (particularly under Moorish rule), and practicing Jews were generally allowed to worship. At this time, however, religious courts arrested and convicted basically anyone who would not declare Christianity. They also convicted anyone whose conversion seemed suspicious.

It was in the Plaza Mayor square that many of these victims were paraded around with billboards around their necks, which listed their "sins." They were then tortured and burned, strangled, or executed in another fashion. Gory.
Phillip III, who had the square built:
On a happier note, Madrid voted to have the square painted burgundy--a democratic shade--after Franco's death.

A very old road leading out of Plaza Mayor:For all our winter clothes shopping (oh, the selection of Kauai!), we didn't bring enough. We were freezing! Check out our bright red noses below.

In route to the Palacio Royal, we stopped at a bakery. After watching us look over the goods for a few minutes, the lady at the counter griped to her coworker in Spanish, "Those tourists...I wish they would pick something and get out of my shop!" Ha!

We reached the palace, but I was actually more excited about reaching the sunlight and thawing out.

Views from outside the palace:

Hope you enjoyed those views, because that's all we saw. It is still an operating palace, and can close at a moment's notice for a royal function. It was closed all day.

We killed a little time by stopping for hot chocolate. Unfortunately, it wasn't the creamy goodness from the day before, but on such a chilly morning, it did the trick. We then spent some time shopping a bit--picking out a Barcelona soccer ball for Zachary and admiring Will and Karen's decision to buy a real, certified Madrid jersey for their son. Their kiddo can literally jump out on the field and play with this jersey!

We picked up some bocadillos (cured ham on baguette) and went straight to the train station. The last half of our day would be spent in Toledo, a 30 minute, high speed train ride from Madrid.

In Toledo, everything screams ambiance--even the train station!

We fell in love with this city even before getting inside it's gates. Toledo was once Spain's capital (until 1651, when Phillip II moved it to Madrid), hit it's prime in the middle of the 14th century, and holds 2,500 years of history from an eclectic set of peoples--particularly Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

The entire city is a national monument. Modern exteriors are not allowed. Traffic is limited to local resident's cars only (and only 10,000 people reside within the city). It's a quaint, historical paradise!

Keyhole arches are found throughout the city.

See the cathedral through this narrow alley?

Holy Toledo! Jews from Spain are called Sephardic Jews. When many of these Jews immigrated to America, they still considered Toledo the holiest Jewish city in Europe. Thus, the expression "Holy Toledo" was coined.

In my opinion, Toledo's cathedral was the best site we visited--period. The Gothic architecture, 500-year-old stained glass windows, carvings and artwork throughout are awe-inspiring. The cathedral took 250 years to build, and after completion, each archbishop added something to make it their own.

Other visitors had out their cameras, so we joined in the fun (until told otherwise through a general announcement). Brady had enjoyed playing with his new lens, and captured some of the beauty of the vast interior.

The high altar (real gold on wood):

Gothic archways and stained glass:

I think this is the best picture from our trip:

The organ:

We were unable to capture photos of the artwork inside--with Goya, Titian, Rubens, Velazquez, and other works. They were paintings depicting Christ throughout various times in His life.

After visiting the cathedral, we booked it over to a museum only to discover it was missing the El Greco paintings we wanted to see. (Strike 2 for the day.) Instead, we wandered through the city and walked to a bridge.

(Yes, I did just include 3 pictures of the exact same archway.)

A view while standing on the bridge:

Whoa, that's a long way down...

The streets in Toledo are my favorite in Europe (so far...um, out of the 3 countries I have now visited).

We snacked on gilato, talked with the Elders, and picked up a few tacky souveniers (i.e. Brady's purchase of a miniature sword stuck in wood...). We even snagged a nap before dinner.

It was right around this time that one of us made the comment that it seemed impossible to really get lost in Toledo. It was ironic timing, because it took about an hour to find our restaurant.

A view of Alcazar (the fort) on our way out of Toledo.

I think we were all a little sad to leave this city!

Spain Day 1: The Prado, Olives, and Eating Like Kings

Through a fortunate (read "lucky") set of circumstances, Brady and I traveled to Spain with another couple from work--Will and Karen Summerhays. It was a whirlwind trip that we're still recovering from, but worth every minute on the plane, every penny spent, and every hour of sleep lost.

After 24+ hours travel, we arrived in Madrid as evening set in. Our hotel was posh and square in the middle of the city. It overlooked construction, but there is no hotel that does not overlook construction at present. Madrid seems a little over-ambitious with its improvement projects, but perhaps they will complete them in the next decade? We felt for them losing the 2016 Olympic bid after seeing how much work the city was putting into improvements!
The city comes alive in the evening. Many of the city's 3.2 million residents turn out for walks and dinner, and they do not leave infants and young children at home. It was surprising, despite reading about it before leaving, to see full families out and about after 11pm, and many people were still on the streets as late as 6am the next morning! We spent our first evening exploring the streets, eating "Tortilla Espanola" (basically an omelet), and trying to contain our American enthusiasm.

Our first day started with a bang...and shivers. We underdressed with our layers, and wished for coats and scarves. We spent time looking for an open cafe, and here we are waiting the final moments before the cafe of our choice opened.

Side note for Aaron: We got our zoom lens! Here is an intimidating cop car that was checking us out from across the street:

Yummy...hot chocolate. Modify that: hot, European chocolate. Thick, creamy, and delicious.Yes, it close-your-eyes-and-sigh good:
Europe is able to place fountains all over street corners without looking like they are trying too hard.First stop: The Prado Museum, one of Europe's most celebrated museums with over 3,000 paintings, and several of the most famous works of all time.

Just before entering, we saw a sign saying, "No dogs," and right next to it, a lady walking her dog on the grounds. Maybe that tiny cop car should be checking her out.

Here we are in front of a statue of Velazquez, a 17th century Spanish painter renouned for his court portraits, most especially his "Las Meninas" (or "Maids of Honor"), which many art historians consider the greatest piece of art, period. Karen S. and Brady ranked this as their favorite piece in the museum.

Also in the Prado are works by Francisco de Goya, another court painter who is more famous for his dark and controversial work than his court depictions. For instance, his "The Naked Maja" caused an uprising during the Spanish Inquisition, and he was required to paint the lady with clothing on. Rather than painting over the naked woman, he repainted the entire picture with clothing. The two paintings stand side-by-side in the Prado. It is obvious that the naked picture had his heart, and the clothed woman was an afterthought/requirement. Other works include "The 2nd of May," and "The 3rd of May," which capture Napoleon's French forces firing on Madrid's citizens in the city.
Another famous painting was Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," a triple canvas (i.e. triptych) full of demons and nightmares. The message is either ignore the pleasures of earth, or end up in hell. It was creepy!

My personal favorites were Raphael's "The Cardinal" and Fra Angelico's "The Annunciation." I was surprised to choose either as my favorite, but the way art affects you is hard to define. All four of us walked out of the museum delighted with the experience.

We zoomed over to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which would have hit us as exceptionally unimpressive but for Picasso's "Guernica." This is often considered the best piece of art in Spain. It is a massive depiction of the 1937 bombing of civilians in Guernica, a city in northern Spain. Franco gave Hitler permission to test German's air raiding abilities on the city. Unfortunately, while viewing the painting, we left our notes and descriptions in our backpack, which was checked at the front desk. Even without these ideas to guide us, it was obvious this painting was about misery, agony, and brutality. The colors were navy, gray, and black, with grim subjects--a woman and child, a wounded woman, a speared horse, and Spain's national symbol, a bull, looking on. "Guernica" was exiled (and kept in America) until Franco's death. Picasso also said he would never come back to Spain as long as Franco was there, and unfortunately died before Franco. After a fulfilling morning/early afternoon, we meandered through the city and stopped over for Tapas (appetizers) at a charming outdoor restaurant.

Brady and Will went crazy over their tomato-dominated lunch (sarcasm).

Karen S. lived in Spain for several months doing "Study Abroad" through BYU. When she was here, there was no temple for the now 40,000 church members. In 1999, the temple was built, and located right next to a MTC and chapel.

Touring Europe's massive cathedrals, I sometimes wish I was Catholic. ;) The temple was a beautiful and simple reminder of our faith. It also supplied us with a clean bathroom and FREE WATER.

After our side trip to the temple, we stopped by Retiro Park--a 300 acre abyss. It was lovely! Families, street performers, and soccer games everywhere.

A glass museum in the park--empty and closed at present.

Time for a siesta to prep for our 9pm dinner reservations. The Spanish do meals a little differently--an early morning breakfast, followed by a heavy lunch around 2pm, and dinner no earlier than about 9pm. It was suprisingly easy to adjust to this dietary schedule.

As we exited the park, we took a quick detour through hundreds of olive trees. Maybe it's living in Kauai, and the constant pick-and-eat-various-fruits routine on the trails, but I lost my mind and picked an olive. I was so embarrased, especially when a Spanish man started railing at me, immediately going to a cop to report me. Thankfully, the cop was more interested in finishing his book than delivering a ticket.

Besides green olives (yum!), Spaniards love their "jamones"--cured ham (cured for 2+ years), sliced thin and served cold.

We had one month to plan our trip, and during that time, Karen S. worked hard on finding dinner reservations. She wrote Cafe de Oriente with a request for a table overlooking the Palacio Royal, where she ate with her family years ago. They responded by saying that area was closed, but they would host us in their best room--a private room where the King and Queen dine! We were in awe of our surroundings.

The King's chair:

If only our experience with the food matched the environment! First up was a complimentary appetizer--a gigantic anchovie on bread. We all suffered through it, wishing we had more mature taste buds. Karen S. said she wishes she had put it in her money belt. It crossed her mind as a serious possibility after the first bite.

Here is our goat cheese salad that had more goat cheese than anything else--no kidding, it was 3/4" thick!

Will learned the hard way that there are two ways to order steak--red and raw. The poor steak was a blood bath! He reluctantly sent it back, basically asking them to char it, and it still came back red.

Brady loved his meal:

We realized early on that we were lucky to be traveling with Will and Karen. They were the perfect travel companions--willing to survive on 4-5 hours of sleep, plan a tightly scheduled itinerary, and thoroughly soak up and LOVE another culture. We were fortunate that they were both fluent in Spanish--our Spanish know-how stops after about "hola" and we probably would have thrown around words like "amigo" and "enchillada" without them.