Anywho, we
spent our day in Madrid and we wandered around and Chrissie took me to all the
main parts. It was a really fun day, although it did rain on us a couple of
times but I can’t complain as it wasn’t as bad as anticipated. We left our bags
at the lockers in the Atocha train station and decided to head off to the
Parque del Retiro, which is a giant park a few minutes away from the train
station and there is so much in it! It has its own lake, a lake! With boats and
everything! I still can’t get my head around that. Chrissie took me to this really little,
pretty rose garden that is tucked away in one corner of the park and it was
beautiful! I think we went at the right time as there were some roses that were
starting to wilt but the majority were in full bloom or just starting to. It
was so pretty and I’m really glad that I got the chance to see it. However
there was a slight problem when we had to try and manoeuvre ourselves around a
group of people posing for wedding pictures. I can understand why they would
want their pictures there but it may it difficult for any other random members
of the public that may have been visiting at the time.
After seeing the wonders of the roses, we went on to walk around the rest of
the park where we stumbled across a small bridge. It was built over a pond and
there were a few ducks swimming around but we quickly realised our error when
at the end of the bridge we saw this huge muddy puddle that we had to try and
walk/jump over. We managed to do so, but I had to psych myself up for the jump
which I managed to pull off and I was rather pleased about it. This is because
I am normally a very clumsy person so being able to do something like that is
rather impressive.
Whilst in El Retiro, we saw Steve (the pigeon remember). We were rather happy
about it as we knew that he wouldn’t let us down and stop following us now.
However, we made some rather startling discoveries when we saw him! We realised
that he has a very distant cousin, Brian the duck. The resemblance was uncanny
and it was amazing to see them bonding by the mini pond. And yet another
amazing discovery was his uncle and aunt, Gerald and Jemima! It was great to
get to see more of his relatives.
It was after this encounter that we stumbled across yet another couple having
wedding photos taken! This time it was by the giant boating lake next to a
Statue of some sort or other. It was strange to see two groups of people doing
the same thing on the same day. I know it probably happens a lot but it’s not
often that you run across it personally.
It
was a nice
contrast to what we accidentally walked into later on in the day anyway.
After we left the park, we walked to the Puerte Del Sol, which is where the clock
is that the Spanish use in their New Year celebrations and also where the
fireworks go off at this time as well. We decided to have
a small break there and sat by one of the fountains or 20 minutes or so just to
rest our legs a little and to relax somewhat. It’s really strange in this area
because there are so many people wandering around dressed as cartoon
characters. I saw two mickey mouse’s and
two spongebobs! It was a little surreal added to the fact that the metro
station there is in the shape of two domes. I wonder who decided that
that would be a great idea. But from
there we quikly ound our way to the Plaza Mayor which is alright but I much
prefer the one in Salamanca. It just seems somewhat more majestic.
After the Plaza Mayor, we walked to the Palacio and saw the cathedral on the
other side of it. The cathedral is nice but it's not at all what you would
expect from one. It's more simplistic and much more like a church than any
other cathedral that I've seen. I still thought it was rather beautiful but it
could have done with a little work as the outside looked faded. Whilst we were
stood in the little square between the palacio and the cathedral, we could hear
this guy playing the violin. He was playing pop sings and musicals and it was
fantastic! As we left he started playing "Memory" from CATS and I of
course started to sing along to it but I only knew a few lines so it wasn't
much of a problem when I walked away.
From there it wasn’t too far to go to get to the Egyptian temple. Apparently it
was donated to Madrid by someone but I’m not entirely sure who. Anyway it is
very pretty and definitely worth a visit if you get the chance. However, I
advise caution as it was here that I managed to lose my lower headband! It was
blown off my head from the wind and I didn’t realise until it was too late so I
was a little upset and I still am if truth be told. I am hoping I will be able
to find a replacement in New Look once I get home in a just over a week, but
only time will tell if it works or not.
After spending around 5/10 minutes trying to find my headband we decided to go
along Gran Vía and do some window shopping but as soon as we got onto the street
we saw a Starbucks and Chrissie is a little in love with the place and I will
never turn down the chance to go into one. So we headed inside and got
ourselves two Frappuccino’s and sat on the main street with them in the sun. Unfortunately, the sun wasn’t around for much
longer as it was getting pretty late by this time and the weather was beginning
to turn cooler.
After finishing our rather luxurious drinks we headed down the streets and did
some window shopping. I was on the lookout for any sort of headband that had
flowers and Chrissie was just generally browsing and then we stumbled across a
gigantic H&M store! Apparently it turns out that it is both mine and
Chrissie’s weakness and we had to leave quickly before we spent all of our money.
I think the highlight of my day however was finding out that there is a Mezzo
di Pasta in Madrid! I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this before but that
pasta place was one of my favourite places in Lille and I thought that I wouldn’t
be able to eat there again for a very long time but as soon as I saw it I knew
that I had to go in and buy a menu for old time’s sake! But because it was
quite late on in the day, they didn’t have many sauces left so I had this sort
of luxury sauce that was practically a carbonara but with mushrooms added as
well. It was one of the best things that I have ever eaten in my life and I may
have to head back there when I’m in Madrid later in the week.
It was at this point that we decided to head back to Atocha to pick up our
stuff and go to the airport. It didn’t take us too long to get there but we
were in the airport from 11pm until our flight left at around 9:30am the nest
day but that is for another blog.
Hasta la fuego