madridreporteng

My trip to Madrid from 12.02. to 26.02.2000

Well, Stefan and I arrived at Madrid at 12.02.2000 and stayed until 26.02.2000. Both flights were very good. We had to change airplane in basel both times, but it went good. And our luggage arrived safe too. We stayed in an apartementhotel for the first week, where we had a little kitchen to cook for ourselves, which was nice, because we had not to pay for food. At second week we stayed in a hostel, which was nice too, but we had no kitchen, so we had to eat outside, but the room was even cheaper than the first one. We often ate �Tapas�, small meals at pubs, bars, clubs, ... I loved �patatas bravas� and Calamares, esp. as a bocchadillo (Calamares with bread). We tried a lot of Tapasbars and had fun with it.

After our arrival we drove by Metro to our hotel, changed clothes and then Pedro, a friend of Stefan, picked us up and drove us to the wedding of Rafa and Paola in Alcala de Henares, a beautiful town eastern Madrid, since 1998 a World Heritage City of the UNESCO (same as Segovia, which we have visited too). The town is popular for Cervantes, the author of �Don Quijote�. He was born there. Well, the wedding was different to German ones, but I liked it. Paola worn a white, long dress and looked very lovely. She is a beautiful lady, and not very slim. She is really nice and friendly and laughes a lot. I liked her. They married in a mosque a week before, because she is a muslime and he is catholic. So they are married after the muslime law and the Spain law in a registry office. So we just saw a civil marriage, but that was very interesting too. Because of their studies (chemistry) there were a lot of international guests: Austria, Germany, Argentinia (Paola is from Argentinia), Mexico, Peru, Belgium, ... After the marriage we went to a bar without the couple and had a drink and some Tapas. At 8 o'clock was a big dinner in a restaurant. The couple and their parents sat at a long table, a little bit higher than we, who sat around round tables. The dinner was excellent and really too much. And every visitor got a little souvenir. The men got a cigar and the women got cigarettes and a mirror for their bag with �Rafa y Paola 12.02.2000� engraved in it. Nice, or ? It isn't typical to get a little present from the wedding couple in Germany, so I was very surprised about it. It is nice. After the meal was music and we danced. It finished at half past midnight. Then the couple went to their honeymoon to Lanzarote, and we went to a disco with some other ones until 5 o'clock in the morning. I was really tired and slept really good in the night. We met Rafa and Paola and their parents in the next week sometimes and it was nice, too, even I don't understand Spanish and they can't speak English. Only Paola and I spoke a little bit on English, but that was unluckily at the last day. :-(

Well, the next days we spent in Madrid and visited the main places, fountains, gates, buildings, .... We made a tour with a bus to see the main things and then we decided to visit that and that by foot. So we visited the Royal Palace and walked through it, which was great. There were some fantastic rooms to see. And we saw all the main places with the gates and fountains. Madrid is a big town with a nice flair. I liked it, but I didn't like the traffice. It was too much and drove me crazy! Sometimes it was really hard to cross the streets. And I hated the way, the taxi-drivers drove. I always closed my eyes in a taxi. :-) But we saw no accident, so that was a nice surprise.

We also visited some towns outside Madrid. So we visited Segovia, Alcala de Henares and San Lorenzo de el Escorial. Segovia is popular for its Aqueduct and the Alcazar (a castle with a tower, from where we had a good view over Segovia and the countrieside). Segovia is on the other side of the mountains around Madrid, so we hadn't so nice weather there as we had in Madrid. We had no rain, blue sky, some clouds and up to 20�C in the sun! I loved it and got a little bit brown in my face. :-) It was lovely! And back in Hamburg we have rain and low temperatures.... Terrible! Well, Segovia was very interesting and old and we saw a lot of beautiful plaes and buildings and a lot of old churches. At the evening our feet were really ko. And El Escorial is a kind of monasterypalace about 40km away from the capital of Spain. The monasterypalace is really big and big. There are over 400 windows! Inside is a basilica with a lot of statues of Santa people. And inside the monasterypalace you can visit the rooms of the Habsburger Royals, a lot of pictures (by El Greco, Bosch, Goya, ....), the architecture of El Escorial, a library with old books (The Regia Laurentina is one of the most important historic libraries in the world), old maps of Europe and the World, ... and the Royal Pantheon + the Pantheon of Infantes. It is the burial-place of the Kings of Spain from Charles V to the present day. It is very, very rich decorated and a strange feeling to stand next to the dead Kings and Queens. It was a little bit scary. And there are beautiful gardens around the monasterypalace and you have a great view from there.

At Saturday we walked through the �Casa de Campo�, a big park in the west of Madrid. We drove there by cableway and walked back to the town. There is a �Park of attractions�, a lake, a zoo, ... . We just walked through the woods and gardens and finished next to the lake. I was tired after it, but we met Pedro and some other guys and went to bars and discos. At 3o'clock in the morning I was too tired and drove into our hostel by taxi. Stefan came home around 8am. And I wake him up at 12am, because we planned to visit �El Rastro�, the big fleamarket in Madrid. And I really wanted to go to it. So Stefan was very tired the whole day and I felt fine. I bought a twinset for the summer there and we ate great tasting �patatas bravas� (potatoes with a hot tomatosauce). It was great! I also did some shopping during the week and Stefan watched Spanish films at the cinemas to train his Spanish. :-)

At Wednesday we went out to bars and pubs again at the night and it was very funny. I drank a little bit too much Sangria, but no too much. I just started to laugh and to be funny. Anyway, I had some problems with the staircase, so I fell and my left ankle ached. So we went home to bed. I didn't go to the doctor in Spain, but after my return to HH I went. And I got a bandage again.... It is my third illness this year, terrible or ? Well, so our last two days in Madrid were relaxing ones with a visit of the Retiro (park) and doing the last shopping. And we visited/met Rafa, Paola and family again.

The flight back to Hamburg was okay, too. Everything went right and now I am happy to be home again. I love to travel, but I always love to come home again, too.

That's all about my Madridtravel. I hope, I didn't bored you too much.Take care!

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