Weekend in Madrid

This weekend was the excursion to Madrid. We left Salamanca early on Friday morning and arrived in Madrid around 10:30 am. We got off the bus at el Museo del Prado.

The Prado is full of historically significant paintings by Velazquez, Goya, Rafael, and el Greco. I am taking my first art history class this semester, so I don’t know anything about art at this point. All the names and titles of the works of art are familiar, but I can’t tell what style anything is or why they’re considered masterpieces. Jesus was our tour guide through the whole weekend, and he did a really great job of explaining each of the important pieces to us. A lot of the art that we focused on were criticizing the government or society.

At 2:30 we finally got to our hotel to eat our packed lunches and drop off our stuff and relax for an hour. After our siesta, we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. There were paintings by Picasso, Van Gough, Renoir, and Matisse. The best one (in my non-professional opinion) was “Guernica” by Picasso. There are photographs of the canvas at each stage in its production, and it was really cool to see how picasso’s mind worked. After spending the afternoon there, we went to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then went to see a play. Although the word “play” is not correct at all.

We went to see the new show by this performance group named Mayumana. It was incredible. I would explain it as Stomp, Blue Man Group, and Cirque de Sole. Google it. There were like 12 people in the group and they had more talent than 200 normal people. We were trying to figure out how in the world they cast that show, and we decided that first a person must be able to play percussion. Then, they must have the fitness of an Olympic athlete and be able to dance nonstop for 2 hours. Then they must be able to sing acapella and play guitar. Incredible. Everyone’s mouths were hanging open the entire time. They didn’t stop dancing or making music the whole time. At one point, one of the cast members came on stage with a video camera and filmed one of the other actors playing a few notes of a song on guitar, then put it on a loop and filmed everyone playing different instruments and put the video on a loop and it was AMAZING I can’t even explain it. I wish I knew how to play an instrument!

The next morning, we hopped on the bus and drove to the Palacio Real—the royal Palace. It was so beautiful inside and out. It was built in the 18^th century and used by Spanish royalty until 1931, when the civil war broke out. It has over 2800 rooms and is four stories above ground and 6 below. All the walls in each room are covered in silk and golden tapestries. Statues of lions are placed all around the palace to remind the inhabitants how much power they have (in case they forget, I suppose). I loved the chandeliers in each room. Each and every room had a unique chandelier. And one of the kings who lived there was obsessed with clocks, so there are over 600 clocks throughout the palace. The entire place was so grandiose and overwhelmingly lavish.
The most amazing thing in it were the Stradivarious instruments. There were 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 cellos. These instruments are revered the world over for the amazing music they produce. Stradivarious, the man who made them, went to the grave with his secret of how to make the instruments. Music aficionados love the sound, and these particular ones are used once a year in concerts for important heads of state. After touring the inside, we hung out on the main patio and took pictures in the sun.
The weather was perfect all weekend long. It is finally Spring! Everyone in Spain is baffled by this year’s weather. It’s apparently the coldest and longest winter ever. But I think that it’s finally over, and the sun was out and we walked around without jackets during the day.

We ate lunch at the hotel and then had the rest of the day to ourselves. 12 of us decided to take the metro to Puerta del Sol, a famous and popular area of Madrid that has a little bit of everything—shopping, architecture, the Plaza Mayor, restaurants, and a bunch of nutty street performers. We wanted to see the Plaza Mayor, so we walked to it. It pales in comparison to Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor. They are two very different styles, and Madrid’s is much smaller and more modern. I think it was built like 400 years after Salamanca’s. People were just sitting on the ground enjoying the day and hanging out. I can’t wait for the temperature to raise a little more in Salamanca so we can do that, too. After seeing the plaza, we decided to go to the huge park in Madrid—Parque Retiro.

The park was my favorite part of the day. It was so relaxing, and the sun was just about to set so everything looked even more beautiful than usual. We walked to the lake in the middle of the park, and couples celebrating valentine’s day had rented little row boats and were rowing around the lake, or having picnics on the grass by the water.


There is a huge statue with Roman columns on one side of the lake where street performers are always playing drums. The crowds that formed were dancing with their children, and it was the perfect temperature. We relaxed there for about an hour, but it got cold when it got dark, so we walked back to the metro, about 25 minutes back towards the Plaza Mayor.

Similar to D.C., Madrid had statues of bulls scattered all over the city. Each bull is painted by an artist that represents a different part of Spanish culture. We found some interesting ones.

That night, we all decided to go out. A big group of us took the metro back to Puerta del Sol, where the good clubs and bars are. One of the boys with us was pickpocketed. His wallet was stolen from the front pocket of his jeans. It was horrible. He called his parents in the US and had them cancel his credit cards.

Nightlife in Madrid is so expensive compared to Salamanca. Most clubs have a cover charge that can go as high as 15 euros. We wandered around for a while until we found a smaller club with no cover charge and stayed there for a few hours. It was fun, but too expensive! After a few hours of dancing we took taxies home and crashed into our beautiful 4-star hotel beds.

The next morning, we all woke up bright and early and rode the bus for an hour until we arrived in Escorial. Escorial is a small town between Madrid and Salamanca that is home to the famous monastery and palace. We have learned in our art history class that the building is an architect’s dream, because the man who designed it was obsessed with geometry and above all, symmetry.

We had a lovely tour of the building, and I actually loved it. A lot of students thought it was boring, but I liked it because it had some historical treasures in it. The building served as a monastery, the royal palace, a library, and a hospital. King Phillip II built the palace/monastery using New World gold during his reign in an effort to steam the Protestant tide. By building the monastery and the royal home in the same place, he was displaying how linked the Catholic church was to the people of Spain.


The thing I loved in the palace was the library. The ceiling was painted with by Italian artists and depicted the great thinkers from every time period, and every subject ranging from mathematics to religion to philosophy. The book cases were full from top to bottom with gold-leaf books. And since the new world had just been discovered, there were maps drawn in the 15^th and 16^th centuries of the world. I loved looking at them. The entire bottom 4^th of the world was one large land mass named “Austrailious” because no one knew what was down there. I just love old things like that!

The weekend was a blast and I can’t wait to go to Barcelona in another week!