Madrid: Palaces and Flamenco

29 September 2009

Ok, I really need to finish writing about this vacation because I have lots of other posts written just waiting to be posted, so here goes!

For our last day in Spain we decided to check out the Royal Palace of Madrid. The palace is still used by the king and government for daily business and ceremonies, so it is only open to the public in the mornings. The tour was pretty impressive- yay for student discounts and audio guides! - unlike the chateaux's I've seen in France the palace didn't seem to have ever needed restoring, everything was still in perfect condition.

 
We weren't allowed to take pictures in the palace- (which I learned the hard way and had several scary guards threatening me in Spanish) so I you'll just have to go see it for yourself.  The ceilings, walls and entrances were all spectacular, not to mention the most elaborate collection of furnishings I have ever seen. (They had a whole room displaying the silver collection) I did manage to get one picture before almost being kicked out so you'd better like it :)  We also visited the palace's armory where we saw their incredible collection of arms- some of the stuff they wore back in the day was insane. They even had entire suits of armor for the horses more elaborate than anything I've ever seen. Basically the whole place was dripping in wealth and the morning was well spent gawking at beautiful things.

 After the palace we walked around a bit to find some lunch. We ended up settling on an outdoor cafe in Plaza Mayor- a rather famous spot in Madrid that had an incredible painted building with murals squeezed in between every window.

So for lunch I had..(you guessed it!) seafood paella and sangria. It was just as delicious as the first time and was complete with whole scallops and prawns. Of course I had to show everyone how cute my prawn was, I just didn't know there would be photographic evidence, aren't you lucky?

After lunch we split up for the afternoon. Kathryn, Matt, Trigg and I decided to head for Gran Via- one of the biggest streets in Madrid. It was a lot like Michigan avenue and what I imagine 5th Avenue looks like- expensive shops and ginormous Starbucks as far as the eye can see. We didn't do much shopping (pretty sure they wouldn't have accepted IOU's as payment) but  just wandered down the street taking in the sights. There were several small stops along the way to figure out why our ND credit union debit cards wouldn't work and then a rather expensive and tense long distance phone call in which Kathryn reminded me so much of my father ("I'm in Madrid, my card does not work, you are my bank I want to know how you're going to fix this for me." haha) After all that drama we headed back to the hotel where, I'll admit it, I took a nap...We'd been walking at least 6 hours a day at this point in our vacation!

That evening we met up in front of our hostel next to a statue of a bear eating from an orange tree (I'm told it's something something something spanish symbol) but we affectionately called it the Bear and the Broccoli for obvious reasons.

We walked from our hotel to Corral de la Moreria, a little hole in the wall place but widely recognized as having the best flamenco show in Madrid. We hadn't bought tickets that included dinner but we did get a free drink during the performance. More sangria? yes please! It was literally a one room show with a small stage surrounded by about 25 tables. I didn't know what to expect but the performance was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen. The dancers come out in beautiful and vibrant dresses and then proceed to tap, click, stomp and move their feet about a thousand miles an hour. All keeping time to a small group of musicians (guitar) and singers belting out what honestly sounded like islamic prayer calls and clapping their hands louder than I thought possible. They were all keeping different rhythms not to mention the song and the dance that accompanied it. For someone who can't tap her hands in two different tempos at once it was ridiculously impressive.  (Here's a video of the same corral but not the same performance that I found on youtube.)


After the performance we were all on a bit of a Madrid high. It was a beautiful night and we took the long way home walking past the palace that we had been to earlier that day. We wandered down some streets, reluctant to let the night end, and stopped for a bit of gelato.







The city was beautiful by night and it had been raining so all the streets were clean and shiny. I didn't want to stop taking pictures but we finally conceded to the night and our early flight the next morning and went to bed.