Thanks to the metro, a subject which in itself warrants an entire post, we found Madrid a relatively easy city to navigate and get to know. We found it reassuring that anywhere we went was just a couple of metro stops away and with this in mind we were more apt to explore.

With that in mind, we headed out to see the The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, stopping off for a quick coffee at a busy no-nonsense coffee/bocadillo house (bocadillo? Spanish baguette-style sandwich, usually with a maximum of two fillings) called ‘El Brillante’ and had another go at a café solo, which we’d now worked out is nothing like the bicas we’d had the pleasure of tasting in Portugal. It’s either a half-sized long black or a triple over-extracted short one. It wasn’t great, but it was cheap. I’m guessing Spaniards take their coffee with plenty of sugar.

My student card got me a handy discount into the glass-clad Reina Sofia, so we went through security and checked out the temporary exhibition ‘Máquinas & Almas’, an amazing selection of new media art. We soon realised we’d come in the back entrance, so we took the great glass elevators to the permanent collection of Spanish and European modern art. All I can say about the permanent collection is that it’s very impressive. Oh yes. And I saw Picasso’s ‘Guernica’, complete with process drawings and photographs of the stages of painting, so really, what more is there to say?

After the fairly heavy going Reina Sofia it was obviously time for lunch, and we found a Galician Café a few blocks away with an €8 menu del dia (menu of the day), something offered by almost every restaurant you will find in Spain, even ones that don’t serve Spanish cuisine. You’re given a choice of a first course (usually soups or salads), a mains and a drink (juice, beer, wine, whatever) and dessert. It’s really good value if you’re quite hungry and they have something you like the look of. The woman who served us was nice enough make us mixed salads for an entrée even though they weren’t on the menu (we’d over-cheesed things a bit in Portugal so we wanted something healthy), I had the best tortilla española (thick omelette with potatoes and sometimes onion) of all the ones I ate throughout Spain, and Rui had the Spanish version of a shish kebab. Massive beers and a huge wedge of honeydew melon to finish made us wish we never had to leave. Here is a country that can serve you a piece of fruit as dessert and not make you feel ripped off.

The next day we checked out the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), another instance of vast shoot-down-the-monarchs-come-the-revolution-style-courtyards (frankly, all I can think of in such settings is the Romenov Palace in the animated version of ‘Anastasia’) coupled with ornate lamp posts had looked damn impressive as the sun set over it a couple of days ago. However, after being given fairly free reign through most of the gardens, churches, castles and castle-like-things we’d seen in Portugal, I have to say going through the Palacio Real felt fairly constraining. We had to follow narrow paths marked by ropes all in one direction, and were constantly getting stuck behind, in front of or with a tour group. We left feeling a little disappointed, although of course with thousands of people traipsing through every day, it’s understandable that they want to protect the palace. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside.

The Palacio Real at night.

The Cathedral as seen from the Palacio Real courtyard.

We didn’t find the vast Plaza Mayor until our last night, so I think it’s fair to say that we left Madrid feeling as if we were just beginning to get the hang if things, a feeling which it turns out would become all too common in each of he cities we visited in Spain. Next it was onto Sevilla…

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