Day 2: First Day in Madrid

Disclaimer: All voyages in this blog are being taken safely in the comfort of our imaginations - based on our plans and intentions for travel in 2020. What is reality after all? 

As we wait to head out to this evening's entertainment - the Madrid concert of Galician singer Ses, launching her new CD - we'll bring you up to date with the wanderings of our first full day in Madrid. As expected in this wonderful virtual world, all went swimmingly (no, we didn't go swimming) and we thoroughly enjoyed this quiet city's offerings.

After a great night's sleep in our apartment, just off the Gran Via, we decided to go for a walk westwards, to explore an area of the city we hadn't visited on our last visit - those many BC years ago. It was good to stretch our legs after so many hours of ... ahem ... stretching our legs out in business class flights (but let's not mention that).

West took us through city streets, from Callao Metro Station towards the Real Monasterio de la Encarnación (BTW - clicking on these photos enlarges them in a separate window, so you can see all the crowded details):

We circled around the Royal Palace, had a quick (return) squint at the Egyptian Templo de Dabod:

before crossing the river on the Puente del Rey and plunging into the vast Casa de Campo. It was a bit desolate in places, but offered many delights, including lookouts:

a lake with restaurants (for a quick mid-morning drink):

even a Spanish Civil War bunker:

and a cable car (teleférico) which we looked at but foreswore to use:

This is a huge park, and we saw only a small part of it. But lunch called, so we could rocket across town (virtually anything is possible here) to a street food market just north of where we're staying - described as a 'hip' place to eat. Hip it may have been; quiet also:

It was a short walk from there to two museums. The Museum of the History of Madrid:

has loads of models of the city at various stages:

as well as a 'Belem' - which we remember from similar examples from the previous trip to Slovakia (Banska Stiavnica) and to Italy:

Nearby is the Museum of Romanticism, with a series of 'over the top' reconstructions of rooms from that period:

Too much of this and we could get 'museumed out' very quickly, so it's back here for a siesta nap, and phone Renault to make an appointment to pick up the car on Tuesday, before we head off for dinner and to this evening's concert.

Dinner 

On the way out later in the day, we passed a little family-run restaurant advertising a speciality of paëlla - the exact name of the place escapes us now ... something like Casa Patricia. They were serving food relatively early for Madrid (and all of Spain), so we availed ourselves of the wonderful speciality of the casa. It was just like being in our own dining room!

Ses Concert

It was indeed fantastic to see Ses in concert here in Madrid. We had met and interviewed her at the Rudolstadt Festival in 2015, and contacted her management, who provided tickets to us on our second night in town. She was playing in the Fernán Gómez Cultural Centre, quite near where we had visited the museums earlier in the day:

Here are some (virtual) extracts of Ses in concert - with segments ranging from full-blown band, to intimate acoustic presentations ... just for us:

Even though the concert started early - a bit after 9 pm - this was still a late night for old groovers. Afterwards, and with a quick socially-distanced peck on all four cheeks from Ses, we wended our way through the silent streets of Madrid, back to our apartment, determined to sleep in tomorrow.