50 in Madrid

12 Apr -Day 28

It started raining on our second day in Madrid. We first went to visit the Caixa Forum, which is this building with stuff in it. Next to it was another building with a garden growing off one of the walls.

The Forum is a fancy art gallery/theatre thing and had an exhibit on ballet, possibly Russian ballet but I can't say for sure. They had many displays of dresses and costumes that looked like they'd be terribly hard to walk around in, let alone perform ballet. It was very crowded because entry was free so I didn't stick around and went to relieve dad of bag-watching duties (you couldn't take backpacks in and the lockers required a €1 coin, which we didn't have).

Afterwards, we walked around and picked up some bocadillo de calamere for lunch, which is basically deep fried squid rings in bread. More walking ensued until we headed back to the hotel for a siesta.

We headed out again later that evening to visit the Reina Sofia Museum, which is a big old building with glass elevators and paintings in it. The layout of the exhibitions was very labyrinthine and confusing but it was pretty cool. There were many Picassos there, including his famous gigantic Guernica one. We went out to the outdoor terrace as well, which had a great view of the city and also some bizarre statues.

After, we went in search of food. While looking through the window of a nearby tapas bar, the animated bartender started furiously beckoning us inside. Convinced, we went in for a dinner of burger and mushroom.

13 Apr - Day 29

Today was my dad's 50th birthday so we were Skyped from home where a party was being held for him. Then we kicked off the celebrations in style by going to a laundromat to wash a week's worth of dirty clothes.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our fresh, apple scented underwear before heading back into town to the city's main shopping street, Gran Via, for birthday lunch at a nice tapas bar called the Mercado.

This was followed by some more walking as we went in search of Madrid's Hard Rock Cafe. On the way, we found this statue in the middle of the street which my dad thought was hilarious.

The Hard Rock Cafe turned out to be just as we expected: crowded and expensive, though some of the displays were pretty cool. We next went in search of the archeological museum which was closed for renovation. Instead we went to a cinema to see if there were any movies we might want to watch. There weren't, so we went to a cafe to research our next move. The research proved inconclusive so we went back to the hotel. My dad spent the rest of his 50th birthday alternating between sleeping and frantically reading a library book on his iPad which was about to expire. He managed to finish it,so all in all it was a pretty successful day.

14 Apr -Day 30

We started the day off with a visit to Madrid's central park. They have a big lake thing where people go to row and kayak with lots of big statues standing on the sides.

We then stopped off at a bar for some hot drinks and churros...

...and decided to join in the Occupy Madrid protest which I guess is not such a big deal over here.

After some more walking, we got to the San Miguel Mercado, which is like a cross between a tapas bar and a market. There are stalls all around the building serving food and drinks with tables and bar stools everywhere to eat and drink.

I saw one stall selling these small samosa type things and decided to buy one of everything to try. This turned out to be a terrible idea, but at least I didn't need to buy dinner today.

More walking, it started raining, and we ended up at this cathedral that I don't actually know the name of. It was very big and very cathedral-like. Next door to it was the Real Palace (turns out that 'real' is the Spanish word for 'royal') but the queue to get in was long so instead we went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for our trip to Granada.