Madrid Avila Salamanca
Our first morning in Madrid and it’s a good start. Champagne on the breakfast buffet. Our group of 19, 15 Australians and 4 New Zealanders gathers for a walking tour of Madrid. Someone comments that it’s nice to have some young ones in the group. The only problem being that Karen, and the three others not long turned 60, are the 'young ones' they’re referring too. Still there are plenty of keen travellers in the group and life is looking good.
After a number of early starts in Morocco our 9am start is a luxury. Madrid is a city of 3 million. Originally a middle ages moslem castle/fortress it was surprisingly chosen in the 1500’s to became the capital and royal seat.
The Spanish Square has a monument to Don Quixote, compulsory reading for every Spanish child, and nearby, the oldest building in Madrid, an Egyptian temple gifted to Spain when it was to be flooded as the Aswan dam filled.
Tourism is a major income source with 94 million visiting last year. Buildings are well maintained. Ours would be too if, as here, the fine was equal to the cost of maintenance.
We pass the palace, 3421 rooms, rebuilt by Charles III after a fire. Rumour has it that he thought the original far too small and decided to do something about it. We’ll come back and visit this afternoon. The cathedral on the opposite side of the old market square looks old but was completed in 1993.
We’re told that in the past single women went to the convent and single men to war. Good reasons to get married. The local convent is said to have the best pastries in Madrid but there are now only 12 older nuns left. They have no contact with the world. Ring the bell, leave your money and they’ll replace it with pastries. Or find the local bakery to eat like a local, a bocatas de calamares, a calamari sandwich with maybe a beer to wash it down.
We walk through the Austrian square, past the Posssda del Peine, Madrids oldest hotel and see a statue of a boar and a tree, the symbol of Madrid.
Back on the bus to continue our tour, Parliament, various fountains, the Botanical gardens, the Prado museum and the city gate.
Refuelled with lunch it’s time to go back to the palace. It’s the largest in Europe but 4x smaller than Charle's original design. However, it’s apparently grown since this morning as our guide tells us it has 3480 rooms but we’ll only visit 30. It wasn’t necessarily a great place to live as the kitchen was 20 min from the dining room, so food was often cold and the high ceilings made it hard to heat.
Entry to the Kings apartments depended on your status, Count, Marquis or Grandee who met the king in his dressing room. The rooms are decorated in the Baroque style, more is more, and it certainly is. Gold leaf, ceilings and walls of porcelain, the royal chapel/concert space has ceilings 30m high.
Dinner tonight is tapas in a restaurant next to the square.
Today we’re on to Salamanca with a stop at Avila on the way. Our coach seats 34 and is brand new looks lovely but won’t fit all our luggage underneath. Not sure what they’ll do with a full passenger load.
Avila sits northwest of Madrid and has a full city wall and houses the first gothic cathedral in Spain. We climb the stairs and walk the walls, getting lost again in narrow streets before ma king our way back to the bus.
Salamanca is a university city. The main square and city hall are the centre of social life. Sit in the square, sip on a glass of wine, understand Spanish and you’ll hear everything,and more, that might have been reported in the local newspaper. The symbols of the brotherhood of saints and tapestries are starting to be hung for Holy Week and Easter.
Our walking tour takes us through the streets past another stork nest. It became a problem as it grew and when removed weighed over 800 kg. A house decorated with shell sculptures sits on the Camino on the way to the sea at Santiago.
Near the University library we discover the Victory Graffiti on walls dating back to the 14th century celebrating graduation doctorates. There were a minimal number of these and graduates originally used a mixture of bull's blood, olive oil and paprika to mark their doctorates. The Puerta de Salamanca facade provides a challenge and it’s where we’ll find the Salamanca frog. Find the frog and you’ll have good luck. Too hard for us but findable once it’s pointed out.
The old cathedral was used as the nave to create the but like most building projects suffered from cost overrun so the decoration lessens as we move from the bottom up.
As night approaches the square comes alive.
I find a ham and chorizo herzano and wash it down with gelato, find the heladeria where the university students queue, bigger scoops and cheaper prices. Winner!!
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