Photo diary of day trips around Catalonia — Exploiting my free rail ticket
Sep 17th, 2022, 03:50 AM
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Photo diary of day trips around Catalonia — Exploiting my free rail ticket
Spain has followed the example of other European countries (Austria, Germany, maybe others?) and decided to offer FREE train journeys for everyone between September and December this year (renfe trains only). I’m from Catalonia so I’m jumping at the chance to explore my own region a little. It’s embarrassing to say but there are some very famous sites that I’ve never seen, or simply can’t remember!
I don’t know if it properly qualifies as a “trip report” if it’s my own country, and seeing as I will be sleeping at home in my own bed every night, but I wanted to share my photos with somebody. There is no real itinerary for this; I will simply go to places whenever I have a free day here and there, then write about them here. The tentative list of places includes:
I’d already been to Madrid before and seen lots of the main stuff, so this visit was supposed to include some of the lesser common sites (I ran out of time, as you'll see). Last-minute Madrid 2 day itinerary:
In the metro tunnels
As soon as we arrived to Madrid Atocha, my friends bid me farewell (they had work to do), and I set off on what I thought would be a quick metro trip to Retiro station. However, I had trouble buying a T-10 ticket (a T-10 allows for 10 rides on the metro). The price listed on-screen said €8,50, but the machine kept trying to add a mysterious €2,50 extra on the last step. Finally I realised that I had to pay for the actual card material itself. In Barcelona we have paper tickets for the metro, but Madrid has made plastic cards. There was no paper option to choose from.
The metro infrastructure in Madrid is much better than what we have in BCN. The tunnels are actually clean (!), sometimes they even smell nice (?!) and the walls are painted in bright yellow/green colours which make the space less claustrophobic. The only complaint I have is the signage. I’m a tall person, so if I’m standing in the metro I can’t see the signs telling me which station we’re at!
My first view of Madrid when I exited the metro was a good old traffic jam. The Alcalá gate was completely scaffolded...
And I first walked a little bit around Retiro garden, just the "paseo de México" part because I was going for a bit of a Latin American theme on this trip. That's the Galápagos fountain.
The first spot I went to was the "Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas" (Museum of Decorative Arts). I added it to my itinerary just to fill in some time before the Americas Museum free hour, but the building ended up being a lot larger and interesting than I'd expected. I was a little afraid after visiting the—extremely boring—first floor, about chairs (I have visited a surprising amount of boring chair design museums in my life, it's the curse of being an old design student), but the upper floors were better. They had a couple traditional-style room mock-ups that were charming, lots of pottery and cloths, tocadors (dressing tables? boudoirs? how do you call them?) and other elaborate furnitures, a giant nativity scene with detailed dolls and clothes, jewellery, etc.
Overall, I did end up spending a couple hours looking around.
It was already 2pm by then, so I headed to Puerta del Sol for lunch. The square was almost completely cut off due to work/building of some sort being done, so I got terribly lost. It took me a long while to finally find the restaurant!
On my way to metro station "Banco de España". I think that's the Cervantes Institute building.
My lunch: a yellow, blue and pink burger at a place called Freedom Cakes café (vegan). I have eaten few burgers in my life, so I made a huge mess. There was a lot of ketchup and mustard inside.
Very nice waffles with strawberry.
After lunch, I went to Moncloa. I was excited to see this area because Moncloa always comes up on the news (it's where the politicians gather and our president lives). As far as I know, I saw no politicians though.
The Moncloa Arch and Moncloa's Lighthouse in the back. I thought the lighthouse would be an old brick building of sorts when I saw the name on the map, but clearly not! It was a big steel structure more similar to the Tibidabo TV tower than a lighthouse.
I went to the "Museo de América" (Museum of the Americas). I don't know the exact timetable for free visits, but on Thursdays it was from 2pm onwards, so they just waved me in.
They had some interesting pieces in the collection, but I don't think the museum was too well-designed (there's my design student side showing again). I expected to learn some stuff about Spanish colonialism, but it was hardly the centre theme. I learnt more from this 18 minute video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=er4CMhp6hqc) I watched the other day than I did in the museum! Half, if not most, of the collections were taken during Spanish colonial times, so at least a bit of a decent introduction to that would've been good. There also weren't any audiovisuals to speak of, just a room full of maps that were difficult to interpret. The halls seemed to skip from one topic to another without warning.
It was a real disappointment, honestly; it could be a fantastic museum if its design was better done.
They had a real mummy. It makes you wonder what exactly they did to get their hands on it, but that part isn't mentioned.
Moncloa is a university area, so there's plenty graffiti and young people walking around.
View from the Royal Palace park.
My second disappointment of the day came in the form of the Royal Palace. Their official website said they were free on Thursdays from 5pm to 7pm. The timetable next to the door there at the palace also claimed they were open and free... except that the entrance door was closed. Only the exit door was open, so I stuck my head in and tried to find a guard to ask. There were three palace workers standing next to the exit, talking amongst themselves and laughing, but they got very angry any time a tourist tried to ask them why the entrance was closed despite the sign outside. They repeatedly waved people away, rolled their eyes and weren't exactly respectful to the visitors they were supposed to be watching over and helping. Overall very rude. Not once in the time I waited did they step outside to explain the situation to anybody waiting in line. I imagine if somebody had come from a different country and was really looking forward to visiting the Royal Palace, they would've been quite taken aback by this treatment. I wonder if the newspapers will take my complaint...
Anyway, so I gave up waiting and decided to walk up to Callao station before going to the hotel. I stopped for some (vegan) churros and hot chocolate at Chocolateria 1902, it's a Madrid must-eat. I also spent half an hour looking through books at FNAC.
Lovely name plaques like this were on many streets.
A cute bookshop.
The next day, I slept in a little because the museum didn't open 'till 9-10am, but I figured I'd probably get lost in the metro so I was out the door by 8:30am. I was right. I got off at Alonso Martínez station, but I couldn't figure out which direction to walk to get to Colón and ended up walking around the roundabout, with a wait time at every traffic light. Eventually a man pointed me in the right direction, and I arrived to Colón a while after nine.
Mostly I just looked at the main monument in the park. They were setting up a car fair for the weekend, so I wasn't really able to go through the middle of the park.
A giant frog statue
The great Spanish Empire! (Colón statue)
I had plans to do a quick visit to the National Library first, but it turns out entry to the library (for those who don't have a specific library card) are granted only to those who booked a guided tour in advance. I did not know this, I thought it was a normal, albeit photogenic, library! So I wasn't able to see the halls that appear in all the photos, I was only able to see the grand marble entry hall, a room upstairs with a long table, and a display of some medieval books. Next time, maybe!
National Library
National Library entrance with statues of famous Spanish authors & intellectuals
The library entry hall.
So then I went to the National Archaeological Museum, in the same building as the library, but with entry from the other side. "Two hours", I said, "I'll see the museum in two hours, and then I'll also visit the Museo Sorolla before lunch". I was there for 4h, and I still didn't manage to see it all!
The Archaeological Museum did everything right (in the way the América museum could only dream of
). The route started with an "introductory hallway", just some bits and pieces of what was to come in a nicely laid-out way, and then had a large timeline of Spanish history with a 3d map of the Iberian peninsula. Different parts of the map would change colour so we could see where the borders were at different points in time. It was a fantastic way to explain history in a visual and understandable way.
The bottom floor was dedicated to prehistory, starting with bones and skulls from other homos (Australopithecus, neanderthals, etc.), and covering prehistorical art, hunting, weapon making, day to day life, pottery... really, anything you can think of. It took me 1h30 to see that first floor. There were plenty large illustrations, statues of past would-be humans in their habitat, and screens with videos covering different themes scattered about, so it was easy to take in new information without reading millions of panels. By the time I had finished, I realised I might not have time to see the whole museum, so I skipped to the third floor where they had Egyptian and Greek collections.
Beginning of the Archeology Museum route, with an infinite mirror of sorts.
This is the sort of displays that made the museum for me.
A dead guy about to be buried.
When Egypt wanted to build the Aswan High Dam, they knew a lot of the ancient ruins would be submerged, so they asked UNESCO for help in saving as many ruins and artefacts as possible. Spain joined the expedition and as thanks was given a lot of Egyptian relics, like the Debod Temple, and all of the collection at the Archeology museum. They had a wall with statuettes of all the Egyptian pantheon, their names and relationships, which helped to tell the difference between all the Gods. Then also lots of mummies (of humans and animals) and all sorts of other pieces that would've also been enclosed in the tombs, plus ex-rays of their insides and a wax reconstruction of what one of them would've looked like in life. In between the Egyptian and Greek halls there was an in-between explaining how both cultures influenced each-other through commerce, and how mythology and the Gods of both fused in certain ways.
I did the Greek rooms a little faster, simply because I've been studying a lot of Greek history recently and I'm a bit saturated with it, but they had a fantastic collection of black Greek vases, then picked a few of them and analysed the pictures on them showing different stages of Greek life (sports, marriage, war, philosophy, feasts, etc.).
Roof of one of the Islamic art rooms
The third floor took me 1h45, so I had only a little time to do a speed-run of the second floor. It had all the Roman art, which I just walked through because I live on the coast (plenty Roman ruins there), but I was sad that I didn't have much time for the Islamic art part. There was another side to the museum on the second floor with "protohistory" and other things, but I have no clue what was in there!
It was definitely my favourite museum in Madrid, I'll have to go there another time to finish it off.
I took the metro to Lavapiés, entirely because the name is hilarious (Lavapiés means "wash your feet"), and found a restaurant around there. It's called that, apparently, because in the olden days there would be small streams of water that ran down the streets when it rained. The steep slope of Lavapiés would mean the water would flow straight downhill into the neighbourhood and "wash" the feet of anyone who walked through there.
It's an ugly modern neighbourhood though. Lots of rubbish on the ground, and the streets with broken sidewalks smell of piss. I had a window seat in the restaurant which, unfortunately, didn't make the lunch very pleasant! I just had some regular gazpacho and vegan paella.
I was a little early for the train home, so I stopped by this bookstore in front of Atocha station to look for something to read.
Goodbye Madrid!
My very healthy snacks for the train ride home, plus the book I bought.
TOTAL SPENT day 1: €11 (metro T-10), €12,50 (lunch), €1,25 (1L juice from the supermarket), €5,30 (churros) = €30,05
TOTAL SPENT day 2: €3 (dama de Elche rubber for my collection), €12 (lunch), €3 (book), €7,95 (train snacks) = €29,95
Exactly €56! Anyway, with my quick Madrid visit out of the way, I'll be making posts about some Catalan day trips from here onwards. The first will likely be Tarragona's Santa Tecla festival that's happening right these days.
I don’t know if it properly qualifies as a “trip report” if it’s my own country, and seeing as I will be sleeping at home in my own bed every night, but I wanted to share my photos with somebody. There is no real itinerary for this; I will simply go to places whenever I have a free day here and there, then write about them here. The tentative list of places includes:
- Tarragona
- Barcelona
- Girona
- Lleida
- Sitges
- Tortosa
- València
- Maybe Penyíscola
- Some small towns?
I’d already been to Madrid before and seen lots of the main stuff, so this visit was supposed to include some of the lesser common sites (I ran out of time, as you'll see). Last-minute Madrid 2 day itinerary:
- AVE to ATOCHA STATION. Buy metro T-10.
- METRO: Atocha > Retiro (1)
- Parque del retiro (Paseo de México)
- Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas
- METRO: Banco de España > Sol (2)
- LUNCH: Freedom Cakes Café
- METRO: Sol > Moncloa (3)
- Museo de América
- METRO: Moncloa > Príncipe Pío (4)
- Palacio reial (cancelled)
- Chocolateria 1902
- Calle de Preciados
- METRO: Callao > Canillejas (5)
- METRO: Canillejas > Alonso Martínez (6)
- Plaza Colón (jardines del Descubrimiento, monumento)
- Biblioteca nacional
- Museo arqueológico
- METRO: Colón > Alonso Martínez > Sol > Lavapiés (7)
- LUNCH: La Oveja Negra Taberna Vegana
- Librería Re-Read
- AVE return
In the metro tunnels
As soon as we arrived to Madrid Atocha, my friends bid me farewell (they had work to do), and I set off on what I thought would be a quick metro trip to Retiro station. However, I had trouble buying a T-10 ticket (a T-10 allows for 10 rides on the metro). The price listed on-screen said €8,50, but the machine kept trying to add a mysterious €2,50 extra on the last step. Finally I realised that I had to pay for the actual card material itself. In Barcelona we have paper tickets for the metro, but Madrid has made plastic cards. There was no paper option to choose from.
The metro infrastructure in Madrid is much better than what we have in BCN. The tunnels are actually clean (!), sometimes they even smell nice (?!) and the walls are painted in bright yellow/green colours which make the space less claustrophobic. The only complaint I have is the signage. I’m a tall person, so if I’m standing in the metro I can’t see the signs telling me which station we’re at!
My first view of Madrid when I exited the metro was a good old traffic jam. The Alcalá gate was completely scaffolded...
And I first walked a little bit around Retiro garden, just the "paseo de México" part because I was going for a bit of a Latin American theme on this trip. That's the Galápagos fountain.
The first spot I went to was the "Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas" (Museum of Decorative Arts). I added it to my itinerary just to fill in some time before the Americas Museum free hour, but the building ended up being a lot larger and interesting than I'd expected. I was a little afraid after visiting the—extremely boring—first floor, about chairs (I have visited a surprising amount of boring chair design museums in my life, it's the curse of being an old design student), but the upper floors were better. They had a couple traditional-style room mock-ups that were charming, lots of pottery and cloths, tocadors (dressing tables? boudoirs? how do you call them?) and other elaborate furnitures, a giant nativity scene with detailed dolls and clothes, jewellery, etc.
Overall, I did end up spending a couple hours looking around.
It was already 2pm by then, so I headed to Puerta del Sol for lunch. The square was almost completely cut off due to work/building of some sort being done, so I got terribly lost. It took me a long while to finally find the restaurant!
On my way to metro station "Banco de España". I think that's the Cervantes Institute building.
My lunch: a yellow, blue and pink burger at a place called Freedom Cakes café (vegan). I have eaten few burgers in my life, so I made a huge mess. There was a lot of ketchup and mustard inside.
Very nice waffles with strawberry.
After lunch, I went to Moncloa. I was excited to see this area because Moncloa always comes up on the news (it's where the politicians gather and our president lives). As far as I know, I saw no politicians though.
The Moncloa Arch and Moncloa's Lighthouse in the back. I thought the lighthouse would be an old brick building of sorts when I saw the name on the map, but clearly not! It was a big steel structure more similar to the Tibidabo TV tower than a lighthouse.
I went to the "Museo de América" (Museum of the Americas). I don't know the exact timetable for free visits, but on Thursdays it was from 2pm onwards, so they just waved me in.
They had some interesting pieces in the collection, but I don't think the museum was too well-designed (there's my design student side showing again). I expected to learn some stuff about Spanish colonialism, but it was hardly the centre theme. I learnt more from this 18 minute video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=er4CMhp6hqc) I watched the other day than I did in the museum! Half, if not most, of the collections were taken during Spanish colonial times, so at least a bit of a decent introduction to that would've been good. There also weren't any audiovisuals to speak of, just a room full of maps that were difficult to interpret. The halls seemed to skip from one topic to another without warning.
It was a real disappointment, honestly; it could be a fantastic museum if its design was better done.
They had a real mummy. It makes you wonder what exactly they did to get their hands on it, but that part isn't mentioned.
Moncloa is a university area, so there's plenty graffiti and young people walking around.
View from the Royal Palace park.
My second disappointment of the day came in the form of the Royal Palace. Their official website said they were free on Thursdays from 5pm to 7pm. The timetable next to the door there at the palace also claimed they were open and free... except that the entrance door was closed. Only the exit door was open, so I stuck my head in and tried to find a guard to ask. There were three palace workers standing next to the exit, talking amongst themselves and laughing, but they got very angry any time a tourist tried to ask them why the entrance was closed despite the sign outside. They repeatedly waved people away, rolled their eyes and weren't exactly respectful to the visitors they were supposed to be watching over and helping. Overall very rude. Not once in the time I waited did they step outside to explain the situation to anybody waiting in line. I imagine if somebody had come from a different country and was really looking forward to visiting the Royal Palace, they would've been quite taken aback by this treatment. I wonder if the newspapers will take my complaint...
Anyway, so I gave up waiting and decided to walk up to Callao station before going to the hotel. I stopped for some (vegan) churros and hot chocolate at Chocolateria 1902, it's a Madrid must-eat. I also spent half an hour looking through books at FNAC.
Lovely name plaques like this were on many streets.
A cute bookshop.
The next day, I slept in a little because the museum didn't open 'till 9-10am, but I figured I'd probably get lost in the metro so I was out the door by 8:30am. I was right. I got off at Alonso Martínez station, but I couldn't figure out which direction to walk to get to Colón and ended up walking around the roundabout, with a wait time at every traffic light. Eventually a man pointed me in the right direction, and I arrived to Colón a while after nine.
Mostly I just looked at the main monument in the park. They were setting up a car fair for the weekend, so I wasn't really able to go through the middle of the park.
A giant frog statue
The great Spanish Empire! (Colón statue)
I had plans to do a quick visit to the National Library first, but it turns out entry to the library (for those who don't have a specific library card) are granted only to those who booked a guided tour in advance. I did not know this, I thought it was a normal, albeit photogenic, library! So I wasn't able to see the halls that appear in all the photos, I was only able to see the grand marble entry hall, a room upstairs with a long table, and a display of some medieval books. Next time, maybe!
National Library
National Library entrance with statues of famous Spanish authors & intellectuals
The library entry hall.
So then I went to the National Archaeological Museum, in the same building as the library, but with entry from the other side. "Two hours", I said, "I'll see the museum in two hours, and then I'll also visit the Museo Sorolla before lunch". I was there for 4h, and I still didn't manage to see it all!
The Archaeological Museum did everything right (in the way the América museum could only dream of
). The route started with an "introductory hallway", just some bits and pieces of what was to come in a nicely laid-out way, and then had a large timeline of Spanish history with a 3d map of the Iberian peninsula. Different parts of the map would change colour so we could see where the borders were at different points in time. It was a fantastic way to explain history in a visual and understandable way.The bottom floor was dedicated to prehistory, starting with bones and skulls from other homos (Australopithecus, neanderthals, etc.), and covering prehistorical art, hunting, weapon making, day to day life, pottery... really, anything you can think of. It took me 1h30 to see that first floor. There were plenty large illustrations, statues of past would-be humans in their habitat, and screens with videos covering different themes scattered about, so it was easy to take in new information without reading millions of panels. By the time I had finished, I realised I might not have time to see the whole museum, so I skipped to the third floor where they had Egyptian and Greek collections.
Beginning of the Archeology Museum route, with an infinite mirror of sorts.
This is the sort of displays that made the museum for me.
A dead guy about to be buried.
When Egypt wanted to build the Aswan High Dam, they knew a lot of the ancient ruins would be submerged, so they asked UNESCO for help in saving as many ruins and artefacts as possible. Spain joined the expedition and as thanks was given a lot of Egyptian relics, like the Debod Temple, and all of the collection at the Archeology museum. They had a wall with statuettes of all the Egyptian pantheon, their names and relationships, which helped to tell the difference between all the Gods. Then also lots of mummies (of humans and animals) and all sorts of other pieces that would've also been enclosed in the tombs, plus ex-rays of their insides and a wax reconstruction of what one of them would've looked like in life. In between the Egyptian and Greek halls there was an in-between explaining how both cultures influenced each-other through commerce, and how mythology and the Gods of both fused in certain ways.
I did the Greek rooms a little faster, simply because I've been studying a lot of Greek history recently and I'm a bit saturated with it, but they had a fantastic collection of black Greek vases, then picked a few of them and analysed the pictures on them showing different stages of Greek life (sports, marriage, war, philosophy, feasts, etc.).
Roof of one of the Islamic art rooms
The third floor took me 1h45, so I had only a little time to do a speed-run of the second floor. It had all the Roman art, which I just walked through because I live on the coast (plenty Roman ruins there), but I was sad that I didn't have much time for the Islamic art part. There was another side to the museum on the second floor with "protohistory" and other things, but I have no clue what was in there!
It was definitely my favourite museum in Madrid, I'll have to go there another time to finish it off.
I took the metro to Lavapiés, entirely because the name is hilarious (Lavapiés means "wash your feet"), and found a restaurant around there. It's called that, apparently, because in the olden days there would be small streams of water that ran down the streets when it rained. The steep slope of Lavapiés would mean the water would flow straight downhill into the neighbourhood and "wash" the feet of anyone who walked through there.
It's an ugly modern neighbourhood though. Lots of rubbish on the ground, and the streets with broken sidewalks smell of piss. I had a window seat in the restaurant which, unfortunately, didn't make the lunch very pleasant! I just had some regular gazpacho and vegan paella.
I was a little early for the train home, so I stopped by this bookstore in front of Atocha station to look for something to read.
Goodbye Madrid!
My very healthy snacks for the train ride home, plus the book I bought.
TOTAL SPENT day 1: €11 (metro T-10), €12,50 (lunch), €1,25 (1L juice from the supermarket), €5,30 (churros) = €30,05
TOTAL SPENT day 2: €3 (dama de Elche rubber for my collection), €12 (lunch), €3 (book), €7,95 (train snacks) = €29,95
Exactly €56! Anyway, with my quick Madrid visit out of the way, I'll be making posts about some Catalan day trips from here onwards. The first will likely be Tarragona's Santa Tecla festival that's happening right these days.
Last edited by Peter_T; Sep 17th, 2022 at 04:48 AM.
Sep 17th, 2022, 12:40 PM
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Love it! Will be waiting for your next installment. I notice that some of the trees appear to be losing leaves and changing color already. What's the weather like right now? We'll be in Madrid in 2 weeks. Maybe the leaves will be colorful at that time? I also love seeing photos of the train stations. It shows me what to expect. Thanks!
Sep 19th, 2022, 12:51 AM
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The Archeological museum looks amazing.
That traffic jam was something else. Somehow I remember Madrid as more beautiful and elegant. That building near the Colon Statue, Ugh. Would I still find it lovely?
That traffic jam was something else. Somehow I remember Madrid as more beautiful and elegant. That building near the Colon Statue, Ugh. Would I still find it lovely?
Sep 19th, 2022, 04:40 AM
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Point of note to other readers the free train tickets in Spain are only for those who are living in Spain and for those who take multiple trips on the same route.
Tourists should note get excited by this offer
Quotes from the link below.
https://www.renfe.com/es/es/grupo-re...-abonos-gratis
The above writes that no long distance trains get the free travel pass The quote is from the link below.
https://www.renfe.com/es/es/grupo-re...s/abonos-renfe
Tourists should note get excited by this offer
Los abonos gratuitos son válidos para los títulos multiviaje propios de Renfe en Cercanías, Rodalies y Media Distancia Medio millón de usuarios se han registrado previamente en la web y apps de Renfe para agilizar la adquisición de los abonos
Renfe recomienda adquirir los abonos gratis antes del próximo 5 de septiembre, ante el aumento de viajeros que se prevé ese día en la red de Cercanías y Media Distancia de toda España, tras el final de las vacaciones de verano de la mayoría de los ciudadanos.
https://www.renfe.com/es/es/grupo-re...-abonos-gratis
Desde el 1 de septiembre al 31 de diciembre, podrás beneficiarte de la gratuidad de los abonos de Media Distancia con el que todos los clientes frecuentes de este servicio podrán viajar entre dos estaciones de origen/destino concretas.
https://www.renfe.com/es/es/grupo-re...s/abonos-renfe
Sep 19th, 2022, 08:44 AM
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Peter,
Here's the program for the remaining days of Santa Tecla-
9394149e-974b-4e04-a087-56115cec118d-santa_tecla_tarragona_en.pdf
Here's the program for the remaining days of Santa Tecla-
9394149e-974b-4e04-a087-56115cec118d-santa_tecla_tarragona_en.pdf
Sep 22nd, 2022, 07:01 AM
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Thank you for your kind words everyone!
Up until a couple days ago, it was very much summer weather here on the Mediterranean coast. I took a blanket out of the cupboard for sleeping just two nights ago (before that it was warm enough to sleep with a thin sheet, or with nothing), and I still went for swims at the beach last. There are no orange leaves where I live.
But Madrid is generally colder than the coast (including Barcelona), so the autumn starts earlier there. In Madrid, I and most other people were in T-shirts all day, except for on the bullet trains (they put strong air-con on) and evenings, where another layer was necessary. Some people have swapped out shorts for jeans and trousers, but that’s also more common city attire in general. This is a photo of Atocha station, you can see how people are dressed:
In a couple weeks time, you might want long sleeve shirts and a couple jumpers for nights. I would leave out the T-shirts. September weather is always difficult to guess though!
Love it! Will be waiting for your next installment. I notice that some of the trees appear to be losing leaves and changing color already. What's the weather like right now? We'll be in Madrid in 2 weeks. Maybe the leaves will be colorful at that time? I also love seeing photos of the train stations. It shows me what to expect. Thanks!
But Madrid is generally colder than the coast (including Barcelona), so the autumn starts earlier there. In Madrid, I and most other people were in T-shirts all day, except for on the bullet trains (they put strong air-con on) and evenings, where another layer was necessary. Some people have swapped out shorts for jeans and trousers, but that’s also more common city attire in general. This is a photo of Atocha station, you can see how people are dressed:
In a couple weeks time, you might want long sleeve shirts and a couple jumpers for nights. I would leave out the T-shirts. September weather is always difficult to guess though!
Sep 22nd, 2022, 07:17 AM
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rialtogrl and Maribel, I will hopefully see Santa Tecla tomorrow! Thanks for the link, I was using the longer program (https://www.elnacional.cat/uploads/s...tecla-2022.pdf) but I hadn't seen any mentions of free entry to MNAT.
Sep 22nd, 2022, 08:35 AM
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But it is also the capital, with many people going up and down, and citizens who live there and lead normal lives. Construction sites, noise and crowds will always be there. People will hang their less glamorous washing on the balcony, and you'll get lost, and you might want to lean on something but realise it's a bit sticky. Those are just normal things in a city!
Both those ugly photos I took them because I found them funny. The traffic jams in Madrid are a bit of a joke here because of something a politician said, so I had to laugh when it was the first thing I saw, but I don't think they're so bad if you're walking around. And I thought the Colón statue and building were an amusing juxtaposition. If you take a photo from the other side of the street you can avoid all the blue
If I was travelling around a foreign country I wouldn't have noticed those details, I'm just pedantic because it's my own country.I think you'd still find Madrid lovely!
---
If anyone wants to see some photos from my previous Madrid trip, I'm adding them here. I only had one day but I was on a roll and did lots of things. This was February 2018, I think:
Debod Temple
Early morning view from the lookout at the Príncipe Pío Mountain
Inside the Cerralbo Museum. This was my favourite museum from my last trip.
Cerralbo Museum
Royal Palace
Royal Palace
Almudena Cathedral
Almudena Cathedral
Going into Plaza del Sol from La Latina neighbourhood
Puerta del Sol (they weren't doing any construction last time)
I found these men who were cooking corn, so I had a snack.
House of Cervantes, author of Don Quijote
Last time I had lunch at a place called La Biotika. Looking through my photos, it seems I had gazpacho and a salad as a first plate, this was my second, and then I had some cake for pudding.
Inside the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
The Crystal Palace in Retiro Park. It was full of people when I was there and it has an odd shape, so it was difficult to get good photos from inside, but it's nice to see.
Almond blossoms in Retiro Park
Garden inside Atocha station
Last edited by Peter_T; Sep 22nd, 2022 at 08:53 AM.
Sep 22nd, 2022, 01:14 PM
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Peter,
I love your February Madrid photos! This is a great trip report!
The elegant Cerralbo is one of my favorite house museums. And the MAN (Museo Arqueológico Nacional is simply stunning, so well done, especially the Islamic section. I have to divide it into two visits because it's so vast and so much of merit to see. I understand why it took you. 4 hours and didn't see it all.
Not many folks get to the somewhat unsung Decorative Arts Museum. I enjoy it too, especially the kitchen and dining room adorned with Talavera, Puente del Arzobispo and Manises ceramics (my kind of kitchen).
You're so right about the very elegant, stately area just a few blocks from the hideous Colón tower (my husband and I have been saying for years they should tear it down!).
We stayed for two weeks in this upmarket area of southeastern Chamberí at Christmas (around Almagro/Zurbano) and the turn-of-the century architecture is quite regal, aristocratic--very "stately", especially the highly elaborate designs on the rooftops. As our Madrid Fodorite Revulgo says, "when walking in Madrid always look up". It's filled with elegant mansions, some are embassies, some neo-Gothic, some Moderniste, some neo-Mudéjar. We couldn't stop snapping photos of the architecture (but ours aren't as beautiful as yours!). Keep them coming
I love your February Madrid photos! This is a great trip report!
The elegant Cerralbo is one of my favorite house museums. And the MAN (Museo Arqueológico Nacional is simply stunning, so well done, especially the Islamic section. I have to divide it into two visits because it's so vast and so much of merit to see. I understand why it took you. 4 hours and didn't see it all.
Not many folks get to the somewhat unsung Decorative Arts Museum. I enjoy it too, especially the kitchen and dining room adorned with Talavera, Puente del Arzobispo and Manises ceramics (my kind of kitchen).
You're so right about the very elegant, stately area just a few blocks from the hideous Colón tower (my husband and I have been saying for years they should tear it down!).
We stayed for two weeks in this upmarket area of southeastern Chamberí at Christmas (around Almagro/Zurbano) and the turn-of-the century architecture is quite regal, aristocratic--very "stately", especially the highly elaborate designs on the rooftops. As our Madrid Fodorite Revulgo says, "when walking in Madrid always look up". It's filled with elegant mansions, some are embassies, some neo-Gothic, some Moderniste, some neo-Mudéjar. We couldn't stop snapping photos of the architecture (but ours aren't as beautiful as yours!). Keep them coming
Oct 2nd, 2022, 01:45 PM
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Hello again! It’s been a couple weeks since my last post. I did go to Santa Tecla as promised but there was a bit of drama after that and I haven’t been able to sort out any of my photos. I will do that over the coming week and will tell you all about it.
Tarragona Market. I bought some "cabell d'àngel" (vegan) at a place called Paquita Degustació. Cabell d'àngel means "angel hair", and is kind of like solid pumpkin jam with bread and sugar. Very typical Catalan food.
For now, I just wanted to share some photos from the “Tarragona Concurs de Castells”. I’m sure many of you have heard of the human towers in Catalonia. Well, every two years they do a big competition in Tarragona, where the best of the best come together and try to make newer, higher and more difficult structures. Three years ago (I think it was 3 years) I was unable to get tickets because they sold out extremely quickly, and then they were cancelled last year because of the pandemic. But finally I got in this year!
Unfortunately, because it was Saturday, the Roman Forum was closed and we weren't able to go inside...
The competition is held inside the Tàrraco Arena, the old bull fighting ring, about 10min walk from the station. Along the way we came across some of the teams who were waiting in line, ready to go inside. They were putting on their faixes, this black cloth that goes around their waist. It's so that the people who climb to the top can use it as a step to pull themselves up. It has to be tied very tightly!
In the arena
The line went very quickly and we were soon inside. The tickets weren't numbered, so we could sit wherever we wanted and move around. They only let me get this top view at the beginning; once the castles began they cut off the second floor. Press and VIPs only! But overall the competition lasted three hours, so I got to see many different angles.
For those not familiar with castells, basically it goes like this:
Hand up!
The kid at the top is called the enxaneta. They're usually 5-10 years old.
This maroon-colour castle below is called "castell amb folre", meaning that an outer layer was built first, the enxaneta reached the top and lifted her hand but, instead of climbing down, she slipped inside the castle and stood on top of a single pillar hidden inside. Then the outer layer climbs down, leaving only the central pillar.
Those blues are doing a double structure, with two main pillars, and the enxaneta climbs to the top of one and then the other:
Most people in the castle form the base:
The strongest men at the bottom...
The further up the castle, the lighter people are. They climb up and climb down quickly. And when everyone is down again...
Celebration!
Some of the castles are very impressive. Especially since this is a competition, the teams really push themselves to do the best they can after practicing for two full years. But sometimes...
It can be very painful and dangerous when a castle falls. The Red Cross was waiting on the sidelines in case they were needed. For many people, it's the disappointment of not succeeding after so much training, and losing in the final round.
But everyone who does castles knows what it feels like to fall, and if a castle collapses everybody claps and cheers in support all the same. Castles, at the end of the day, are about companionship and family. Everyone I know who does castles says they've made friends for life. You have to put a lot of trust in the people around you, and it can be very emotional!
Well, that was my weekend!
Tarragona Market. I bought some "cabell d'àngel" (vegan) at a place called Paquita Degustació. Cabell d'àngel means "angel hair", and is kind of like solid pumpkin jam with bread and sugar. Very typical Catalan food.
For now, I just wanted to share some photos from the “Tarragona Concurs de Castells”. I’m sure many of you have heard of the human towers in Catalonia. Well, every two years they do a big competition in Tarragona, where the best of the best come together and try to make newer, higher and more difficult structures. Three years ago (I think it was 3 years) I was unable to get tickets because they sold out extremely quickly, and then they were cancelled last year because of the pandemic. But finally I got in this year!
Unfortunately, because it was Saturday, the Roman Forum was closed and we weren't able to go inside...
The competition is held inside the Tàrraco Arena, the old bull fighting ring, about 10min walk from the station. Along the way we came across some of the teams who were waiting in line, ready to go inside. They were putting on their faixes, this black cloth that goes around their waist. It's so that the people who climb to the top can use it as a step to pull themselves up. It has to be tied very tightly!
In the arena
The line went very quickly and we were soon inside. The tickets weren't numbered, so we could sit wherever we wanted and move around. They only let me get this top view at the beginning; once the castles began they cut off the second floor. Press and VIPs only! But overall the competition lasted three hours, so I got to see many different angles.
For those not familiar with castells, basically it goes like this:
- Different colours = different teams (from different cities/towns in Catalonia)
- The goal is for people to stand on each other and make a human tower
- The kid has to lift their hand once they're at the top, then the castle counts as "mounted". They get extra points if everyone manages to climb down without falling.
Hand up!
The kid at the top is called the enxaneta. They're usually 5-10 years old.
This maroon-colour castle below is called "castell amb folre", meaning that an outer layer was built first, the enxaneta reached the top and lifted her hand but, instead of climbing down, she slipped inside the castle and stood on top of a single pillar hidden inside. Then the outer layer climbs down, leaving only the central pillar.
Those blues are doing a double structure, with two main pillars, and the enxaneta climbs to the top of one and then the other:
Most people in the castle form the base:
The strongest men at the bottom...
The further up the castle, the lighter people are. They climb up and climb down quickly. And when everyone is down again...
Celebration!
Some of the castles are very impressive. Especially since this is a competition, the teams really push themselves to do the best they can after practicing for two full years. But sometimes...
It can be very painful and dangerous when a castle falls. The Red Cross was waiting on the sidelines in case they were needed. For many people, it's the disappointment of not succeeding after so much training, and losing in the final round.
But everyone who does castles knows what it feels like to fall, and if a castle collapses everybody claps and cheers in support all the same. Castles, at the end of the day, are about companionship and family. Everyone I know who does castles says they've made friends for life. You have to put a lot of trust in the people around you, and it can be very emotional!
Well, that was my weekend!
Last edited by Peter_T; Oct 2nd, 2022 at 02:06 PM.
Oct 2nd, 2022, 02:41 PM
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Peter,
I continue to love your photos, especially of the castellers. We've tried 3 times to secure tickets for the final event, but they've sold out almost immediately, so I'm very envious!
Looking forward to more!
I continue to love your photos, especially of the castellers. We've tried 3 times to secure tickets for the final event, but they've sold out almost immediately, so I'm very envious!
Looking forward to more!
