Exploring Madrid

Occasionally, my job allows for a spot of foreign travel, and last week I got to spend a few days in Madrid, where Santander has its global headquarters. Said HQ is a few miles out of the city, in an area without a great deal else there, and so everything one could need is onsite, from a range of restaurants to a laundry to a sports centre. It does feel a bit like Fort Knox, in that access into and out of the site is monitored carefully and on arrival I had to go through a mini passport control. Getting food requires an 'invitation' and even buying a coffee requires possession of the right bit of paper - money doesn't work!

 

Anyway, on my second night there, I decided to escape for a few hours and go into Madrid. After a thirty minute tram ride into town and a quick change onto the underground metro system, I ended up at a station called Principe Pio, with a nice shopping centre where I could get an early dinner (my digestive system struggled to cope with long lunches at 2pm and then having dinner as late as 10pm) and was able to see a beautiful archway that I captured as the sun was setting...

Puerta de Principe Pio

I decided I'd walk from there to take a look at the Royal Palace and the Almudena Cathedral, via the Sabatini Gardens. The Palacio Real de Madrid is the official residence of King Juan Carlos, but he and his family don't live there; it's more used for ceremonials these days. Apparently the palace is on the site of a ninth century fortress, but today's building was constructed between 1738 and 1755. With it being the evening, I didn't a chance to go inside but the views of the huge façade and the next door gardens are simply stunning, and I was one of many tourists seeking to grab a picture. I was struck by the sheer size of the building, and the view out over the city as the sun set was breath-taking:

Royal Palace, Madrid

Sabatini Gardens, Madrid

From there, I decided to walk along the Calle Balien and to take a detour via the Plaza de Oriente, which features some cool statues among the kissing couples.

Statue in the Plaza de Oriente, Madrid

Along the way, I came across a very nice café where I stopped for a drink and listened to the piano music courtesy of the house maestro. It all felt very civilised and relaxed. Continuing to wander brought me to the Cathedral, the Santa María la Real de La Almudena. The square between the Cathedral and the Palace is huge and affords magnificent views out over the city, of the front of said Cathedral and the back of the Palace. I can imagine that it gets very full during the day but there were only a view folks about when I was there, so I could get some good pictures. Wikipedia tells me that the Cathedral is actually very new; building was started in 1879 and was temporarily abandoned during the Spanish civil war. It was finally finished and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993. Again, the façade is stunningly beautiful and it was warm enough (around twenty degrees) to allow me to sit a while and just take in the view (excuse the police car in the shot!):

Almudena Cathedral, Madrid

Later, I went for a walk in the old town and nabbed a late supper in a paella bar near the Cathedral as I made my way back to the metro and the Santander (prison) complex. I had fun and games getting past security on the way in as the guard's lack of English and my lack of Spanish made it difficult to communicate that he needed to see my passport, an incident that has inspired me to try to learn some Spanish so when I go back I don't come across quite so much as an ignorant Englishman!

 

My trip was great fun and it was eye-opening to see some of the differences in culture between Britain and Spain. The most notable thing was the mealtimes, as breakfast was early if bothered with at all, lunch was mid-afternoon and dinner was after nine in the evening, which took some getting used to initially. I noticed that I got mis-gendered far more often than generally happens in the UK these days, now I've been taking testosterone for a few months, which makes me wonder what cues some of the Spanish men (it was always men!) I spoke to picked up on that their English counterparts are not doing! One other interesting thing emerged when chatting to some of my colleagues over coffee about visiting cathedrals. It seems that this generation of young educated Spaniards are just as secular as we are, which I wasn't expecting as I suppose I think of Spain as quite a traditional and very Catholic country.

 

Overall, I had a great time and can't wait to go back. I'm not looking forward to the heat of their summers, but there's so much to see and do that it'll be worth it!