Sunday, June 04, 2006

Madrid 2006

  Posted by Picasa Myself and my girlfriend went to Madrid for a few days last week, and had the usual wonderful time.

The airport at Barajas has undergone major rebuilding, and we arrived at a gate in the new Terminal 4 - a huge long building painted in rainbow colours. We tried to get into town as usual, but the bus to Colon no longer runs, and now teminated at Avenue des Americas. From here, we decided to catch the Metro but had to change a couple of times. We got to Sol and walked to our hotel, and finally made it to bed around 1am.

  Posted by Picasa The next morning, we walked around town after getting our train tickets for our trip to Cordoba for the Friday. We stopped for a beer overlooking the cathedral (left) and palace, and visited a few other places we like and have been to many times before. That night, we walked through Plaza Mayor during the sunset (above), and had dinner at El Botin, one of my favourite restaurants anywhere. Garlic soup and then suckling pig - yummie!

  Posted by Picasa On the Friday, we caught the hi-speed train (AVE) to Cordoba.

  Posted by Picasa We wandered around the town - a new one for us. There was a lovely fountain and statue in the main park (left)

  Posted by Picasa We walked alongside the city walls, and into the old town, and then into the Alcazar. The nice security man let us in for free, although we don't know why!?! Rachel is shown (left) looking back at me through the battlements.

  Posted by Picasa The gardens of the Alcazar had some very pretty fountains (left and below). The main problem was getting a decent picture while trying not to show any of the other tourists trying to get the same sort of shot! A whole group of English schoolgirls took a bunch of time taking group shots, using about eight different cameras, but we've grown used to being patient...

  Posted by Picasa It was a lovely day in town - warm and sunny, but with a kind of mountain breeze to take the edge off the heat.

  Posted by Picasa At the entrance to the Alcazar, there was a statue (left) of a king presumably. I took this shot on the way out, as he also attracted lots of other tourists and their cameras... The Alcazar was nice, but quite busy, so I didn't mind moving on to the next part of our walk around town. The whitewashed house walls of the streets are very clean and tidy, and there are plenty of flowers blooming too.

We strolled towards the Mezique, and as we got close we found this imposing tower/column (below) between the Mezique and the river.

It looked a bit Roman to me (but what do I know?), quite old, and intricately carved out of stone. A little strange in a Moorish area.


Cordoba column Posted by Picasa

The Mezique is an imposing large Moorish temple, with high walls, carved in Islamic taste - no human form of any kind.


Cordoba Mezique Posted by Picasa

Mezique wall Posted by Picasa We walked almost all the way around the building, and then deiceded to have some lunch. However, our chosen resaurant was not yet open (it was 12.45, and the Spanish tend to take all their meals much later than Brits or Yanks...) so we wandered into the Mezique grounds to kill time.


Mezique bell tower Posted by Picasa Once inside, we thought we would buy our entry tickets for the main building to avoid any after lunch rush. Then at the ticket counter, we noticed that the building was to close at 2pm today due to festivities. We therefore had to go in and rush around quickly so we could see the amazing building before it closed about 50 minutes later...


Mezique arches Posted by Picasa Inside, almost the whole temple had amazing arches, with red and white brick colouring. It was tough taking good pictures inside as we did not want to use flash photography, but there was just about enough natural light to get an idea.


Through the arches Posted by Picasa The crazy thing about this building is that it was built as a Moorish temple, but about 500 years ago, after the Catholic Kings had re-taken control of the city, the local big-wig decided to build a Catholic cathedral inside the temple. So from the red and white arches you encounter this large cathedral that looks much as any other. It was pretty in that light, but as the King of the time rightly said, building a cathedral like many others, has denegrated the fine architecture of the original Moorish temple. He wasn't happy apparently. It does make for a strange spectacle nowadays though!


Cathedral inside Mezique Posted by Picasa


Cathedral Posted by Picasa The light was just about good enough to get some pictures of the stained glass, though the exposure had to be taken right down.



Stained glass window Posted by Picasa We then had a lovely traditional Spanish lunch in an excellent restaurant and then wandered the streets some more - up through the Juderia (Jewish quarter), and on to one of Cordoba's more famous images.

  Posted by Picasa The lantern crucifixion was down a quiet alleyway, and the only trouble we had was keeping our own shadows out of the pictures. We failed miserably to keep the TV aerials out of shot too!

We made out way back to the station, via some marvellous fountains, and caught the train back to Madrid.

  Posted by Picasa The next day we slept in late, and caught the tube to the Parc Des Attractiones, which is Madrid's local theme park. We had been once before, but the guidebook promised new and exciting rides. The picture below is of Abismo, which was one of the fastest (if not the) rides I've ever been on. On the crank, you turn 90 degrees upwards, and then another 90 degrees, so you are hanging upside-down! Then the crank let's you roll on and the gravity takes over spinning you twice with lots of G-force. You basically do two loops before hitting the right angle up turn again, and coming to a halt, before cranking back to the starting position. The hole ride only lasts 45 seconds or so, but was quite extreme. We also did a few other new ones, including Tarantula, where the car twists and turns so you cannot predict the g-force coming as you get to a bend or dip. We actually came away with quite a few bruises between us!

 
  Posted by Picasa On the Sunday, we wandered up to the Retiro, as many Madrilenos do, for some park time, and then through the book fair, and onto a lovely tapas lunch. From here we walked back down to Colon, but saw a cordoned off area. This contained the World's largest finger painting, and the local kids were being encouraged to try their hand. One small lad was so engrossed he slipped on the wet paint, but did not realise that he had two very blue patches on his shorts to proof his downfall!

We travelled home the next day, having had yet another lovely trip to Madrid.

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