Madrid, Spain 12'01'2013

This is long overdue. The photos I shot at this trip were almost all bad. I had to delete a lot and I even upgraded from iPhoto to Aperture to fix some. Oh well I'm still learning anyway. I'll do better next time.

~~`~~

I was conflicted on where to go on this trip to Madrid. I wanted buy a sandwich and tea in Puerta del Sol and go straight to Campo del Moro and relax in its beautiful gardens and breathe in the cool fresh air. On the other hand, I wanted to go to Parco del Buen Retiro because it is the largest urban park in Madrid and I have never been there before. In the end, I chose Parco del Buen Retiro. I knew I would miss Campo del Moro.

We left the hotel at high noon, exactly twelve, the sun was shining intensely and there was no single cloud in sight, the winter winds were blowing and the sky was gracing us with its beautiful dark vivid blue. Straight ahead, we went for Retiro Station.

Puerta de Alcala in Plaza Independencia directly west out of Retiro Station.

Restaurants right across the road from Puerta del Alcala.

A lady looking directly into my camera while I was trying to shoot the street.

Going out of Retiro station, you would immediately see Parco del Buen Retiro but look to the west and you'll see Puerta de Alcala in Plaza Independencia and right around Plaza Independencia, there were numerous restaurants, We ate in one calle Harina. It was a sandwicherie and patisserie...

A teapot with something that is not tea inside.

Roast beef sandwich with various sauces and herbs.

For me, just water again.

After getting the energy to walk. We went to enter Perco del Buen Retiro. Right at the entrance, in my head, I was immediately almost regretting that I chose that place. I told myself that Campo del Moro was infinitely more beautiful and so I tried desperately to find a justification of me being there. We walked straight until we reached Estanque del Retiro a huge artificial pond. Right next to it was Monumento de Alfonso XII de España, when I saw it, my being there was a tad bit justified...

Statue of King Alfonso XII of Spain. 

People basking in the high sun beneath the monument of King Alfonso XII.

The Monument of King Alfonso XII of Spain. The sky is a beautiful deep vivid blue.

The eastern statue at the central entrance of the monument. 

The western statue at the central entrance to the monument.

Although I would love to have shown you more, I deleted most of the pictures I had at this part of my trip due to reasons I will not say.

The monument is beautiful and romanesque, typical of most spanish architecture. I wanted to stay there and relax but the sun was in direct view of the monument and I had neither sunscreen nor my sunglasses, plus, my skin was starting to feel painful. The sun really had a strange and fierce brightness to it, totally different from the tropics or the desert. And with all the brightness from the sun and cloudless sky you'd expect it to be a bit warm, but no, it was frigid.

Heading out, we went to another monument, this time it was called Monumento a Arsenio Martinez-Campos...

Path leading to Monumento a Arsenio Martinez-Campos.

Back view of the monument against the orange leaves and blue sky.

Side view of the monument.

We rested by the monument for a few minutes before looking at the map where to go. Then I remembered I wanted to see Palacio de Cristal...

Palacio de Cristal

The small pond in front of the palace.

View from the entrance of the palace overlooking the pond.

Inside Palacio de Cristal.

I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with the palace because what I had in mind was something like the ruined Crystal Palace of London. I imagined it to be this huge grand palace made of glass with many stores and people shopping inside... but no. Palacio de Cristal was essentially a small but very intricately detailed empty normal garden greenhouse. It was warm inside so I was happy nonetheless.

After that brief disappointed we went out to relax by the pond where we saw ducks and swans being fed various stuff by the local folks...

Ducks!

Black Swans.

It was my first time seeing ducks that were colored exactly like the ones I saw in cartoons as a kid. I was ecstatic to say the least when i saw them haha. Black swans however, I saw lots of them in Chengdu, China before so I was ok.

After Palacio de Cristal we just roamed the rest of the park. There was this one part where we saw peacocks grazing!

A girl feeding the peacocks.

A peacock with a particularly beautiful deep blue shade of neck feathers.

I was happy to see the peacocks grazing. Too bad they didn't have their tail feathers out because their tail feathers weren't there anymore, clearly, they were plucked by someone for some sort of profit. Poor peacocks.

After the peacocks we headed for the exit, but we were distracted by a small cafe selling well, hot drinks. We were cold, tired, and sleepy. We needed refreshments so we got Churros con Chocolate.

Churros con Chocolate.

A ravenous bird.

It was a very relaxing moment. Sitting there in the middle of the huge park eating churros dipped in thick hot chocolate while being cooled by the winter winds. I didn't want to leave! Until, the ravenous birds came.

It was one of the most common, if not THE most common bird in the Philippines and I was surprised to see them in Madrid. In the Philippines they're called "Maya" but more properly the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

They were like flying rats! I was frustrated that they were really trying to get up close and personal with our churros because they didn't behave like that in the Philippines. They were like huge flies hanging around our table constantly coming back even when we were trying to fend them off, it was crazy!

We finished our churros leaving nothing for the birds. HAH!

After that we headed to the train station to go to Puerta del Sol. But we stopped again because I wanted to take these pictures...

Side view of the Monumento de Alfonso XII de España.

Front view of the Monumento de Alfonso XII de España.

The sun was finally setting and the light over the monument of King Alfonso XII versus the brown orange trees and still very blue sky was just too good for me to pass up I hope I did it justice.

So we went to the train station headed for Sol and I was very happy to see that after a few weeks it was finally clean again! *yey* remember it was full of uncollected trash a few weeks ago.

I was even happier to see that christmas season has fallen upon the place and everything around were lit up and decorated for the season. Especially in Plaza Mayor...

Stuffed hats! Cute!

Merry-Go-Round in the middle of Plaza Mayor. 

"Only Happens At Christmas" 

Lights above and beside the exit of Plaza Mayor

Apparently these extended up to Plaza de Oriente. But It was getting late so we just headed for Mercado de San Miguel to eat some snacks, buy food and then head back to the hotel.

Mercado de San Miguel

Sausages meant to be eaten like french fries!

Cocktail snacks.

Arros Negre made from squid/cuttlesfish ink of course

Overall it was a tiring but fun experience. However, I really missed Campo del Moro. Next time I fly to Madrid, I'll head straight there, just relax, and have a picnic by myself or with someone or with a book.

Until my next trip, Adios!

Madrid, Spain 11'7'2013

This was my second time in Madrid. Usually, before going to a destination I like, I do research on where to go and cache the city's map on the Google Maps app of my phone so I can navigate. This time however, I already knew where to go and I did none of that.

Even when we were at the aircraft, we were told that there was some kind of political turmoil going on in Madrid and the city would be filled with trash all around. I disregarded the comment at first because I knew what I wanted to do in the city already.

Upon arrival in the hotel I rested for about a little over an hour and then headed out to Puerta del Sol. Going there from the hotel required two line transfers via Madrid's subway. In the subway, my friend and I were guarding each other's stuff like hawks! Because even from the first time I was here and even from the ladies at the reception of the hotel, we were constantly warned of pick pockets and the like.

Exiting Puerta del Sol, we were indeed greeted by a lot of trash and some protests...

A banner of protest right laid out right in the middle of Puerta del Sol

A protester being interviewed by what seems to be a local TV station

The symbol for Anarchy plus more graffiti and trash

Trash all over the city uncollected due to protests

It almost broke my heart to see all the trash and to feel all the angst from the people. Madrid is one of my most favourite cities, I like it more than Rome, to see it in such disarray just made me sad, regardless, we didn't go there for Puerta del Sol so we walked a few meters ahead to Plaza Mayor to have lunch.

View of the rest of the restaurants from our table.

Plaza Mayor relatively cleaner than the rest of the city.

We were glad to see Plaza Mayor clean but clearly something happened here, an event maybe, because there were a lot of lighting fixtures and stage props lying around.

We had lunch by the side of the plaza in a restaurant offering some local Spanish cuisine. With the cool weather and great food we had a very relaxed time.

Just a bottle of water, you know me.

A pint of Sangria!

A plate of Tapas. Looks mouthwatering!

A whole pan of Seafood and Chicken Paella. YUM!

After lunch we proceeded to walk to the place I wanted to go to. You see, I wanted to go the gardens of Palacio Real de Madrid because last time due to people and time constraints, I wasn't able to go. So we walked past Cathedral de la Almudena and straight on to the first park Plaza de Oriente...

Roman looking statues with Roman-Spanish names.

Beautiful autumn trees just right above a line of cafes

Statue and fountain at the centre of Plaza de Oriente.

Face of one of the fountain heads.

It was a small park but it was filled with statues and right across it were a line of quaint restaurants with a great view of the palace, we almost regretted eating in Plaza Mayor!

After Plaza de Oriente I still kept searching for the real "Palace Gardens" that I saw in the map before, and search we did, then we stumbled upon Sabatini Gardens...

The centre of Sabatini Garden right at the back of the palace.

A beautifully formed marble statue.

A small fountain surrounded by hedges.

View of the whole garden from the road above.

It was a beautiful garden located right at the back of the palace still untouched by autumn as everything was green with life. When you watch movies about Dukes and Kings of old then you'd probably see them hang out in a garden just like this! I thought to myself how nice it would be to have a personal garden just like this haha!

Remembering my mental map however, this was still not the "Palace Gardens" I was searching for because the garden I wanted to go to was at the side of the palace not at the back. So we went out and around the huge block of the palace complex, feeling a bit tired we were happy to be rewarded with a view of the entrance to Campo del Moro...

The view to the entrance of Campo del Moro.

It was a grand and magnificent garden filled with beautiful autumn trees and a dual ascending path leading straight to the palace. The whole park itself extends across from Almudena to the Palace and the edge of Sabatini. It was that huge and it was a pleasure exploring its grounds...

Pathway leading east of the gardens.

Some flora growing by the side of the garden pathway.

Beautiful autumn colours, a great contrast from the previous parks.

Wouldn't you love to just sit here, take in the beauty of the place and perhaps read a book?

My favourite photo. A great showcase of the changing season.

We walked throughout the entire place and rested by a bench that we found on the side. We talked and admired the place for a few minutes and then we heard a loud sound coming from the trees...

Birds suddenly came out of the trees and started circling above us.

The noise were birds rushing out of the trees, gathering right above us preparing to migrate to warmer places, it was a most beautifully humbling sight, an accidental blessing that really was the cherry on top of the ice cream that was our already beautiful day.

After resting we walked back to Puerta del Sol in the middle of walking we were so tired that we rested again, then I took this picture...

View of the moon right above us.

Seeing this made me reflect how happy I was at that moment. How far I've come and how beautiful life can be. Admiring everything around me and all that is, made me feel relaxed and energised for future endeavours.

Walking towards Puerta del Sol we looked at stuff to buy, bought some dinner to take back to the hotel and then I encountered these little peculiar brand of chocolate candy bars...

Filipinos brand chocolate candy bars!

My jaw dropped, I didn't know what to think or feel? Was it good? Was it bad? Was it a colonial thing? Was it unintended? Does the word mean something completely different in spanish? Regardless I did not buy it, I was already feeling sick and the last thing my throat and tonsils needed were something sweet, I would however buy it the next time when I'm feeling better, I'll try all the flavours!

Overall It was a very nice, albeit, short stay in Madrid so many unintended blessings passed our way and the best part was I only spent 35EUR and it's the 35EUR left over from my trip to Rome a few months ago! So I didn't exchange any money! Yey! Haha

This is my first official post, a preview of things to come, hope you guys actually read it hahaha. Sorry if the photos are small, I really don't want to post the full size and quality of any of my pictures.

The complete set of pictures can be found on my Facebook account!

Until my next trip, Adios!