I woke up early and was ready for my cab at 8 am with time
to spare. Brought my things
downstairs, (one backpack and my purse) had a little breakfast and we were off.
The young man, who spoke a bit of english, made the trip interesting with
conversation about Spain, Granada and the economy. I got to the cute little
Granada Airport and bought myself a water and some nuts. the flight was good.
flying over ‘olivo’, orange and lemon orchards . The farms follow the hills,
all squiggly and wandering. The terrain is actually very hilly in Andalusia and
the tops of the hills are black. (maybe they were covered in brush of some kind). My cab driver told me the Sierra Nevada’s are the mountains on the south east side and the not the
sierra nevadas (big hills) are on the Nwest side.. the Sierra
Nevadas have the first ski hills
in Spain and there was snow on the mountains when I saw them..
The closer one gets to Madrid the flatter the terrain
becomes. the farm fields fan out
like the spokes of a wheel with
the little towns being the centers. it was very pretty. they looked like they
were already to harvest and it was only June. I wonder how may crops they can
put up in one year?
Madrid pops out of the landscape like a button on a
bedspread. I didn’t really see it from my side of the plane. Maybe that is not
a good analogy.
I Love the Madrid airport. It has very high ceilings made of
wood slats that undulate across the width of the airport. The cross spars that support this
ceiling are brightly coloured.and run lengthwise down the center of the
airport, like a rainbow with the dark blue spars at one end of the airport and
the red at the other. It feels huge and airy and light. lots of light as there
are floor to ceiling windows and as I said the ceilings are very high. It did
not feel crowded even though there were lots of people there and the signage
was good enough that I did not even get lost once finding my way out of the
Airport.
I wondered how I might get into the city. In Dublin I caught
the bus. but here they have a Metro. The girl at the information desk gave me a
metro map and told me how to buy tickets. I figured it out and off I went into
town to find the bus depot to go to Avilla.
That accomplished I stood in line. There was a very long
line. I looked around and saw signs for the buses and their departure times. It
seems I just missed the bus to Avilla and the next one was going to go at about
430, which would put me there about 5 or 530.
I figured that by the time I got
there everything would be closed so I decided that I would save Avilla for
another time. I would just find a hotel and spend the night in Madrid before
finding Maureen at the apartment in the morning.
Finding a hotel was a wonderful experience. I took the metro downtown and found
Narrow streets off of one-way narrow streets off of busy wider avenues, Quite a
few pedestrian only plazas. In one plaza I found an ice cream (spumoni) place
with violet ice-cream so got half and half violet and lemon sorbet. So good.
It
was very hot out. I do not know how hot but I would hazard a guess it was
easily in the mid thirties.
Now, I could
have gone to the apartment and got lucky and found Maureen but If she was out
then I would just be standing around waiting for her. No the best thing to do
would be to catch her in the morning as I knew that she likes to sleep in and
so she would definitely be there then. I remembered our apartment was off the
Gran via and fairly close to the Prada. This very busy street is full of hotels
and shops and restaurants.
I went into the Senatore Espana Spa hotel and got a
room for 50 euros. A nice new clean room with a TV and a balcony. I asked the
very helpful friendly staff for a map of the city. If l had brought a swimsuit
I could have used the facilities for free. But I was not here to swim. I headed
out and found a national geographic store on the corner and bought my souvenir
shirt of Madrid.
Took the metro to the Retiro Park, which is a huge park
right in the middle of Madrid.
It is a beautiful park with lakes and boats,
ponds and fountains and benches. There were statues all over the place. I did
sprinkle a bit of mom and dad in the park in a quiet spot. I loved the sculpted
gardens and the trees, big trees and quiet areas with Plenty of roads and paths
for easy access. A huge Rose garden with hundreds of varieties of roses, some
on trellises and arbors, some espaliered. There were Gorgeous old world roses,
tea, and climbing and regular roses all in a veritable rainbow of colours.
I took the Metro quite a bit, from the Airport, to the bus
station to downtown to the park . It is very impressive, layers of tunnels and
clean and fairly bright too. I almost got lost a few times but everyone was
very helpful. The Spanish are a lovely people.
But I decided to walk back to my hotel that on the map did
not seem that far. I zig zagged through the streets checking the map
occasionally to get my bearings. At one point I think I went down ‘hooker’ lane
as each doorway had a lady sitting /standing on the step dressed in short
skirts and smoking.
There were a few men standing around chatting with a few
more ladies. I left that street pretty quickly.
Went down one street with shoes. 6 foot tall shoes all
decorated differently. Art . I
love the high apartments and narrow lanes, little balconies and colours, so
many colours. Little shops tucked into little spaces. They need the big open
Retiro park with its’ giant trees, black swans and playgrounds for the children
to run and play.
I can still smell the rose garden.
I did find the hotel and did manage to pick up some
supper. some restaurants are
closed on Mondays. some have no vegetarian, some don’t open till late. .I
looked for Tapas but I could not find any. Just restaurants. I am sure they
must have Tapas bars in Madrid. Somewhere. I did find one right around the
corner. It served little beers and good food.
I put some away to bring home for
breakfast. filled out postcards and tried to watch some TV soccer, world cup.
very big over there. Mostly I watched the people in the street and the traffic. Interesting one-way
lanes turning into either one-way lanes in one direction of an intersection and
two in another. Were they using their car horns to determine the right of way?
Will that bus make the corner? No, only if he backs up and does another try. There
are magpies here. The evening is very warm and still I head back to the hotel
and mail my postcards on the way.
I find the three english channels and choose the BBC but not for long. Very
tired and going to sleep now.
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