Mi Amor, Madrid

“I love the feeling of being anonymous in a city I’ve never been before.”

ME ENCANTA MADRID.

Driving into Madrid, I was so taken aback by how architecturally stunning the city is. Each building is beautiful and intricate and gives the city an extremely luxurious vibe. The one thing I’ll say about our time in Madrid is that we didn’t have nearly enough time to actually see the city, because we spent nearly all of it in museums. And while the museums were fabulous, I would’ve loved to see more of the city itself.

peep the “Refugees are Welcome” sign

HIGHLIGHTS OF MADRID:

• El Palacio Real: we got to tour the Royal Palace of Madrid, where the current King hosts leaders of foreign countries. It has an incredibly rich history, and we spent about three hours touring it and getting a lecture. It was extremely ornate; everything from the floor to the ceiling was decorated with gold, silk, porcelain, you name it.

Me and ma girl, Isabel I de España (la Reya Católica, nbd)

• Starbucks: being the basic Americans that we are, we jumped at our first chance to hit up Starbucks, which was a convenient four-minute walk from our (super nice) hotel. I might’ve overpaid for my Tall Mocha Latte, but I honestly have zero regrets!
• El Guardaespaldas: this was definitely a highlight! We went to see this show in the theater district the Saturday night that we were there. This musical is based on the movie The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston, so all the songs that they performed were Whitney Houston songs (meaning they were in English, meaning we could actually understand them). The singers were incredible and the plot was really intense! Overall 10/10 guays, for sure.

• El Prado: this was actually our first stop in Madrid! We got to see some of the most famous works of art in Spanish history by painters such as Velázquez, Goya, etc. We actually got to see Velázquez’s most famous painting, Las Meninas, which was really amazing.
• El Museo Reina Sofia: this museum would’ve been much more interesting if we hadn’t gone so early on a Sunday morning, but it was still amazing. We got to see some famous Picasso works, as well as many paintings that made political statements from the 20^th
• El Escorial: this is technically outside Madrid, but we stopped on our way back to Salamanca. El Escorial was the palace built by Felipe II, it is absolutely spectacular. It has the largest library in Spain, with 14,000 volumes, and it is one of the most impressive rooms I have ever been in. The books are hundreds of years old, and it as an amazing painted ceiling depicting different intellectual activities, such as math and philosophy. El Escorial is also where Felipe II imprisoned his son, Carlos, when he found out that he was helping Los Países Bajos (Netherlands) gain independence from Spain. Carlos died six months into his imprisonment, and rumor has it that he was poisoned by his own father. The craziest thing we saw, though, was the room where they keep all the caskets of the past kings (and royal family members) of Spain. You walk down a long, narrow staircase until you are underground, and you come to this relatively small round room with very high ceilings. Built into the walls are shelves, each with a casket of a king. We saw Felipe II, Carlos I/V, and so many others that we have been learning about in our classes. It was insane knowing that the bodies of these massively powerful people that lived hundreds of years ago were merely feet away from us.

So that’s a brief summary of the things that we saw in Madrid! Like I said, we didn’t have enough time to see the actual city, but I saw enough to know that I have to come back soon. Madrid is like the New York City of Spain, so naturally it was my favorite Spanish city we have visited yet.