We learnt when we arrived at our hotel in Madrid yesterday that the Madrid marathon would be on today and that many streets would be closed off. We didn’t really think about it that much, but it wasn’t until we left our hotel this morning, that maybe we should have paid a bit more notice. Below is a photo of our lovely hotel here in Madrid. It has all been recently renovated and the rooms are fantastic. The location of the hotel is also perfect. It was more by good luck than good management that we got hotel and location correct.
We couldn’t work out if they were sending people off in different groups for the start of the marathon or just one huge group.
There was a very large police presence and there were no places you could cross the marathon route, so we got a little stuck trying to find somewhere for breakfast. By chance we stumbled upon this small café where we could find a quick bite to eat before we started our guided tour at 10.00am.
Whilst we waited for our guide, we watched a few more of the runners come through. We were seeing numbers on their shirts of 58,000+ so we are assuming that is how many runners had registered to run.
We have to say that there was not one runner that we saw that did not look in some degree of agony. We did see the front group of runners go by and all of them looked like they were from an African country. We read later that the top 18 spots of the marathon were held by Ugandans, Kenyans and Ethiopians. The 19th runner was a Spaniard 👍👍.
We met our tour guide who told us that due to all the road closures that the guided tour would not be able to go ahead. For us that was no real problem as we can do it tomorrow. The guide kindly gave us some suggestions of places to visit today that we would not be doing tomorrow on the tour.
One advantage of all the closed roads was that there was no traffic around the center of the city, so we got to wander willy-nilly. Spain was neutral in the Second World War so hence they have a huge amount of magnificent old buildings of architectural significance that were not destroyed. The reason Spain didn’t enter into the Second World War was interesting. Franco was a Nazi sympathizer, but Hitler felt that Spain wasn’t industrialized enough and would be more of a financial impediment to his plans. Well, this is what our Irish guide Mick told us on our Barcelona tour.
Our first visit was to the Retiro Park which required us using the metro to get around the road closures.
The park had a large lake in the center of it and was very well used with lots of boaters. There was not a skerrick of rubbish anywhere to be seen except lots of cigarette butts as many Spanish still smoke unfortunately
We came across this exercise group who all had headphones on so hence were not blaring out music and it was quite amusing to watch.
On our way out of the park we came across all these bookstores selling second handbooks which was great to see but we noticed some of these shops had hoarding issues. When we went to take a photo, we got real kickback from the owner. He wanted us to delete the photo so we told him we would, but we didn’t understand why it was necessary and hence we thought it worthy of keeping and publishing. Goodness how he ever managed to find a book for anyone.
By now it was time for lunch. In Spain they have six meals a day of which the main one is between 1-3pm. Once again, it was our Irish guide Mick who gave us an explanation of this as we thought that a big meal in the middle of the day was not a good idea. It appears it was Franco’s idea that restaurants were to supply the common people an affordable three course meal in the early afternoon. Reasoning behind it – according to Mick – was so that everyone would be sleepy and need a siesta and hence would not have the energy to protest and rally against him – true????!!
Once again, we were following our friends Patti’s suggestions and found our way to this superb restaurant called Gingers.
We had a three-course meal that absolutely destroyed us for the next few hours. Luckily, we were not too far from our hotel, so we waddled back for our own siesta via Plaza Mayor.
We both had a snooze which neither of us likes to do in the middle of the day but we had been hoodwinked by Franco🤪
It was then time to get our walking shoes back on and head out to burn off those calories. Our aim was to get to Temple de Bod which had views over the city and had a beautiful tree lined promenade with many Spanish laying on the grass soaking up the sun and getting over their lunch.
In this area there were a number of parks and plaza’s that were all interconnected and pedestrian zoned.
We are very much enjoying Madrid as it is a very walkable and has so much beauty.
We just happened to stumble upon the royal palace which was built in 1708. It is twice the size of the the Versailles Palace and has 3,457 rooms and the royal family does not live in it.
Yet again our weather has been perfect to be a tourist. We had a high of 18c with some cloud coverage and we cannot believe how lucky we have been on this entire trip.
We found ourselves at yet another café for a Tinto Verona (red wine with non fizzy tonic)…no food this time!!
By now we were starting to wilt again and at nearly 20,000 steps under our belt we decided to make our way back to our hotel which by luck was only a seven-minute walk away.
We have one final day in Madrid, but we are not going to do it justice in two days. It was the same as Barcelona. We could have had five days there also. One thing we have discovered is that the Spanish are big on their food, and you very much need to pace yourself.
Steps 19,452
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