Hot Spain – Part 2

The homeland of the remarkable House of Borgia

The pinnacle of our fifth day in Spain was the visit to the homeland of the notorious House of Borgia. The family that’s known mostly for providing the Vatican with two powerful popes (Callixtus III and Alexander VI – known also as Rodrigo de Borja) still has a reputation of unrestrained nepotism and dissipation. We intentionally planned our walk in Xàtiva past all the monuments, buildings and places that are connected with the historical family. We also visited two art museums that exhibit wonderful paintings by famous artists and the region’s well-known ceramic items. Afterwards, we climbed up to the impressive castle that towers above the city. Our climb uphill went something like this: a day in August, two o’clock in the afternoon, with no shade on the way up to the castle. That very day, a new national temperature record was set in Spain (Andalusia) at 47.2 degrees Celsius. You can imagine how relieved we were when we got to the castle, explore it and then chilled in the shade. After the hell, we headed back to the train station and arrived in Valencia again on an air-conditioned train.

The heart of the kingdom

Puerta de Atocha – Madrid’s train station. The gate to Madrid. In the morning, and after our excitement with the gorgeous interior of the main train station subsided, we were already done exploring Madrid’s well-maintained old town. But everything wasn’t always that great, as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Europe happened here on 11 March 2004. When we left the difficult past behind us, we continued towards the brighter side of history. We made our first stop in the square called Plaza Mayor, which served as the scene for bullfighting, royal ceremonies, markets etc. We also visited the other famous square, Puerta del Sol. This is the place where, along with a mass of people, the Kilometre 0 is located. It’s the centre of the country from where the distances of all the major Spanish roads are measured. We also admired the famous statue of the bear and the strawberry tree (arbutus), which is the symbol of Spain and part of the coat of arms of Madrid. Before taking our noon nap, we also visited the city cathedral and the royal palace, Palacio Real de Madrid.

The famous Prado

Even though we were exhausted, we were also eagerly looking forward to our evening visit of the world-famous Prado museum. Even as we entered the building, we were left with our mouths wide open. We just couldn’t get enough of the beauty of the marvellous, large and incredibly detailed works of art of the world-famous artists: El Greco, Fra Angelico, Caravaggio, Weyden, Bosch, Rubens, Velázquez, Goya and others. We admired the masterpiece that was Adam and Eve, created by the famous and my favourite Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, the incredible “The Garden of Earthly Delights” triptych by Bosch, and one of the most analysed works of world art, which is Velázquez masterpiece “Las Meninas”. However, we were filled with horror by the paintings of Francisco de Goya, The Second of May 1808 (“El dos de mayo”) and The Third of May 1808 (“El tres de mayo”). After an amazing museum experience, hunger finally got the best of us. In order to experience the culinary side of Spain, we headed to a restaurant in the “tapas” chain: Museo del Jamón (a dry-cured ham museum). We ordered a special type of jamón and a specialty – jamón, which is laid over slices of cantaloupe. Our first day of exploring Madrid therefore came to an end in a delicious manner.

Madrid’s heritage

We continued our exploration of the royal city with a long stroll around the old town. We visited the incredible Cibeles Palace, which is a city hall located in the eponymous square. Before visiting the city’s main artery, which was Gran Vía, we stopped by the former monumental city gates known as Alcalá, which are located in the centre of a beautiful roundabout. After a long walk down Gran Vía and past the recognisable Metropolis building, we arrived at the large Plaza de España, which was an important item on our itinerary, not because of its size and the skyscrapers in the background, but because of the monuments of the two literary heroes in the centre. Underneath the statue of Spain’s most famous author, Cervantes, stand two sculptures of his greatest masterpiece, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. According to some sources, it is said to be the most translated book after the Bible. These two sculptures are none other than Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, but we didn’t manage to get a glimpse of them due to the renovation of the square. We moved onwards, visited the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Debod and stopped to sit on a bench in Campo del Moro – a wonderful park located deep underneath the royal residence.

Food for an artistic soul

After visiting other sights and some rest, we visited the city’s second most important museum, which was Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Of course, we took a look at one of Picasso’s most important masterpieces, Guernica, which is also known as humanity’s most anti-war painting. It depicts the horrors of the bombing of Gernika (Guernica) in Basque Country in northern Spain by the Nazis. The painting and the bombing have become one of the symbols of history depicting the horrors of war. Apart from Picasso, we also admired the works of other two surrealists, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró, as well as others. After our second museum experience, we went for a walk in the most visited city park, Buen Retiro. Attractions worth visiting in the park are: the crystal palace, the Velázquez palace and the monument to Alfonso XII as well as the artificial lake before it where you can rent a wooden boat and go rowing on the lake. We also recommend that you visit the lovely little cottage in the park’s most north-eastern corner called Casita del Pescador. The entire park, together with Paseo del Prado, was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site this year. To top it all off after the most strenuous day of our trip, we treated ourselves to the famous churros dipped in hot chocolate in the old town.

The magnificent El Escorial

That day, exploring Madrid’s surroundings was on the menu, specifically a visit to San Lorenzo de El Escorial and its royal residences. The remarkable royal complex (Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial) is comprised of a monastery, a church, a museum, as well as the tomb of the Spanish rulers. Its exterior only added to our admiration. When we toured the complex, we visited the interior of the church and its collection of paintings, the libraries and the wonderful salons, and we were wondering if the endless hallways ever end. After a few hours, we finally came to an end and stepped through a gate and onto a large courtyard, from which you can admire a panoramic view of the majestic landmark. For lunch, we visited the nearby market housed inside a building with a wonderful old painting of the El Escorial. Our visit of the small and remote town was concluded and we headed back to the capital where we were already awaited by the return train to Valencia.

The “pearl” of the Mediterranean

Even though we came back late the previous day or, well, night, we still took an early-morning train and went south to the famous resort of Alicante. We slept on the train for a short while and then toured the city, which was, according to some data, one of the most ecologically balanced cities in the Mediterranean. Despite this, through our experience, the city presented itself as yet another typical Mediterranean resort, whose only purpose is to cater to the needs of the massive crowds of visitors that can never be fulfilled. We had been travelling for about nine days and then decided to head to the sea as well. As expected, we suddenly found ourselves packed in like sardines in a can at the beach, jammed together in a crowd of tourists. We packed our things and continued exploring well before 12 o’clock. We bought lunch in a shop that was one of many on our journey and didn’t even have fresh bread. This wasn’t the first time, since we arrived in Spain, that we couldn’t find bakers’ wares (with the already small offer in bakeries), which wouldn’t be wrapped in at least two packages of plastic. Indifferent and with full stomachs of plastic food, we returned once more to our most frequented city – Valencia.

Adiós

This was the last day of our exploration of the largest country in the Iberian Peninsula. Since we had a return flight home, we kept the last day without any big plans and just casually walked around the city. We stumbled upon a modern market in the process, called Mercado de Colón with a beautiful interior. After that, we arrived to a park where we relaxed underneath the pine trees and rested our bodies and our minds after all the distances we had walked on our trip. Before we knew it, we were already sitting on the plane, looking at the view of the huge Mediterranean city below, which we were leaving behind full of memorable memories and all kinds of experiences.