Madrid trip: Day 3

Day 3 begins with a trip on the Metro to visit the Atocha Train Station. It might seem strange to visit a train station on a vacation, but there are two reasons for this. The first reason is this train station is the largest hub in Madrid and has connections for both the Metro as well as regional Spanish trains. But most importantly it has its very own rain forest inside. Yes, you heard that correctly. A rain forest! I had to see this. The Metro stop that I took to get there had me end up at the back side of the station but that worked out because that was exactly where the rain forest was. Complete with a whole bunch of turtles. Yes, Turtles! I really have never seen anything like it in a train station before and not sure I would ever again!

 

Turtles!

Rain forest

Hi there, Mr. Turtle!!

Yeah, it's a rain forest in a train station!

Atchoa Train Station

The second reason for visiting this train station is that this was the site of the March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks, which killed 192 people. I have a very strong feeling that since I am an American and America was attacked by terrorists that I should show solidarity towards others that were also attacked. To show support and honor the victims in my own way. There is a very small crystal monument that features all the names of the victims in the station itself. It was a little difficult to find (thanks to the very nice Spanish lady who didn’t speak English but still was able to point me the correct way!). Unfortunately I was there too early in the morning for it to be open, it was closed off and you could only just see the monument through the gates. No matter, I paid my respects and that is what is important.

March 11, 2004 memorial

Names of the victims

I had a time limit today and had to be back to Plaza Mayor by 10:30 am. For what? The Ultimate Spanish Cuisine Food Tour with the Madrid Food Tour folks! My friend Carrie had taken a similar tour in Istanbul last year and recommended that I take on in Madrid. It cost 95Euro and you book online ahead of time to reserve your spot.

I met up with my tour guide Lauren at Plaza Mayor and she was there with two other American young women who were interns for the Food Tour group. I was the only person that had booked the tour, probably since it was November!  Hey, I have the tour guides all to myself! So we set off throughout the city. Honestly I cannot recap all the places we went and tasted food and drink, there were too many! Mercado de san Miguel was the main food/drink market that was awesome! We went to the active convent where the cloistered nuns bake cookies and you purchase them through a lazy susan in the wall, never seeing the nuns. We had lunch at a great little place called Toni, a tiny little shop that was near Sol. All in all it was an amazing and exhausting time! Thanks, Carrie for the tip!

Mercado de san Miguel

Olives!

So yummy!

Olives and Vermouth!

Ham!

After the food tour (which was almost 4 hours!), I went back to the hotel to rest a bit. My back has not been cooperative during this trip so going back and resting was the only way I was going to get to do everything that I wanted to do. Sometimes an hour is all you need to recharge your batteries!

Then it was off to the Museo de Prado. This very famous art museum is HUGE! I had known that going into it and knew that I was going to limit my time to 1 to 2 hours. There is just too much to see in one day. Full disclosure: I am not an art aficionado. I try, I really do. I think that the pictures are really pretty and I can appreciate the work that went into creating them. But I just don’t get the “look at how the artist used light and color to his advantage” stuff. I guess I’m just not cultured enough (apologies to my daughter for that)!

 

Prado Museum

Goya

The Prado was amazing, however. I had no idea who these folks were but I was thoroughly impressed by the work that went into the paintings as well as the sheer size of them. Many were probably 20 feet high by 12 feet wide. Damn!

After a quick coffee at the Prado café on the first floor a trip to the gift shop was in order. Have to hit all the gift shops! Now with the Prado being in the same league as the Louvre, I was expecting a larger gift shop. No, it was rather small. Maybe there were shops on each level, but I was not nearly as impressed with the one on the first floor!

As I left the Prado it was starting to get dark outside. (One of the downfalls of traveling in Europe in the winter) I walked around the area for a while and decided to get a light dinner before heading back to the hotel. I had a few places in mind from my guidebook but honestly was too tired to traipse around looking for them so I went to a little restaurant across from the Prado. It was a cute little place and there were several locals there. I had a small plate of meat type tapas (ham, beef with cheese) and bread. It was good and really just enough food. After the food tour I didn’t need much!

Walked around a little while longer checking out the pretty nighttime lights then simply headed back to the hotel for the night. I really an not a night owl and it was honestly getting a bit cold outside so I knew it was time to call it a night!