Bosch, Pig's Ears and Tripe

By Helen Matthews

There are two ways of tackling a short city break. One is to rush around, aiming to see as many of the 'sights' as possible in the time available. The other is to try to see just one or two attractions in depth and spend some time soaking up the atmosphere. I have in my time tried the former (my record was Vienna in 3 hours on the way home from Hungary), but on the whole prefer the latter.

Fortunately, the must-see parts of Madrid are located in a compact area. The main art museums (the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia) are all near one another, and approximately 15 minutes walk from the Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol. The Royal Palace is approximately the same distance from the Puerta del Sol in the opposite direction. As we were based in a central hotel we were able to explore the city mostly on foot. For more distant journeys the Madrid metro is new, clean, fast and cheap. A ticket valid for ten journeys (including travel to or from the airport) costs €5.

Our short last-minute break in Madrid gave us approximately 48 hours in the city. Arriving early on Friday afternoon from a typically English summer, our first port of call was the Retiro Park, situated not far from the Prado. Originally the grounds of the Buen Retiro Palace, the park was opened to the public in 1868. In addition to the usual trees, lakes and refreshment kiosks, the park contains a couple of interesting buildings that are now outposts of the Reina Sofia museum of modern art: the Palacio de Velázquez and the Palacio de Cristal. The latter has the advantage of being built primarily of glass, so that it is possible to make an informed decision as to whether it is worth paying to enter the exhibition.

The state museums, which include the Prado and the Reina Sofia are free on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, so we decided to visit the Thyssen museum, which is not free (tickets cost around €6), on Saturday morning. This museum is based on the private collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, and includes works from the Renaissance to modern work, including Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein. The collection clearly demonstrates the Baron's personal taste - he seems to have been particularly fond of lions. The Thyssen also has an excellent café in the basement, which serves very good chocolate cake.

It would probably have been sensible, as we had so little time in Madrid, to visit the neighbouring museums one after another, since they are so close. However, we felt the need for a break from art, and took the metro to the Casa del Campo park on the other side of Madrid. This large (4,500 acre) park contains a funfair and a zoo. The latter has free-flying parrot displays, but judging from the flock of parakeets we saw in a tree shortly after leaving the metro station, they have not quite mastered the art of training them to come back.

Since the museums are open until 7.00 p.m, we had time to return to the centre of Madrid to visit the Prado.

Prado

Despite the free admission, the museum was not too crowded and it was possible to see even the most famous exhibits properly. The Prado displays the Spanish royal collection, and is particularly strong in works by Velázquez and Goya. The highlights of the collection include Las Meninas by Velázquez and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. If I had not read this in my guidebook before starting my visit, I would have been able to work it out from the number of different articles bearing these images that were on sale in the obligatory gift shop, even down to reproductions in chocolate.

On Sunday morning we strolled in the other direction from our hotel, through the Puerta del Sol, which is supposed to be the exact centre of Madrid, and the Plaza Mayor, the main square, ending up at the Royal Palace. The entry fee for the latter, at €6, compares extremely well with Buckingham Palace and includes entrance to the armoury and pharmacy as well as the state rooms of the palace. The state rooms are lavishly decorated, but I was particularly fascinated by the contrast between the ornate throne room and the little billiard room that was also part of the tour. There is also a room where the royal family used to assemble on Sunday afternoons to watch films. Adjacent to the Royal Palace is the Catedral de la Almudena, completed only in 1993.

One of the advantages of Spain for short breaks is that rather than going to just one restaurant for your evening meal, you can sample a variety of different eating places and dishes by going on a tapas crawl. This is not necessarily cheaper than eating in a restaurant, but is more interesting. In a city where the locals would not dream of eating dinner before 9 or 10 p.m. it also allows you to satisfy hunger pangs at an earlier hour. We found that the Plaza Santa Ana is a good place to start. We tried some fairly standard tapas, such as croquettes and potatoes with peppers and chorizo, and also one or two local specialities. Be warned: many of the local specialities in Madrid involve offal. We tried pigs' ears, which tasted (unremarkably) of bacon, but were rather fatty for our taste, and tripe, which was cooked with chorizo, and so tasted primarily of spicy sausage. Grilled prawns served in a sizzling garlicky oil were excellent. On the Saturday night our crawl ended in the Plaza Mayor, where we were treated to a concert by what appeared to be the Spanish answer to Riverdance. Despite (or because of) the bagpipes, this generated a something of a crowd. Until then I had been wondering where everyone was for Madrid seemed incredibly quiet for a European capital.

On reflection afterwards, I realised that in the space of 48 hours we had managed to visit 2 parks, 2 famous city spaces, two museums, a palace and a zoo and yet we had seen them at our own pace and the weekend had not seemed particularly rushed.


First published in VISA issue 47 (autumn 2002)