Spanish travels

A year after last years European and Camino adventure Sue and I are blessed to be back in Europe again this year. After a great three days in Montreal visiting Mya and friends and family, an exhausting airport adventure through Brussels we arrived in Madrid on April 18th. Our bags a day later.

Quick stop in Uniqlo for some much needed warm weather clothes and out into the streets of Madrid. We were in Madrid years ago but only for a night and two days so this was new territory. First impressions - it is big, bustling, clean with buildings that are well maintained and streets that can be monumental and intimate. After the scruffiness of Montreal with ice storm downed tree limbs and streets exhausted from winter, Madrid is in full bloom. Beautiful chestnut tree line streets, flowers, colour and a warmth that is so comfortable.

Our hotel was perfectly located to access the best of Madrid - the superb art galleries, the Retiro park, the botanical garden and in the opposite direction but equally close by great tapas bars. Great gallery experiences would have to start with Reina Sophia where Guernica by Picasso does not disappoint. I was also jazzed to see so much early 20th century architecture represented and original drawings and models I saw in books at architecture school. The next day we visited the Thyssen - Bornemisza Museum to see a great show of Lucien Freud paintings. The show was great and so was the people watching. The latter inspired us to have what we called a "Bill Cunningham" day where we vied to see who could take the best photos of people we saw on the street.

Other Madrid highlights - walk in the Retiro park, walk through the Botanical gardens which is so well maintained, some of the beautiful neighbourhood shopping streets in the Justica neighbourhood, a night out with pal Roger Pemberton that started with standing outside Cervantes bar noshing on tapas drinking wine and cervezas and ended a brandy too far. It is a city full of beauty and dynamism. After four full days I was ready to head off to Oviedo, four and a half hours away by high speed train to begin our Camino Primitivo adventure.