Madrid 2023 – Day Two – Yellow Coats and Sonic the Hedgehog

Today we did as we always do when visiting a new city – we pounded the streets walking between sights.

We meandered from the hotel to the large square, Plaza Mayor. We’d eaten there last night, at one of the many tapas bars that line the edge but today we could see it in all its glory. It’s an attractive place that reminded me vaguely of St Mark’s Square in Venice.

One thing that I found slightly irritating was the number of people dressed up in costumes dotted around the square. If they had been dressed in traditional Spanish dresses or maybe as a matador that I might have understood but why would anyone want to have their photograph taken with Bart Simpson, Buzz Lightyear or Sonic the Hedgehog? I cannot explain it but plenty of people seemed to think that this was just the picture that they had been looking for.

I spent several minutes patiently waiting for Sonic to exit out of my view so that I could get a decent picture of the surrounding architecture only for a woman with the brightest yellow coat I have ever seen enter the frame!

Lunch and Shopping

Lunch was at the Mercado de San Miguel, originally a wholesale food market but now an upmarket food and drink place where you can get many local delicacies. I had chorizo and Spanish omelette on toast which was good but when walking out after lunch I saw so many other dishes that I would like to try too. A job for tomorrow.

We’d been to another market in the morning but that one was much more for the locals than the tourists and really reminded me what we have lost in the UK. Where are all our individual shops? Everything here seems to be a one-off with none of the chains and homogenised high-streets to be found in the UK.

The covered market here was a mixture of small shops selling fresh meat, vegetables along with an art shop and even a laundrette. I don’t know how well it was frequented but it looked to be thriving.

Royal Palace

The final stop of the day was to head into the Royal Palace which is something of a TARDIS as behind the modest looking exterior are a huge number of interesting rooms. I learned a number of things as we wandered round including that King Juan Carlos isn’t actually the King any more having abdicated in 2014 – shows what I know about the Spanish royal family!

I suspect, although I don’t know for certain, that the family don’t live in the palace and that it is just used for ceremonial purposes. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but there were some finely decorated rooms ranging from the small smoking room right up to the banqueting hall and the throne room itself.

I mention about the family not living there as I really couldn’t imagine any modern family wanting to live in such ornate surroundings – I know that I would find it just a bit too much although I do know that a recent PM spent £840 a roll on wallpaper that might not have looked out of place here!

Despite the place being overrun with groups of disinterested children there was still plenty of space to get around and view what was on offer. Strangely, given all that was on display, I think that the one memory I will take away with me is that of the music room – complete with a set of four Stradivarius pieces.