Years ago we’d practically sprinted across Spain on our way from France to Portugal in search of elusive warm weather. Since Madrid did not lie directly in our path, we thought nothing of just skipping it. Now in Valencia and wanting to head to northern Portugal, the Spanish capital lay right in our path. Lacking the cachet of a Rome, or a London, or a Paris we did approach our visit to Madrid with managed expectations. While practically everyone could name at least a couple of famous sights or attractions in the above-mentioned three cities, the same is simply not true of Madrid. One just has to delve a little deeper here and when we did we were pleasantly surprised – the first surprise in Madrid was a pleasant one, but our second one most definitely was not.
The first was just finding another amazing camping area provided by the local municipal authorities. Spain just seems to keep on delivering these everywhere we go. Quiet, secure, well located and just a 10 minute walk to the metro station and then an easy direct ride into the heart of Madrid. What’s not to like ?
While getting into town is super easy on the excellent Madrid Metro, when we emerged at Sol station ( in the heart of the city ) we were greeted by a massive tent city – hundreds of mostly young protesters who had set up tents all over the downtown square to protest high rents and the homelessness problem in general. The catalyst for all this, across many cities in Spain not just Madrid, was the recent forced eviction of an 87-year-old tenant who could not afford the most recent rent increase. Outrage everywhere and we saw it all up close in both Valencia and Madrid during our visit.
Once we moved on from the heart of the downtown, things got back to normal and over the few days that we spent in Madrid, we explored its parks, cathedrals, Royal Palace, central market, shopping streets, and very notably, it’s deservedly famous Prado museum. It’s super popular and the lineup was long to get in, but our patience was rewarded. It’s huge and full of the works of many of the masters, both Spanish and other Europeans.
Not until I’d snapped these images did I notice that photography was prohibited in the Prado Museum 😳!
From Madrid there were two final places we wanted to explore en route to Portugal – historic Segovia ( home to a famous castle and probably the best preserved Roman aqueduct in all of Europe ), and even more historic Tordesillas ( the town where, in 1494, Portugal and Spain drew a line along an Atlantic meridian, dividing up South America into their respective spheres of influence ). Neither of these places disappointed and were well worth the stopovers, although the insane number of tourists and tourist buses in Segovia made parking impossible – it became more of a drive-by than a actual visit !
Wrapping up our final night in Spain ( at least this first part of our Spanish visit ) was an unexpected bonus. We had a little time to kill after leaving Tordesillas so went back on the road heading towards Portugal. It was only after we identified a nice camp spot in the town of Zamora that we realized Zamora was worth a visit in itself. It’s considered to have the best Romanesque-era ruins in all of Spain, and while we wouldn’t have gone out of our way to visit just to see them, they afforded us an interesting morning of historical sightseeing on our final day here. Sometimes you just stumble upon gems like this !
Till next week…..
VIDEO:
Had a little trouble adding sound to the video when posting to YouTube ( where you normally see it ), so this weeks it’s posted as an Instagram link:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DelY-hniSgH/?rpxt=MXRjOHBrdXJwZW5ieA==
Oh, and here’s a little Spanish trivia for those with a geography bent !
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeUq4kLMkN6/?dlrf=MXBoZ2wxZHUwOXM4bA==
The map and treaty is fascinating. Would love to see that
Yes, it really is, Chris. Pretty incredible to think that over 500 years ago, two relatively small countries got together and decided how to carve up a whole continent….! And, to this day hundreds of millions of people speak either Portuguese or Spanish as a result of that treaty.
Agree interesting treaty however it begs the question what about all those that were living there at the time? Early days of colonization!
Absolutely ! It was, of course, pointed out that the British and French completely ignored the treaty, it not being in either of their interests, and of course, none of the indigenous groups in the Americas were consulted on it, nor did they accept it. The museum is actually pretty candid about it all. Still, pretty amazing just to be standing in the room where it all happened.