Madrid - Full Day #1 - walking tour, art, and FLAMENCO!

I have likely mentioned this in another post, but I will reiterate it here - there is nothing better to do on your first day in a new city you have never visited than taking either a bike tour (Fat Tire Bike Tours if your city has it) or a walking tour. The prices are usually pretty reasonable, especially when you consider the wealth of information you learn in just 2 - 4 hours. After one of these tours, I usually know which sights I want to focus on and how much time to spend on each one. I took a walking tour in Madrid verus the bike tour because it worked with my schedule a bit better.

The tour began in Plaza Mayor and went down the main street stopping every few blocks for 10-15 minutes where we learned some history of Madrid. At one of the stops our guide mentioned that in our walk from the previous stop, he spotted no less than 4 pickpockets and to keep an eye on our belongings.

Side Note - pickpockets & cash
I will use this opportunity to say, I did not encounter any pickpockets (that I know of) and had nothing lifted from my body in my first 4 cities...hopefully my one night in London continues this luck. I actually didn't even use the money belt I brought as it really doesn't feel that comfortable unless you an old man with elastic pants who tucks his shirt in (doesn't work with Diesel jeans and a t-shirt). I did keep my wallet and camera in my front pockets the entire trip and I am really looking forward to returning to the states and putting it in the back where it belongs, so if you want to steal my wallet when i get back, that is where i keep it, so have at it! Another thing, I always did have quite a bit of hard cash on me at all times since it is rare places accept credit cards for small amounts / meals. In the States, there hardly is ever any money in in my wallet since the American way is just to use Check/Credit cards everywhere, which I am also looking forward to doing again soon.

...Madrid - Full Day #1 Continued
At the conclusion of our tour, it was about 4:45pm, leaving me 1 hr, 15 mins to visit the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and 2 hrs, 15 mins to visit the, also nearby, Prado Museum. By about day 15 of my trip, museum time was actually starting to bore me, so I decided to knock out both back to back. Even the lady at the Thyssen ticket museum told me "You only have an hour which is not enough time to see the full exhibit" - I finished in 45 minutes. No I didn't stare at each painting for a great length of time, but I took in the important paintings and since, unlike Paris, you could not take photos, I was able to breeze through the rooms with great speed. By the time I made it to the Prado Museum, it was actually free because it was so late in the day and it only had an hour left open. So day one, I completed not only the walking tour, but two of the three art museums. If there is one thing you should know about Spanish art, is its size - it is BIG! Compared to most of the works I observed at the Orsay and the Louvre in Paris, each piece in the Madrid museums was 2 - 4 times the size!

After my whirlwind of a day, I retreated back to the hostel, grabbing a quick bite along the way and was intending to spend the rest of my hight at the hostel, but on my way back I was flipping through my Madrid guide and noticed that the best Flamenco place in all of Madrid was actually located just 3 doors down from my hostel. Since the local futbol (soccer) club, Real Madrid, did not have a game scheduled during my stay, and bullfighting was done for the year (both activities I really wish I would have planned better around), I decided to take in a Flamenco show - one of the other Spanish unique entertainment events.

True to Spanish culture and their late hours, the show actually started at midnight. Luckily, I had made reservations as soon as I decided to go (around 8:00pm) because it was a full house. When I walked in, there were many small round tables arranged around a small raised wooden stage. My name "Zacharias - 1" was scribbled on a card and assigned to a table which I went and sat at. Luckily, I was seated next to 3 girls who were studying abroad and about the only other young people in the entire room. They were studying in Italy but were on break from school and were going to a few cities in the meantime - I still regret never studying abroad in college, what an opportunity missed! The show started and was about 1.5 hours with a short intermission, just enough time to grab another glass of sangria and use the restroom. The whole show was amazing and something I am really glad I decided to do as it turned about to be one of the cooler single events I did on my trip. You can check out the videos included in one of my previous posts if you are curious. That was it for my first full day in Madrid.

-¡zacharias!

Madrid Day #1 Photos:

Madrid - Day 1