Spain: Madrid - Winter 2015 Christmas

After Barcelona, we took a train to Madrid. The train ride was smooth, and it took a few hours. I fell asleep during the ride. There were a lot of tunnels.

Plaza Mayor during Christmas
Madrid is completely different from Barcelona. Barcelona felt more like a relaxed city near the sea, and Madrid is the country capital, not surrounded by water. There is a good mix of old and new buildings. I arrived on the 23rd of December, so Christmas preparations were underway. Since I am a tourist, I was mainly near Plaza Mayor. On Christmas Eve, everything closed early afternoon. Things remained closed on Christmas until the afternoon. The Plaza Mayor had a Christmas Market from the time I was there, so it was great to see everyone outside and enjoying themselves in the square. I also noticed that children really love to play with crackers (where they throw it onto the ground and it cracks). This was also popular in Peru, when I visited the Christmas before. Aside from Plaza Mayor, the Plaza Sol was very popular too, if not more popular due to the amount of space, and more shopping areas around.

Helpful Tips:
If you know your schedule and don't mind sticking to it, then you should book everything online in advance.

My train ticket between Barcelona to Madrid was a discounted fare. Which is called Promo Fare.I was able to select the Promo Fare times, so that helped. Also the time wasn't a ridiculously early boarding time either. It was at 1:25pm.

Booked ticket also comes with a combine fare code. If you're lucky enough to be staying at a station that has a Renfe stop for the express train to the main train station, then you can use the Combine Fare code at the Renfe ticket machine. From Barcelona to Madrid, we were not aware of this, so we actually took a local subway to the Train Terminal. Our Barcelona hotel desk person informed us that we could have used the code for any connecting trip. So on my train ride to the Madrid train station for my Lisbon train, we used the combined code at the Renfe machine. I believe there are two types of subways. One that is the main subway, and Renfe is the train service for major stops. After you type in the code, a ticket will be printed for you to use.

Places I visited:
Place San Miguel - more known as a tourist market
Palacio Real - the Royal Palace of Madrid, which does not allow photos
Jardines de Sabatin
Basilica de San Francisco Grande - walked by but it was closed during Christmas because Mass
Cathedral de la Almidena
Parque del Buen Retiro - palacio de cristal and monuments a Alfonso
Tremplo de Debod - Very popular for sunset
Sofia museum PICASSO's famous painting - combined ticket with Palacio Real total ticket price was 14 Euros and you can visit the Sofia museum on another day.
Prado street
Market Platea - my Inn Keeper had said this is the market where locals visit
Toledo - Former Capital of Spain as a day trip

Eats to Try:
There are many things similar to Barcelona, but there are other things too
Callos at the top and on the right is deep fried platter (calamari, fish, shrimp)

Bocadillo de Calamares

  • Bocadillo de Calamares - Calamari sandwich about 3.50€
  • Callos a la Madrileña - like a stew with cow tripe (stomach), chirzo, blood sausage. The stew is not bad at first bite with bread, but at the end, it becomes very thick. 
  • Churros con Chocolate - San Ginés was recommended by my Inn Keeper. I felt the service was alright. The menu is on the side near the cash register. The churros were delicious and the chocolate was thick. 4.00€
  • Pincho de Tortilla - which is a Spanish omlette. I got to try a bit on the house at a restaurant I visited during Christmas Eve.
  • Museo del Jamon - my friend and I visited this place a lot. While it can see a little touristy, the pricing value was very good. Plus, I enjoyed all my meals there. I went to the one in Plaza Mayor, as it seemed to not be as busy as the one outside of the Plaza Mayor (street side). The waiters didn't speak English that well, but we were able to order, and I felt that the experience was very good
  • Enrique Tomas sandwich - place for Jamón sandwiches. Well priced and so delicious! There are different options of the type of jamón you can have as part of your sandwich. This can range from 3.50€ to 5.50€ depending on the type of jamón you choose.
Transportation
Similar to Barcelona, I mainly walked. Many things I wanted to see were close to Plaza Mayor. I did take the subway once because we walked to the Market Platea, and we wanted to go back closer to Plaza Mayor. Single Metro Zona A ticket - 1,50 - 2 €.

To Tip or Not?
Tipping didn't seem required or done by others. We also looked around to see if other people tipped, and they didn't leave anything. It is safe to say that within Spain, if you would like to tip it is fine but it seems that it is generally not done.  



Other Observations:
I may have commented that the people in Barcelona all seemed to be able to speak English, in Madrid it was another story. No worries though, there are pictures on all of the meals or the food would be on display. I mentioned before that I did study Spanish for a bit, so it wasn't too bad for me. Even my low level Spanish was fine. I also felt like Madrid was just busier at Christmas time. It could be more touristy items are close together in Madrid compared to Barcelona and I happened to stay mainly in the tourist areas.



Though I did not mention this in my Barcelona blog, in Madrid I definitely noticed siesta compared to in Barcelona. In Barcelona, everything was far apart, so everyone seemed like they were doing their own thing. In Madrid, in terms of when people were eating their afternoon snack and when they would be eating dinner, I would notice the gap. My friend and I spent a lot of time walking so by 6pm, we were hungry. We were usually the only people eating around that time as well. Usually it seems that people would starting eating at 7:30pm to 8:30pm. Many restaurants were opened earlier though, but that could be that I was mainly in the tourist area.


Final Thoughts:

I am really glad I went to Madrid during Christmas. It was nice to spend Christmas in the Capital and watch the festivities. I also went to Palacio Real (Royal Palace of Madrid), which the Royal family do not live here. It is mainly used for ceremonies. It was exciting to visit the Palace on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas to watch the King's address (he was in delivering his address from one of the rooms in the Palace). Definitely a "I was there!" type of moment for me.

Palacio Real

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