Last week, Heather and I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful city of Madrid. It was a bit cold at times but still quite pleasant to explore.
When I travel, I generally prefer to keep my itinerary pretty loose as I like to explore and kind of go with the flow so that if something interesting pops up, I’m not locked into something rigid and can turn my attention to that experience. Fortunately, Heather has a very similar attitude, so we are very compatible traveling companions.
With that being said, it’s not like I arrive somewhere without having done some research. For this trip I asked one of my A.I. assistants to give me an itinerary for a three day visit to Madrid. After only a few seconds it did just that and it gave us a list of places to visit and activities to do.
For some reason I like getting haircuts overseas and it was time for another one. My last one happened to be while I was in London in November so I thought it would make sense to get one in Madrid. Here I am after my haircut.
Obviously I’m wearing a Lakers shirt. Two people mentioned to me the Lucka Doncic trade and they both said they will be watching the Lakers now. The Lakers not only got a generational player but a huge international star as well that will only make their brand more valuable.
Prior to getting my haircut we stopped into a store where Heather and I each bought hats. Mine will be quite prominently displayed in future photos. I asked the woman working there where a good barbershop was and she did a little research and gave me the name. She also said if we were hungry the best restaurant in Madrid was not too far away. Of course we were interested. She told us the name and I thought it sounded familiar. I looked at my A.I. itinerary and sure enough that was one of the restaurants it recommended! It also happens to be the oldest restaurant in the world, according to The Guiness Book of World Records.
As an aside, it turned out that the restaurant was two doors away from the barbershop. It worked out perfectly as they had an opening at 2:00, which would allow us to have lunch first. We didn’t have a reservation but fortunately they were able to accommodate us.
Here is Heather holding up the menu advertising its claim to fame.
Because Madrid hosts a major tennis tournament at the end of April into early May we had to go visit the facility. Behind this gate is a large fitness center and 30 clay tennis courts. There are three stadium courts, eleven smaller ones covered by a roof, and 16 outdoor ones. From what we could tell the surrounding area is not very impressive so I imagine the 300,000 visitors to the tournament are people who live in the Madrid area and out of towners staying more towards the city center.
I now don’t feel as badly about how much more The TenniSphere cost than projected after reading about Caja Magica, the home to the Madrid Open. It was budgeted to cost 120 million euros and ended up being completed for 290 million.
In this picture Heather discovered the editing feature that allows one to remove cars from the background. The shirt that Carlos Alcaraz is wearing is one that I have as well. I bought it after watching him play in it a couple of years ago.
And while I would like to think that tennis would be the dominant sport in Madrid, I’m not that naive. It’s home to Rafael Nadal’s favorite soccer team, Real Madrid. They play in a beautiful stadium across the street from this ticketing center where one can purchase access to a tour of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which holds a little more than 78,000 people. I found this Wikipedia entry to be quite fascinating regarding the history of the stadium. Bernabeu was President of Real Madrid and the driving force and visionary for the original stadium being torn down and replaced by a much bigger one. He persevered despite great financial challenges and skepticism.
What would a trip to Madrid, or most anywhere in Spain be without a flamenco dancing experience? Heather asked the concierge for his recommendation for a great show and dinner in the area and, what do you know? He recommended one of the two my A.I. itinerary suggested.
This is the view from outside the restaurant.
Madrid, like most great European cities, has some amazing museums. I’m just going to say it, I’m not well suited for long museum visits, let alone going to them at all. I know I’m a Philistine but I am what I am and I can tell I am ok with it because I never regret missing out on museums when reflecting on my trips. Heather is much more knowledgeable about art and loves to paint so she is far better suited to going to them. She will usually go while I’m either working in London or doing something else.
I did make an exception for this visit to Madrid. I have always been fascinated by surrealism and of course Spain is home to Salvador Dali, the world’s most famous surrealist artist. It just so happened that an exhibit was opening at a museum in Madrid celebrating the 100th anniversary of the surrealist manifesto written in 1924 by Andre Breton. The exhibit had been to other cities prior to Madrid.
I’m glad we went as it is a great reminder of the power of the subconscious in one’s life and that our inner worlds can reveal many powerful messages through dreams, symbols, and art.
Although Dali’s works were represented during this exhibit, other artists were far more prominently displayed. With that being said, I had to capture a picture of a Dali painting.
Here are a few photos emphasizing my new hat. Heather took this artistic one while we were having tea and cake in the lobby of the Four Seasons. She utilized the mirror quite effectively.
I saw this statue of a man with a similar hat as mine so I had to take a couple of pictures with him.
Here is a very famous statue at Plaza Colon and one with it in the background.
This last picture is in front of one of the most stunning buildings in Madrid: Palacio de Cibeles.
I’m grateful to be healthy and vibrant enough to continue my travels as it was just about four years ago (February 9th, 2021) that I had my heart surgery. Fortunately all is good even to the point where my cardiologist said during my visit last year that one would never know that I had heart surgery.
We left Madrid with some amazing memories, wonderful experiences, a collection of photographs, and, last, but not least, new hats.
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