Sunday,
September 9, 1979
We
arrived in Madrid at 11:00 and we figured it was too late to go to the Prado
which was only open in the morning on Sundays. So we picked up our bomb suitcase,
made reservations on the next day’s train for Algeciras. We found that to get a
cuchette would only cost $5 over our Eurail Passes, so we reserved cuchettes.
(We later found out that a cuchette actually costs six times as much! Thank
goodness for the Eurail Pass!) We took the subway to the hotel we had previously
stayed in, and re-checked in. We had lunch at Burger King, then walked to the
Plaza de España in hopes of finding the bus to the zoo. As we walked in the
direction of the zoo, we saw several buses we wanted (#33) but couldn't find
the actual bus stop. We ended up hiking all the way to Casa de Campo, the huge
area in which the zoo and amusement park are located. Only then did we realize
how large the Casa de Campo was, as we walked along its border looking for the
zoo entrance. We passed a section of gardens, and then a large area which
looked exactly like an abandoned fairground, which it turned out to be. Several
(an understatement) kilometers later, we reached the zoo, noted for being
modern and generally without cages. It was the nicest zoo I have ever seen, but
there were still cages, and some of the open areas seemed too small and lacked
any shade. We saw a large variety of animals, but very few from the Americas.
Supposedly expansion of the zoo is being made to include those animals, too. They
had prairie dogs living in an area without barriers, and they were willing to
let humans within an arm’s length. There was a pair of Giant Pandas who
apparently just arrived from China.
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| Zoo ticket |
 |
| Amusement park ticket |
When we finished at the zoo, we went to the
amusement park, Parque de Attraciones, which was supposedly comparable to
Copenhagen’s Tivoli and Disneyland with “unique” rides. It was like Tivoli, but
hopefully not like Disneyland or else I will be very disappointed! The rides
were not unique, in fact there were not very many of them. We saw only a couple
rides to excite our fancy, but they were closed! We saw lots of pinball
machines, restaurants, the cascading main fountain, and a loud drunk wandering
around followed by two concerned-looking women. We joined the crowd waiting to
see “Pecos.” “Pecos” turned out to be a band featuring two fresh-faced kids, the
apparent heart throbs of Spanish teeny boppers. When “Pecos” finally came out,
we left. We caught our #33 bus back to Madrid and found out why we hadn't seen
a bus stop in Plaza de España. It doesn't actually stop there! We took the bus
to the end of the line and walked back to Burger King for dinner. We returned
to the hotel for the night.
Monday,
September 10, 1979
We
overslept and our only time-telling piece had stopped, so we had no idea what
time it was. We hurriedly dressed, but made it in time for breakfast. We left
our bag at the hotel and headed more or less straight for the Prado. We saw men
hosing down the streets of Madrid! |
| Prado ticket |
We entered the Prado and began exploring the
last of a long list of art museums on our itinerary. By now all art was
beginning to look alike, so we weren't overly impressed by all the Rubens, etc.
We did see several rooms of Goya, each in a different style from soft
classical, good classical to weird modern, almost surrealistic. He was a prolific
painter like all the others. It seemed Rubens had a huge collection in every
art gallery. The lighting was better for viewing, but not for photo-taking. The
collection itself was very large, but not the largest we had seen since the
Louvre. It didn't take very long to go through the Prado which had several
signs asking to excuse the inconvenience caused by the “climatization,” but we
saw no hint of construction inside. We spent the rest of the day
souvenir-hunting. I found a leather eyeglass case for my sister, and Kathy found
some games for her brother. She also bought a miniature “Mastermind” game for
our own amusement. For lunch we stopped at Burger King again. We picked up our
bag from the hotel and took the subway to the Chamartin train station to
retrieve our two big bags. There we explored the boutiques in their shopping mall
and had a snack. Then we Metro’ed to the Atocha station. It must have been rush
hour, since we were shoved in like sardines. Being surrounded by men who took
advantage of the situation, we were more uncomfortable than would be usual. At
every station it seemed more people got on than got off. We couldn't believe
the hands (and other assorted body parts) of the guys surrounding us! Busy! We
used our elbows and knees as best we could to stave off strangers, but it was
difficult being so crammed in. Perhaps fortunately we had a wall to one side
and our suitcases to another which left only two sides open to attack. Finally
we arrived at Atocha where we shoved our way off the train. Once in the train
station, we had a bit of a wait before our train was ready for boarding.
When we got on the cuchette car, a porter was waiting to show us the way and to
throw our suitcases up on the racks. We were joined by a Moroccan couple coming
home from their honeymoon. The groom spoke French, Spanish, and Italian, as well
as Arabic, plus he knew a little English that he practiced with us. He seemed
pleased that Kathy spoke Arabic and conversed away. We were also joined by a
Spanish couple, who apparently had a dog along in the baggage car, and they had
to pay a fare for him more than what we paid for our cuchettes! As we rode
along, we ate our respective dinners. Then the porter came along to make up the
beds. Kathy and I were relegated to the top bunks while the menfolk took the
middle bunks and their wives got the lower bunks. It was hot in the top bunks,
but apparently cooler down below. Kathy kept using her toe to open the window,
while the Spanish man kept reaching over to close it. But Kathy and I slept
well enough, when it seems the women below didn't sleep at all. For us, cuchettes
are much better than fold-down seats for sleeping!
Next: Morocco again.
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