9th July - Madrid

Wednesday 9th July

After leaving Pamplona we headed South West towards the city of Burgos, 100 kilometres north of Madrid. We spent a day in a campsite in Monasterio de Rodilla, east of Burgos, after finding out the hard way that the campsite we were heading to in the centre of Burgos (20km away from the other campsite) no longer existed. ‘Picon Del Conde’ in Monasterio de Rodilla was very pleasant though (staff speaking little, but enough English) for 14 Euros a night with electric hook up.

The next day we drove the 100km down the A1 to Madrid, where we parked again next to a train station, this time; El Escorial was our base, an historic, pretty old town around 15km from the centre of the Spanish Capital. It’s Monastery (Pictured left) is worth a visit too, and according to our guide book it’s not only one of the “Best Sights in Europe” and describes it as an “Immense Renaissance complex of Palatial and monastic buildings and mausoleum of the Spanish Monarchs".

Parking was free at the station, which we obviously love, and we weren’t the only ones parked there over night (no other motor homes though, unfortunately). We caught the 9.15am train into ‘Madrid Atocha’ station which took just over an hour. Spanish trains are nowhere near as comfortable as the ones we encountered in France, and at every station stop you are greeted by a series of overly loud sirens - presumably to wake up the locals who had too much Sangria the night before. The fare was much cheaper than in France though…swings and roundabouts.
Madrid was fantastic, I much preferred it over Paris. It seemed like my kind of city. There’s an interesting mix of old style with contemporary architecture, more honest retail (in comparison to the many jewellery and shoe stores in Paris which you could only visit after a large lottery win) and there were some really fascinating buildings on offer. For example, the Palace of Communications is more than stunning, and was one of the first sights we were greeted with after disembarking at ‘Sol’ Metro Station.

We paid a visit to the Restaurant Sobrino de Botin in Calle Cuchilleros, just off the famous Plaza Mayor square. It dates back to 1725 and was one of the locations where Ernest Hemmingway wrote some of his short stories - one of which Mike was reading at the time. The waiters kindly let us in for a look and to take some photos - which was good because we weren’t on the kind of budget to spend 9 Euros on a glass of wine.

The whole day spent in Madrid was an enjoyable one. Looking back, I must have been extremely fond of the city because I haven’t let the fact that it took us 4 and a half hours to get back to El Escorial mar my view of the place (wrong train after wrong train after another wrong bloody train).

To make a difficult last few hours worse, when we got back to the motor home our grey water was leaking. Although I suppose that was more a problem for those who had to experience the stench of it after we had departed. Sorry!

The Palace of Communications.

Real Madrid's 'Santiago Bernabeu' Stadium, worth a visit even if you're not into football.