On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 22 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Tuesday 7 September – part five: exploring the Royal Palace
Then it was into the palace proper to pick up our tour. Our guide was wonderful and kept us in each room just long enough to tell us about all the salient things that we were seeing in there. We had headsets, so that we didn’t have to be right next to her to easily hear her and I found that really useful, especially as I was content to sometimes hang back at the entrances to the various rooms, carefully looking at every detail laid out in front of us – and there was so much to take in. Sadly, there are strictly no photos in here, so I can’t share with you the wonder of the rooms we saw.
Some of the highlights were the imposing main staircase you enter and leave through, the throne room, complete with two golden thrones and two lions guarding them. Our guide told us that these lions pre-date the palace, as they came from the castle that was originally on this site. They were made in Rome in 1651 and this really did give you an impression of power. Apparently, the Royal family still meet people here today, although the thrones are strictly ceremonial only and they are on their feet whenever they meet people.
The Gala Dining Room was another that stuck in my mind. This saw three originally separate rooms brought together to create one long room that can have a table that will seat up to 140 people. There are two chairs that are slightly taller than all the others at the centre of the room and those are for the King and Queen. The visiting head of state will always seat with them as well, as the tradition is that the most important people sit at the centre of the table.
There are three rooms, where the kings originally took dinner, lunch and breakfast and you see them in that order. Surprisingly, it’s the breakfast room that is the most spectacular of the three, which has now been named after its creator to become the Gasparini Room. It’s decorated with flowers all over it, including the ceiling and is unlike anything I’ve seen before in a palace.
The same can be said for the Porcelain Room, which is completely decorated with porcelain, manufactured by the Royal factory. Sadly, that no longer exists, but it was fascinating to see that so much came from Royal factories, as pretty much all the tapestries here also came from a Royal factory as well and that one is still working today.
Once our tour was done, we handed back our headsets and headed back into the square. We were both absolutely shattered and in desperate need of sitting down, so we decided to get some food here. On the way, we headed to the far side of the palace to get some photos of the view below, which was lovely.
As we were in the vicinity, we also opted to have a look at the Royal Armoury, which is a self guided tour. Again, sadly no photos were allowed in here, but wow, the collection of arms you see in here on two separate floors was quite breathtaking. It reminded me of the Tower of London, although I think this collection is probably bigger, which amazed me.
About to drop, we headed for the building we had entered through and headed upstairs to get something to eat in their cafe. The elevator up there was a bit jerky and my goodness, that messed with my head for a few minutes after. I went for the fettuccine with mushrooms, which was lovely. Mark pointed at something and established that it was pork in a sauce, so opted for that.
We sat there for quite some time after we’d finished eating, just recovering and getting our strength up for the upcoming Segway tour. Eventually we headed out through the gift shop, getting a fridge magnet there.
Then it was outside, where we decided to go and have a look at the Cathedrale de la Almudena. This is one of perhaps the newest cathedrals in the world, as the plans for it only got the go ahead in 1879, but it wasn’t actually finished until the 1980s. Even then, it wasn’t opened by the Pope until 1993. : The second you enter it, you can see that makes it immediately different. Sure, you can see the lines that you’d expect in any church, but the colours inside are a lot more clear cut and it looks a lot more modern than most churches you visit.
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Great update. I had to go on;ine to find some pictures of the Palace to see the thrones and the Dining table and room.
Can't wait to hear about the segway tour
Tuesday 7 September – part six: Segwaying through Madrid!
Once we finished wandering around, we headed towards where we were due to pick up the Segway tour, stopping for a sit down on the way. Then we made our way into the square and couldn’t see anything, so again sat down. As we’d been told to be there 15 minutes early, by about 3.50pm, I think we were both getting a bit jumpy.
I told Mark to have a wander round to see if he could see anything and, just as he was heading back to me, he spotted the Segway wheels round the corner, with a guy there, so we went over and handed in our voucher and met our guide for the next hour and a half, Alex. Soon we were joined by the other two people who would be in our group, Emma and Adam. They were from South London and were a lovely couple. It turned out that this trip to Madrid was his surprise present to her for her 30th birthday and they’d both been bought the Segway tour by a group of friends. Neither of them had ever ridden a Segway before or had any desire to and it seems that their friends hadn’t done anything like this before, so the gift was a little left field, shall we say. Adam was looking forward to it, but Emma wasn’t quite as keen. Actually, that was an understatement – she was terrified, especially when she first stepped on it, but after a few minutes, she really started to enjoy it.
I waited for all the others to get on their Segways, as I wanted to rest my ankle (and the rest of me!) for as long as I could, before putting myself through that. I was fine once I got on it and it really was like riding a bike, in that I remembered everything very quickly. My problem was getting off the thing! Because it involved putting weight on my bad ankle at some point, I just couldn’t do it, so poor Alex, who was despairing of me by this point, said that every time I wanted to get off, he’d help me.
Adam and Emma, our colleagues on this tour
With that, 20 minutes later, we were finally off. He told us it was the longest training session he’d done and I couldn’t work out if he was joking or not. He seemed to have a wicked sense of humour, as we discovered on our tour. At times, he joked that he was leaving us, which backfired, as we told him we’d hang on to the Segways!
We headed first back to Plaza del Orientes, which we had visited earlier, then we whizzed past the Palace and over to the Cathedral. It was at this point that Alex decided to increase the speed of our Segways. You should’ve seen Mark’s face when he said that! I have to say here that they were very relaxed about safety. It’s not that they didn’t take care, but compared to Disney, it was an eye opener. The training session was a lot more low key and basically it was going forward, stopping and turning and that was about it. No obstacle course that you get in in Disney and, interestingly, no helmet either. Considering that we ended up on pavements, right next to busy roads and, later on going through thriving pedestrian areas, that was quite a surprise! By comparison, you barely find any such issues at Disney....
The speed increased, we whizzed back past the Palace and stopped at the Jardins de Sabatini (Sabatini Gardens) next door, which we had missed earlier. They were laid out in the 1930s and look like a lovely set of formal gardens.
I must admit next I did wonder where on earth we were going, as we headed down an underpass, with traffic whizzing past us. We crossed the road and came up the other side and then I could see where Alex was taking us.
We headed into another park, the Parque del Oeste, which is home to the Temple de Debod. As Alex explained, this was a present to Spain from the Egyptian government. Apparently, every government who helped them out in saving monuments that would have been destroyed by the Aswan Dam got one of these as a thank you. Well, I guess either ours in the UK was very low key or we didn’t help them then....
A little further on, we got some wonderful views back across the city, with the palace and the cathedral in the foreground. This is also where Alex was very laid back. We were allowed to take photos on the Segways, we didn’t have to get off as you do at Disney. Indeed, some of the shots Mark got were actually as he was travelling along on his Segway!
From there, we started to make our way back, hurtling along the pavements and I became very conscious of how little attention people pay to anything when they’re walking. I guess it doesn’t help that the Segways don’t really make a noise, so you can’t hear them coming up behind you.
We crossed the road on the way back and our next stop was at Plaza de Espana, where the centrepiece is a monument to the famous Spanish author, Cervantes, who created the character of Don Quixote.
Surrounding this square were lots of buildings, including this unique one with trees seeming to grow through it!
I'd love to do a Segway tour sometime, but think I'll do one at Disney, or at least state-side, first! The ones I've seen in DC definitely require helmets. I'm a bit of a fanatic about that with my kids - if you're on wheels, you're wearing a helmet! I think that's a difference outside the US - probably where there are less lawsuits!
But looks like you had a great time - hope Mark loved the birthday gift tour!
I'd love to do a Segway tour sometime, but think I'll do one at Disney, or at least state-side, first! The ones I've seen in DC definitely require helmets. I'm a bit of a fanatic about that with my kids - if you're on wheels, you're wearing a helmet! I think that's a difference outside the US - probably where there are less lawsuits!
But looks like you had a great time - hope Mark loved the birthday gift tour!
A very good point - there are probably a lot less lawsuits outside of both the US and the UK, as we've taken health and safety a bit far here. Not something we witnessed a lot of in Spain - Mark never ceases to be amazed by the building sites we see in continental Europe and the lack of any health and safety arrangements there.
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Sadly, there are strictly no photos in here, so I can’t share with you the wonder of the rooms we saw. 
I went for the fettuccine with mushrooms, which was lovely. Mark pointed at something and established that it was pork in a sauce, so opted for that. 
: The second you enter it, you can see that makes it immediately different. Sure, you can see the lines that you’d expect in any church, but the colours inside are a lot more clear cut and it looks a lot more modern than most churches you visit. 
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the ceiling in the church! Just gorgeous!
Awesome pictures as usual.
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