Madrid, Spain, Day one
Our bus left San Sebastian at about half past midnight, and the idea was to get some sleep beore arriving in Madrid. The sleep didn’t really happen, but we did get to Madrid by about 6:15. We took the train with all the locals coming home from their Saturday night partying and were lucky to check in the hotel at about eight. We got a disabled room (the only room available at that time) but that just meant it was twice as big and had a huge shower!
We wasted no time and started exploring Madrid, not really knowing what to expect. First stop was Museo Renia Sofia, which is free on Sunday. It has a stack of works by Picasso, Dali and Miro, among others. We then passed Museo del Prado and Neptune’s fountain before wandering through some of the alleyways and plazas, stopping for lunch at Plaza del Emperador Carlos V.
The temperature has been around 35C and we were starting to bake, so we had a quick siesta after lunch (so going to miss those!) and decided to head to a bullfight at Plaza de Toro Monumental de las Ventas that evening. This was an interesting decision, as it’s not really something we wanted to support, but in the end we decided to go all the same. We caught the train to the stadium, which was a pretty impressive building itself. We chose seats in the shade and found them just in time for the ‘fight’ to start.
After the presentation of the matadors, the first bull was brought out. The fights are formulaic and start with a few of the matadors playing with the bull with their pink capes and hiding behind cover to get a feel for the attitude of the animal. After this, other matadors mounted on blindfolded and somewhat armoured horses come out and bait the bull into charging their horse. When it does,and the bull is busy trying to gore the horse, they stab it in the back of the neck with lances to weaken the neck muscles. The next stage sees the matadors without capes, but with sharpened sticks. They attract the bull and, when it charges, jab the sticks into its back while dodging the charge. Finally, a single matador comes out with a sword and a red cape. He plays some more with the now bloodied bull using the cape before switching swords. He lines up the bull and, when it charges, attempts to thrust the sword into the bull’s back to the hilt. This is nearly the end for the bull, and the other matadors surround and torment it until it collapses. The primary matador retrieves his sword and the bull is finally killed with a dagger to the back of the neck. Afterwards, it is dragged around and out of the stadium by three horses wearing bells.
This sequence is then repeated with a new bull. We stayed for two fights before leaving, but I think there were to be three main matadors with two bulls each, six for the night.
Honestly, we didn’t think too much of the whole spectacle. The bulls have no chance, removing any notion of it being a ‘fight’ and also removing any sense of danger or real excitement. It also does nothing to prove the manliness of the matadors, despite their hip-thrusting and tormenting of the bulls. The crowd was surprisingly small for a weekly event and it was apparent a lot of the tourists did not know how bloody a bullfight actually was going to be.
While I was glad to have seen it firsthand, I am disappointed that we contributed €20 towards continuing this ‘sport’. After seeing it live, it surely can’t continue for long in this day and age. It was unnecessarily brutal, pointless, routine and uninspired.
On a happier note, we took the advice of the hotel staff and headed out for dinner. Restaurante Botin was founded in 1725 and is listed by Guinness as the ‘Earliest Restaurant in the World’. It has a fairly unassuming frontage, but the dining area itself is down in 3 levels of old cellars and Katie absolutely loved it. The old decorations and tapestries made you think of the nearly three hundred years of people that had eaten there. The food, rosé and service were great and it was one of our favourites places so far. Katie had their specialty, roast suckling pig while I settled for half a chicken. Delicious!
Finally, it was back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep! Simon
