Life in a year full of Saturdays: Marrakech to Madrid

Marrakech (Morocco) to Madrid (Spain) - Flight No. U2

What better flight number to have than U2 ? So it was my flight ID from Marrakech to Madrid landed me with 'They Hype', of course I kept the boarding pass and of course I'm tragic but do I care ? No, not at all. I still like Bryan Adams also and am happy to admit it.

You can see just how close Europe is to Africa - 14kms at its shortest point!

After my Moroccan gallivanting I was ready to take up sangria taste testing in the capital. A couple of hours out of Marrakech and I was skirting over the Iberian peninsula with a golden sunset veiling the continent where I had just spent the last 10 days. Actually flying from Africa into Europe was a definite highlight, in fact the distance between the continents at its shortest point is only 14kms, that's just a ski paddle apart. Actually that's quite an interesting idea, make base in Spain or Morocco and then go out for a ski paddle for lunch from one continent and then paddle back for dinner later on. Of course there's always the ferry right ? But who am I to ever do things the easy way ? Just need to make sure that the passport doesn't get lost in the Mediterranean.

In any case, there I was landing in Madrid on the 4th of July, long hair intact and looking more and more like a Spaniard everyday, or so my Moroccan friends told me. I wasn't quite sure what to expect of Madrid, I'd already heard from many a people that Barcelona was their favourite destination and that Madrid was the grey to Barcelona's technicolour rainbow, well, whatever, not really sure what that last comment meant. So perhaps I arrived to the heart of Spain a little apprehensive at first but it was nothing that a carafe and a half of full sweet sangria couldn't fix in an instant

Plaza Mayor - Madrid - Spain

I've got to say, from my short stay, 48hrs tops, Madrid came across as a modern city, possessing all the infrastructure that you'd expect from one of Europe's most populous and financially important cities and yet it still had a look and feel of an older, more historic era. As I did the standard tourist thing whilst in town and walked my way from Plaza Mayor to Plaza de Cibeles to Retiro Park etc, I started to wonder what the hell people had been talking about. I also started to wonder as to how Spain had managed to keep all the most attractive women of the world in one city ! If only I could speak Spanish or was a metre taller, perhaps I would have had a chance but then I would have needed to split my sangria ! The inevitable pitfalls of a travel adventure. What I also loved about Madrid were the tapas bars, mixing in some beers with bits and pieces of every food and hey presto, one great evening in progress.

I love you Madrid!

Plaza Cibeles - Madrid - Spain

The Lonely planet guide described Madrid this way, a description that I found to be very apt;

If Madrid were a woman, she’d be a cross between Penélope Cruz (beautiful and quintessentially Spanish) and Madonna (sassy, getting better with age). If it were a man, it would have to be Javier Bardem (not the world’s most handsome but with that special, irresistible something). And if you could distill the city to its essence, it would be this: Madrid is a rebellious ex-convent schoolgirl who grew up, got sophisticated but never forgot how to have a good time.

Sangria going down quite nicely on an evening in Plaza Mayor

Strangely I think Madrid and Barcelona have the same competitive fight going on that Sydney has with Melbourne. Sydney and Barcelona in a purely aesthetic sense are stunning cities, colloquially eye poppers that cannot help but overtly display their beauty. Madrid and Melbourne on the other are attractive in their own way but their charm, sophistication and elegance lies away from their physical characteristics and can be found in their build, their make-up, it's style, diversity within it's barrios, nightlife and fantastic tapas bars, which of course I'd already tested out with reckless abandon. Truthfully my time here was much too short and not well planned, mostly because my itinerary had a few last minute changes. In any case I know better now and I know that next time I'm here I'm going to spend a lot longer and learn a few critical lines of Spanish , as they say, you never know your luck in a big city !