Madrid, Part 1
[Note: in a departure from my usual use of this website for interesting links and abstract musings, this series of posts will be more like the original sense of a “blog” - essentially a personal diary. Since I’m abroad, it should be more interesting.]
[Note 2: More photos and videos will be uploaded over the next week or two. Please check both here and http://davidad.smugmug.com/Travel/201001-Madrid/ for updates. All photos will be uploaded to smugmug, and those which fit into the narrative will be added here as well.]
I’m writing this from Madrid, Spain, during the coffee breaks of DAMP, a workshop of the ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2010), the most important conference in my specialty (programming language theory). I’ve also brought along my girlfriend, Emily - she’s not attending the conference, but she’s always wanted to visit Europe and especially Spain.
We left Boston on Sunday afternoon, encountering delays at Logan Airport due to the presence of Air Force One, which I saw the tail stabilizer of from quite far away out the window of the terminal building. Once the President had cleared the area we were on our way to transfer in Philadelphia - rushing to just make the boarding call for our flight to Madrid. The next morning we awoke to the sunrise over Portugal.
Arriving in Madrid-Barajas Airport, we made our way to the baggage claim, only to discover that Emily’s checked bag didn’t make it to Philadelphia in time to come with us to Madrid. (Whenever possible, I carry all of my baggage with me - heavy, but worth it for situations like this.) We filled out a claim form, got some euros, and proceeded through customs - which, as usual in Europe, was basically just a special door.
We got some food in the airport and proceeded to the Metro station to head to the city center. Our destination was the Atocha Renfe station, where there were lockers in which I could stow my heavy carry-on bag while we explored the city. (This was also the place where we would meet my friend in Spain, Luis, later that night.) Three metro lines later, we found ourselves in the huge station - a modern subway, commuter rail, and intercity rail station, as well as the attached old station building, which had been converted to an indoor tropical greenhouse. With some confusion, we found the “consignas” (place to lock up luggage).
Next, our goal was to find places for Emily to buy contact solution and clothing to replace those lost in the checked bag. We had heard there was some public wireless internet in the city center, but a quick check inside and outside the train station revealed nothing unencrypted. Having nothing better to do, we began to explore the streets, essentially at random, which was actually a lot of fun.
Eventually we found ourselves wanting something to eat, and stopped in at an Italian restaurant called “Pinocchio,” where we got a calzone and a pizza. Although recognizably Italian, as I anticipated, they were quite different from American Italian food,and the calzone in particular had a recognizably Spanish flair (the tomato sauce was almost more like a mild salsa than a marinara). We also got a brownie with “hot chocolate” (like American fudge sauce), which was excellent.
The restaurant was on a wide open plaza, and for a while after we finished our meal we watched some children playing. Also on the plaza, though, was the Rena Sofia museum of modern art - a popular tourist destination due to its housing the original of Picasso’s “Guernica.” Besides the Picassos and Dalis, there were many other examples of later 20th century art that Emily and I found fascinating (although, as always, a few utterly failed to stimulate). I would rank it among the top 5 art galleries I’ve ever been to.
Finally, we returned to the Atocha Renfe station to meet Luis, who was coming in after finishing his lectures that afternoon as a professor in Cadiz. I got my luggage from the consignas and we took a taxi northward.
