Madrid, Toledo, and Dubai: Far from the Camino de Santiago

View of a march on Saturday from our hotel window

Our hotel in Madrid

One of three Jumbotrons next to our hotel

We arrived in Madrid on a Friday afternoon.  Our hotel was on the Gran Via and we emerged from the Metro into a mass of people.  This is the heart of Madrid’s commercial district and it was like being in Fifth Avenue in New York during rush hour. The Metro was crazy and packed, the streets were crazy and packed, and I just felt crazed and disoriented.  Crosswalks were so crowded that all I could do was follow the person in front of me and not change course.  Cars, taxis, buses, horns, and pounding rock music from a pop up sunglasses stand/music venue/dance floor accompanied us to the front door of our hotel.  All this was in the square next to our hotel, a square that also had three Jumbotrons advertising everything from department stores and new movies to public service messages about the campaign to end teenage prostitution.  It was sensory overload for me.  The two closest large town squares, the Plaza Mayor and the Puera Del Sol, offered little in the way of calm since they were large, treeless gathering places for young people,tourists, street vendors, tour groups, and street performers.  Retiro Park borders one edge of Madrid’s city center and it provided a little tranquility; a large and beautiful city park, it is filled with statues, trails, palaces, gardens,and a man made lake where people row rented boats.  Madrid is huge, the third largest city in the EU after London and Berlin.  It is an energetic and bustling European capital where Madrileños share their streets with tourists but make it clear that tourism is only one of their many businesses.

Outdoor cafe in Retiro Park

Manmade lake, Retiro Park

El Rastro flea market

Plaza Mayor

On Monday we took a side trip to Toledo, a mere thirty minutes away on the fast train from Madrid and a step back into time.  Toledo is an enchanting, small, medieval city full of confusing narrow streets that go up, down, and around.  It used to be Spain’s capital until 1561 when Phillip II moved the capital to Madrid. Toledo is bound by the Tajo River (the river known as the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal), and sits high on a hill.

Toledo

Toledo has 2500 years of history.  It has had Roman, Jewish, Visigothic, Moorish, and Christian rulers and the buildings reflect this diverse past.  As a strategic and highly defendable city, it was the center of Europe when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) ruled Europe from Spain.  Toledo was known for its culture and as a city of humanities and tolerance.  Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived and worked peacefully together in the Middle Ages.  El Greco (1541-1614) was born in Crete and educated in Venice, but he spent the last 37 years of his life painting in Toledo.  Many of El Greco’s paintings are in the beautiful Cathedral and smaller churches.

El Greco’s The Spoliation (Christ Being Stripped of his Garments)

Interior of Toldedo’s Cathedral

Today, Toledo is famous for its steel (knives, swords), Damasquinado (Damascene) work where gold and silver threads are pounded into a steel base to create decorative wares, and “mazapan” treats made from almonds.  We got completely lost trying to find our way out of Toledo’s medieval center which would have been fun except that we had a train to catch.  We made it just in time to the station and returned to Madrid, 98 degree heat, traffic, hordes of people, beggars on every street, homeless people with two or three dogs, McDonalds, Starbucks, H and M, outdoor music stages, flickering televised images on Jumbotrons, exhaust, and the competing sounds of bass guitar, drum rolls, and car horns.  A world away from Toledo.

Scott in front of the famous Chocolateria San Gines

Tinto de verano and cerveza, Plaza Mayor

Churros and chocolate for breakfast at Chocolateria San Gines

Spanish “not as good as Ros’s” paella

We spent our last day in Spain eating!  Churros and chocolate to start the day, a midday refreshment in the Plaza Mayor, and dinner of gazpacho and paella.  The paella was good but not as good as Ros’s paella!  Really, truly, hers was better.  It was with a light heart and quick feet that I said good bye to Madrid.  It was with a heavy heart that I said good bye to Spain and boarded the flight for Dubai.  Spain is diverse, beautiful, and full of history and culture.  It was hard to believe that our trip was coming to an end.  We were ready to come home but I look forward to possibly returning to spend more time in this interesting country.

View of Dubai from 148th floor of the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa at night

Nighttime Dubai

Since we had to fly through Dubai on the way home, we decided to spend a couple of nights to see the city.  We arrived at 2 am Dubai time, and it was still 95 degrees.  Hot and humid, this was not a city in which to plan outdoor activities.  With daytime temps at 110, we took taxis to malls the two days we were there.  The malls are over the top, with glass, brass, steel, and marble everywhere.  No fingerprints, litter, stray pieces of paper anywhere.  Gleaming, huge, expansive, and opulent, this is the city that oil money built and is still building.  Gucci, Versace, and Burberry stores plus Baby Gucci, Baby Versace, and Burberry for Kids — and that is to name but a few of the stores we saw.  Jewelry stores everywhere, too, including De Beers.  

A manmade river through one shopping complex

Interior of Mall of the Emirates

Ski resort in the Mall of the Emirates

At diver at the Aquarium in the Dubai Mall

And did I mention that the Dubai Mall has an inside ice skating rink and aquarium, while the Mall of the Emirates has a ski area with a chair lift?  

We were in Dubai during Ramadan which was interesting because any public eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset is punishable by law.  This is taken very seriously.  Tourists could enter screened off food courts to eat, but all restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, etc. in the malls were closed and their counters were shrouded so that no food or drink products could be seen.  Emirate men and woman wore traditional dress, full length white for men and black for women, and both men and women covered their hair.   Visitors are expected to respect the dress code; men should wear long pants or long shorts and women should cover their knees and shoulders.  For the most part, tourists seemed to follow the guidelines.  To me, Dubai appeared to be a city that is a combination of the rest of the world; whatever money can buy, you can get it in Dubai.  From J. Crew to Starbucks to Pizza Hut and McDonalds, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce — international commerce drives this city.  A shopping Mecca on steroids. You couldn’t get any farther from Santiago and the Camino. And maybe that was a good place to end up, as far away from where we started as we could get.

My beloved hiking boots after about a thousand miles! Still good!

Adventure over.  Lots to process. The thing I think about most often is that somewhere along the Camino I came to the not very original realization that wherever you go, there you are.  And that is a beautiful thing.