Spanish Wedding!

So finally, after quite a few days on the road, we arrived in Madrid, for the main event of the trip – Paula’s and Peppe’s wedding. We arrived a couple of days early to have some time to meet up with old friends and explore the Spanish capital.

Our first stop was Pablo’s and Olga’s place – friends of mine from my years in Scotland and England. The plan had been to stay at their place Thursday night, but due to their young Adrian getting quite seriously ill, we had to change our plans a bit and stay one more night at the hotel we had already book – but we still wanted to pop by and say hi to them. We figured it would be easy enough to find their place with our wonderful TomTom, but alas, ‘twas not the case. After getting all confused in the networks of tunnels surrounding the centre of Madrid we got thoroughly lost (poor TomTom didn’t even sort itself once out of the tunnels). Well, we eventually managed to driver ourselves into the proximity of their house, but then had problems finding parking. Well, we eventually made it at their front door – having lost “only” about an hour zigzagging around the streets of Madrid. Anyway, it was great to see Pablo, Olga and little Adrian again (although the last time was only about 6 months ago, in Cairo), and catch up on the latest. A shame it was so short…

Afterwards, we met up with Katerina and Alexandros (who were also attending the wedding) for dinner in the town centre. After some aimless wandering about we finally ended up eating in a nice, if somewhat pricey, restaurant offering Galician cuisine. The trip back to the hotel turned out to be a bit of a hassle as well, taking us about 45 minutes as opposed to the 15 predicted by TomTom, as the police were doing breathalyser tests on one of the main Madrid thoroughfares – halting traffic to a standstill in the process.

The next day, the rest of the group arrived (the group being Mathilde’s friends and their other halves from her Erasmus year in Perugia), and we all headed down to the city centre for some sightseeing. First up was the Palacio Real – the royal palace. So time for yet another audio guide – but the palace was very impressive, it has to be said. After a very reasonably priced and tasty lunch (apparently the staff were trainees), we headed for the botanical gardens where we had a nice walk around. And then it was time to head back to the hotel, to prepare for the evenings programme.


The programme for the evening was a tapas dinner at the local restaurant. Very nice indeed, with great food and wine and a good atmosphere. Some of us headed to a local bar afterwards for “a digestif” (which actually ended up being quite a few…). We had a really good time – there was a feria starting in Sevilla, apparently, which was being celebrated (which meant some dancing from the staff and a free round of drinks!).


On Saturday, the boyz (me, Alexandros and Kamel), headed for what is apparently the second most visited tourist attraction in Madrid – Estadio Santiago Bernebeu (yep, that’s the stadium where Real Madrid play). For the “reasonable” (depends on whom you ask, I guess ;-) price of 15 euros, we got to see all their trophies (and there are a lot – they’ve wont the most European trophies and more domestic trophies than any other Spanish team), replays of famous goals, player’s shoes and ID cards, and of course the stadium itself (including the players facilities – which include a Jacuzzi). I like the modest comment on the last page of the leaflet we got with the ticket: “keep your Bernabeu Tour ticket to remind you that this unforgettable day was not a dream”.

Then it was time for the climax of the trip – the wedding. This would be my fourth Spanish wedding – but my first Spanish-Italian one (Paula is Spanish and Peppe is Italian). All of us numerous foreigners got put on a bus and taken to the church – well, eventually. (I think the bus driver should consider getting a GPS – he seemed as lost in Madrid as us for a while). After the ceremony in the church, we were whisked back to the hotel, after a brief guided bus tour of Madrid (now that’s what I call a nice touch ;-).


The evening’s festivities kicked off with a meal. And not just any old meal – a starter of foie gras, smoked salmon and king prawns, followed by some delicious fish, and culminating in the biggest steak I’ve had for a long, long time (ever?). And this followed by a delicious desert, and cigars. And of course, great wines, cognac, liqueurs to go with it… Now that’s what I call a meal ;-). Things only got better later on, when things kicked off at the dance floor. Great fun – and of course a free bar is always nice ;-). We eventually crawled into bed about 4:30 in the morning… What a great party!

After a rather late breakfast, and tear-filled farewells to everybody, back on the road it was for us. We spent the night in Barcelona at Rich’s and Mireia’s again, and were also treated to a great Catalan dinner. And the next day, we drove straight back to Nice, wistfully leaving Spain behind us.

A big thanks to everybody who put us up during the trip, and especially to Paula and Peppe for a great, memorable celebration

More photos here.