Fabulous time in Madrid and fantastic training in El Escorial

Not having been to Spain for some years, the last time being a typical beach holiday in Benidorm a chance to revisit Spain but sample some of the more cultural aspects of Madrid and do some Tai-chi into the bargain was too good a chance to miss.   Having decided to go we thought we may as well make the most of it and add a few days to take a look around Madrid.  Booking everything on the internet , the hotel ‘Rafael Hoteles Atocha’ seemed to be in a good position and appearred to be close to the metro , but as with any major airport was a bit of a trek  to find.

I recommend trying to find a luggage trolley as dragging your bags the length and breadth of the airport can be wearing.  The metro itself is much like catching the underground in London, it costs two euros and is well signed in english for those of us whose use of european languages is very limited!    Having arrived at metro station ‘Mendez Alavaro’ the hotel didn’t seem to far away, once again what seemed like a short walk on the map turned into a twenty minute trek  but fortunately was fairly straight forward and we arrived at our hotel without too much trouble.  

If you book on the internet you can usually get a good price for what turned out to be a quality hotel, I certainly had a good nights sleep, my recent stays in hotels seemed to have been quite noisy for one reason or another!  Madrid itself was  quite hot and muggy while we were there, so we needed to keep bottles of water handy as we walked about, there is certainly a lot too see. We barely scratched the surface as we were only there for a day, I would recommend a visit to Atocha railway station which has been renovated recently and houses a botanical garden and  turtle pool which is surprisingly big and expansive. 

The following day it was time to meet Faye and Tary from the airport,  sharing a taxi was is certainly more convenient but found coming back on  the train and metro from El Escorial to the airport was not too difficult and certainly a lot cheaper, costing 3.25 euros on the train and 2 euros on the metro. 

Surprisingly when we arrived at  Residencia Sagrados Corazones, discovered we were staying in a convent , and were supposed to arrive back before the front door closed at 11pm.  Unfortunately we managed to stay out passed this time on at least two occasions and were ringing the bell to be let in like naughty children! 

Having found out there was a festival on the same time we were there, lots of music and entertainment was going on and as the Spanish don’t seem to get going till about 10pm it was sometimes difficult to tear ourselves away.  I personally seemed to strike lucky and had a double bedded room all to myself which had a spectacular view of the mountains and hillsides, on the other side of the hotel overlooking the main road it was perhaps a little more raucous and noisy all of which I am afraid I slept through until it was time to get up for training which began at 7am til 8.30 at which time we had breakfast, typically European it consisted of a bread roll and slices of cheese and ham ,  which doesn’t go very far when your doing a full day of  training! 

I opted for Xing-yi, 24 step Tai-chi, Sun style Tai-chi, Sword applications which were all being taught by Tary who put us all through our paces admirably and gave us plenty to think about .  My only other time  was spent with Miguel Martin for an early Sunday morning qigong session who  was going through sets of health qigong, some I recognised such as Ba duan jin and plenty of others I did not.  I don’t think I have done so many qigong sets in one session before,  all while the sun began to rise from behind the mountains, magical! 

I must mention the Bouncy castle fiesta which took over the park on the evenings after we had been training there, the children evidently loved it, I have never seen so many multi-colored bouncy castles in one place before, it’s a pity adults aren’t allowed on it looked like fun!  I should also mention the monastery which was just up the road a magnificent building which we briefly visited and planned to tour on the Monday but unfortunately turned out to be shut as it was a bank holiday. 

All in all for me a very well organised  and  enjoyable experience,  my thanks to Faye, Tary and Miguel for excellent tuition if only my memory was as good as the instruction.  I would recommend  anybody  who hasn’t been to go next year, as you gain so much from intensive and detailed practise and being able to train outside in the fresh air only adds to the enjoyment.  

by MARTIN RYAN - Birmingham UK