Made amends with Madrid, even though “too big, too crowded and too noisy”. Nothing of the sort matters when we are in good company and with such a committed guide and amazing host.
In heels…
My liver is complaining, my legs no less. No pain no gain, they say.
Living is taking every opportunity to really connect, interact, feel, consider, and appreciate what life brings. Our motto, or so it seems…
Six girls strolling all around a city where every building is an inspiration. One of those places in which you walk by with your eyes up in the air the whole time. Even whilst chatting, catching up, listening to explanations and tips, stories, and all there is to know about the capital of Spain, by a proud and keen Spaniard.
As one should be, of their own country and culture, simply because it is part of our identity.
Blessed by Señora del Pilar, we managed to see and go to the most iconic places in the city, resisting the temptation to stop in every tapas, beer and vermouth bar.
Shopping, culture, monuments, churches and museum, nature, gastronomy and an amazing treat only royals like us deserve.
Casino de Madrid is one of the most impressive and well preserved buildings I have ever been. With the most stunning old library and its 200 hundred year old books. I could spend hours there, just eye browsing the titles.
But not the only one.
Madrid had preserved its most ancient buildings, instead of tearing them down to build more modern ones. And the result is stunning.
There’s also a writers’ neighbourhood, quiet as it should.
With excerpts of literature printed on the floor and streets sharing their names with the most famous Spanish writers.
When in Madrid, do as Madrileños do.
That’s what we did, a full Madrid experience, on Sunday, spending hours in street markets, food eaten on the street and a few occasional drinks. We even managed to meet a street poet, looking like a painter, who wrote a poem about us, which could not have moved me more. As he depictured our trips and ourselves as if he knew us all. And when I said I had tears in my eyes, he smiled and hoorayed in joy.
25 years after we met for the first time, we decided to get together once a year, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the past three years.
Lisbon 2022, The Hague 2023, Madrid 2024.
And will continue to do so. Because this sisterhood of girls from six different countries matters more than any geographic distance.
Copenhagen 2025, here we come.
