The only thing that pulled us through this weekend's snotty noses and constant stuttering coughing was visiting the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu to watch Real Madrid play Levante.
As a little background information the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is an elite stadium and of course a prestigious football venue that seats more than 83,000 people, owned by the Real Madrid Football Club.
When visiting Madrid you have the oppurtunity to tour the stadium (during the day) but we passed that up to experience a game! Particularly since we only live around 20-25minutes (depending how cold it is) walk from the stadium its very accessible to us. We purchased our tickets online several days earlier and were quite pleased with our seats, since we were right under a heater! The game was scheduled to start at 9pm but we decided to get there early (having heard from others that getting in and through security can be tricky and/or be held up with delays). Although spring is on its way, its dragging its tail a bit and it was a very cool evening. So we packed our backpacks with the regulated 500ml drink bottles (which they later opened for us), sunflower seeds and a lunch box of anchovy olives for half time then briskly walked to the stadium.
As we arrived into the vicinity, the atmosphere was electric! Thousands of people milled the surrounding streets and hung out of the overcrowded local bars and restaurants. Families were purchasing last minute snacks, flags and scarfs at the street vendors and huge buses were dropping masses of people dressed in white and pink off at every corner. There were all kinds of neon lights flashing and herding people towards different doors. Music was pounding and people stood around in large groups socialising (not really making any effort to go in). We found our gate fairly easily and were at our seats 30minutes before kick off. You can see here that the stadium is still relatively empty looking!
The game itself was a good watch with Real Madrid coming out 2-0 on top!
¡Hala Madrid! ¡Hala Madrid!
Even though we weren't watching a champion league game (or even a final) the crowd were singing away and many spectators had flags and drums!
One of the most amusing things during the game for us was the constant 'cracking' as the crowd of people around us munched on sunflower seeds, braking open the husks with their teeth and using their tongues to flick out the seed. That was the thing to do and we just so happened to blend in like locals! Hehe!
Then at half time was the bocadillos (large sandwich type snack in a baguette typically filled with meat and cheese or potato) where a seriously large number of people pulled them out and feasted. Food is just such a huge part of anything Spanish (smile)! So if your playing to go watch a game, for goodness sake, don't forget your sunflowers and your bocadillo!
For now, we're back resting in bed getting over these yucky colds.
Tot Siens,
John and Kara
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| Outside the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu (photo by |
As a little background information the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is an elite stadium and of course a prestigious football venue that seats more than 83,000 people, owned by the Real Madrid Football Club.
When visiting Madrid you have the oppurtunity to tour the stadium (during the day) but we passed that up to experience a game! Particularly since we only live around 20-25minutes (depending how cold it is) walk from the stadium its very accessible to us. We purchased our tickets online several days earlier and were quite pleased with our seats, since we were right under a heater! The game was scheduled to start at 9pm but we decided to get there early (having heard from others that getting in and through security can be tricky and/or be held up with delays). Although spring is on its way, its dragging its tail a bit and it was a very cool evening. So we packed our backpacks with the regulated 500ml drink bottles (which they later opened for us), sunflower seeds and a lunch box of anchovy olives for half time then briskly walked to the stadium.
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| The birds eye view! |
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| Although high, we had covered seats! |
The game itself was a good watch with Real Madrid coming out 2-0 on top!
¡Hala Madrid! ¡Hala Madrid!
Even though we weren't watching a champion league game (or even a final) the crowd were singing away and many spectators had flags and drums!
 |
| Sunflower seeds |
One of the most amusing things during the game for us was the constant 'cracking' as the crowd of people around us munched on sunflower seeds, braking open the husks with their teeth and using their tongues to flick out the seed. That was the thing to do and we just so happened to blend in like locals! Hehe!
Then at half time was the bocadillos (large sandwich type snack in a baguette typically filled with meat and cheese or potato) where a seriously large number of people pulled them out and feasted. Food is just such a huge part of anything Spanish (smile)! So if your playing to go watch a game, for goodness sake, don't forget your sunflowers and your bocadillo!
For now, we're back resting in bed getting over these yucky colds.
Tot Siens,
John and Kara
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