Real Madrid Game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium: A Spectator’s Experience

There’s nothing like returning to a place that hasn’t changed to see how much you’ve changed. Camelot. It dawns and my walk begins. Yesterday we made our debut by visiting the famous El Corte Inglés store, where they give foreigners an additional discount. One of my grandchildren was looking for a Padel racket, a sport created in Acapulco in the mid-70s, Alfonso de Hohenlohe saw it in his house in Corcuera and took it to Spain and spread it to the world with two courts of that sport in Marbella, the fashionable sport that is copied from tennis, but from which no Roger Federer or Mc Enroe or now the downcast Carlitos Alcaraz will surely emerge. They were on promotion and good brands. The store already smells like Christmas, fully decorated, the best in Spain. The cafes haven’t opened yet, they start at 9, but I can already see the delivery people selling products like oranges and bananas from the Canary Islands. I go to the church of Carmen, I say a prayer and ask for the sick. I light a light bulb that now simulates a candle, using its respective euro and I pray my Our Father who art in heaven. Foreigners swarm asking for support at the coffee tables. I still haven’t seen the manteros, those Afro Europeans who spread their T-shirts and pirate bags and watches and perfumes to the ground and, when they see the police arriving, they flee by simply pulling the four ropes of their blankets and disappear as if by magic, like Houdini, or like Checo Pérez’s father who ran away to Morena. It will be cold mornings, it rained last night and those in the know say that, when it rains, the cold goes away, but nothing. Here it continues. I have my first coffee and I will talk soon about the prices, this one costs 2.80 euros which, multiplied by two gives 56 Mexican pesos. But in Madrid there are places where you can eat well at all prices, for example at Mesón del Jamón, a blood sausage and a portion of ham, which they say is Jabugo but I doubt it, with their house wine, 20 euros. Maybe you find a place with cheap paellas, of course you have to go to Landó, which is first division or to Casa Lucio, which is like La Parroquia de Veracruz that, if you come to Madrid, my darling, and you don’t go to Lucio it’s as if You wouldn’t have come for the classic broken eggs. In Plaza Sol, where the Town Hall is located, here called the Presidency of the Community, a large crane begins to raise the Christmas tree, perhaps somewhat matching the legendary one installed in the Rockefeller Center, although the New York one is unique. HEADING TO SANTIAGO BERNABEU It is Saturday afternoon. We come, among other things, to the Real Madrid game, because Fer has never seen them at the Bernabéu. A stadium that they modified and is almost new, although it still has many deficiencies. Knowing his system, we applied and left early, two hours in advance. An Uber takes us. They usually close the street next to La Castellana and you have to walk two or three blocks. The Metro is very efficient, it leaves you in front of the stadium gate. Pedro, the hotel Concierge, always gets us good tickets, which some members lend him and buy. When you arrive you are enthralled by the beauty of the stadium. According to what we heard, an architect son-in-law and Carlos Slim himself were on the team. The remodeling cost 575 million euros, the works began in 2019, they gained slightly more seats, about three thousand and can now accommodate 81 thousand people seated. The stadium is almost covered, with a beautiful dome, new seats and the grass looks like a golf course. The Uber driver boasted to us that he was a soldier in the army, and showed us a photo with King Felipe, before another boasted to us that he was a friend of those from Real Madrid, especially Vinicius. The stadium lacks complete remodeling of its surroundings. That is, you go out to the bathrooms and there is only one puny toilet and four of the portable toilets that are used at town fairs. When going to the bathroom, a large number of us missed seeing two goals, because the line was huge and they entered one by one. The porra and its first-class fans. The drinks and food stalls, almost nothing. They no longer sell liquor or beer, which are prohibited because then they get crazy and violent. Drinks only soft drinks, food popcorn and pepitas, bread with Spanish tortilla. They still have a good time to have their first-class bathrooms. But the box office is full. The tickets are not cheap, they range from 65 euros to 155, which in Mexican pesos is 3,100 pesos, as long as you don’t get caught by resale. A member complained that in the honor box, where Florentino Pérez is, there is suck there, from champagne on up, things from the weevils. The game is not worth recounting, surely many Mexicans saw it, Real Madrid is now a more or less well-oiled machine, it is in second place in the table, they were missing the Englishman Jude Bellingham, the star now, who has 10 goals in 11 games, he didn’t line up, he must be injured, but Benzema is not missed at all. With Vinicius and the Brazilians, Englishmen and Frenchmen of color, that team is ready to go for the 14th place in the Champions League. We went out in droves and to the Metro, to take the route from the Santiago Bernabéu to Tribunal and from there to Sol and the hotel, to have fun and dream of that Real Madrid of champions.
2023-11-14 08:41:25
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