Madrid, España
11/06/2022
Having arrived from Lisbon the night before, my sister and I were stoked to still have four days of exploring Madrid before us.
The morning started with some brunch at Brunch Club, a nice little restaurant near our hotel. Everything was fresh and really tasty, providing us with the energy needed for the day.
An ArchitecTour
We then started walking through the city towards Parque de El Retiro, passing by Círculo de Bellas Artes and Bolsa de Madrid, the stock exchange. What immediately fascinated us was the architecture of the buildings, most of which well-maintained in modernist style. The high-density city and layout of the city make it easily walkable, allowing us to explore most of the city by foot. We spotted many nice details on the buildings.
Into the Green
Upon arriving at Parque de El Retiro we were quite thankful for the shade it provided on that hot summer’s day. The large precinct allowed us to take a long stroll past neatly decorated plants, different animals, statues, and some buildings like the Palacio de Cristal crystal palace and the Palacio de Velázquez art exhibition.
As you’d imagine, the setting was very inviting for some aerial shots. This revealed the size of the 3.2 Million people city.
You can also find the video on YouTube here.
Afterwards we continued our walk through the city, stopping at Museo Nacional del Prado which we would visit the next day. We moreover took a look at a comic exhibition at CaixaForum Madrid, a cultural centre, but were not overly impressed by the few drawings on display.
12/06/2022
Take me to Church
On Sunday morning we headed to Palacio Real, the royal palace. However, we did not find it that fascinating and the long queue outside dissuaded us from taking a look inside. Instead, we entered Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena, a cathedral on the other side of Plaza de Almeria, opposite of the palace. The inside was quite impressive, with many colourful mosaics.
Next up we had brunch to re-energise and then took a bus towards Puente de Toledo at Río Manzanares. Despite the super-hot day we enjoyed the walk through the park, which had numerous fountains and was nicely decorated with flowers. In addition, there was a youth skateboarding championship going on which was fun to watch.
Public Transit Greens
Our next stop was Estación Madrid – Puerta de Atocha, a beautiful old railway station with an indoor garden.
Tapas 🙂
Naturally you cannot visit Spain without having tried some tapas at least once. So after a long day of walking and looking at the city’s architecture we had dinner at Taberna Más Al Sur.
13/06/2022
A Sprinkle of Culture
Monday we started our day with a visit of Museo Nacional del Prado. After carefully having considered whether it was worth the 18€ of entry per head, we learned at the ticket booth that students get to enter the main exhibition for free.
More Green!
On the backside of the Prado Museum we spotted Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, a beautiful botanical garden with an exceptional collection of bonsai trees.
A Trip Across Town
After having taking in the botanical garden we wanted to go to our last stop for the day, a specific section of Manzanares that I had spotted online as a prime location for taking pictures in the evening. However, the location was not as beautiful as we had hoped so instead we once more walked through a park, this time Parque del Oeste.
We came by Templo de Debod, an ancient temple gifted by the Egyptian government. Here too we had hoped for some nice sunset pictures but – likely to save water – the surrounding basin was completely empty, making the place quite unspectacular. Fortunately, Plaza de España was right around the corner so it did not take us too long to return to our hotel.
14/06/2022
Tuesday was the last day of our trip and since our flight was in the evening we wanted to use the morning wisely. So we had a relaxed lunch at Brunch Club where we had enjoyed the food on our first day already. We then took a relaxed stroll through the city centre before taking the subway through town to the airport. The dry conditions and foggy skies made for a dramatic scenery when leaving the country.
Adios!