Madrid 19th - 21st Sept 2014
We flew from Lisbon to Madrid and had 3 nights in a great central hotel Eurostars Plaza Mayor. It is so great to be back in Spain. Even though Madrid is huge and with heaps of people it seems super safe full of happy people. After siesta shops open back up but really everyone is just waiting until it is time to hit the streets with their families to chat/drink/tapas. It seems a much better idea for the kids to be wandering the streets with several generations from an early age rather than watching TV etc.
There are heaps of plazas and so many restaurants it is amazing. We spent our days wandering around parks, plazas and streets. We expected it to be hot given that Madrid is inland but it has been fantastic weather about 24 degrees and dry. We visited the Prado Museum which has free entry from 6pm to 8pm instead of the usual 14 euros. The 250 metre queue went super fast and we had just enough time to see all the great artworks.
When leaving Madrid on the Metro Andrew had a guy try and pickpocket him. We had all our gear with us heading to the airport - everything locked and safe - the train was packed and you have to hang on with hands up high. The pickpocketer was holding a jacket (so he could work without people seeing his hands) and he was close to Andrew. He realised his game was up when Andrew put one hand over his wallet and then the guy moved away. Andrew's wallet is on a chain attached to his belt and we sort of would have liked to see the look on his face when the pickpocketer realised that. Anyway he got off the next stop to try someone else. We had sewed up all our pockets so it is difficult to fit a hand into them and the main risk will be kids with small hands in Rome.
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| Snapped this shot from the airport bus |
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| San Miguel market - lots of places to eat/drink or stock up on F&V |
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| Palacio de Cristal is a great glass structure in the middle of a massive park - it had all these rocking chairs around with a book chained to each one |
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| In the centre of the Palacio de Cristal was a glass room that didn't have any doors or windows and all that was in it was a pair of boots |
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| Parque de El Retiro |
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| This busker has a committed audience as her puppet played the violin and told stories |
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| Prada Museum says no photos but took this one before we found out. Amazing how they carve the detail of the garment for example. |
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| Entrance to the Botanical Gardens |
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| One of Madrid's many gorgeous streets, Calle Alvarez Gato |
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| The quirky Taberna Pompeyana |
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| Deli and tapas bar |
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| Michael Jackson busking in a plaza |
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| Plaza Mayor had a curtain covering the scaffolding and construction site behind |
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| Plaza Mayor, you can see in this photo how well they blended the construction site area (right hand side) to fit in with streetscape, very thoughtful. |
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| Spiderman earning a quid |
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| Almudena Cathedral in Madrid is more modern than most we have looked at |
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| Make intersections work better for everyone - they just tunnel 2 lanes each way under the intersection |
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| Palacio Real = Royal Palace, the official Royal residence although no royals live there anymore, it is only used for official state functions. |
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| Inside the Cathedral De La Almudena |
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| Great door on the cathedral - can't really tell how deep the relief is in the photo but it was amazing |
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