I spent this past weekend in Madrid and I thought I'd share with you this beautiful city. It is not the most spectacular city in all of Europe, but it does have a lot of architectural beauty.
My hotel was on the Gran Via (one of the main avenues of Madrid for shopping, eating out and theatres), so here are some of that road:
The builidings in Madrid are very well taken care of generally, and some are quite spectacular. All around town there are turrets on buildings. It's like a competition to see who has the best one!
The last one is of the beautiful Metropolis building, also on the Gran Via, by night:
This is the Plaza Mayor, in the old quarter of Madrid:
This is one of the more interesting buildings in the Plaza, because of the murals painted on it:
This is a road off the Plaza Mayor, and in the distance is the Catedral de San Isidro:
Close-up of the Catedral:
I visited a couple of museums in Madrid. Culturally Madrid is a thriving city, the people take a great interest in the arts.
This is the Reina Sofia, where I went to see the fascinating art show "Máquinas&Almas'
This is the Thyssen-Bournemiszya Museum, home to one of the best art collections Europe has to offer:
And the gardens of this museum:
Unfortunately neither museum allowed any photos, but I will be posting what I could find on the Reina Sofia show elsewhere on the boards.
On my 2nd day in Madrid I visited a traditional market called El Rastro:
This stall caught my eye:
In the afternoon I walked around town a fair bit and took some shots.
The town hall:
Calle Arenal (pedestrian street)
Some buildings are full of character. Take a look at this pharmacy:
Calle Mayor
There was some nice attention to detail, and many streets had these cute plaques indicating their names:
Street leading up to Plaza Mayor with some strange curved buildings!
Torre de Madrid, which was once the tallest building in Madrid:
Fountain in Plaza de España:
In Calle Mayor I had lunch that day in a restaurant called Casa Ciriaco, which is renowned for its tapas and it's a very traditional type of place for Madrid. Though service was very friendly, the food was just ok.
I liked the restaurant's own symbol (back of a chair - was also on the plates!):
I also saw the opera house and the royal palace:
Finally, here are some shots of the alien-spaceship-like airport:
It was a busy two days but well worth it!
There are no photos of me but my excuse is that I was alone so didn't remember...
