Madrid

A city with a little bit (or a lot) of everything

By Michael Wilson

August 26^th, 2015

Day 1 - Royal Palace

This month Madrid was the city of choice. Where I usually turn up in a new city with pretty much no idea what I’m going to do, I had been sent loads of tips from people I knew who had lived in Madrid before, so this time I had an itinerary!

First stop was the Royal Palace and it was a great place to start. It was a beautiful day and the palace was bathed in glorious sunshine.

CASA DE CAMPO and a CABLE CAR

Next stop was Casa de Campo, which is a huge piece of land to the west of the city. There are plenty of nice gardens to walk around but I was primarily there to jump on a cable car! The cable car provides great views of the city, but I will admit most of the area below looked more like a barren wasteland.

Mercado de San Miguel

Now it was time for some food and cerveza! Spain is known for its tapas and Mercado de San Miguel is the oldest iron tapas market in Madrid. The tapas markets were amazing! There’s so many small bites on offer, which means you can try numerous stalls and get a variety of great flavours.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Café de las bellas artes

The final stop on my first day took me to a rooftop bar to get some beautiful views as the sun went down…and some more cerveza. The bar was full of trendy people starting their evening and the atmosphere was great. However, the lightning storm which could be seen in the distance was getting closer and had a few of them worried!

Day 2 - Retiro Park

My first stop on day 2 was possibly my favourite place in Madrid, Retiro park. It was beautiful to walk around, there was loads to see and lots of people relaxing and enjoying their day off.

The glasshouse was particularly spectacular. There was an ‘art’ installation inside, which was basically a tapestry tent. Glasshouses are pretty hot at the best of times, but being inside the tent inside the glasshouse was quite stifling.

Outside the glasshouse there was a pond full of turtles! I watched them for ages, they’re great fun. Look at the turtle tower that was beginning to form!

The final stop in the park was to the boating lake, which was packed full of boats skating across the water. A lovely place to spend time people watching.

Punto de Información Turística de la Plaza de Cibeles

Write your story here. (Optional)

Prado Gallery and San Jerónimo el Real

Write your story here. (Optional)

Mercado de San Ildefonso

Lunch time meant another tapas market of course! Mercado de San Ildefonso is slightly more modern inside and had loads more seating, which is always handy. Loads more amazing food was on offer, so I duly obliged by eating nearly all of it.

Vicente Calderón Stadium

Now it was time for the star of the show! I had tickets to see Atletico Mardrid’s first game of the season so off I went to the Calderón. Atletico live in the shadow of Real Madrid, which gives them a really close knit local fan base. The whole family go to an Atleti game, young and old could be seen on the way to the stadium. Also, I’d say 95% of the people there were wearing the team shirt and had a scarf tied to their wrist, they really love their team and wear it with pride.

I was going to get myself a shirt but there was a huge queue just to get in the club shop!

Write your story here. (Optional)

Day 3 - El Rastro Market

I had been told El Rastro market was the main event for a Sunday morning and luckily it was literally on my doorstep! I stepped out of my front door to find a sea of people clambering over a vast number of market stalls selling all manner of things.

Everywhere you looked there were really interesting characters to watch. It felt like everyone in Madrid was at the market to either socialise or grab themselves a bargain.

The weirdest thing I saw at the market had to be the collectors square. The massive majority of the collectors were trading football stickers but it also included trading cards and comics. There were hundreds of people, young and old, with huge stacks of stickers and most of them had sheets of paper with what stickers they needed. There were even dealers who had folders worth of stickers for sale.

The beautiful buildings

The architecture around Madrid is really eye catching. The shuttered windows, small balconies and ornate roofs make walking around the city a pleasing experience.

A coffee and then home

After exploring the city, eating loads of amazing food, drinking good beers, catching a top class football match and diving into the market (there’s also LOADS of great shopping to be done in Madrid, but that’s not really my thing), it was time to head home.