Madrid, Spain

Madrid has plenty of grand buildings but when we arrived from Oporto on Saturday we were looking forward to spending some time in a nice green park or two.  And there was no better option than Madrid’s Parque del Buen Retiro just up from the Atocha train station near to where we were staying.  We kicked off Sunday with a picnic lunch in manicured Real Jardin Botanico ablaze with the reds and yellows of flowering tulips and dahlias, then moved next door to the huge Buen Retiro. Thousands of Madrid residents were already there; this was obviously one of the city’s favourite weekend relaxation spots.

Near the Park are three of the world’s great art museums and we spent an hour in Museo del Prado admiring works by El Greco, Rubens and Goya amongst others.  But the highlight of our afternoon was the nearby Spanish Museum of Naval History.  Although not nautical buffs, both of us thought this was a fantastic museum.  The objects displayed were of very high quality and of great historical interest.  That most of the annotations were in Spanish didn’t seem to matter.  There were some incredible scale models of Spanish galleons, along with old navigation instruments, weapons and paintings including a romanticized image of Columbus’ first steps in America.

Madrid is a beautiful, green, clean, lively city with many different areas and facets.  It has countless attractive plazas and small side streets with quaint bars, shops and inns.  We liked it very much.