A double-decker ride through Madrid
My arrival in Madrid greeted me with cool winds. We checked into our hotel on the Gran Via that was an easy five minute stroll to Plaza Mayor, one of the city’s main plazas.
A good night sleep, hearty breakfast later, we grabbed a map from the hotel and also bought a two day ticket (it’s more economical) to the Madrid Vision Bus which are the open-top double-deckers sightseeing buses.
With three different routes one can see Modern Madrid, Monumental Madrid and Historic Madrid and the best part is that all the routes are inter-connected and that way, one is not stuck on a bus literally all day!
The historical part of the city runs in a broad band from the Palace and its gardens eastwards to the impressive Parque del Buen Retiro, making it a very compact city to discover. The park is enormous with a large boating lake, Crystal Palace and numerous bars and coffee shops. Puppet shows and musicians entertain both the children and adults and it seemed to be “the” place to spend the afternoon.
The next day I decided to stop by at The Atocha station even though I had purchased my Eurail pass from India itself. It was replete with a lush indoor botanical garden steamed by spritzers and I enjoyed shopping at the sort of flea market at the station and then headed on to my next stop.
A short walk down to the “Paeo del” brought us to The Prado Museum, which housed famous masterpieces of paintings, with the outstanding presence of Velázquez, Goya (with a special highlight on The Butterfly Bull), Titian and Rubens, amongst others. Later that evening we dined at El Mercado de la Reina on the Gran Via that serves Spanish food, stylishly presented in a modern atmosphere. I simply loved the Raff tomatoes by themselves with olive oil and with fresh tuna.
On my last day I moved on to Cuesta de Moyano, one of the busier street market centers, well known for the abundance of values that one finds here.
There are roughly 30 outdoor stalls filled with merchants buying and selling mostly assorted literature and books from ages gone by.
Flamenco embodies all that is Spanish in one passionate, seductive and mysterious dance, so we watched the show and raised a toast to Madrid with Sangria before we set off on our Eurail the next morning!
The writer is a travel enthusiast
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