Centro Madrid

Our hotel in Madrid was called The Walt. It was a bit pricey, but so were all the other hotels I considered in downtown Madrid, and how could I resist staying in a hotel with a name like that. It was just off the main shopping boulevard - Gran Via - but as soon as you turned the corner and stepped onto the very narrow side street, it was a different world. Scary looking characters huddled together smoking cigarettes and scowling at anyone who walked past. Even Walt confessed that they made him nervous.

The hotel itself was lovely and quite inovative. I particularly liked the headboard which was decorated with lights. All the furnishings in the room were offered for sale at ridiculously high prices.

We enjoyed sitting in the almost always deserted bar enjoying a drink before bed.

I hadn't been very interested in visiting Madrid until I found out that three of the best art museums in Europe are located there - Museo del Prado, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, and Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Since there is only so much art we can appreciate in one day, we decided to devote our art-viewing energy to the Prado - Spain's answer to the Louvre. Among other impressive names, the collection includes the works of Goya, Bosch, Titian, El Greco, and Rembrandt. We spent several hours wandering the halls marveling at the masterpieces on display.

You cannot take photos inside, and this rule is strictly enforced. We watched an angry guard berate a hapless tourist who clandestinely snapped a picture of a statue with his phone. She made him delete it while she watched.

When we were making plans for our stay in Madrid, we couldn't decide which day to visit the museum so we didn't buy tickets on-line in advance. There is a limit on the number of visitors allowed in the building at one time so we had to wait in the long line that snakes around the side of the building and down the street. Fortunately for us, we only had to wait about 45 minutes, but it could have been much worse.

Downtown Madrid is a lovely place full of huge government buildings and museums, but there is no shortage of trees and brightly colored beds of flowers. Many of the very impressive looking buildings have statues on top of them. If we set out in one direction from our hotel, we came upon wide boulevards interspersed with traffic circles decorated with statues and fountains.

The other direction led to narrow old streets that snaked past intriguing old churches and plazas. When we wandered in this direction, we found ourselves in the Plaza Mayor which dates back to 1619. On the day we visited, it was crowded with tourists and locals relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather, but over the years concerts, festivals, markets, bullfights, executions, and even crowning ceremonies have been held here.

A statue of Felipe III and his horse sits in the center of the plaza. The statue was created in 1616, but it wasn't placed in the plaza until over 200 years later.

A creature covered in tinsel sat quietly on the ground until someone approached. Suddenly he came to life evoking screams from the startled children nearby. Another man created gigantic bubbles that children chased.

We continued walking past the Plaza Mayor until we came to the impressive Cathedral de la Almudena. Plans for the building were drawn up in 1879, but work was not completed until 1993, and it was not consecrated until Pope John Paul II made his fourth trip to Spain in June of that year.

The Royal Palace of Madrid sits next to the cathedral. Although it is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, they do not reside in any of its 3,418 rooms. It is used only for state ceremonies.

A long line of tourists stood waiting for the opportunity to buy tickets. Just as with the Prado, only a certain number of people were allowed inside at a time so the wait was long. It was starting to become apparent that the best way to get tickets to see the big attrations was to buy them in advance on line.

We had no desire to wait, so we walked on and soon arrived at yet another plaza where an elegant carousel attracted children and adults alike with its joyful music.

This was the view from the carousel.

We ended our walk looking out at the palace gardens - Jardines de Sabatini. The statue in the left on the row below is actually a living person. He would stand very still waiting for an unsuspecting tourist to pause beside him and then suddenly come to life causing several near heart attacks. Then he would pose for a picture and ask for a donation.

Other people posed by the figure in the center photo which stood beside a couch like the one on the television show "Friends".

Wandering through Central Madrid is a lovely way to spend a day.