A Royal Visit to the Centre of Spain

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Every trip seems to have an overriding theme, unfortunately, its starting to be quite apparent that this trip is going to revolve around transport, and perhaps the lack of it. First stop of the day was to Madrid’s train station to join the long queues to sort out our trains to Pamplona… but the return trains were all fully booked… so we reverted back to our trusty buses instead - better than a bridge collapse I suppose.

Now with half the day already wasted, we could finally start our sightseeing…

We spent a couple of hours in the ‘Museo del Prado’, the Prado Museum, which houses some great sculptures and paintings from the 12th to 19th Century by various artists including: Goya, Rembrandt, and Rubens etc.

Next stop was the ‘Palacio Real’, the Royal Palace, and the formal gardens outsize, ‘Plaza de Oriente’ with its buxus maze hedging and a large fountain.

We walked around the corner to the entrance to the Palace and saw the neighbouring ‘Cathedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena’ a stunning white stone cathedral from the 16th Century.

We got a tour through the palace where the Spanish King and Queen used to live, and saw their elaborate rooms for eating, sleeping, greeting guests and a whole variety of others. Each room was richly decorated, some redecorated in 19th Century style and some in the original 18th Century design. They were all was so stunning and over powering in their own right, it was hard to take it all in.

After dinner we headed over to the other side of Madrid and had a look at the Puerta de Alcalá, the old city gates, then wandered through the Jardines del Buen Retrio, Madrid’s main gardens.

There are many things to see in the gardens, which translates to ‘Park of the Pleasant Retreat’, including the Monument a Alfonso XII on the other side of the lake that you can row in, the Crystal Palace - both mine and Leah’s favorite, and some lovely formal rose gardens.

And that was the end of our time in Madrid, short but worth the extra time in Valencia, and besides we’re too excited about going to Pamplona tomorrow to care!

Check out more Photos

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Photos

Plaza de Oriente
In front of the Palace

Palacio Real
The Royal Palace of Spain

Cathedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena
Opposite the Palacio Real

The Garden Fountain
Leah, James, Hannah in the Plaza de Oriente

Puerta de Alcalá
Hannah & Leah at the Old City Gates

Jardines del Buen Retrio
Madrid's Central Park

Monument a Alfonso XII
in the Jardines del Buen Retrio park