Autumn in Madrid

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With my friend ready to fly home form Madrid this weekend it seemed obvious that our last sightseeing should be in Madrid. After a week of hard work for me, and hard sightseeing for him (He's been to Paris and back, I've been to school and back) we wearily wound our way to Lleida again and took the AVE train to Madrid.
Reaching Madrid we began the difficult task of locating the hostel. We reached the correct metro stop and from there were rather lost. A helpful stranger gave us directions, then chased after us to give us further directions, then walked part way and gave us more directions while his wife tutted and sighed and moaned to us that 'he ALWAYS does this - why can't he just leave people to solve their own problems they could try reading maps' which led us to apologise profusely for our distinct lack of hostel-finding abilities. Following the last outstreched finger from our friend we wandered onto residential streets and after a lot of running up and down we not only found the hostel but successfully checked in and found our way back to the metro.
We set off in Madrid without the slightest idea what our plan was. I have never been so apathetic about sightseeing but the simple fact is I would have been happy to spend the whole weekend in bed after another exhausting week at work. We ambled down a busy main street and saw large gates leading to a park. Since the gates were big and impressive I surmised whatever was behind must be worth a visit. Sure enough the park proved to be Retiro Park, a beautiful oasis of green and calm in the busy city. Originally restricted to royalty and nobility the park was opened to the general public in 1767 for an entrance fee and later in the 1800s became free for all to enjoy.
We walked in a random direction and soon paused to see a lovely statue set of a mounted rider and a girl in a window under the autumnal shades of the trees. The park was wonderfully peaceful and I loved that I was seeing the city in Autumn; so often my travels have been limited to school holidays and while blue skies and sunshine are perfect for travelling the colours of Autumn make a picturesque change of scene.
We strolled through the park exiting near the Puerta de Alcalá, a Neo-classical monument commisioned by King Charles III in 1774. The impressive gateway was built by Francesco Sabatini and today stands admist decorative flower beds which in turn are surround by well, cars, but at least we were able to catch a lull in the traffic to take a few photos.
We wandered on and saw the impressive buildings around the city centre, including the Communications Palace, built towards the end of the 19th century by architect Antonio Palacios.
We ambled along and found a shop which proved as interesting as any tourist attraction. Painted statues in traditional dress stared down form windows and balconies and inside we found numerous replicas of armour and weaponry. In fact, the entire upper floor was a museum of replica swords and shields and suits of armour. We walked about wary of the security cameras and endless warnings NOT to touch the sharp and pointy things.
We returned to Retiro Park stopping en route amongst the stalls of street sellers to look at souvenirs and then returning to the tranquility of the park.
We followed a new route into the park and arrived near the Fountain of the Falling Angel which was erected in 1922. The main sculpture is a work by Ricardo Bellver (1845–1924) inspired by a passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost and depicting Lucifer falling from Heaven.
Walking between rows of russet topped trees we reached the Crystal Palace. Since becoming a public park, the area has been used as the site of many exhibitions. The Crystal Palace is a glass pavilion inspired by the similarly namd building in London. Built along with its artificial pond in 1887 by architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco for the Philippine Islands Exhibitions, it was first used to display flower species indigenous to the islands. We stood by the pond and watched the ducks and black swans on the water before moing on.
We saw the Velázquez Palace built in 1884 by Velázquez Bosco, another building once used to hold exhibitions. Nearby we found a cafe and stopped to eat something. We finished our days visit at the Monument to Alfonso XII and the boating lake, watching people rowing the boats across the lake in the early sunset.
We returned slowly towards the hostel, assing a beautiful church and the Prado Museum which we plan to visit tomorrow. Back at the hostel we bought timed tickets for the Prado and in a sleepy brainless moment booked a really early time thus depriving ourselves of tomorrow's lie in and taking away any opportunities for visiting other places at opening time. We went in search of food and found a pizza place across the road and bringing our supper back to the hotel slumped on a bed in front of the television and flipped thorugh the guide book to see what else we could do with our last day.

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Comments

[liliram]

Madrid
I've been there but find that I missed quite a number of places each time I read an article or blog about the place. Your photographs are really good. Thanks for making me want to see Madrid again, perhaps in Autumn. Those colors!