A Weekend in Madrid

27/4/2018

I’d wanted to go to Madrid for a while. I’d been a few other places in Spain and absolutely fell in love with the country, in particular, Barcelona. Everyone I knew who’d been to both Madrid and Barcelona said how you can’t compare the two, and that they’re both such different cities. I was really intrigued, especially after I’d heard it has loads of good pubs too!! My birthday was impending and I had a couple of mates from Australia and New Zealand who were willing to explore as much of Europe as possible, so it was a great excuse to book a weekend trip.

We got flights for £40 each, return from Gatwick and booked a trendy (looked a lot trendier than we could afford too!) apartment from Sweet Inn. I was excited to be going to Spain, there’s something that really interests me and draws me in about the country; the culture, food, architecture, it’s all so fascinating. I’d love to live there one day and teach English.

After our two and a half hour flight, we arrived at Madrid-Barajas airport and had to somehow find our way into the city. Honestly, the whole train from the airport situation is a huge debacle, you can buy a travel card (like an Oyster to top up) but it doesn’t work on all the trains, and the stations don’t make it easy to find the right train either. I’d advise just getting an Uber into the centre if you can afford it, it’s so much easier and not too expensive either. The train into the city didn’t take long but it was just the confusion that was a pain. Maybe it was us being idiots too though... When we got to the apartment a representative from Sweet Inn met us and showed us around, and gave us some directions for local shops and places to eat. The service from them was outstanding and it felt really personal and customer focused, I’d 100% recommend them as a company to rent from.

One of my friends is a Madrid local so we had a good head start in finding out the best places to go and see, so after we'd had a rest and freshened up we went out for a wander to the Mercado de San Miguel which he’d recommended, for some food and birthday drinks. I’m an absolute fiend for tapas and basically any Spanish food so the selection of places to eat was amazing, I’d be in my element if I lived there, hand me the chorizo!

The next day we set out early to see as much of the city as possible, our flight home was quite early the day after so we didn't have a load of time there - it was a bit of a whistle-stop break. Our apartment was only a few minutes walk away from the Royal Palace so we'd arranged to meet our friend there, so out we headed to see the sights. I really loved the city centre because it's all quite walkable - there's a metro system but the city feels compact, not like London where it'd take hours to walk from one side of the centre to the other.

After taking some photos of the Palacio Real, we made our way towards Plaza Mayor, the main square - also known as the "place where all the pubs are". We strolled through the meandering streets whilst being given facts and some rather good history lessons from our guide - I did say to him he should take this up for a living because the amount of stuff we learned from him was amazing! Plaza Mayor is one of the most favoured icons of Madrid and has a rather dark past. It's built in classic Castilian baroque style and has been subject to various historic murders, assassination attempts and gruesome bullfights since it's creation in the 17th century. More recently it's been home to a variety of markets, and now it's the main tourist attraction in the city. It's well worth a look, but you'll have to try and get through the bustling groups of tourists, and good luck taking a photo!

We continued on our meander through the cobbled streets and alleyways, stopping occasionally to look at points of interest, and eye up the numerous "jamón" shops - the selection of ham in Spain is mindblowing. I absolutely love all hams, sausages and chorizo-type things... Anyway, Madrid is one of those weird capital cities where everyone's heard of it, and loves it, but nobody really knows what the tourist attractions are there. In London we've got Big Ben, Buckingham Palace etc., which are akin to Paris' Eiffel Tower, New York's Lady Liberty, and even Barcelona's Sagrada Familia - but not many people would be able to name an attraction in Madrid would they? Maybe the San. Bernabeu if they were a football fan, but not much else. Honestly I feel like Madrid is such an obvious not-so-hidden gem of a city; most people go to Barcelona or Valencia, which are both fantastic in their own right, but Madrid is something completely different and has loads to offer.

Time was going by a lot quicker than it should have been - it's so easy to lose track when you're walking with no real aim apart from seeing the sights. We took the long route from Plaza Mayor past the Spanish parliament and what if I remember correctly was the central bank (or something like that!), towards Plaza de Espana, and then to the Temple of Debod. The temple is located on a hill in Cuartel de la Montana Park, it's an Egyptian temple which when you don't know the history, does seem a bit odd to be placed slap bang in the middle of Madrid. It dates back to the 2nd century BC and was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government, to save it from floods following the construction of a dam. I had never heard of the Temple of Debod at all, but I'm so glad we visited. It's in a beautiful setting, and although bustling with tourists, it feels tranquil. It was recommended that we visit the temple at sunset, so that's what we did. There's also a cracking view of the city from the edge of the park too, which is always a bonus.

We spent most of our time in the city sightseeing on foot, we saw a lot but I would love to go back and do even more. I'd like to visit the San Bernabeu, the Botanical Gardens and take a day trip to Segovia. If you want to see the main tourist sights, I'd say a weekend is enough, but to fully immerse yourself in the culture and see absolutely everything, you definitely need at least a few days. I'll definitely be back!