Madrid - a beautiful city

Our plan for the day was to catch a Red Bus early on and go around both of the routes on offer. One route concentrates more on the old part of Madrid while the other goes a bit further afield.

Now that we are of a certain age it is remarkable how much you can save when buying tickets. Our one day pass was 10 Euro each, a veritable bargain. We lined up and bought our tickets and waited for a bus. Unfortunately the place is full of tourists at the moment so it took us a while to get on a bus. The audio was not so good on the first route and it was quite cold up the top, although it didn’t really rain. However, the second one was much better and we gained a better understanding of the places and buildings we went past. In fact, it was so interesting that when we had finished we went and walked nearly half of the second route, just so we could get better photos and have a better look.

We had not realised just how beautiful Madrid is. Lonely Planet can give you an idea I suppose, but it isn’t until you walk the streets and see the workmanship, the design, the beauty of everyday buildings, that you gain a true appreciation of the city. We particularly enjoyed walking through the Real Jardin Botanico. It is such a beautiful, peaceful place and absolutely full of plants of all kinds. We even found a good old Australian eucalypt there.

Sunset beat us in the end, however, so we headed back to our hotel, looking all the while for a suitable place to have dinner. Back at the hotel we still had not found anything that really took our fancy so we walked a little bit past it, down off the main road, and there we found a nice looking place with an interesting menu.

An hour later we were back, refreshed and ready for dinner. We walked straight in to the last table for two inside (it was starting to drizzle) and within minutes had placed our order. The food was fresh and hot and the service excellent. We weren’t too adventurous, trying just a couple of tapas and then a paella.

The hotel has a lounge area next to the restaurant and there is a bar there as well. However, they don’t do evening meals and if you want something from the bar you have to ring reception. I understand that most people just want to be out and about, so there is not much use manning the bar for perhaps a couple of people. That gave us a nice quiet place to drink our wine, read, check and send emails and update this blog.Read more