Jerónimos

Today, our first full day in Spain, was spent doing some housekeeping jobs and planning for how we will spend our week in Madrid. A Dia grocery store is a 5 minute walk away so we bought some basics for the week. We have a washing machine, so did our laundry. We booked tickets to see the Prado and the Royal Palace. And we checked out what was going on in the big Sol Plaza before having a late tapas lunch.

It is cold here (3 degrees C). Thank heavens we pack layers and a toque! The cold weather didn’t stop the Spaniards from being outside though. Everyone and their dog were out! The restaurants and outside cafes were full of people drinking wine, beer or coffee. A wonder! Musicians, costumed Shreks and Super Marios, dancers and buskers were out in full force.

Our little apartment is right around the corner from the square. It is above a MacDonald’s restaurant but we don’t hear anything as we are on the 6th floor of the building. It is surprising how quiet it is. A small oasis in this busy and big city. The minute we walk outside the front door, we are in another world - Puerta del Sol Plaza! Everything and anything that we could possibly need are almost right across the street from where we are.

On Sundays, many museums and tourists sights are either free or have a reduced entry price. For a bit of a walk and some calmness, we walked to the Royal Botanical Gardens in the afternoon, where we paid a euro to enter.

The gardens house more than 30,000 species of plants from all over the world. Like other botanical gardens, it not only conserves numerous plant species, but also carries out research programs to protect rare and threatened plants and the study of habitats.

Founded in 1755 by order of Ferdinand VI, it was originally located on the banks of the Manzanares River and had more than 2,000 plants. Twenty years later King Charles III commissioned the architects Juan de Villanueva and Francesco Sabatini to move it to its current location, where it was inaugurated in 1781.

There are three levels of the gardens with plants that were obtained on expeditions to the Americas and the Pacific areas. We can only imagine how beautiful this place would be, and smell, in the Spring and Summer.Read more