Fin de Semana en Madrid (Weekend in Madrid)

I spent the second weekend of January in Madrid. While this is definitely the off-season to visit the city, there were three reasons for the timing. First, Real Madrid usually plays their home matches on Sunday evenings, but that weekend had them slated for Saturday night, with cheap tickets still available (which is rare for a La Liga match). So, I could see them play and not worry about travelling on the following Monday. Second, the cooler weather made it more comfortable walking around the city, as it get can get blazing hot there in the summer. Third, the off-season timing meant that I would avoid the long lines that I've read can be time-consuming during the spring and summer at the more popular tourist sites like Prado and the Royal Palace. The downside was that I had fewer hours of sunlight with which to work and the weather wasn't cooperative for walking outdoors, but I mitigated this by visiting a lot of indoor sites.

Day 1

My hotel was near Plaza Alonso Martinez, north of the tourist areas, so I walked southeast towards the main sites and reached Plaza Colon and the Biblioteca Nacional. The library wasn't on my to-do list but admission to their museum was free and the visit gave me an excuse to skip the neigbouring Museo Arqueologico (I'm still tired of archaeology). The library's museum contained a mix of art prints, books and calligraphy equipment from more recent Spanish history.

After the library, I went further south, passing through the Plaza de Cibeles (which contains a beautiful fountain/statue and the Palacio de Comunicaciones) and then went east to the Plaza de la Independencia (which contains a set of columns that would have been photo-worthy except that there was traffic constantly driving around it). The Plaza and its columns were near the northwest corner of Parque del Retiro, which is a large and beautiful park containing different arrangements of trees and other plants as well as a large pond where visitors can rent a rowboat.

In the Parque del Retiro, a photo of the Estanque del Retiro (Retiro Pond) with a monument to Alfonso XII in the center background. The pond was at one time used for setting mock naval battles.

The Parque del Retiro contains the Palacio de Velazquez, which was hosting an exhibit of artwork by Andrzej Wroblewski. Many of the works focused on the Soviet occupation of Poland. Pictured is Execution with a Boy.

The Parque del Retiro also contains the Palacio Cristal. Aside from a small art exhibit comprised of various bones, the building was empty and felt more like a giant greenhouse, but I think it would have looked much more impressive during warmer seasons with the surrounding plants in bloom.

After the park, I visited the Museo del Prado, the national art museum containing a large collection of paintings focused on Spanish art but also containing a wide variety of Renaissance and Dutch/Flemish art. As it was off-season, there was no lineup getting into the museum and the interior was relatively free of crowding (except around the most famous works).

The Museo del Prado contains several masterpieces (the museum map provided at the front entrance even highlights them for visitors). One of those masterpieces is The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch. Due to the crowds, I could not get a straight-on shot of the painting.

Across the street from Prado is the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. This is the lesser known of the three museums in the Golden Triangle of Art in Museum (Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia), but it contains a large and high quality collection of paintings, although there wasn't any overarching theme. As a result, the collection was a mix of works from every major era and movement of European art. There were also several American paintings, including one by my favourite luminist painter, Albert Bierstadt; another two of his paintings were moved to a separate exhibit that I did not have a chance to visit.

In the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, this is The Ludwigskirche in Munich by Wassily Kandinsky. This is one of the more orthodox works that I've seen from this artist, as most of the other paintings that I've seen from him are abstract.

After visiting two large art museums, it was already evening so I headed north towards the football stadium. I passed through several of the plazas that I had seen earlier in the day and noticed that some of them were even more splendid in the late evening with the lighting on the statues contrasting with the dark blue sky (particularly in the Plaza de Cibeles). If you ever visit Madrid, take the time to see its many plazas during both the day and the evening, as they offer different scenery as the day progresses.

The football match was played in the Santiago Bernabéu, a huge stadium fitting over 85,000 spectators. Despite the large capacity and my seat being in a cheap section, I had a great view of the field due to the steep angle of the stands. The stadium was fancy enough that it even had ceramic heaters all along the top ceiling, which made the outdoor game in January very warm (by Canadian standards). I took my coat off for the entire match.

The Santiago Bernabéu during a match between Real Madrid and Deportivo de la Coruna.

Real Madrid was hosting Deportivo de la Coruna that night, and while the visitors were sitting in the middle of the league table, they weren't any match for the hosts. Real Madrid was attacking the whole night and they won 5-0, with Gareth Bale scoring a hat trick. Cristiano Ronaldo did not score a goal, but he had several close chances, including hitting the post off one header and having two shots that were just wide. Toni Kroos also had his usual efficient game, with one assist and another goal indirectly caused by his precise corner kick. While I'm not a fan of RM, the refreshing part about watching them is that they are much more direct in their play. There was much less of the tiki-taka style short passing of endlessly moving the ball around in an attempt to find the perfect opening to attack. The Madrid players simply moved the ball to the wings as quickly as possible and let their wingers and wing-backs make a direct attack, even if it meant taking higher risks and losing the ball more often. They retrieved the ball very quickly anyway.


Day 2

I started the second day exploring further south and west from where I was the day before. I took a quick peek at the Royal Botanical Garden, but found that there wasn't much to see (likely because it's winter) so I moved on to the Museo Reina Sofia. I noticed that admission was free at 1:30pm, so I figured I go to the Royal Palace first and then loop back to the museum on my way to the airport.

On the way to the palace, I passed through Plaza Mayor, which happened to be hosting a trade show of coin and stamp collectors in the corridors lining the perimeter of the plaza.

A shot of Plaza Mayor. In the upper left, there are rain clouds brewing.

Just outside Plaza Mayor is the Mercado San Miguel. It's a small market catering to tourists, but it contains several tapas bars with excellent cuisine. I had the sea food tapas, which was a great way to try a little bit of every type of fish available.

I headed further west and passed through the Plaza de la Villa. By this time, it was pouring rain and the tourists in the area were taking cover in the doorways lining the plaza. Further west of there was the Catedral de la Almudena (one of the larger cathedrals in the city) and the Royal Palace.

The front exterior of the Catedral de la Almudena. The interior was elegant, but not as ornate as I expected for a cathedral next to the Royal Palace in Madrid, especially when compared to the major cathedrals in Lisbon and Barcelona.

The main staircase in the Palacio Real.

What really stands out about the Royal Palace in Madrid is the interior. The rooms are very well decorated, with vivid colour schemes, velvet wallpaper with imprinted logos, spectacular ceiling murals and complementary artwork and mouldings throughout the main rooms. The exterior of the palace was more modest, as expected of Baroque era architecture. There was also a contemporary art museum included as part of the palace visit although the works did not stand out, especially when compared to the works inside the palace's main rooms. But exterior and art exhibit aside... this museum had one of if not the best interior of any palace that I've seen in Europe. Photos of most of the rooms were not allowed, so I recommend trying a quick Google image search of "Royal Palace Madrid rooms" to see what is in there.

One of the plainer rooms in the Palacio Real. Photography was not allowed in the larger rooms, and there was plenty of security making sure of this.

On my way to the airport, I returned to the Museo Reina Sofia, but in light of the free admission, there was now a long lineup at the entrance. Doh! I should have learned from the time visiting the Royal Palace in Warsaw that there are always plenty of budget travelers looking to save a few Euros and free admission can cost a lot more in time waiting in line than what you save in money. Fortunately, the line moved quickly and I waited under half an hour to get inside. Like its counterparts, Reina Sofia contains a large collection of high quality art, although this museum focuses more on Impressionist, Expressionist and other relatively modern movements of art. There was also a wide selection of Picasso and Dali paintings throughout the museum.

At the Museo Reina Sofia, The Invisible Man by Salvador Dali.

So that was Madrid in a weekend. The city is best suited for art buffs, as it contains three high quality art museums, and many of the other places that I visited incorporated art exhibits as well (the National Library, Parque Retiro and the Royal Palace all had art on display). However, watching a iconic football team like Real Madrid in their home stadium and strolling through the many plazas also made for a fun but relaxing experience.