The SleepN Atocha hotel is in a perfect location for us – very close to the train station, and about 3 blocks from the Museo de Prado. The hotel offers a very nice breakfast buffet for which you sign up for a specific time thereby eliminating the massive mess that we encountered at the Plaza Regency in Malta. The hotel is intimate (meaning very small rooms) but the staff are super. They also offer some freebies, like cookies, coffee, soft drinks at any time. Apparently, when the SleepN group bought the hotel, they took out all the old telephones in the rooms and they now are attached to the walls throughout the hotel, which adds some interesting history. There’s also a digital fireplace in a small sitting area and a little library.
To maximize our tourist sightseeing, we decided to do a circuit on a hop on hop off bus. We picked one that had a live guide rather than just an audio guide. He added color commentary and was interesting. The tour was a whirlwind and I don’t remember 90% of what the guide was showing us, but we got a good overview of some nice parts of Madrid. I’ll try to caption some of the photos. We sat in the upper deck of the bus right in the front seats. There was a window protecting us, but we were able to see where we were headed.
Of course the tour only goes through a few sections of Madrid, but one of the things that I really loved was that all the apartment buildings we drove past had little wrought iron Juliet balconies, every single building and every single window. Most of the little balconies had potted plants, adding wonderful green and color to the neighborhoods. Most of the apartment blocks are 5 or 6 stories tall and are mostly made of brick. It was just beautiful.
One building we went by, but we weren’t on the right side of the bus for a photo, was the Royal Palace where Spain’s royal family conduct all the administrative functions. They don’t live there, this palace is largely ceremonial, and there are apparently 3,800+ rooms in the palace. Here’s a picture I got off the Internet just to show you this palace. The palace above in one of 12 royal palaces that various parts of the royal family live.
The Royal Palace and nearby national cathedral of Spain sit atop a hill and are very imposing buildings.
After we finished up our tour it was time to go to the Prado Museum. I had reserved tickets for admission, but we still had to stand in line for about 45 minutes before we could enter. There was a group of 4 women standing behind us and I caught a few words and said to Christine, “I think they are from Malta.” Christine asked is they were from Malta, and indeed they were. So we passed the rest of our standing in line time conversing with these women about Malta.
Once in the gallery, I was taking a picture of the first statue I saw, Mars and Venus, when a guard ran up to me and said, “no pictures, no pictures in the entire gallery.” I was very surprised and pretty bummed as I had wanted to capture a couple of artworks that interested me.
The Prado houses a huge collection of mostly European artists dating to the 12 century, and of course has the world’s largest collection of works by Spanish artists. We wandered around for a couple of hours, until we became saturated with art. And of course, we broke the no pictures rule (Christine was the scofflaw!).
The exhibit gallery we spent the most time in was displays of the works of Hieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter who lived from 1450 to 1516. When I took an art history class in college, we spent a lot of time studying Bosch. His work is clearly unique as he was a fantastic illustrator. Bosch is seen as a highly individualistic painter with deep insight into humanity’s desires and deepest fears. His most famous works are 3 triptych altarpieces and all 3 were on display. We watch a video that highlighted all the marvelous characters hidden around his paintings and all the wonderful facial expressions. His most famous piece, The Garden of Earthly Delights is chockablock full of small characters and graphic images. I so wanted to take a photo of this fascinating work, but we’ll have to settle for an image copied from Wikipedia.
After the museum it had started raining just a bit and so we wanted to walk back to the hotel to get our umbrellas. The avenue along the museum block is beautiful, lined with huge sycamore trees.
Both Rome and Madrid have lined many streets with trees so that there is a beautiful green canopy, making walking very pleasant.
We decided to hit the tapas bar across the street from the hotel for some lunch. We had a chicken and cheese dish and some fried eggplant. Both were delicious with very nice dipping sauces.
Now fortified, you’ll never guess where we were headed. That’s right . . . Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid, the Botanical Garden of Madrid. Madrid is full of parks and one is being completed that will be 3 times the size of NYC’s Central Park. The Botanic Garden was founded in 1755 by King Ferdinand VI. The garden is about 20 acres and is divided into 7 sections. Total collections include about 90,000 plants and flowers, and 1,500 trees. This garden was one of the best we have seen in terms of plant identification tags and signs. We were able to learn the name of some plants we’ve never seen before. Again, sorry to bore you with plant and flower photos, but we saw some really beautiful things in the garden. About 2 weeks ago it must have been very stunning with all the bulbs in bloom. We were at the tail end of much of the Spring blooming things.
We really enjoyed our time in the garden. It was a very pleasant couple of hours on a sunny day in Madrid. I’m others might have rushed off to see important sights, but we took the opportunity to spend time in a peaceful and beautiful setting in one of Europe’s noted gardens.
Here are a few more photos of buildings around out hotel.
Before we went back to the hotel, we decided to “practice” our route to the train station. We were both a little concerned about the easiest way for two old ladies with too much luggage to get from the hotel to the Atocha train station. Wheeling luggage over brick and cobblestone and broken pavement is no easy thing to do. It is about a 10 minute walk – and it seemed longer somehow. We found our way to Atocha train station, which is huge, and went in to get they lay of the land. It was very, very confusing. It had 3 levels of platforms with moving ramps to get from floor to floor. It’s also interesting in that part of it is an indoor greenhouse with lots of palms and other tropical plants.
Back at the hotel, we commiserated with the gals at the reception desk about getting to the train station in the morning. One advised getting there at least an hour before our train because she always worries about missing her train if the luggage control security line is too long. So, we decided that we’d grab some breakfast at 7:30 and head on over to the station. Seemed like an okay plan.
And that brings our one day touring in Madrid to a close. Off to Seville by train in the morning and the start of our Roads Scholar program.