Five days in Madrid

I’m back from five days of vacation in Madrid, more or less.

We went to Toledo for a wedding and decided to extend our stay, spending a few days in Madrid.

The first important thing to mention is the weather. Happy to leave London, where in early September, it felt more like March, three out of 5 days in Madrid were colder than in London (where temperatures reached 30 degrees).

The little rain cloud of bad luck, or jinx? Well, it’s not over yet…

We arrived in Madrid on Saturday evening with pouring rain, and Sunday was forecasted to have a torrential downpour, complete with a weather alert SMS we received on our phones.

Rain and wind, Monday morning was the same, and then we found a milder climate… but not so much in the following days. On the day of departure, of course, it was 35 degrees.

As for museum visits, let me rank them. I didn’t like the Prado at all… the meaning of the artworks was unclear, there was no chronological order in my opinion, and not even organized by artist, because you would find them a bit everywhere. In short, I didn’t like it. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, a splendid collection, well-curated, without the chaos and crowds of tourists who are thrown into a place without even knowing why. We stumbled upon the Archaeological Museum by chance during our long walks in the city, and I found it really beautiful and interesting, full of history and artifacts, well worth a visit. The Reina Sofia Museum, well, how could you not go there, just to see Guernica. And it’s worth it in all its splendor. Enormous and majestic, immobile in that room where she is, bearing witness to a war and chaos. In the silence, you can imagine the agonizing screams, the explosions, and the horror. Our last stop was the Royal Palace, very beautiful, I must say, with royal artifacts to see as well (the only museum accessible to the deaf, as the video tablet had subtitles in all languages).

Apart from museum visits, I like to get lost in a city’s streets, to explore its alleys, to try to lose myself to savor life in the city, and I must say that Madrid did not disappoint in this regard. I went shopping, buying original espadrilles in a small shop behind Plaza Mayor, ate tapas, drank sangria, strolled in parks, took photos, and immersed myself in Spanish rhythms, entered a giant Zara, and many other shops.

Do I recommend Madrid? Certainly, and I think 5 days are enough to see and get a feel for it.

That said, I returned from Spain with COVID-19. And for now, I’m still testing positive.