Visiting Madrid & Malasana

Visiting Madrid and Malasaῆa

Madrid is big! There is something for everyone, and it seems there a mini city centres in loads of different places. My initial reaction was that I wasn’t very keen. We got the 681 bus from Alpedrete to Moncloa station in Madrid and there are great arches outside which leads along the main road Princessa. This road is hectic! With traffic and people I was bombarded with constant stimulus and wanted to escape it after a short while. Don’t be put off though if it’s not your sort of thing. It gets so much better!

                             

I find the best way to explore a city is to do it by foot. We avoided the metro and the buses and wanted to really take the city on which meant we did a lot of walking! Admittedly, I later realised we could have packed in a lot more had we mastered the metro sooner, so don’t shy away from it like we did.

      

We spent our first few times just walking upon new places without even knowing where we were or what we were looking at, and there was something lovely about doing that – just absorbing the city for what it was! At a later stage we got on a hop on - hop off tour bus without realising we had been to a lot of the places already. I would recommend going on this at the beginning as it’s a great way to gauge the city, even if you only get off at a couple of stops because will see where you might like to go. There is often this expectation of wanting to see everything and visiting everything, but realistically it’s very difficult to do so. A lot of the time, just seeing the city and its attractions from the outside is enough!                    

 

           

Here are a few of the areas we went to:

-          Plaza de Espaῆa, which is mid-point along the Princessa, and a nice stop sun trap with fountains.

-          Templo de Debod, an ancient Egyptian Temple surrounded by water and a park to relax in. There are also some amazing views over the city.

-          Parque del Retiro, one of the main parks - with a lake. Yes a lake!!

-       Sol, which is quite a touristy area with lots of shops and restaurants which leads to Plaza Mayor, a huge open space that held a concert on our last night in Madrid.

-          La Latina, a lovely area with a huge market on Sunday’s that runs along many streets.

-          Malasaῆa, was one of my favourite areas! Plaza del 2 de Mayo has a market on Saturday every three weeks and there a great places to eat around this area. It is also near Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo. If you like eating healthy out and want a break from tapas or Spanish foods there is a lovely place called Federal that has a huge selection of foods. It is very popular and probably best to avoid on Saturdays as there were queues out the door! I went again during the week and it was much nicer. Malasaῆa has great shops, bars and restaurants and a good vibe over all. It is incredible at night and so worth experiencing the way the Spanish do. Go out at about 10pm and get tapas and drinks and continue on to different places and watch the night come to life until at least 4am!