Madrid: The city that has it all (part 2)

Hello steemians

In part one We visited the cultural part of the city. As you already know from my previous posts, I love variety and I try to discover a city in different ways. So, in the second part I’ll show you some nature and other things that you wound expect to find in Madrid.

Let’s start with parque del buen retiro. The first thing that I can tell you is that if you just want to visit it, you have to take the main entrance. When we were in Madrid, I ran almost every morning when my friends were not awake yet. For me, one of the side entrances was the closest to enter from our apartment but it isn’t that beautiful there than you read in travel guides or see on pictures on the internet but if you take the main entrance it actually is. First, you’ll walk through a lot of flowers with fountains on the end of the pad. Further, is there also a little lake where you can sail a boat. I definitely advise you to do that because it’s just fun and very funny when one of your friends can’t row and you almost smash with another boat. I can hear you think… isn’t that expensive? Well, surprisingly no it isn’t! It’s only 6 euros and you can go with 4 in one boat.

Then there is also the Real Jardín Botánico. It’s divided into 5 indoor greenhouses and 7 outdoor garden. Good for about 90,000 plants and flowers and 1500 trees from all over the world. You would think it’s spectacular but it’s not… at least it wasn’t when we were there. There were almost no flowers and there were also many pieces of the garden where nothing was planned. Very disappointed but if you like a quiet walk you can always give it a try because it’s only 3 euros.

Later that day we visited the Templo de Debod. It’s an Egyptian temple from the 4th century BC. and was transferred to Madrid in 1968 as a gift from the Egyptian government. The temple is located on a hill in parquet del oeste which gives you a fantastic view of the city and especially of the cathedral. Furthermore, I have to tell you that you probably have to wait before you can enter the temple because there is a maximum number of people who can visit the temple at the same time.

At the other side of the park you find the Faro de Madrid and the Arco de la Victoria. The first one is former transmission tower and is 110 meters tall. A lift takes you up to its impressive viewpoint. At that viewpoint are a lot of information pallets with scale drawings of the main buildings visible from the observation deck. On a clear day can see for a 100 kilometers. The second is a triumphal arch and it’s literally on the highway.

At last we have Las vendas and its typically Spanish and you would expect to find it in Madrid but its far away from the center and that’s why I post it in this part. Las vendas is a famous bullring and when we were there we were shocked that there were just kids from high school playing sports in it. We wanted to know how that was possible and it turns out that they use if for so much more these days like a theatre and even was converted into a tennis clay court in 2008 for the Spanish Davis Cup Team.

That was my trip to Madrid. I hoped you enjoyed it and if you liked it than I hope you’ll like my next post about Paris as well.