After visiting Malaga in the spring, we started to fall in love with Spain more and more and so we planned, since the summer, two more holidays in the beautiful Iberian Peninsula: one in Seville and another in Madrid.
We had heard a lot of good and beautiful things about the capital of Spain, but despite this we did not have many expectations, on the contrary we thought that two days were enough to visit the city.
I can say that I fell in love with Madrid from the first steps we took through the city. With each passing hour, we felt more and more regret that we only gave ourselves one day to visit, spending the second more at the stadium. However, something tells me that it was not our first and last holiday in Madrid.
Madrid in 48 hours – tourist attractions, a football match and tapas
We arrived in Madrid on a sunny Saturday in November, and the first thing we did was to get rid of our luggage and walk through the streets of the city center, of course, but at 3:00 pm we had to be at the match. Since we were staying near Gran Via, we started our journey on this large avenue full of shops and truly impressive buildings.
From there, we went to Plaza de Cibeles. In the center of the square is one of the most important tourist attractions of the city, namely: the Palace of Communications and the Cibeles fountain, whose name comes from the Roman goddess of nature. It was built between 1777 and 1782 and embodies the goddess in a chariot pulled by two lions.
Around the square are numerous buildings with charming architecture, but the most important remains the Palacio de Comunicaciones. The building was built in the early 1900s to serve as the headquarters of the postal service. Currently, it houses the City Hall.
Continuing along Calle Alacala, you will reach the Plaza de la Independencia, in the middle of which stands the imposing Alacala Gate. This monument is considered to be older than the well-known Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
An hour before the match started, we set off for the stadium. On the metro, there was an indescribable commotion and madness, with fans from the oldest to the youngest wearing T-shirts or scarves with the team's symbols, humming the anthem and of course hoping for a victory.
The Santiago Bernabéu is by far the most impressive stadium I have seen so far, and the atmosphere at the match was unique. We will talk about the Real Madrid stadium and museum in this article.
For the second and last day, we made a well-planned itinerary, with the idea of seeing as much as possible. From the hotel we set off towards Puerta del Sol via “Churerria”.
I must admit that for weeks I had been thinking about churros with hot chocolate and as a result on Saturday morning the first place I went was the San Gines café. They say that there you can find the best churros in the city, but you have to be prepared to wait in line.
Museo del Jamon is actually a small restaurant where you can taste different varieties of pure Iberian ham and cheese. It was quite easy for me to choose from the dozens of tapas varieties, having already an obsession with jamon iberico and quesas (aged goat cheese).
My taste buds were very spoiled, and I, happy to infinity and back.
Finally, I arrived in Puerta del Sol, the heart of the historic center of Madrid. In the center of the square are two statues, one depicting King Carols III and the second representing a bear eating berries from a tree: Oso y el Madrono. The latter is made of bronze and stone, measures four meters in height and weighs approximately 20 tons.
I don't know how I was convinced to use the hop-on hop-off buses as a means of transportation. A big mistake from my point of view. I'll tell you why.
The hop-on hop-off buses run on two routes: one crosses the old city center, and the other the modern center, so to speak. Well, there are a few points where they intersect, but most of the time you have to go a stop or two just to get to that intersection.
On the other hand, the buses theoretically run every 15 minutes, but we stayed in the station for even more than that. Precisely because of this, the hop-on hop-off seems like a big waste of time to me, the metro remaining the fastest and cheapest option to travel.
Since we didn't manage to see the team's museum on the day of the match, we reserved a few hours to go back to the stadium. The entrance ticket for the museum and the stadium costs 25 euros.
From the museum we went straight to the Temple of Debod.
The Temple of Debod was built in the 4th century BC and was dedicated to the gods Amon and Isis. Between 1960 and 1970, the Spanish government helped the Egyptians move a large part of the buildings in the area to safer locations.
In this context, Egypt donated the Temple of Debod to Spain as a sign of gratitude. The temple was transported stone by stone to Madrid, where it has been open to the public since 1972.
A five-minute walk from the Temple of Debod is the Royal Palace. The building dates back to the 10th century, with an area of 135,000 square meters and 3418 rooms, making it the largest royal palace in Europe.
The next objective on our list was Plaza Mayor.
In the last year we managed to see a movie in every city we went to, so we saw Wonder Woman in Paris, Guardians of the Galaxy in Glasgow, King Arthur in Vilnius and Doctor Strange in Rome. We were no exception to the rule in Madrid where we watched Justice League. On our way to the cinema we discovered Plaza Espana.
We ended the evening with a walk on the much too crowded Gran Via, while we were thinking about how to get to Madrid, what would be the best time and what we still had left to visit. Unfortunately, we were unable to get to the Prado Museum or the Retiro Park. The fact is that next time we will spend at least three days in Madrid with the hope that we will be able to take a look at the cities of Toledo and Segovia.
I still think with nostalgia about the two days I spent in the Spanish capital, the energy it transmits, the modern and sophisticated air of the city, the architecture of the buildings, the jamon iberico and churros with chocolate.
Although most people I have spoken to tend to say that Barcelona is more beautiful and interesting than Madrid, I believe exactly the opposite. In a top of the most beautiful cities in Spain, Madrid occupies the first position, far ahead of Malaga, Barcelona or Seville.