\nWe drove to our hotel slightly outside the centre and took the metro to Puerta del Sol, from where we walked to Plaza Mayor. This is as standard a tourist itinerary as there is. But it is a nice walk. Somewhere along the way I saw this big dog licking his lips–was he thinking of eating the birds?:
\n
![\"A154746\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlternate 1<\/em> Alternate 2<\/em> Alternate 3<\/em> Alternate 4<\/em> Alternate 5<\/em> Alternate 6<\/em> Alternate 7<\/em> Alternate 8<\/em> Alternate 9<\/em> Alternate 10<\/em> Alternate 11<\/em> Alternate 12<\/em> Alternate 13<\/em> Alternate 14<\/em> Alternate 15<\/em> Alternate 16<\/em> Alternate 17<\/em> Alternate 18<\/em> Alternate 19<\/em> Alternate 20<\/em> I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Madrid, showing my sister and brother-in-law around the city. The pictures I show here are more or less chronologically arranged, so in effect I am taking you on a two-day walk in Madrid. Main We drove to our hotel slightly outside the centre and took the metro to Puerta […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":121,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe alternates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
\nPlaza Mayor is beautiful but it is also one huge tourist trap, with overpriced restaurants and many ways in which a tourist can be separated from her money:
\n![\"A154739\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe continued our walk towards the royal palace. Just before the palace there is the Catedral Nuestra Se\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00b1ora Almudena:
\n![\"A154749\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nI liked the stained glass windows, a mix of old and new:
\n![\"A154752\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe gave the palace itself a miss. All palaces look the same to me, and the weather was too nice to spend an hour walking around a stuffy old building. We continued on towards Plaza de Espa\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00b1a. Immediately after passing the palace I took this image, showing how many thoroughfares in Madrid’s centre are underground. This makes the city much more friendly for pedestrians and cyclists than would otherwise be the case:
\n![\"A154770\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThere are also many nice parks and gardens in the area around the palace. The grass invites people to take a rest:
\n![\"A154775\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe went back to our hotel to take a rest, and then in the evening we went back out to see the city by night and to have dinner at a local restaurant. People were watching the Belgium-Spain World Cup qualifier match:
\n![\"A154795\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDinner was finished with two enormous glasses of brandy. It is not obvious from this picture, but these two glasses contain about half of the bottle:
\n![\"A154802\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThen we walked back to Puerta del Sol to take the metro back to the hotel:
\n![\"A154806\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nInside the station, a se\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00b1orita waits for the train:
\n![\"A154809\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOn the train, this couple had an intense conversation:
\n![\"A154814\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nSome passengers are more lively than others:
\n![\"A154819\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe next morning we drove into the centre and parked the car near Plaza de Cibeles. While walking around, we saw this example of urban flora:
\n![\"A164829\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOur plan was to spend the rest of the day in the Rastro, one of the oldest and most traditional neighbourhoods of Madrid, centered around the metro stations of La Latina and Puerta de Toledo. Here is Calle Calatrava:
\n![\"A164845\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt13.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOne of the many churches in the neighbourhood is called Nuestra Se\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00b1ora Paloma:
\n![\"A164848\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA garden along Calle San Francisco, with a panoramic view of the city:
\n![\"A164849\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt15.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA rare sight in modern Spanish cities–a plaque commemorates the fact that in 1961, the dictator Franco visited this place for a naming ceremony. The street is called Avenida de los Reyes Catolicos (the Catholic Kings who completed the Reconquista in the 15th century). The plaque underlines the close relationship that existed between the Franco regime and the Catholic Church:
\n![\"A164852\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt16.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA typical neighbourhood bar:
\n![\"A164853\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt17.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBalcony with laundry and flag:
\n![\"A164855\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt18.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nWe finished the trip with lunch at this restaurant:
\n![\"A164857\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt19.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThen back to our car for the drive home to Alicante. Before descending into the underground car park, I took a last image of the grand architecture on Plaza de Cibeles:
\n![\"A164863\"](\"uploads\/2008\/42alt20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"