little_tippler

I spent this past weekend in Madrid and I thought I'd share with you this beautiful city. It is not the most spectacular city in all of Europe, but it does have a lot of architectural beauty.

My hotel was on the Gran Via (one of the main avenues of Madrid for shopping, eating out and theatres), so here are some of that road:

The builidings in Madrid are very well taken care of generally, and some are quite spectacular. All around town there are turrets on buildings. It's like a competition to see who has the best one!











The last one is of the beautiful Metropolis building, also on the Gran Via, by night:



This is the Plaza Mayor, in the old quarter of Madrid:



This is one of the more interesting buildings in the Plaza, because of the murals painted on it:





This is a road off the Plaza Mayor, and in the distance is the Catedral de San Isidro:



Close-up of the Catedral:



I visited a couple of museums in Madrid. Culturally Madrid is a thriving city, the people take a great interest in the arts.

This is the Reina Sofia, where I went to see the fascinating art show "Máquinas&Almas'



This is the Thyssen-Bournemiszya Museum, home to one of the best art collections Europe has to offer:



And the gardens of this museum:



Unfortunately neither museum allowed any photos, but I will be posting what I could find on the Reina Sofia show elsewhere on the boards.

On my 2nd day in Madrid I visited a traditional market called El Rastro:



This stall caught my eye:



In the afternoon I walked around town a fair bit and took some shots.

The town hall:



Calle Arenal (pedestrian street)



Some buildings are full of character. Take a look at this pharmacy:



Calle Mayor



There was some nice attention to detail, and many streets had these cute plaques indicating their names:



Street leading up to Plaza Mayor with some strange curved buildings!



Torre de Madrid, which was once the tallest building in Madrid:



Fountain in Plaza de España:



In Calle Mayor I had lunch that day in a restaurant called Casa Ciriaco, which is renowned for its tapas and it's a very traditional type of place for Madrid. Though service was very friendly, the food was just ok.



I liked the restaurant's own symbol (back of a chair - was also on the plates!):



I also saw the opera house and the royal palace:





Finally, here are some shots of the alien-spaceship-like airport:







It was a busy two days but well worth it!

There are no photos of me but my excuse is that I was alone so didn't remember...

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

genuinegirly

So beautiful! My favorite is your photograph of the cathedral. I made it my desktop image so I can enjoy it throughout the day.

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

jewels

Fascinating. Thanks for the trip

The buildings and architecture are much like I expected (reminds me a LOT of Cali, Colombia), but the city looks so much cleaner than I'd envisioned. Just beautiful.

What was that at the market? They looked like rubber bands but maybe they're ribbons? Oh and I loved the restaurant's coat of arms

__________________
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain

jorgelito

Nice pictures lil Tip. Glad you had a great trip. I'm gonna check out your blog later too.

One thing, you forgot the most important thing in the pictures: Where are you?

__________________
"The race is not always to the swift, nor battle to the strong, but
to the one that endures to the end."

"Demand more from yourself, more than anyone else could ever ask!"

- My recruiter

Charlatan

LT... thanks for the great shot. It's been a few years since my last visit to Madrid. I loved it there and hope to go back some day soon.

Did you get to eat any Chocolate con Churros or some of the very excellent hams?

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Cynthetiq

I miss Madrid!

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little_tippler

Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

I had plenty of jamón in fact! Also did eat chocolate con churros, it was decadent.

Madrid is cool, I get to go there for work once a year so I don't have time to miss it. Plus when you live somewhere awesome like Lisbon, what's to miss? Well if I had to miss anywhere in Spain, Barcelona I'd miss far more than Madrid.

I'm not in the pics because...I only took pics of myself and a couple where I asked strangers to do it and they are not particularly fascinating heh. Think of it this way, since I'm not in the pics it leaves room for you to envisage yourself in the places I was in.

Madrid certainly is clean in the main areas and generally too. In some areas of the city, the home owners pay the town a yearly amount to keep their buildings clean. So that explains some of it. I wish they did that here, Lisbon buildings aren't nearly as bright. They are colourful though! Which reminds me I must post a tour of Lisbon sometime...

One thing I do notice about Madrid is that all the shops, when closed, have these metal doors that get closed over the window of the store. This makes them a prime spot for graffiti artists, and not the good kind. So a lot of the Madrid back streets look nasty because of that. You don't really get that here. It's strange because some are so badly vandalized that you wonder is the store closed for the day or permanently? Strange! Some stores look quite shoddy.

The stall at the market was selling all kinds of rubber bands and just sheets of rubber...I did consider buying a couple of sheets and seeing what I could make with those! But I'll be back in February and I might go there again so we'll see...I'll be sure to show you if I do end up using the stuff

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

LoganSnake

Fire escape?

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

Tully Mars

Fire escape for Mensa members?

__________________
I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo

Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

abaya

Tippler, these are freaking awesome pictures. Thanks so much for sharing them!! I MUST get myself to Madrid next time I'm in Spain... I've always been to Spain in July, when the temperature makes it impossible to go there (or any further south). You have given me plenty of good reasons to make it a priority.
My first thought was actually "it's an artistic depiction of an orgy" ... but that's my sick mind at work, hahaha.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

dlish

wow! just wow!

love the pics. seems theres a lot to do in madrid! lots of vibrant colours and plenty of architectural buildings. truely a photographers playground.

i couldnt make out of those were rubber bands or pasta!

my fav pic is the metropolis building. the curved building - it curved on a horizontal plane, but does it curve on the vertical plane too? or is that just my eyes playing tricks?

__________________
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