Our last day, goodbye Europe!A little bummed out yet excited to share all of this knowledge back home, we set out through Madrid to the Puerta de Alcalá. This historical monument does look great when the sun is coming up!
We admired it for a coulpe of minutes and then headed to the Parque del Retiro, where the Palacio de Cristal is located. The colors of the park were captivating, changing from a bright green to orange, to brown. The light behind the trees coming from the rising sun made the space look even better and really relaxing. I wish i could have stayed in that moment for a lifetime.
Once at the park, we decided (because it wasn’t in the plans), to go to the Palacio de Cristal. This structure was a greenhouse once, yet now it’s totally empty and if i’m not mistaken, now a gallery. It is made up of a steel structure and all covered in crystal; it really is beautiful. We walked out of the park and went to the Caixa Forum by Herzog & De Meuron, a space re-interpreted and a building that was lifted off of the ground to keep the scale of the buildings. It was something i had never lived before and i just couldn’t comprehend how Such a massive structure was lifted and not touched.
The inside of the Caixa’s upper Café.
The next building we walked to was the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (National Museum Arts Center Queen Sofia), re designed by Jean Nouvel. The intervention is not only the elevators that don’t touch the structure, but also a library was constructed beside it, totally in contrast to what the original building is.
Intervention not touching
The Library beside the Museum.
This is where the “guided” tour ended, so with two friends, i decided to go to the Museo del Prado. Here we saw Goya, Velásquez, Picasso, and many others. With a roaring stomach, we walked to the Mercado de San Miguel where we ate probably the best Tapas for 1 or 2 euros, being the cheapest and most tasteful tapas we’ve had, we couldn’t even walk right.
At 4 pm a nap was needed, so 30 minutes later the day continued. I walked out alone from the hotel on my way to Templo de Debod, stopping for some shopping i wanted to do. When i got there i found the place really beautiful, mostly because the sunset was on it’s way and it really looks peaceful. So, i did some sketching and time flew, it was 7:30 and i had to be at 8 in the hotel for a quick talk recapitulating the whole trip.
The plan for dinner was to go to the Museo del Jamón (Ham museum), so i didn’t know what to eat, given that i’m a vegetarian. Luckily the service was terrible and most of us didn’t want to eat there, so we walked out and had a feast at TapaTapa! Our day ended here and I had to pack for our next traveling day back home!
Thank you for keeping up with me and my travel to Europe, comment on what you’ve liked best and what can I improve on for future posts! Thank you, really.
@Lightsaint 