Day 34 Tuesday 30/5/2017 According to one blog I read there are 3 Must Dos in Madrid. Royal Palace - tick, watch a game of football - nuh, and El Retiro Park - so that was our plan for today. It certainly is a fantastic park, full of many many statutes, a beautiful and scented rose garden, amazing topiary, the Madrid Book Fair, a boating lake and a Crystal Palace. We wandered for the best part of 2 hours, on the shady paths, thoroughly enjoying all the sights and sounds.
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The Crystal Palace
...with a solar exhibition inside
The Book Fair
The Rose Garden
The Tequilla Rose, going from orange to white and pink
The Fallen Angel Fountain
The amazing topiary
Puerto de Alcala at Plaza de Independecia just outside the gates of the Park
After we left the Park we headed to check out the Plaza del Cebeles with some more impressive buildings, and then turned away to explore the Barrio de Salamanca. This had been described as similar to 5th Avenue in New York. There were certainly some big name stores, and lots of suited individuals as we were definitely in the Business District.
Palace des Cibeles
Our lunch at the Mercado de la Paz - much better than the other markets - less touristy
Drinks and coffee on the outside roof terrace of El Corte Inglese in Barrio de Salamanca
A random church on my walk past the shops
The Bull Ring, just beside where I got the Metro.
We had a chill couple of hours back at the hotel and then headed out for a last few drinks and tapas as a farewell to Madrid.
