Archive for September, 2010
Madrid Sightseeing
11 March 2004 Memorial is a moving monument to the victims of the worst terrorist attack on European soil. The glass tower, best viewed from below has a glass panel that shows the names of those killed. The glass-and-Perspex tower is inscribed with messages of condolence left by well-wishers in a number of languages in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is a museum housed in the shell of an 18th-century hospital showcasing the best in modern Spanish art spanning the 20th century up to the 1980s including artists like Picasso, Joan Miró, Vassily Kandinsky and Salvador Dali.
El Rastro Market, a meat market in the 17th and 18th century is an excellent flea market, well worth a visit on a Sunday morning with food stalls where you can sample tapas, fresh fruit and vegetables and also there are loads of stalls selling second hand stuff.
Museo Arqueológico Nacional founded in 1867 is a royal collection featuring artifacts from prehistory to Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mudéjar Spain.
Museo Del Prado is a repository of Spanish art that hosts over 7000 works, the strongest collections being 17th- and 18th-century Spanish paintings featuring the likes of Velázquez, Goya and Ribera. The museum is housed in the magnificent neo-Classical Palacio de Villanueva.
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is perhaps the most wide-ranging private collections of predominantly European art in the world including works by the finest European painters in history like Tintoretto, Titian, Caravaggio, Canaletto, Cezanne, Monet, Sisley, Matisse, Toulouse- Lautrec, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Constable, Van Gogh, Picasso and Dali.
Parque Del Buen Retiro is beautiful gardens filled with marble monuments, landscaped lawns, the occasional elegant building and abundant greenery. Alfonso XII’s massive mausoleum and the sphinx-laden Egyptian Fountain watch over an artificial lake at the park’s centre.
Plaza Mayor at Madrid’s heart is the town square designed in 1619 by Juan Gomez de Mora, a nice place to have an outdoor meal during a summer night washed down with some sangria.
Teleférico horizontal cable cars hover never more than 40m above the ground taking you over the slopes of La Rosaleda for 2.5km across into the depths of the Casa de Campo.
The Best Car Rental Madrid services in Madrid are available from National, Avis, Europcar, Opodo, Holiday Autos, Budget and Thrifty.