Trip to Madrid

[jomike]

Spent a week in and around Madrid recently. Main purpose was to see the the no.2 daughter who is doing a gap year/work experience (she is doing educational psychology at uni) in Madrid as a teaching assistant teaching English at a primary school in Tres Cantos (Three Rocks, apparently), a suburb about 20 miles out of Madrid. We based ourselves at a "Hostal" in Tres Cantos, a no frills B&B type place but very clean and comfortable. We also did some sightseeing in and around Madrid, and yes, I took some photos (about 500 in all). Here are some.

1. The Reina (Queen) Sofia modern art museum. They have Picasso's "Guernica" and Salvador Dali's "The Great Masturbator" (stop s******ing) here, as well as an excellent Photography exhibition.



2. When we came out of the museum, there were riot police everywhere. Turns out they were expecting trouble between facsists and anarchists.



3. Atocha station in Madrid looks a lot like St Pancras inside except it has a tropical jungle inside it!



4. Street name signs and street light in central Madrid.



5. A christmas tableaux on a department store. The figures move and they put on a show with music and narration.



6. On a Sunday afternoon groups of drummers gather in the Retiro park and jam.



7. This is the monument where the drummers play.



One negative thing was that we had our camcorder nicked from under our noses by a distraction thief while sitting in a MackyD. It was 3 years old and getting some quirks anyway, so maybe not such a bad thing in the end.

Mike

[Madz]

Hey I went to Madrid in July, and it was amazing, love your photos. Especially Retiro Park - Seriously one of the best places on earth that I've ever been too, so relaxing but something constantly going on it seemed.
I've never got around to sorting the photos though because between me and my girlfriend we took so many, and probably loads are rubbish so I'd get fed up. But this has inspired me to dig them out, because the memories are good.

I like the riot police one the most...I don't think I'd take a photo of riot police with guns...heh

[Tobers]

Madrid is very cool. The palace thingy in the middle is rather awesome at night, as is the big square somewhere near to it. Not very accurate I know, but there was an Irish bar in the square and one thing led to another...

Nice shots too - I like the station one - how wierd to have big palm trees in there.

[dazza74]

I took this photo on my old 3MP kodak back in 2004 while my mate was rowing the boat

[pixelpixel]

I have friends in Madrid, last time I was there I had no camera

The train station is strange, oh yeah we have some space left what should we do with it !!!! Ahh tropical garden

The football stadium is something else also Nice pics.

[jomike]

Thanks for the comments folks.

@ Madz - Post up some of your pics, always nice to see another perspective.
@ Tobers - Loads of squares and Irish pubs all over Madrid, but I know how it is, they all look the same after x amount of Guinness .
@ dazza - different angle on the monument (to Alfonso XII IIRC) and nice dramatic sky. We just had clear blue skies all the time.
@ Pixelpixel - Didn't see the stadium, but the station sure is different and very striking.

Some more:

1. Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) in Retiro Park. If you look closely you will see a pile of logs inside. That pile of logs is Art. A Brit artist built some igloo type structures in there out of logs. Is it an -ism or is it Art? No photos allowed inside.



2. Plaza Mayor at night. This may or may not be the square visited by Tobers. The leaf like object is a christmas decoration.



3. Christmas lights at Plaza del Sol



4. More lights.



5. The Grand Via



6. Best chocolate and churros shop in Madrid



Plenty more on my flickr.

Mike