Madrid,
Spain and Canary Islands
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
After a wonderful time in a charming city such as Amsterdam, Madrid can come as a bit of a disappointment. The city itself is actually quite nice in some ways. It looks fairly modern by European standards, most of the buildings having been built in the 19th century. It has large, stately looking avenues, a few picturesque buldings and some nice parks. What it does lack however, is character and charm. After all, this is nothing more than a bloated government town of 5 million, with relatively much less history than many of its other Spanish city siblings. The air smells polluted and the Spanish food is (at least in this region), well... let´s just say that the less said the better. Especially for vegetarians such as Virginia: for example one of the most succesful restaurant chains in Madrid is El Museo del Jamon (The Museum of Ham), where the closest one can get to vegetarian is a few vegetables next to a mountain of pork ham.
They say that one can discover the beauty of Madrid in its inhabitants, who are very lively and friendly. The few that we´ve actually spoken to seemed to be like that, but we were here only for a few days and we were quite tired. Thus, we consoled ourselves with making the best of Madrid by visiting the Prado museum, which is world-class. We also roamed the city´s downtown core and the excellent Parque del Buon Retiro. The pictures here will give you some idea of the place.
