Madrid

To get from Cordoba to Madrid we went by train, not a fancy fast one but we still got there in a couple of hours.  After settling into our apartment, which was in a residential area, we went for a walk to familiarise ourselves with the area.

 We walked down to the river then through the park alongside.  As we neared the end of our park walk we saw a collection of brick buildings and went to investigate.  They housed a variety of entertainment, cultural and arts centres and when we checked it out on the internet we discovered the huge complex was once a municipal slaughterhouse and livestock saleyard ( from 1911 to 1996 ). It's known as Matadero.

Matadero

Matadero

Still more Matadero - They are a fascinating collection of brick buildings with tiles and abstract designs

We had two full days in Madrid and spent a good part of the daylight hours walking :)  

We caught the metro to take us a few stops down the line and into the central city which is an older part.  While there weren't the historical buildings like we have seen elsewhere there were many grand buildings and churches etc.

The royal palace but not the residence if the royal family.  This is only used for state ceremonies.

Cathedral de la Almudena

Cathedral from the other side.  Construction began in 1879; it stopped during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939) and was abandoned until 1950; the cathedral was completed and consecrated in 1993.

Cybele Palace opened in 1919 as headquarters of the Spanish postal and telecommunication service. In 2007 it became Madrid's city hall

Monestery de la Descalzas Reales. This is a former palace of King Charles I of Spain and Isabel of Portugal.  In 1559 their daughter founded a convent of nuns here.  The convent attracted young widowed or spinster noblewomen and through their dowries the convent became very rich. By the 20th century the sisters were in poverty but unable to sell off any items or spend any of the money.  In 1960 the Pope gave dispensation for the convent to be opened as a museum.  I missed the once daily English tour so didn't get to see the precious dowries and valuable paintings.

From my observation Madrid is a city of statues, they are in the parks, in the plazas, on city gates, in fountains, on top of buildings and even on the sides of buildings.  Statues with horses caught my eye so I made a photo collection of the ones I came across.   A few them are below.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

Not horses but I like this one

One day we met up with an Australian couple from our Morocco tour and had lunch with them at the oldest restaurant in the world. It opened in 1725 and roast meat is still the house speciality.

Our friends outside the restaurant

 The kitchen, roasts ready to be cooked

We went to the ’ Temple de Debod’ which dates from 2200 years ago and was moved to Spain in 1968.  It was donated to Spain for their help in saving monuments that would be flooded due to the Aswan dam construction.  From the outside I wasn't very impressed but inside there were carvings on the stone walls showing figures making offerings to a god.  Now those did impress me.

The temple

Some inscriptions 

Carvings