Our next stop on our May 2026 Spain tour was the capital, Madrid. The architecture was beautiful, and we enjoyed some delicious food. We had mixed reactions to the art.
The weather was sunny and warm during our entire visit, which helped.
Retiro Park provides a lovely, serene green oasis in the middle of the city. Here’s Jeff at Retiro Park’s Large Pond with the Monument to Alfonso XII in the background.
Paseo de las Estatuas (Statue Walk) featured beautiful sculpted shrubbery.
We admired the elegant architecture along Gran Via, one of Madrid’s main streets.
The Cibeles Palace, with the Cibeles Fountain in the foreground.
We visited the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. It was a large museum filled with typical classic art from the past few centuries. Their collection was typical for museums of this nature, but none of the works on display particularly stood out… except this. They had a display on the ground floor, not far from the entrance, that portrayed ten people of various ages and circumstances living in Gaza, and briefly described how their lives had been shattered by the destruction of the past couple of years. Their profiles of courage and perseverance were inspiring. The exhibit put a human face on the tragic situation that can be easy to ignore because it’s so far away.
Then we visited the Prado Museum, Madrid’s most famous “fine art” museum. The majority of the museum was devoted to art of the 18th and 19th centuries, which depicted either religious scenes, nameless aristocrats who could afford to commission portraits of themselves, or scenes of violent conflict.
While we wandered through the maze of exhibition rooms, we realized we had hit a wall. We’ve been to so many museums displaying art of this ilk that we realized (a) we really don’t care for it, and (b) after a while, it all looks the same. That will inform our choices of where to visit during future travels.
The highlight of our visit to Madrid was catching up with our friend Hassan. Hassan was Dave’s housemate for a year in 2003 (before Jeff), when they worked for Intel. Hassan moved to San Francisco a few years later, then moved to Madrid last year. Dave and Hassan couldn’t recall exactly how long it had been since they last saw each other, but it was somewhere between 15 and 20 years.
Hassan took us on a brief walking tour of his neighborhood. We caught this nice view of the Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena.
We visited the Fundación Telefónica, located in the Telefónica building on Gran Via, the headquarters of Spain’s telecommunication company. From the time the building was completed in 1929 until 1940, it was the tallest building in Europe. It was 89 meters tall, with 14 high-ceiling floors above ground.
Today, it houses a museum that displays the history of the telephone and an exhibit called the Quantum Revolution that explores the core principles of quantum mechanics and quantum computing. Heavy stuff!
We admired this artistic stairwell.
The Museo de América displays pre-Colombian, Spanish-American, and Native American art and artifacts.
While some aspects of its architecture suggest that the building was once a church, it was not. The design was intended to reflect Spain’s missionary work in the Americas.
While most of the museum focused on the past, we were pleasantly surprised to find this exhibit, which profiled the lives and challenges of ten trans people living throughout Latin America.
The Faro de Moncloa (Moncloa Lighthouse) was next to the Museo de América. It was never actually a lighthouse. It was built in 1992 as a transmission tower and observation deck. It once held a restaurant on the observation deck.
Also nearby was the Arco de Moncloa, built in 1950 by Generalissimo Francisco Franco to commemorate Francoist triumphs in the Spanish Civil War. The concept of a fascist dictator erecting a triumphal arch seemed eerily familiar.
Here’s Dave on the sidewalk of Ronda de Atocha, near the Atocha train station and the Reina Sofia art museum.
The first exhibition we visited in the Reina Sofia museum displayed the works of Aurelia Muñoz. Many of her works were textural, featuring many three-dimensional works of paper and fabric. We enjoyed it!
We concluded our tour of Madrid’s many museums with a visit to the Banksy Museum. To say it was a contrast to most of the other museums we visited would be an understatement. We loved it for the humor, the edgy nature of the art, and the socio-political statements it made so cleverly.
We stayed in a very nice apartment in the La Latina neighborhood. This is the view from our fifth-story window of a small mall of shops selling antiques and home decor.
We found several excellent restaurants within a few blocks of our apartment. One night, we ate at a Mexican restaurant called Sahuaro Madrid. Dave’s Chicken Enchiladas de Mole and Jeff’s Enchilada Poblanas were outstanding.
Restaurante La Corazonada was the most authentic Spanish restaurant we tried. We were the only non-locals there. Despite our limited Spanish and the waitress’s limited English, we made it work. The food and the service were both excellent. The restaurant provided the tapas plate of olives and cheeses, and we ordered the Queso de Cabra con Tomate e Cebolla Caramelizada Pinchos (Goat cheese, tomato, and caramelized onion on toasted bread). Jeff ordered sizzling Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp with garlic) and Dave ordered Tira de Asado (grilled roast strip). They gave us complimentary shots of a liqueur that tasted similar to Port as a parting gift.
We enjoyed Delica Bistro so much that we ate there twice! The starter we chose was fried yucca strips with guacamole, herb aioli, and chili pepper creme. For our main course, Jeff ordered Stuffed Tortolini in Mushroom Creme Sauce, and Dave went healthy (for a change) with the Europa Bowl. The homemade cheesecake was one of the best we’ve ever had!
The food and wine in Madrid (and throughout Spain) were very reasonably priced. Many of the main dishes were in the 15-20€ range, and the wines we chose were around 20-25€ per bottle. And that’s the price we paid. Taxes are included in the stated price, and tipping is not expected. And these were nicer-than-average restaurants. We observed that people in Europe tend to eat out more, both because their apartment kitchens are much smaller and the restaurants are cheaper. Eating and drinking out is also a social outlet.