When planning my trip to see the giant pandas at Madrid Zoo I knew I wanted to have 2 full days in the city – this was a bit of an insurance policy incase I didn’t get to see the pandas on the first day for some reason, but I was lucky and my day at the zoo worked out perfectly. So I had the evening after arriving from a long day of travel, the morning and evening after visiting the zoo because of the later opening time, and then another whole day to fill – luckily there is plenty to see in Madrid!
Evening 1 – Plaza de Oriente, Plaza de la Armeria and Campo del Moro
I got to my hotel around 5PM after a long travel day – I dropped off my luggage and headed out to stroll around the local area in the lovely weather, what a change from Scotland! I headed over the Plazas de Oriente and de la Armeria to see the Palacio Real de Madrid which is just a stunning building. Then I headed through the Jardines de Sabatini which was a small but pretty garden. I then stopped off to pick up some food at the Principe Pio shopping centre, then made it to the Campo del Moro park for a walk around before it closed. I was there for around an hour and it was a lovely peaceful park. It was also very quiet, which was surprising – if I lived nearby I would spend all the warm evenings here! When I left there I looped around and went back up to the Plazas via the Catedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena, which was also a beautiful building (and a challenge to get in the frame of a photo!). Then I ended my evening enjoying the view over the city before strolling back to the hotel for a relatively early night.
Morning 2 + Evening 2 – street strolls and Templo de Debod
I tried to have a bit of a lie in this morning because the Zoo didn’t open until 11, but I’m an early riser, so I headed out around 9AM after having breakfast at the hotel. From the Opera I headed through the streets to walk up the Calle Mayor – it was a beautiful morning and there were plenty of other people around enjoying the architecture. Then I made it to Puerta del Sol and kept strolling until I made it to the Palacio de Cibeles – this place has a great looking rooftop viewpoint but I didn’t pre-book a ticket because I wasn’t quite sure where I would be and when, so this is something I’d look to do next time. From there I walked down past the Museo Nacional del Prado and headed towards a metro stop to get to the zoo (which was super easy).
I left the zoo after 6PM and headed back into the city, taking the metro to the Templo de Debod, again this was in a very pretty setting with great views stretching for miles out of the city. The surrounding park was super lively with people enjoying picnics and entertainment. I then somehow went on a super long walk all the way to the Real Basilica de San Francisco el Grande and then worked my way through the streets to the Plaza Mayor – they were super lively with people sitting out at bars and restaurants, I loved the evening vibes of the city. I had planned to get dinner at the Mercado de San Miguel, but when I went in it was just a lot of people in a small space and I found it a bit overwhelming, so I just had a quick look then headed off. I’d had quite a late lunch at the zoo, so I wasn’t super hungry and just grabbed a sandwich and some snacks to eat back in the hotel.
Day 3 – bus tour across the city
After having a great day at the Zoo on day 2 I was happy with my visit being the only one of the trip, so while having breakfast I did some research on what I could do and opted to take a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city. This meant I could see just about the whole city and hear about the history as well. I went with the City Tour company – there are two routes, and on the site now I see there is also a walking tour included (not sure if that was also available last year, or if I just didn’t look because of time constraints). I made use of both routes to see everything, but I definitely preferred the ‘historic’ over ‘modern’ route. The first stop I got off at was at the Parque de El Retiro. Here I spent a few hours wandering around the shaded paths and really enjoyed seeing the popular Palacio de Cristal (wasn’t open when I visited, but beautiful on the outside). The lake was very pretty here too with the Monumento a Alfonso XII towering over it. I hopped back on the bus to enjoy the rest of the ‘historic’ route, then swapped onto the ‘modern’ route. After that I stopped for a McDonalds lunch – I just can’t resist a McDonalds that has fries with a cheese sauce, so tasty and we don’t have that here in the UK! Then I decided I would make a visit to the Museo Nacional del Prado and bought a ticket online – there were plenty available for the afternoon slots and there wasn’t really a queue at all to get in. It wasn’t the best museum/gallery I’ve been in, the styles of artwork just weren’t so much my thing (I like van Gogh, Degas, Monet etc.) but I can at least say I’ve been and it was a relaxing few hours in the afternoon. After leaving there I ended up making good use of my bus ticket and just sat on the tour enjoying the route before heading back to the hotel for an early night before my travel day via Amsterdam.
Where to stay
I stayed in the Hotel Opera which is right next to the opera house – it’s very central and right next to a metro station which was one of the criteria I used in picking a hotel, I wanted to be close so it was easy to get to/from the airport and also to/from the zoo. The hotel was lovely, very modern and clean, and overall very quiet. I had booked a single room as it was just myself and a little cheaper than a double, but when I checked in I was in a very spacious twin room with a nice view over the quiet street overlooking the hotel entrance. The bathroom was also very large and clean. I had the hotel breakfast, there was a good choice and food was always being replenished. There were not a large number of tables but it was never too busy.
