Early Christmas Trip to Madrid

I know it is still early December and it is way way too early for any Christmas celebration. But I decided to do it anyway. A short Early Christmas Trip to Madrid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my passions during December is to see Christmas Market. It is simply because there is not much this type of christmas market in my country. And in contrary, european countries have a lot of different types and styles of christmas market. So, when my friend and I decided to visit Madrid, visiting christmas market is def in my list. We went to the one in Plaza Mayor. It was a nice place to go but with not so many stuffs, maybe they were not completely all open.

We then continued to the back of this plaza because one of our american friends who lived here before recommended us to eat at Mercado de San Miguel. She said it would look like Torvehallerne in Copenhagen. And… it was! We walked around and saw lots of good food and fell to some olives pinchos. To accompany it, we chose vino caliente or something like glogg. Even more reminds me of Copenhagen. Hmmm….

We managed to get some seats and met a spanish couple who were very friendly. They gave us tips on where to visit in a very short period of time in Madrid. And among others that he mentioned were Calle Fuencarral and around which is also known as calle de zapatos (Shoes Streets), Chueca areas (for nice buildings and neighborhood), Grand Via where Primark and major retailers located (for shopping of course), and Opera or Plaza Isabel II (for another Christmas market, where I bought delicious sunflower seeds snacks here). The wife mentioned cathedral but I guessed my friend did not take note on it since we did not visit any cathedral here.

Before going to the Christmas market in Plaza Mayor, we visited the famous Prado museum, it is free of charge every day 6-8 PM. Nice. Me love free stuffs, hehehe…. 😉 Among all art pieces there, I took photos of these two. My favourites. The top one is a series of dancing sculptures and the one on the right is a queen’s bust. I love it because it wore a veil, unlike others. Somehow it showed sophisticated, mysterious, beautiful, elegant looking charisma of this queen, whom I forgot her name.

The next day, we were still blessed with a nice sunny weather. So, we decided to visit Parque El Retiro before heading back to Bilbao. It was actually a huge park with lots of building to visit. All parks that I’ve visited in Paris or Copenhagen were not as big as this one. I took photo in front of Monumento Alfonso XII. People rented some touristy boats or got some family bike to get different feel in enjoyin the park. Along this monument, on the side walk, there were a lot of enterntainments, music groups, flamenco dance, puppet shows for kids, stand-up comedy in spanish, tarrot reading, accesorise sellers and snacks kiosks.

 

 

We decided to walk ahead. My friend went in to Palacio de Velazquez while I’m eating lunch. LOL! :p

Then we went to Palacio de Cristal. Not so much to see on this one. But interestingly they had bones/fossils hung up in the middle of the palace. Between the fossils, there was a small Jesus’ crucifiction statue. wth? a bit wierd to my taste.  But it was really beautiful. Too bad the lightning was bad that we could not take any good picture. We then proceeded to the fallen angel statue. And had a cup of tea in the small cafe nearby.

What a blessed life I am having right now. Praise to the Lord whose birthday we celebrate very very soon! Merry Early Christmas people! 🙂