Retiro Park and the Crystal Palace in Madrid

During the second day of my trip to the stunning city Madrid and the most beautiful and happy capital in Europe, I was able to discover another side to the Spanish capital, a calmer and more natural side. In fact, the Spanish capital is really dynamic and it's always moving, between the cars and the active life of the people, especially at night. Clearly, the people here find it rare to sleep since they spend part of their evenings walking along the streets even when the shops are closed. The important thing is to keep the soul of the beautiful festive atmosphere alive in the streets. By the way, Plaza de Callao (a square) is always lively in the evenings and you will always find street performances whether that be dancers or singers who are performing for the first time. I was even able to see many shows which took place on the metro and there would also be someone filming it to post it on social media after. My first destination for that day was the Retiro park, a symbolic park which is very popular for its calm and serene character, and especially for its beauty.

- Retiro Park

Leaving the metro station from plaza d'El Callao where I was staying in the hotel, I had to take the underground metro to get to the other two lines "las Rosas" and "quatro caminos" which both pass by the "Retiro" metro station before terminating. These lines are easy to catch, and it makes it simpler for people to get off at the Retiro metro station. You just have to know which direction to travel in because of course, these two metro lines go in two different directions. In my case, I had to take the line which terminates at las Rosas and it took around ten minutes to get to the Retiro stop. Its speed is a great advantage once you're on the metro carriage. Another way to access the park is to go through the "puerta de Alcala" where you can see the huge historic and symbolic gate to the town with pink flowers and castles all around as you go along. When you get a little further, you can see more towers, more of the city walls and more historic buildings which are magnificent to look at and admire.

The entrance to the park is of course free and you can see beautiful lawns of fresh green grass with birds humming. There are also little stoned paths you can follow with benches to sit down on or to have a rest, and paths through the eucalyptus trees and other types of trees for the passers-by or for the sporty people who find happiness in this type of park by doing sport and running a few kilometres. At the heart of this amazing park, there are statues and monuments scattered around, apart from the one and only famous lake. Boats. Firstly, I was able to see monuments of historic cavalrymen which dominated the park in a little lake with a duck swimming around in it along with the green space where you can go for a walk.

Then, I was able to get to the main part of the park where there's a massive lake and boats everywhere which you can row in the middle. In front of the rowing boats, there's a beautiful statue with lions and fountains which pour water into the lake. The water in the lake is extremely clear and there are ducklings swimming around who seem delighted from having eaten a few biscuits or corn. The semi-circle which centres the knight, as well as the statue in the middle of the landscape gives the park an even more magnificent and extraordinary view. You must go with someone else if you want to hire a rowing boat to make sure you balance it out. For half an hour, it costs around 7 euros per person.

I must also say that you can have a lot of fun using the boats in this park because you can row them on your own and there is enough space in the lake to row about whilst having fun listening to the music they play and relaxing to the full. This activity really offers you pure relaxation and a true rest with respect to the everyday stress so you are able to forget about all the stress and worries you have and relax to the full. You can also gaze at the magnificent view centred around the monument from far away, sitting on one of the benches eating an ice cream. You can take plenty of photographs and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere or find one of the activities to do hidden in every part of the park.

You can also see wonderful flowers in shades of red and pink which decorate the various beautiful gardens in this magnificent park and you can go for a walk smelling the perfumed scents all over, making it super peaceful and helping you to relax. Something you should know, not too far from there, you will see the "Crystal Palace".

- The Crystal Palace

Whilst walking around the Retiro park and near the central lake and the famous monument, you will also find plenty of other magnificent monuments to visit. For example, the crystal palace, a historic palace made entirely out of glass, making it a real delight to the eye. There are works of art and statues representing beautiful themes and poetry. The palace is made of glass which gives it its exceptional magnificence and beauty. Right in front of the palace there is a lake with a stunning fountain and jets which spray water several metres into the air, giving you a beautiful landscape in this relaxing and pleasing environment. I must tell you that there are also other marvellous palaces near there, such as the art gallery. The entrance to this gallery is also free and you will see a series of works of art and just as incredibly beautiful paintings. The gallery itself is a finely detailed work of art. The architecture is extraordinary, painted with significant colours and gives it an enchanting feel. That makes the gallery even more mysterious and symbolic to see and it makes you really gaze at the incredible details and images shown by this amazing building. The paintings generally represent contemporary art, showing workers in bad conditions, especially in the industries where you were made objective to those who were above you.

On the same metro line, you can also visit another symbolic place which really shows some of the characteristics of Spanish culture - a bullfight with the bulls and bullfighters. It's a show where the bullfighters protect themselves against that aggressive animal which goes crazy when they see the colour red. For that reason, we went to the plaza de toros (the bullring).

- Plaza de Toros

By using the same metro line "cuatro caminos", you will find a stop called "ventas". If you get off here and go up the stairs, you will see the Plaza de Toros with its symbolic red-brick architecture covered in truly amazing inscriptions. In visual and architectural terms, the sculptures along with writings and several small details make this a real monument you have to visit. As it's a circle shape, the bullring is very big, and it takes up a large space and you can walk around it as well to see every detail of this great monument. The entrance to the arena costs around 14 euros to see one of the shows with professional bullfighters who know what they're doing: handling the beast whilst putting on a 100% original show. This amazing show is all part of Spanish culture and I think that you must go to see it at least once, to take in the beauty of the landscape and the magnificent structures inside this grand arena.

In its structure, you're able to see different architectural details which make this building exceptional on every aspect. It's well reserved despite the fact that it was built many many years ago. You can hear the noise from the crowd, encouraging the candidates who are submissive to this fight against the dangerous animal. Furthermore, you can see several shows of the bulls and discover a great feeling of joy and happiness.

As you can see in this magnificent photo taken just from the right of the arena, every circle has a door which was probably used as the entrance for the public in the olden times. Nowadays I'm sure there is only one access to the arena for the public to use to see the shows, but you can notice that this building has been used many times to show the magnificent bullfights. It really is an amazing show and one to see to find out more about traditions from this beautiful country by going back in time when these shows made everyone happy and you can experience the pure excitement they got just by looking at these great buildings. You can finally take the same metro line and the change to the "moncloa" line to get to the Plaza de España station and just walk to the Plaza d'El Callao to see the entertainment which is offered there at night. There are many comedy shows and you can experience a real Spanish atmosphere watching authentic shows performed by the heart and soul of the people.

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