Parque del Retiro

Where will you be leading us today?

I always write about places in Granada or Linares, but this time I´m going to review one of the places I fell in love with when I visited Madrid during the past year: the well-known Parque del Retiro. I was utterly enchanted by it.

So... how do you find this place?

The park is located in the Distrito del Retiro, with Calle de Alcalá and Calle de O´Donnell being the best-known streets near to or bordering the park. I´ve only visited Madrid once in my life, and I can´t give you too much information on how to get there, but if you have a metro map and know the name of the street you want to get to, it won´t be too difficult. It was even easy for me to get to this place, and directions and me are not the best of friends!

Are there other ways of getting there (and are they easier or not)?

Easier than going by metro is... going by metro and asking the way! All joking aside, as I´ve already said, I don´t know about the other ways of getting there, and if you´re visiting as a tourist like I was, the metro is good value since it gets you everywhere relatively cheaply (for Madrid). A ten-journey ticket cost me twelve euros, and therefore one euro twenty cents per journey including transfers as long as you don´t exit the metro station. Quite a good price considering it´s Madrid. In fact, this ticket did me for the whole weekend (two and a half days) and I managed to cover a lot of different areas and sights in Madrid. The distance is walkable between some of the sights though.

Possible transport alternatives

Depending on where you are, you can hire one of the city bikes on the streets, which are a great option for getting around for several reasons. One of these is that there are bike stations on almost every street, so no matter where you go, you won´t have problems finding a station quickly to deposit your bike so that your time doesn´t run out. Another reason to use the city bikes is that, above all for the benefit of those who get a little out of breath when doing sport, they are electric bikes, and although Madrid is not a city of many hills and climbs but rather one of flat plains, this feature certainly makes the journey easier. This being so, you have to be very careful, as in a city as busy as Madrid you really need to keep your eyes on the traffic at all times.

Location and opening hours

The Parque del Retiro is located to the right-hand side of the city centre, beside the Puerta de Alcalá and the bordering street Calle de Alcalá.

The park is open to the public all day, although I don´t remember whether it closed at night or not to prevent vandalism, which is quite common in Spain. In Granada for example, there are lots of parks which lock their gates at around midnight so that they aren´t left unsupervised in the dark.

There are lots of activities to try inside the park, such as boat rides which, of course, operate according to their own opening hours in the interests of safety and organisation. The boat rides run from morning til evening.

What kind of atmosphere does the place have, and what kind of people would enjoy it here?

All kinds of people, and it has an atmosphere suitable for all.

You can visit monuments, statues, do outside activities, listen to musicians, take a walk, run, bike through the park or take a boat ride across the lake.

The park may also have more activities to offer, but since I found it impossible to walk around the entire 118 hectares in one afternoon when I also wanted to see other things in Madrid, I may have missed some. I´m convinced it´s worth discovering every corner of this fabulous and enormous park though, since from the small part I saw, I was surprised again and again by the new things I saw and discovered.

What´s the place like?

As I´ve mentioned, the park stretches over 118 hectares. I´ve never seen an open garden area quite like the ´antesala` which awaits you here.

The boating area is located on a lake with one of the biggest monuments in the park set behind it. There are steps where visitors can sit down and contemplate the landscape. On one side of the lake, the lake is separated from the pedestrian walkway by some railings, and visitors meander along this walkway taking photos. There are musicians, mimes and, on the day I visited, even musical groups such as a brass band.

The boating lake is a very peaceful area, but also very cheerful since it´s surrounded by liveliness - not because there are so many people about, but because there are always people around doing one activity or another. It´s very relaxing watching the world around you enjoy themselves in beautiful surroundings.

If you continue down the path, you´ll see the statue of the Fallen Angel and the Palacio de Cristal. I really like the latter. It´s a building built like a display cabinet, which gives it a sense of fragility and elegance when viewing it from far away. You can go inside for free, and they usually have some kind of activity or event going on inside. On the day I visited, there was a van inside with music and puppets, some of them hyper-realistic, and other kinds of puppets too. I really liked this area.

Finally, you´ll also find lots of cafés around, especially near the entrance where people have just come in for a short walk and it´s easy to stop for a little something. Since the park is so big, entering and almost getting lost looking for a café doesn´t make much sense!

Here are some photos of the Palacio de Cristal and the boat ride I took. :)

What are the main features of the place and what kinds of activities or services does it offer?

The main feature of the park is its huge size, and therefore also the huge variety of activities which can be found within it. Not only did we see musicians like I mentioned earlier, we also saw people selling their art on the walkways. One of the ones I liked the best was a man who painted on tiles with his fingers, and until the painting was finished you were unable to tell what exactly it was: what for one moment seemed to be a sky turned out to be the reflection of something else in water. This happened because he rotated the tile as he painted.

What is the quality of this service or activity?

Excellent. I couldn´t say anything else. The quality of the two activities which I tried out personally was brilliant.

On the boating lake, the staff were very quick, friendly and serviceable in helping us to board and disembark the boats. It´s not a problem if you stay out for a few minutes more than you are supposed to, and nobody chivvies you along if you take a while to board. The lake is quite big, so although there are lots of boats on it, it´s unlikely you´ll get into a jam.

The Palacio de Cristal was supervised by security guards, who weren´t threatening at all unlike in some places. They were open and friendly to the visitors and didn´t hesitate to answer any questions, plus they controlled the ebb and flow of visitors well so that there was always enough space to appreciate the building.

How did you find out about this place?

It´s impossible not to have heard of this place since it´s so famous, and you´re making a big mistake if you visit Madrid and don´t pay even a short visit to this park, even if just to be able to tick it off your list and say: I went to Madrid, I went on a boat ride in the Parque del Retiro and saw the Puerta de Alcalá.

The truth is that I wasn´t that excited when the opportunity suddenly came up for me to visit Madrid, because it´s impossible to see all of Madrid (or even at least the most important places) in just a few days - although I really enjoyed my visit and felt I got to see a lot.

How would you plan a day visit to this place?

I would recommend doing it how I did it, and to be clear, I´ll describe the day I spent at the park.

During the morning, I visited cultural places in Madrid, such as famous neighbourhoods and buildings, and after eating caught the metro to the Calle de Alcalá to take a break from walking from one place to another again and again.

Once I arrived at the park, I strolled around it unhurriedly, and took a ride on one of the boats as I said before. Later, we continued on along the path to the Palacio de Cristal, enjoying everything we passed along the way.

I spent a happy hour and a half in this park and even then I didn´t even see half of the what it has to offer hidden inside.

When we got tired, we decided to slowly make out way back and stopped at a little French café which seemed to transport your mind to France and where I drank a lovely hot chocolate. The interior was much more charismatic than the outside! It echoes peacefulness, with French music in the background and good quality food and drink.

Finally, we returned to the city centre and went from shop to shop, since there are always shops which fascinate you and which you have never seen before, and that impress you so much that you end up ordering things online after you go back home. :P After your exhausting day, it´s good to take advantage of the souvenir shops and finish off by visiting them.

This was the structure of my day in Madrid, because it had to be a whistle-stop tour! If you visit Madrid for longer, the best thing to do is to dedicate as much time as possible to visiting this park because it´s extremely worth it.

How much does the activity cost? Any tips for visiting?

Visiting the park is, obviously, free.

The only thing which costs money is the boat ride - hiring a boat for 45 minutes costs 5 euros 80 cents, irrespective of how many people are in your boat.

My opinion and personal rating

I loved the Parque del Retiro, so I´ll give it a big 10/10 since it´s enormous, it´s marvellous, it has everything you could want and is very well-kept. It´s not the kind of park you find just anywhere or in just any city - well, it´s of course no Park Güell.... but we´re not talking about a famous architect´s work here!

In conclusion...

This is an unmissable place, whether you´re visiting Madrid or Spain as a whole and are thinking of travelling around to see different famous places. It doesn´t matter that there are thousands of other more famous and more important sights to see... you can still take a quick break to soak up the magic of this place. Public transport in Madrid is also quite cheap, so you really have no excuse!

The Retiro park in Madrid is one of the best kept public parks in the country. If you think it looks seems in the photographs, the inside can be so enormous you get lost although this will not be a problem because as soon as entering, you're gazing at it.

My understanding is that it is so big that it covers 180 hectors and has three metro stations surrounding the park.

I didn't have the time or the energy to go round all of it right away, but I could see the main attractions. It's one of those parks you have to go to two or three times to appreciate it in it's totality.

In Mexico, there is a similar park which it reminded me of a lot. In Chapultepec (Mexico) the park also has a:

• Lake
• Castle
• Museum of modern art
• Museum of anthropology
• Zoo

It is also extremely vast. If you come from Mexico, you will already know more or less what you will see.

How much does it cost?

Entry to the park is free and it is open to the public.

How do I arrive?

There are three metro stations which surround the park:

• Atocha (Line 1) Atocha Renfe (Line 1)
• Retiro (Line 2)
• Ibiza (Line 9)

I recommend you get there by Atocha Renfe so you can observe one of the main stations which connects the city of Madrid with it's surroundings. Famous for it's architecture and targeted in the 11M attacks in 2004, you can see the monument dedicated to those deceased in the attack.

Arrival by Atocha Renfe

If you arrive by the Retiro station, you are only steps away from the famous puerta de Alcalá.

If you come by bus line 19, it will leave you at the main entrance.

What is there to see

So many things, that you have to come multiple times. If you enter through the main gate, you will walk through Paseo Argentina, which is a pathway filled with sculptures which were formerly in the Real palace and were relocated to the Retiro by the King's orders (He thought there were too many in his palace).

Following this pathway, you will find the typical image that you see in all the postcards in which features the Retiro pond with the monument of Alfonso XII at the front. There are many people have rented boats are passing through the pond in them. You can see magicians with animals and trucks as well as food and ice cream stalls. It really is a familial atmosphere.

When you reach the monument of Alfonso XII following to the right to the Paseo del Salón del Estanque you will find the crystal palace - famous for it's architecture and for forming a part of the Reina Sofía museum as the venue for temporary expositions.

Stay awestruck by la Rosaleda, built to live up to the European parks. It is a pathway adorned with roses.

The Retiro park is a centre of Reunion for groups of every genre. Usually as you walk, you will encounter people having a picnic, chatting, having artistic workshops, of languages or foreigners who are just looking for somewhere to meet with people from their country.

At the entrance to Paseo Fernán Nuñez, you will find many sports people who are taking advantage of their free time to do exercise in the park and to take their dogs for a walk. You can rent a bicycle and ride through the park on it, like many families do. I believe that it is the best or only way to get to know all of it.

What other tourist attractions can I find nearby?

Less than a ten minute walk away, you can find all of these places:

• La puerta de Alcalá
• The national museum of Anthropology
• Atocha Renfe
• The pantheon of illustrious men
• The real botanical gardens
• The national museum of Prado
• Cathedral San Jerónimo del Real
• The real Spanish academy
• The bank of Spain
• The Gran Vía
• The national museum of art Reina Sofía

Recommendations

• The Retiro park is very big. I recommend you visit it in comfortable clothing. My friend came in sandals and we had to stop various times on the way round.
• There is a lot of sun in Summer so put on a lot of sunscreen, sunglasses and light clothing. With the walking, you will suffer more.
• I haven't visited it in the Winter season but it will be one of my objectives. In Madrid there are occasions when it snows and the park looks beautiful, with the snow adorning all of the trees and the frozen pond.
• Water in Madrid is very expensive so make sure to bring your water bottle because you will find places to fill it up for free.
• A block away from the park there are many cheap restaurants and fast food. On Wednesdays and Sundays the restaurant 100 Montaditos has all of it's menu at one Euro. Highly recommended.