What a day today! I started to walk around 8:30 am. On the way to the subway I saw this old hospital ... what amazing architecture.
I then caught the red line to Opera station. I was going to get off at Retiro, but this section of the line was under construction.
Once off at Opera, I made my way to Retiro Park. The first thing I saw on the way was Palacio del Congreso.
A short walk from here takes you to Fuente de Neptuno (Fountain of Neptune)
About 2 blocks further takes you to Puerta de Acala (Plaza de Independencia). A beautiful structure I must say.
Right beside Puerta de Acala, is one of the entrances to Parque de el Retiro (Retiro Park). What an amazing park to walk through and there is no charge. This first photo shows the main entrance and Pets de Acala in the background. End of March and the flowers are already out!
The following selfie has the Monument Alfonso XII in the background.
This structure known as Palacio de Cristal was so lovely, but unfortunately not open to the public until April.
The following monument is known as Estatua del Angel Caido.
I walked back to Monument Alfonso XII to get a closer view of it. Some would say I got lost in the park ... I would say I just took a scenic route. Lol It took me half an hour to get back to here as I took a lot of side paths. But you can see it is certainly worth it.
This is Plaza de Guatemala.
An unexpected stop at Iglesia Parroquial de San Manuel y San Benito. A lovely stop in the Church.
I then walked up Barrio de Salamanca which is a very prestigious area in Madrid ... fancy restaurants and stores.
Incredible architecture in this area.
I stopped at Plaza de Colon for a few pics.
I made a quick stop at Fuente de Cibeles. On one side of the street is Palais de Cibeles ... amazing architecture.
Walking up and down a few side streets I saw quite a few police (provincial and federal) and some soldiers.
Around the back of this building I passed a soldier standing in a doorway with a machine gun. I said hello and he saluted me and said "Buenos Dias". Talk about pile and respectful soldiers. I asked if I could take his photo and it was not acceptable which is understood.
I stopped at this monumento de Mayo beside Fuente de Neptuno.
I was continuing on my way when I heard a lot of noise that sounded like fireworks. It was strange to here at noon. I looked over to see a lot of police dressed in riot gear and a large group of protestor dressed in yellow and orange. I was informed they were miners demonstrating against the closing of these mines. It is unfortunate that I cannot put video on this blog, because of the loud crackers they were setting off.
I thought this to be an interesting side of a building.
I made my way up Atocha to meet some of the group going to La Alberca tomorrow. We were meeting for a 2pm lunch.
This little side street goes to the restaurant, Casa Patas where we were meeting. This restaurant is quite well known to the locals and tourists alike.
This is a pic inside Casa Patas showing a great deal of photos on the wall.
We were greeted by the lovely and friendly ladies who work for Diverbo. They shared with us general information of what to expect in the next couple of days.
We were then treated to a wonderful authentic Spanish meal, wine and dessert. I took a pic of the meal but dug right into the desert so didn't get that shot. LOL It too was very tasty.
We were asked to go into the back room street we finished our desert for further discussion and a couple of handouts. In a short discussion we were introduced to a group that would be playing for us ... a guitarist, a singer and two flamenco dancers! What a nice treat!!
Upon researching it turns out this restaurant, Casa Patas, is also a Flamenco Theatre and is highly rated on Google! We were so privileged to have this special treat.
This was a great start to the Diverbo experience. Very well organized and so welcoming. I am looking forward to this week.
(Some of the videos of this week will be on my Facebook page until I return home and can place on my website.)