Madrid: A brief encounter

The Christmas season is keeping me busy, very busy. Charged with the decoration of some 15 restaurants across Spain, as well as my usual professional responsibilities, one could say that I am rather busy. And with the decorations comes the requirement of travel, and thus across the skies I am variously flying, leaving what must be like a trail of baubles and glitter in my wake.

Amongst those places where my Christmas responsibilities recently took me was Madrid. After living for a year in the small but perfectly sized city of Palma, a metropolis the size of Spain’s capital still comes as something of a shock. The scale of the place is impressive, even to a seasoned city-goer, and as I spent a few brief moments strolling along the city’s Gran Via in-between decoration engagements, I could not help but admire the grandeur of the buildings there, and the sheer breadth and beauty of the city’s impressive main roads.

This brief encounter with Madrid left me with the decided impression that the city is one undervalued, missed by those who would most probably choose London, New York or Paris when considering a visit to one of the world’s busiest and most culturally enriched cities. But with broad expanses of stunning architecture, much of which hails from the decadent age of the late 20th century, endless days of blue sky and sunshine, and museums which play host to some of the most famous artwork in the world (Las Meninas, Guernica, Goya’s Black Paintings to name but a few…) Madrid surely deserves to be known as one of the most visitable and exciting capital cities in the world.

So along with these musings, my brief trip to Madrid also inspired me to take a few photos, the likes of which are shared in this post. The majority were captured from my hotel rooftop, which had enviable views down the Gran Via from the Plaza España, but with sites as impressive as those, it felt almost as though views from the pavement had been rendered redundant. Nevertheless amongst the set, you can also enjoy some colour-enriched autumn views from the stunning Retiro Park, as well as a few of the many details which make Madrid the great beauty it is.