Our itinerary prior to visiting Madrid was rather simple: walk from El Retiro park to the Royal Palace getting in the sights, try and catch a football match, and eat/drink lots.
We were staying in Chueca, a district just North of the city centre. Chueca is known as Madrid’s gay neighbourhood, but it is home to so much more, bustling with numerous cafes, bars and vintage stores. It’s a perfect location to stay should you ever visit Madrid, and it’s within walking distance to most of the sites.
We started off by going to El Tigre Sideria, a cider bar which provides free food with your drink. Whilst €7 can seem pricy for a drink, you are inundated with plates of food afterwards, and can fill yourself prior to your explorations around Madrid.
Our first evening in Madrid was rather chill, exploring Chueca whilst embarking on a bit of a bar crawl. We visited Estupenda, a Twin Peaks themed bar, decked out to resemble the diner in Twin Peaks, with numerous other references to the show scattered throughout.
After Estupenda, we wandered around many of the vintage shops dotted around Chueca, whilst stopping into a taco shop and a few craft beer bars.
The next morning was a bit more productive, and we started off by walking to El Retiro park to begin our morning of sightseeing.
We saw the monument to Alfonso XII across the pond, and enjoyed the heat before resting at the cafe for a bit, before walking back down Gran Via towards the Royal Palace.
We had heard about the rooftop bar at Plaza Cibeles, so opted to check it out for views, but unfortunately it had been booked out, so we proceeded back into the centre of Madrid, where we passed through Plaza Mayor before stopping at Mercado de San Miguel for a bite to eat and some drinks. The market was abuzz with numerous stalls serving an array of food, drinks and sweet treats.
We then ventured towards El Rastro, a large outdoor market spanning a few streets, but it appeared to be closing just as we arrived, but we nosied about nonetheless.
We had tickets for the Atlético Madrid game that night, so didn’t linger about too long at the market before heading back to the hotel to freshen up and go to the game.
The stadium itself was a marvel, the atmosphere was great, and the popcorn inside was super tasty. Though the location was a bit out of the way, on the outskirts of Madrid.
The following day, we resumed our walk to the Royal Palace from where we left off, seeing the Spanish Beefeaters, they’re probably called something like “El Beefeatero” (after typing this, I’ve realised the Kings Guard and Beefeaters are 2 different things, Beefeaters guard the Royal Jewels at the Tower of London, but whatever – the Spanish version would be called La Guardia del Rey, which negates my joke). The palace was expansive, and you can get closer to it than Buckingham Palace. I guess the Spanish Royals don’t have notions about themselves.
We ventured off towards Mas Al Sur (delicious, highly recommend) for some Tapas for some food before entering the chill portion of our day, as that evening we were going to attempt to see another football game (yes, I’m not sure how I convinced Amy either)
We ended up at Rayo Vallecano, where we had to purchase tickets in a stall at the stadium – the club try to keep the local connection, and keep tourists away by making ticket sales directly at the ground rather than online, and luckily for us, a game vs Osasuna would not sell out in advance, so we were able to attend. We purchased our tickets, and then mingled with fans at a bar close to the ground prior to kick off.
Inside the stadium had a very different vibe compared to the juggernaut Atletico stadium from the night before. Rayo Vallecano’s Vallecas stadium only has 3 stands, but they boasted Colombian superstar James Rodriguez who had signed for them over the summer. The match was filled with action, and the ground was very lively throughout the game.
After the game, we found a bar to kill a little time until the crowds died down prior to getting a taxi back to our hotel.
The last day of our trip was very relaxed. We tried Tierra Burritos and Bolus Burger (neither are worth raving about), before getting our flight to Porto.
I’d ideally have liked another evening in Madrid to catch the sunset from Templo de Debod, but if Real Madrid were playing the following the day, I’d have likely tried to have get tickets for it too. But seeing Real and Templo de Debod are great reasons to visit Madrid again someday.