There was no way I would sit in a hotel room for my only day in central Madrid, even if it was 35C/95F on the streets in July. Google Maps showed the Royal Palace about 25 minutes walk from IHG’s Hotel Indigo Princesa and I aimed to see at least one tourist landmark while in Madrid.
Plaza de España, Madrid features a large Cervantes monument with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza statues.
The 27-floor Riu Hotel has a rooftop bar in one of Madrid’s highest skyscrapers. This is a place for panoramic views of the city as seen in 360-images on the Riu Hotel website.
Having spent three decades around schools and playgrounds I am always interested to see the variations in children’s play equipment in different cities. I don’t recall seeing a slide structure this high before in a public playground.
More than a dozen people were gathered at a wall looking west to the sunset over a forest park beneath the palace.
Almudena Cathedral is a relatively new construction. The foundation stone was laid in 1883 and the cathedral was finally completed in 1993. More than 400 years passed from the time Spain’s capital city moved from Toledo to Madrid in 1561 before the capital had Almudena Cathedral.
