Week 645 · June 2026 · Madrid, Spain
After arrival into Madrid, we settled at the hotel and headed into town. We had watched some YouTube videos and plotted a course from Puerta del Sol, down Gran Via, and tried to get into a trendy rooftop bar — the Azotea at the Bella Artes. We were successful but by the time we got in, it was crowded with a very long drink line, nowhere to sit, and our (my) fashion wasn't fully up to par.
We took some pictures from the famous Azotea viewpoint and left pretty quickly, having dinner at street level with the non-influencers. We kept walking down Gran Via and Calle De Alcala (actually a nicer street) and ended up back where we started near Puerta del Sol at a very art deco bar. As we found out the next day, the architecture was from the 1920s and is known as the “Spanish Broadway.”
Gran Via is Madrid’s most iconic boulevard, running 1.3 kilometers from Calle de Alcalá to Plaza de España through the heart of the city. Construction began in 1910 after a project approved in 1904, requiring the demolition of over 300 medieval buildings to forge a modern thoroughfare inspired by Paris’s Grands Boulevards and New York’s Broadway. The project took nearly two decades to complete, finishing in 1929.
The boulevard became a showcase for early 20th-century architecture, mixing French Beaux-Arts ornamentation, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Spanish regionalism. Signature buildings include the Edificio Metrópolis — completed 1911, with its distinctive domed cupola and gilded winged Victory — and the Telefónica Building, Madrid’s first skyscraper at 81 meters when it opened in 1929. During the Spanish Civil War, Gran Via earned the grim nickname “Howitzer Alley” (Avenida de los Obuses) from Franco’s aerial bombardment. Dozens of theaters line its length — hence “Spanish Broadway” — alongside cinemas dating to the silent era and rooftop bars overlooking the cityscape.
The next day we walked from our hotel through Retiro Park (similar to Central Park), before the major heat of the day settled in, and then over to Salamanca where we had to do some emergency shopping.
Part of the objective of the visit was to see which neighborhood we might want to have an extended stay in the future. After we left Retiro, we took the hop-on/hop-off bus to get out of the heat a bit and get a better feel for the city before heading over to the La Latina neighborhood to a Mercado for a late lunch which had a very authentic feel. Later we visited Malasaña and Salamanca and walked around a bit — Malasaña has a bohemian feel and edgy reputation while Salamanca is like Bethesda — we would likely lean Bethesda. However, when Claude was asked to find a neighborhood similar to St. Kilda in Australia — AI says “For the St. Kilda vibe specifically — artsy, a bit rough around the edges, great nightlife, street culture — Malasaña is your spot.”
The hop-on/hop-off bus is an underrated reconnaissance tool — a low-effort way to get an aerial read on how neighborhoods relate to each other before committing to the streets. La Latina gave the most authentic feel: a working market, no performance, the kind of late lunch where the menu is on a chalkboard and the sangria arrives without being asked. Malasaña is the bohemian counterweight — the neighborhood where Madrid’s countercultural Movida Madrileña was born after Franco, and where the independent-music, vintage-shop, edgy-bar energy has never fully left. Salamanca is the polished grid: wide avenues, flagship stores, Michelin-starred restaurants, quiet at night. The Bethesda comparison holds. The AI read on St. Kilda was correct.
Headed to an Irish bar to watch the Arsenal–PSG UCL Final — good environment with the fans split 50/50. Of course it went to penalties and English held form. Off to Plaza Mayor for dinner. Arsenal had beaten a Madrid team to get to the final — so it would have been quite a circus if Atletico Madrid had been playing.
Our last day was focused around the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and the Prado. Both world-class attractions. Although we had advance tickets for both — didn't need them. No pictures in the Prado — which is better as you then aren't competing with people taking selfies and it makes for a more peaceful experience.
The Palacio Real de Madrid is the largest royal palace in Western Europe and among the largest in the world — covering 135,000 square meters with 3,418 rooms, 870 windows, 240 balconies, and 44 staircases. For scale: it is roughly twice the size of Buckingham Palace. The site traces back to a 9th-century Moorish fortress built by Emir Mohammed I; it later became the Alcázar of Castile and the primary residence of the Habsburg kings. The original Alcázar burned to the ground on Christmas Eve 1734, and King Philip V commissioned an entirely stone replacement — specifically to prevent another fire. Construction ran from 1738 to 1755.
Though it is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, the royals actually live in the smaller Palacio de la Zarzuela on the city’s outskirts, using Palacio Real only for state ceremonies. Highlights inside include the Grand Staircase (carved from a single block of San Agustín marble), the Throne Room with ceiling frescoes by Giambattista Tiepolo, the Porcelain Room, the Tree Root Room, and a remarkable art collection spanning Goya, Velázquez, and Caravaggio — plus the only complete Stradivarius string quartet in the world.
We had a split ticket coming back — Iberia to Dublin and Aer Lingus to DC. When I checked into Iberia, only my first leg was apparent. So when we got to the airport at 5:20am we went to the bag drop for Dublin — after 40 minutes in line the machine wasn't working and the airport person said we were in the wrong line (I checked — we weren't — see picture below) and sent us to another line which said “US flights” with one person working with one distressed traveler. So another worker told us that we had been in the right line, but go to this new one that just opened (and 50 people slid in). After waiting 10 minutes and not moving, we took a chance back at the one lady — it wasn't the right line but she was very helpful and connected our bags all the way through to DC (instead of having to leave security in Dublin). After that, we had many more stops for immigration, customs, trains, etc. and only made our flight because she helped us.
