Palacio de Cristal

I wanted to explore the green spaces of Madrid today, as well as the interior spaces of some of its great buildings. Today's most impressive space, inside the Palacio de Cristal, was found within its most impressive green space, the Parque de El Retiro. It was incredibly hard to pick just one photograph from the palace, let alone the whole day, but this is perhaps my favourite. Madrid is a highly photogenic city, as are its people!

At the end of the day, my watch told me we'd walked over 12 miles just wandering the parks and streets and mostly letting serendipity be our guide. We visited some fascinating exhibitions, paid a pilgrimage to the National Library, climbed to the top of another astonishing building to get a panorama of the city, and found numerous lively plazas for beer and food.

I think the loveliest sight all day were the numerous parties of school children, watching them all so thoroughly engaged with their fabulous teachers and clearly enjoying their trips out from the classroom. Each school party was incredibly diverse in ethnic background. It was a beautiful thing to witness. 

I found uplifting experiences all day, if only from seeing so many thousands of people simply enjoying being out and about in this fabulously grand city.