More from Madrid

This is a late posting.

Today we decided to visit the Parque de El Retiro, so we walked there of course.  There’s always something interesting to see when walking around Madrid.  We enjoy seeing the beautiful buildings and watching people as we walk.  El Retiro is a peaceful, serene place, filled with wonderful trees.  The horse chestnut trees seem to do particularly well, they’re really beautiful.  The Palacio de Cristal is located within the park and is beautiful.  We also visited the Palacio de Velazquez and enjoyed looking at the art on display.  Eventually we decided a coffee was called for, so found a café at the side of The Great Pond of El Retiro, where people were rowing in small dinghies.  It was lovely to see people out and about and enjoying themselves.  After our coffee we walked further around the lake, bought an ice cream and sat down to enjoy it.  Very indulgent!

We eventually left El Retiro and walked to the Caixa Forum Madrid, which is a former power station and now a cultural centre.  We visited an extremely fascinating exhibition there on 3D printing, which has so many possibilities for change to the way the world does things.  On a wall outside the building is a vertical garden, which was wonderful.

We walked back to Plaza Santa Anna and stopped for a drink and some more people watching, then decided we might as well have supper before heading back to the hotel, so moved to another café and enjoyed a bowl of pasta.

I am way, way behind responding to lovely comments and dipping into blippers’ journals.  There hasn’t been much spare time.  Apologies if I don’t catch up for a while.

The blips show sights from the day.  The red guitar was printed using 3D technology, as was the black saxophone alongside it.