{"id":5023,"date":"2024-05-13T11:25:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T15:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2024-05-13T11:25:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T15:25:51","slug":"lively-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/2024\/05\/13\/lively-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Lively Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

We arrived by train on Saturday afternoon and took the Metro to\u00a0 our hotel. Emerging from the Metro station into Plaza Puerto del Sol, we were overwhelmed by the high-energy crowd. People swarmed the streets enjoying a weekend afternoon – it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. The Spanish love crowds and celebrations!<\/p>\n

We are staying at Hotel Europa – a perfect location but noisy on a weekend night.<\/p>\n

\"Saturday
Puerto del Sol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a small balcony in our room we have a view of Puerto del Sol. Sunday morning we watched a crowd gather and tried to imagine what was about to happen. Eventually an entourage entered the square and a bus with the soccer team members of Real Madrid arrived. The crowd was very excited as they celebrated a big win the previous night.<\/p>\n

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Madrid Real Soccer Team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ve been to Madrid on previous trips so for this one we\u2019re looking for activities new to us. Sunday we walked to the Sorolla Museum, a home of the artist Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923). There was a long line to enter the museum and we waited about 30 minutes before we were allowed to go inside. Once there, we understood the wait time – it\u2019s such a beautiful space that people just want to linger. The garden, his light filled studio and the art\u2026it was a really nice experience.<\/p>\n

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Sorolla House Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Garden – Sorolla Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joaquin Sorolla lived here with his family for many years. He helped design the space for his light-filled studio.<\/p>\n

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Sorolla Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The house is filled with art, beautiful furniture and unique architectural features.<\/p>\n

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Sorolla Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019d recommend this museum – one of our favorites.<\/p>\n

The photo below was taken at 9:26 p.m. Sunday evening. It\u2019s still daylight and the Gran Via is bustling.<\/p>\n

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Evening on the Gran Via<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s Monday and the museums are closed. The streets are super-crowded so it\u2019s a low-key day for us. At lunch time we stood in line to get a take-out fried calamari boccadillo. It was hard to find a bench so we found a graffiti-lined stoop and enjoyed lunch there.<\/p>\n

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Lunch in Madrid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just a couple more days and we\u2019ll be winging our way back to Decatur! Madrid is a wonderful city but it takes some energy to navigate. The last couple of days have been hotter than we\u2019re accustomed to but temps will cool tomorrow. We\u2019re taking it easy here and enjoying the vibe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We arrived by train on Saturday afternoon and took the Metro to\u00a0 our hotel. Emerging from the Metro station into Plaza Puerto del Sol, we were overwhelmed by the high-energy crowd. People swarmed the streets enjoying a weekend afternoon – it was easy to get caught up in the excitement. The Spanish love crowds and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lively Madrid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5036,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travel.woodring.us\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}