Bernabeu and Retiro Park

It’s toasted bread drizzled with olive oil and topped with puréed tomato and salt. Deeeeelicious! At Café Blume, you can also get a hot drink of your choice and a fresh juice for just 7€. Great deal. 🤝

At the Stadium

Fun fact:
The grass in the stadium is movable and can be lowered in sections when not in use. Then the area above can be used for other purposes, such as fairs, concerts, or other events.

Since we are already in the Charmartin district, we want to compensate for our food trauma from the previous day here, away from the tourist crowds. Madrid visually lives up to its status as a capital city with 3.5 million inhabitants: Tall, impersonal buildings, multi-lane streets with heavy traffic and impatient honking drivers, and many business people heading out for lunch.

Lunch

Retiro Park

In close proximity is the Tetuan Metro Station, from where we go to Retiro Park for a green break. Now we see where all the trees are. Here!

More than 15,000 trees, according to the city itself, on 125 hectares of land. We enter the park through the northeast corner, wander to the center where a large pond (Estanque Grande) invites for rowing, and then make a loop to the southeast corner.

At a fountain, we sit on a bench, watch the birds, and take a deep breath in the green lung of the city. I would have liked to see the Crystal Palace, but it is currently hidden behind scaffolding due to renovation work.

Caixa Forum

Actually, I just wanted to take a photo of the facade of the Caixa Forum on the way to the metro.

Fun fact:
The Caixa Forum is a cultural center in the 'Art Triangle' (because of its proximity to the Prado and Reina Sofia museums), funded by the Caixa Foundation, which emerged from the former Spanish savings bank.

What makes the facade at the main entrance so special is the combination of metal, stone, and 250 plant species. You can really feel how refreshing the air is here.

As I said: I initially just wanted to snap a photo of this facade and then move on. But Athul suggests we go inside and check out the exhibition. Under the title 'Somos naturaleza - We are nature', a poster on the facade announces an audiovisual, immersive exhibition in collaboration with National Geographic. Sounds good - let’s go!

A ticket costs 6€ and it's definitely worth it. In three rooms there are video projections, where you sit and can immerse yourself in what is shown around you (including on the floor). In between, there are information materials in the hallways about biodiversity and species conservation.

The first room shows how diverse and impressive our planet is. Landscapes, animals, enormous projected onto the walls. The second room is meant to represent the connection between people and nature, but it’s just abstract patterns, which leaves much room for interpretation - too much for my taste. In the last room, both are connected, and an Inuit poet speaks about it. The film concludes with a mention of the effect that nature conservation can create by naming various specific projects and what they have already achieved.

I find it emotional, and also so hopeful in light of all the negative news every day. We are both very moved and glad we made this spontaneous decision.

Dinner

This wouldn’t be a proper blog if I ended without describing dinner. Especially since we tried two (three for Athul) new dishes!

Not far from the Caixa Forum, we discover a street lined with small bars and restaurants - not crowded at all and just as cozy and beautiful as I had imagined Madrid. At 'Cañas y tapas', there is not only incredibly friendly staff and a bar decorated with Azulejos (blue tiles), but also Salmorejo and Torreznos, two items on my wish list.

Fun fact:
Salmorejo originally comes from Córdoba and is a cold tomato soup, similar to gazpacho, but with less vegetables and more bread, topped with hard-boiled egg and jamón. Refreshing, garlicky, good. Torrezno is fried pork rind, sometimes with meat attached.

And for Athul, the grilled artichoke is also a new, very positive experience. Altogether, including two beers, for 30€ - the discerning mathematician among you will notice that on day two we ended up paying less for ALL meals than on the first day at that overpriced tapas bar. It’s just astounding how much it makes a difference whether you eat right in the middle of things or walk three streets away.

Thus, the primarily culinary report concludes for now, but since we received a sort of to-do list from Athul’s Spanish friends regarding what we must try, tomorrow will be fun (and hopefully delicious) again!