Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
One day far ago I added the capital city of Spain to my travel todo list. As I added more and more places it never came to the top – until this year, when I decided to do numerous short trips instead of long journeys. But I asked myself why I wanted to get there. Only when I had booked my flights and started to prepare for the visit I remembered what was the reason: Guernica.
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The Estación de Delicias was once an important railway station of Madrid, Spain. It was closed in 1969 and has now a second life as a railway museum (Museo del Ferrocarril). The wonderful building from 1879 is now filled with different locomotives, steam engines and railway cars. Most interesting item is the Talgo II train used between 1950 and 1972 – you can even enter it and look inside.
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If you’re in need of some tapas or a good glass of wine the Mercado de San Miguel at Madrid, Spain might be your favorite place. But you shouldn’t be afraid of masses of people in an ancient market hall. The building dates back to 1916 and already the design makes it worth to visit the place. Most people for sure come for the more than 30 vendors from which you can get small snacks of every kind and different drinks.
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Not far away from the Plaza España at Madrid, Spain you can find something quite suprising: an ancient Egyptian temple, the temple of Debod. How did that happen? When the Aswan dam was built in 1960 different archeological sites were threatened. The UNESCO then asked all countries around the world for help and as Spain helped to preserve the temple of Abu Simbel they received the small temple of Debod as a gift.
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It is a place that makes me angry. I mean really angry. A beautiful place with impressive architecture. A symbol of the Spanish civil war. A place where you can see the differences in remembrance culture. A place that creates a lot of discussions still today. It is a place where I would immediatly leave the catholic church if I would by a member. And somehow this all makes it worth to visit the Monumento Nacional de Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caídos at San Lorenzo de El Escorial near Madrid, Spain.
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A giant palace with wonderful architecture and a large garden, a cloister, a UNESCO world heritage site, the largest building in renaissance style and the graveyard for most kings and queens of Spain – that is what the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial at San Lorenzo de El Escorial near Madrid, Spain is. And why can it be found at the Sierra de Guadarrama, 46 kilometers outside of the capital city? Because Philip II won a battle against the French in 1557 on the day of San Lorenzo. He wanted to build a cloister for this saint and his star-mongers selected this place.
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The Cathedral de Santa María de la Almudena is quite a surprising roman-catholic church at Madrid, Spain: plans for this church exist since the 16th century, construction works started in the 19th century – but it was only finished in 1993. Therefore this church looks very modern inside and the style of the church was adopted over time to fit to the surrounding buildings (that for sure changed since the 16th century).
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The royal palace of Madrid, Spain is located at the city center with a nice park next to it and a vast garden underneath. It is still today the official seat of the royal family of Spain but they actually live in the Palacio de la Zarzuela a little bit outside of the city. The Palacio Real was first used in 1764 by king Charles III. It is a very large palace with 2000 rooms and is double as large as the Buckingham Palace.
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Breakfast at Madrid, Spain seems to be not really healthy. The speciality of the city – but it is also served throughout the whole country – is fried dough that you can dip into melted (bittersweet) chocolate. Chocolate con Churros is beloved by the locals and you should at least try it once. The famous Chocolatería San Ginés serves this kind of food around the clock and is therefore especially an option after a long night.
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It is one of the three major art museums of Madrid, Spain – all located close to each other and maybe the one with the most cumbersome name: the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. It is named after the industrials and art collectors Heinrich Thyssen and his son Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon. Thyssen is a name well known in Germany, the addition Bornemisza comes from a marriage with Hungarian nobility.
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