Our first day in Madrid was yesterday after taking a long flight with a layover in Istanbul because there are no direct flights. We have checked in to a nice 1 Bedroom apartment courtesy Airbnb. Our host does not speak English, but a tablet translator program seems to work well. We have lovely coffee and croissants and start by visiting the Del Prado Museum which is a short walk from the Atocha Subway station. Remember to purchase your travel and Madrid Card online before your arrival. This allows for unlimited travel and lets you visit the tourist destinations without the queue. As you get off the Atocha subway, you can see the imposing Ministry of Agriculture building. Del Prado is a fine museum with an extensive collection of art. A tourist visit by a non-art cognoscenti will never do it justice. We visited the museum, strolled through the Royal Botanical Gardens, had lunch, and then went to the Reina Sofia museum. It has over 18,000 exhibits but the one that catches your eye is Guernica by Pablo Picasso. It is huge painting, which brought attention to the Spanish Civil War. Several exhibitions and other unique paintings make this museum a must-see.

We then visited the Madrid Palace, perhaps the largest in Europe and were most impressed. Photography is prohibited, so only external facades can be clicked. The nearest subway is Opera (also has the Opera theatre nearby). Opposite the Palace is the Almudena Cathedral, the seat of the Madrid Archdiocese. Just a short stroll away lies the Plaza Mayor, a vibrant city square teeming with life. We ended a long day with Red Sangria, Tapas, Chorizo, and Italian Gelato.

After a hectic first day at Madrid, we visited some interesting places including the Thyssen Museum (perhaps the best of the museums in Madrid), wax museum, Bernabéu, a cable car ride and an Egyptian Temple, besides my first bull fight.

There are a couple of buildings in Madrid which offer you a 360 degree view of the city. The Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid and the Palace de Cibeles have excellent viewing points. A visit to the Thyssen museum also provides a different perspective of art across the centuries and continents. The art collection is extremely well curated and presented very differently. It has a collection of paintings, with possibly some of the best artists of the 18th and 19th century represented.

A trip to Madrid isn't complete without seeing the Bernabéu Stadium, where we saw Real Madrid play a dull game against Granada, yet the energetic crowd made it enjoyable. Benzema scored Real Madrid's sole goal, while Granada had a goal disallowed for offside and Ronaldo missed several opportunities. The atmosphere was electric for such a low key match. The only sore point was smoking is allowed in the stadium leading to a large smoke trail across different seats.

After the match we saw an Egyptian Temple de Debod and from the park nearby took a cable car ride to Casa Del Campo and back. The Egyptian temple, unique outside Egypt, was gifted to Spain for helping save the Abu Simbel temples.

Our last day in Madrid started with a visit to the impressive San Cajetano Church in Tirso De Lima. The Flea Market nearby is apparently over 400 years old and had masks, t-shirts, curios etc. on sale. . Madrid has its own wax museum and the day finally culminated with a visit to the Las Ventas Bull ring. The bull fight has 3 featured fights but Joe and I left after the first one. Perhaps, the blood and gore was too much to handle.

We collected our rental car in the evening and were all set for our next journey to Toledo and Granada.