Retiro Park

Right in the center of Madrid lies Retiro Park, which is their answer to Central Park. It stretches over something like 350 acres and is a wonderful place to walk through - or get lost in. On my last visit to Madrid I had a meeting on the other side of the park with a professor and I took a bus to get there. After the meeting he told me I could just go into the park in an entrance on his side of the park and "keep walking diagonal" - with directions like that how could I get lost? Well, about two hours later I stumbled out the other side, armed with invauable directions from about ten well-meaning good samaritans and police officers. Obviously, it would help tremendously if I spoke Spanish, because Spain, unlike Sweden, is not a place where you run into a lot of folks who speak English. Nevertheless, they are unfailingly polite when dealing with idiotic monolingual Americans.

There are tennis courts and lakes and crystal palaces and running trails and restaurants. There is also a place to work out. If you enter the park by the Prado gate and walk in about fifty yards (being sure to leave bread crumbs to mark your trail) you'll find the building by the tennis court and the workout facility is in the basement - it only costs 4.1 euros. It's a wonderful place to sit of an evening with some ice cream and watch the world go by. Roller blading is still very big in Madrid so there are skaters all over the place. Also, Spaniards apparently really love dogs because they are there with their owners (read that any way you wish) by the dozens. There are also a large number of cats lurking in the darkness, which gave it a sort of spooky, Daphne du Maurier or Edgar Allen Poe feel.