5 Things you MUST do when you visit Madrid

Museo Reina Sofia (Queen Sofia Museum)

 This is one of the museums that are known as The Golden Triangle of Art the other 2 being Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo and the Museo del Prado. The museum contains 21000 works of art, including some works by 20th-century artists Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, including Guernica by Picasso, it took us a couple of hours to walk around it but it was well worth it.




Three of Dali's work. You are not allowed to take photos of Guernica by Picasso
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
This museum is a private collection which contains over 1600 paintings consisting of works from English, Dutch & German schools, also Impressionists, Expressionists and European and American paintings from the second half of the 20th century. The museum was opened to the public in 1992. At the moment, you can get free entry to the permanent collection on Mondays between 12:00 and 16:00. It also has facilities for disabled visitors. It had almost 1 million visitors in 2013.





Museo del Prado  
The building was constructed during the reign of Charles III (Carlos III) in the 18th Century but was not opened to the public until 1819 during the reign of his grandson Ferdinand VII in the 19th Century. It had 2.3 million visitors in 2013.

CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50954


Las Meninas by Velazquez
Santa Maria la Real de La Almudena (Catholic cathedral in Madrid)
The building was started in 1883 but was not finished until 1993 when it was consecrated by Pope John Paul II.
In May 2004, the marriage of the crown prince (now King Felipe VI) to Leticia Ortiz Rocasolano took place at the Cathedral.

Cathedral from the Royal Palace





Palacio Real de Madrid (The Royal Palace of Madrid)

The Palace is magnificent and is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family in Madrid but is now only used for state ceremonies such as the investiture of King Felipe VI in 2014 and the Royal Family do not reside in the palace, choosing instead the more modest Palacio de la Zarzuela on the outskirts of Madrid. It is the largest Royal Palace in Europe and contains over 3400 rooms (not all open to public). There are also many more paintings by Velazquez, Caravaggio, Goya and many more and the world's only complete collection of Stradivarius string quintet.




Look who we saw in the Palace Gardens
View of the Palace from the Palace Gardens

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