argmom

Air tickets are booked, hotels are booked, now it's time to get down to the details of how we spend our days!

We arrived mid morning Wed so we have 1/2 of Wednesday ( & will probably be a bit jet lagged!), Thursday (All Saints Day) and Friday we are off to Toledo for the day but will be back in Madrid around 7:00. We leave for Granada on Sat morning. We're staying at Palacio San Martin.

I'm looking for help in efficiency to see the most we can in the short amount of time we have. Also, my daughter is coming in via Renfe around 12:15 on Thursday so we need to hook up with her. She will have a bag with her so I don't know if she should drop it at hotel or if that would waste too much time.

Here are the sights I'm hoping to hit between Wed after and Friday night:

I know the Prado is world class but Thyssen & Soffia Museums seem more in line with the type of art I like. Do they have bag checks for my daughters stuff?

Retiro Park - what to do there?

Plaza Mayor

Gran Via

Palacio Royal

Palacio de Cibeles

Another question about shopping:

We will be in Madrid, Seville & Granada. I'm wondering if there a souveniers unique to each city or if one city is better suited for such things as leather ggods (pocketbook or gloves?)

I hope I'm not rambling. Just like to plan to get the most out of our days in a new country! Thanks very much!

amer_can

gloves...outstanding and boots..to die for and not out of line in cost at many shoe stores..Sometimes 2 or 3 in the same block. Palacio Royale..a surprisingly interesting side museum the armoury worth a look see. we always hit the hop on hop off as soon as we arrive to get the layof the land. It works in all cities and allows for a rest to counter act jet lag if any. Don't know if things will be open on All Saints day. the Spanish are big on days off, especially religious. Check the opens for this.

amer_can

Will your daughter arrive Atocha or Charmartin?? This could make a difference in bag checking.Again check out the availability of lockers/storage rooms. Perhaps best to meet at hotel and then there is no mixup. A cab from the train station is the way for her to go as public trans is no place for bags.

Ackislander

I am a little confused.

You are arriving Wednesday midmorning in Madrid from where? EU or North America?

You are meeting your daughter at 1215 on Thursday and going to Toledo, returning to Madrid by 7? Then going back to Toledo on Friday and returning again that night to Madrid?

What are you doing on Saturday? When are you leaving Madrid for good?

Your sites:

Retiro it's a park. Lots of people on a nice day, some of them selling stuff from blankets which they roll up when the police come around.

Plaza Mayor -- it's a plaza. Lots of people. Like Picadilly
Circus in London. Not really like anything in Paris or New York, maybe Union Square in San Francisco.

The Palacio Royale is well worth a visit, both for its treasures and to see the respect in which many Spanish people hold the monarchy, which saved them from another civil war.

The Prado is one of the three or four greatest museums in the world. The others you mention are superb. If you have a limited amount of time, this is where you will get the most bang for your buck. Spanish people come to see the Goyas in the Prado the way Americans go to Ground Zero, as a way of experiencing the terrible in order to purge oneself from it.

Or so it seems to me.

argmom

Soory to confuse! We are arriving from NY on Wed Oct 31 9:00 am. My daughter is coming in to Atocha on Thursday around noon. On Fri we have a day trip planned to Toledo and will be back to Madrid around 7p.m. We leave Saturday morning for Granada for 2 days and then to Seville for 5 days.

Christina

I was confused but finally figured out you are going to Toledo for a day trip on Friday only.

They do have cloakrooms in the museums, I was just there and used them. They allow suitcases at the Thyseen to be checked, but they have to be small ones. They won't allow them if they can't fit through this scanner they have and as I recall, it is fairly small (a 20 inch might fit). I might be remembering wrong, but I know it wasn't large.

This is the allowed checked bag size at the Reina Sofia:
<<Locker service at the Sabatini Building:
There are various locker sizes: 43 x 42 x 31 cm, 88 x 42 x 31 cm and 88 x 42 x 64 cm
Locker service at the Nouvel Building:
29 x 34,5 x 42cm.
Backpacks, bags and suitcases cannot be taken into the exhibition halls. The lockers are of limited dimensions. Objects larger than the locker cannot be stored.>>

I don't know why you'd go to Retiro Park with your schedule, it's just a park. The Gran Via is a very busy street with lots of stores and not elegant ones always, sure you can see it (it is very near your hotel), but it's not really a place you need to spend time. Sort of like Broadway around Times Sq. in NYC.

Toledo has a special kind of jewelry they are known for called Damascene. I find it attractive (you can buy some other things made out of that style, like pillboxes or small clocks, lighters, etc.). You can buy it in Madrid, of course, but better prices in Toledo and it is the source. see http://www.lands-faraway.com/damascene-about.htm

I would recommend the Royal Palace as worthwhile, and the museums you choose, as well as seeing Plaza Mayor and walking around some maybe in the Latina area (down from Plaza Mayor).



All of those are great museums, if I had to pick two, it would probably be the Reina Sofia and the Prado, though. The Thyssen has a nice collection of various works from many eras, but I don't think of it as unique to Madrid. BUt it depends on your interests, of course, it's your time. They do have a special exhibit at the Reina Sofia now on the Guernica painting and its era, so that's worth a look.

amer_can

Guernica is awesome and considering the story behind it just makes it more moving..The book Guernica is an interesting read about this incident... Man's inhumanity!!!