Advice needed for Madrid
 

I'll be in Madrid for just two days in April with some friends. I had reserved an airbnb that is next to the Madrid Rio park. The number in our party may be changing and my friends are looking at different options - the places they have proposed are very close to the airport and they look nice, but seem further out of the way. With only two days I don't want a long metro ride to get back to where we're staying at the end of the day. Is the Madrid Rio area a good location? Better than the airport or would I end up spending the same amount of time going back and forth? Thank you. I have never been to Madrid and I don't have a good sense of where I would like to be. (And yes, I know two days isn't enough! It's an add-on after a trip from Porto to Santiago.)

While the Madrid Río development has been a real boon to the city, giving it a very nice, attractive green space for walking or biking or jogging along the Manzanares, for a short two-day stay, especially for a first time visitor, I would pick something more central. But... I don't know the address of your airbnb. Madrid Río park is quite large. What is the closest metro to the airbnb?

Can you not find something more central as opposed to the Madrid Río OR the airport? There are tons of airbnbs in the center of the city.
Does it have to be an either/or?

It does not have to be an either-or but since I don't know the city, I don't know what neighborhoods to look for.

Look a short term rental, if you need this rather than a hotel for your group, in the Barrio de las Letras, also referred to as Huertas (Huertas is also the name of a street there). It also could be referred to as Cortes, the barrio's official name. Or look in for something around the Royal Palace/Teatro Real, which is called Palacio.
La Latina has a ton of short term rentals (some legal, some not) but it can be very crowded and noisy.

I have nothing to add to Maribel's suggestions but for sure i wouldnt stay in that other area for just two days!

I would not ever go with Madrid Río for just 2 days, even if the airbnb is next to a metro stop. It´s just too far south. We looked at property there so I do know it.

Maribel, …I am surprised that someone mentioned. Madrid Rio. I occasionally wondered if people who spent a few days in Madrid even know about it.
btw, I like the area, Puente de Toledo is certainly worth seeing. And Matadero…of course.

Yes, I do too, and I was just at the Matadero last Sunday (metro: Legazpi). It's has a burgeoning restaurant scene--went to eat at tiny Barra Fina.
El País calls Legazpi the "Nuevo barrio gastro" de Madrid.
At MAD they've had the immersive visit, The Last Days of Pompeii.

Here's the El País article.

BYW, today we took in two exhibits, a free one at the Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson, next to the Pavilions on Alcalá Galiano, titiled "From El Bosco to Sorolla" and another, which was magnificent and very moving, thought provoking, "Chagall, a Cry for Freedom" at the Fundación MAPFRE Sala Recoletos on Recoletos. The first will still be running when you´re here (free tickets online with timed entry) and the Chagall ends on May 5 (if not extended).

Good to know. I will revisit the area on my next trip in the spring.
Thx !

Thanks for the ideas, Maribel. I am trying to convince my friends to stay someplace more central. I am glad to know about the Chagall exhibit.

thx again for the info. and the article
. I always check what is atMAPFRE..never disappoints. I will be in Madrid before May 5.
When we visited Matadero ,some years ago, it was a developing art / cultural centre Now , the neighborhood looks even more interesting .
I may even stop at Plaza Rio 2…just to see it !

Do attend the Chagall at the Sala Recoletos! It consists of 160 canvases, the vast majority I had never seen before, and spans his entire life. It's really an amazing exhibit and one that makes a real impact on the visitor. One of its 2 curators is Chagall's granddaughter, Meret Meyer.
https://www.fundacionmapfre.org/en/a...-hall/chagall/

Thx for the link. We saw some of his work at Musée national Marc Chagall in Nice, it was memorable.

Thanks again Maribel. I have found an apartment that's more centrally located in one of the neighborhoods you mentioned and I'm looking forward to the Chagall exhibit!

@danon

Exhibition at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 22 March to 23 June. "Goya and the Awakening Consciousness" includes a series of paintings that deserve special mention, the copper plates made for the Whims and Disasters of War and The Follies engraving series (held at the Academy, in the National Engraving Museum), which have been recently restored. The exhibition is divided into four sections: The Painter, the Norm and the Clientele; The Awakening of Consciousness; A Painting on the Margin of Style and The Expressiveness of Reason. These sections are made up of paintings, drawings, prints and engravings, revealing Goya’s artistic and vital evolution.
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thank you ,…there is always so much to see in Madrid. A like the Academy’s building .

Thanks, revulgo, as always, or the preview of the new exhibit.

danon,
The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando on Alcalá, if you haven't yet been, is a wonderful, somewhat less heralded art museum, with a significant collection of Goya paintings, 13 in its permanent collection.
My beloved art history professor, Enrique Lafuente Ferrari, was a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes, and my most treasured art possession ever is an engraving that he gave me, El Tahonero de Madrid, from 1825.
If you can fit it into your agenda, I encourage you to visit this fine museum. On the 7th and 10th of May, there will be free piano concerts at noon.

Thank you, again.
I am yet to see the new Galeria de las Colecciones Reales. On my October visit to Madrid the lineup was too long.

CaixaForum Madrid is presenting until 9 June 2024 an exhibition reflecting on the past and present of the relationship between art and nature, between culture and science through a collection of pieces from the Georges Pompidou Art Centre in Paris. The exhibition features is made up of some eighty pieces by artists such as Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto or Giacometti among others.
Paintings sculptures, photography, design and architecture structured into four thematic sections: metamorphosis, mimicry, creation and threat.
https://caixaforum.org/es/madrid/p/u...smo_a164379698

Gracias, Revulgo
I like modern art. And Caixa.