SPAIN || Madrid & Toledo - travel vlog (Royal Palace, Parque del Buen Retiro) 15 Degrees North

15° North are travelling again! This time we are in Spain, visiting its capital, Madrid, as well as nearby Toledo. There we see Parque del Buen Retiro, Museo del Prado, Reina Sofia, The Royal Palace of Madrid, Almudena Cathedral & Toledo Cathedral.
Jérémy and Ben here again! We love to travel and to satisfy our wanderlust, we are on a European road-trip exploring the best places for a city break on the continent. We love to escape Britain to experience the best culture, cuisine and attractions that the world has to offer. If you’re a tourist like us and just need a good itinerary for what to do and how to do it when you’re in Madrid, we will show you the best things to put on your itinerary.
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Madrid is the capital of Spain, sitting in the centre of the country on an elevated plain. With 6.7 million people, it is the second largest city in EU, behind Berlin and has been Spain’s capital since 1561.
Madrid is a booming metropolis, but at its centre is the Parque del Buen Retiro, which acts as the lungs of the city. A vast and sprawling park filled with shady trees, rolling lawns and vast lakes, some of the city’s best landmarks sit within its boundaries or along its edge. Originally the gardens of the Buen Retiro Palace, the park opened to the public in the nineteenth century after the monarchy relocated to the Royal Palace of Madrid and the old building was demolished. The Spanish Monarchy have been based in Madrid since Phillip II moved his court there in the sixteenth century. Since then, the Spanish Kings and Queens have ruled from the city, with only brief interruption during the twentieth century.
One of Madrid’s biggest attractions is the Museo del Prado. One of the foremost art galleries in the world, it houses masterpieces by Goya, Bosch, El Greco, Rubens, Titian, Velazquez and many more.
Madrid’s modern art museum is called the Reina Sofia. Once again, they were really not keen on us taking photographs for some inexplicable reason, particularly of its biggest masterpieces. But I didn’t let that stop me. I couldn’t resist snapping a secret photo of its most famous treasure, Pablo Picasso’s gigantic magnum opus, Guernica.
The Royal Palace of Madrid is absolutely worth a visit. Take our advice though and visit early in the morning, because we waited over two hours in the queue to get in - and the queue for those with online tickets wasn’t much better. The largest royal palace in all of Europe, it took seventeen years to build, starting in 1738.The Royal Family choose not to live there, instead favouring a smaller more private residence in the suburbs, so the palace is permanently open to the public.
Sitting directly opposite the palace is the Almudena Cathedral. Started in the nineteenth century, its construction was slow, with building work interrupted by the Civil War and the site laying abandoned for many years. The Cathedral was eventually completed and then consecrated in 1993.
If you have the time, you simply must take a day trip from Madrid out to Toledo. Well-connected by rail, the trip only takes fifty minutes. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ancient citadel is known as “The City of Three Cultures” due its cultural influences from Christians, Jews and Muslims throughout the centuries. The capital of the Visigothic Kingdom during the Middle Ages, it was also briefly the capital of Spain when King Charles V set up his court there, before his son relocated them to Madrid.
Toledo’s Cathedral is an imposing structure, which dominates the centre of the city. The interior is rich, ornate and impressive, most famous for its remarkable baroque altarpiece, El Transparente, which is the entire height of the cathedral. Stretching up to a skylight in the ceiling, which is intended to bathe its surface with light, it was created in the eighteenth century and was extraordinarily expensive to construct. In the years following its construction, people were so excited about its artistry and magnitude that it was claimed to be the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Toledo’s largest synagogue is also an impressive structure, dating from the twelfth century. The oldest synagogue in Europe, it was converted into a Catholic Church in the fifteenth century following the expulsion of the Jews, but is now open as a museum.
Toledo thrived as a city due to its easily-defendable location in the U-bend of a river. To get a good view of the city, head across the river and follow its bank across the top of the gorge.
Our expectations were fairly low for Madrid, seeing as Barcelona is famed as Spain’s most beautiful city. However, Madrid holds its own as a cosmopolitan metropolis with plenty of sights both old and new.