Madrid: Parque del Retiro, Real Jardín Botánico and the Prado museum

Madrid’s central Jerónimos district is home to a trio of top sights – the elegant Parque del Retiro, the tranquil Real Jardín Botánico and the world-class Prado museum.

So it’s no surprise I ended up spending a fair amount of time exploring the area during my four days in the Spanish capital.

Parque del Retiro

The enormous 292-acre Parque del Retiro was once the private preserve of the Spanish royal family. That is, until 1869, when it was opened to the public during the Glorious Revolution.

Today it’s filled with a host of interesting features, including a boating lake, a crystal palace and an artificial mountain, and it’s a lovely place for a leisurely stroll away from the hustle and bustle of the city streets.

I entered the park from the Plaza de la Independencia and strolled along the tree-lined avenues in the direction of the grand boating lake (above).

I was surprised by how busy the park’s main thoroughfare was – it felt more like a Saturday afternoon at the height of summer than a random Tuesday morning in October.

After stopping to admire the eye-catching lake, I meandered through a wooded area to a pretty, classic formal garden, El Parterre (above).

I continued ambling through the park to the Bosque de El Recuerdo, where I came upon an imaginative tree-covered mound, surrounded by a shallow moat (above).

From there, I continued on my way, passing some tennis courts, until I reached a large pond full of ducks (below).

I had planned to walk around the entire park, but as I got to the other side of the pond, there was tape saying ‘restricted area’ barring my path.

While the Madrilenos seemed to just ignore the tape and duck under it. As a visitor, I didn’t feel comfortable doing the same so I decided to stick to the park’s non-restricted areas.

The only trouble was it seemed almost all the paths I tried were blocked with tape and I found myself retracing my steps back along the way I came.

It was a shame so much of the park was cordoned off, as there was a lot I didn’t get to see.

But the Parque del Retiro is a beautiful space and I really enjoyed the parts I did get to explore.

Real Jardín Botánico

Ferdinand VI is the man responsible for the 20-acre Real Jardín Botánico (Royal Botanic Garden) in the heart of the Spanish capital, having founded it on the banks of the Manzanares River in 1755.

His brother Carlos III then moved it to its present location next to the Prado in 1781.

Today the small, peaceful garden is home to some 5,500 species of plants from around the world.

When I arrived at the garden, I was delighted to find it was free to go in, as there’s free entry on a Tuesday between 10am and 1pm.

The only downside was the garden was a lot busier than the last time I’d visited when there couldn’t have been more than about five people in it.

But it didn’t stop me from having a lovely walk around the garden, which also features a small lily pond, a few greenhouses and a series of statues.

As it was mid-October, the garden’s flowering season was coming to an end, but there were still a few flowers clinging onto life, along with the last vestiges of the vegetable garden (above).

I particularly liked the botanic garden’s many palms (above), with their fan-like shapes, and its cactii.

I enjoyed my stroll around Madrid’s botanic garden. It feels like a little oasis in the middle of the city and is a nice place to relax and unwind.

Prado museum

In between the Parque del Retiro and the Real Jardín Botánico, you’ll find one of the world’s greatest art museums, the Prado.

Originally conceived as a natural history museum by Carlos III in the late 18th century, his grandson Ferdinand VII decided to turn it into an art museum in 1819.

But it wasn’t until 1868 that the Prado became a national museum, during the reign of the beleaguered Isabella II.

The museum is renowned for its enormous collection of Spanish art, with countless works by Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez and El Greco. There are lots of portraits of the Spanish royals, too.

It’s also home to a large collection of Greek and Roman statues, as well as Italian (Titian, Raphael, Botticelli and Caravaggio are all on show) and Flemish art (among them Rubens and Rembrandt).

Photography is not allowed inside the museum, which is set over three floors with its artworks displayed in chronological order.

There’s also an exhibition about the museum’s history, which is interesting enough, in the basement.

One of my favourite parts of the museum was the Dauphin’s Treasure exhibition on the second floor.

The treasures were collected by Louis, the Grand Dauphin of France (grandson of Louis XIV), and left to his son Philippe, who went onto became Felipe V of Spain.

The splendid collection is filled with exquisitely decorated objects and trinkets made from precious metals, minerals and stones. It’s an astonishing array.

The day I visited, Madrid was experiencing horrendous downpours – the city was said to have had the most rain in one day in 100 years – and I was very wet when I arrived at the museum, complete with squelching feet.

My visit didn’t start well. I spent ages queuing up in the rain to get a ticket from a very rude man.

Then when I got inside, I was ordered gruffly by a security guard to go to the cloakroom (I was more than happy to rid myself of my wet layers), only to be told huffily ‘there was no room’.

The staff I came across at the Prado that day were generally grumpy and unfriendly, and it didn’t make for the most pleasant visitor experience.

It may have been because the place was absolutely heaving to an uncomfortably overwhelming degree (the weather probably had something to do with it) .

It was Louvre levels of busy and there were far too many people crammed in to be able to look at the art, and I found myself constantly weaving around people who didn’t seem interested in the incredible works before them.

It was in stark contrast to my visit 13 years ago, when it was reasonably quiet and I had a fabulous time looking around the collection.

I didn’t really enjoy my visit to the Prado this time and it’s a shame, as I had such fond memories of my earlier trip.

I don’t know if the Prado is always that unbearable these days or if it was just due to the conditions and everyone deciding to take shelter from the relentless deluge.

Either way, I’m not sure it’s somewhere I’ll be rushing back to the next time I’m in Madrid.