Madrid, Spain

Madrid is the most nocturnal city I’ve ever experienced. Lunch is at 2 or 3, and dinner may start at 9:30 on the early side, on the weekend 11 or 12 isn’t unusual. And while Madrid does have an intense nightlife scene, these are the normal rhythms of life, young and old alike. This actually suits me quite well personally as I do love to sleep in, and the shops and attractions don’t open till fairly late and stay open longer than other countries, so there’s no great impetus for early rising.

Another notable thing about Madrid was the great number of old couples, bent and diminished with age, ambling about together at all hours of the night. It makes me think that Madrid must be a wonderful place to fall in love and grow old.

Madrid bursts with beautiful parks and plazas, expansive tapas, and a stunning collection of art. I’ll take my croquet with a Degas, por favor. I was in Madrid solo for this trip, which is not ideal for experiencing tapas but is possibly the best way to explore museums. Madrid has what they call the “Golden Triangle” – the Prado, Thyssen, and Reina Sofia galleries… A lot of cities have art museums, but these somehow seem more culturally relevant in Madrid, perhaps because they are predominately filled with Spanish masters like Goya, Velasquez, Dali, and Picasso, expressing the soul of the Spanish people.  It was incredible to experience these paintings after learning about them so long ago in high school art classes (Thank you, Mrs. O’Toole). The compositions, the angles, the brush strokes jumping off the canvas, the emotions a painting can evince: fear and chaos in Goya’s El Tres de Mayo, the hallucinatory haze of Dali’s Endless Enigma. These museums will make you marvel at the depth of human talent, creativity, and mastery, and definitely take a place at the top of my favorite places in the world list.

Just go to Madrid, wander down the brightly light Castellano boulevard, sit in a plaza and drink Tinto de Verano (summer wine) and watch the wonderful world go by. You won’t regret it.