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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   1924 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 12, 2025

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Anyone on this forum live in Madrid and want to meet up next week? I’ll be in the city from 15-22.

Dang! What's on the itinerary? I have never even left the country. Though when I visit relatives in other cities, I guess they typically plan trips for me, and they usually involve going to restaurants that they want to show me and certain landmarks. I suppose that's how visiting a foreign city would be, too...

I’m there for a week before I go with my family to visit our extended family in north England. I haven’t made a detailed itinerary because that feels too much like work. Have a few restaurants and museums I want to go to, a run club on Wednesday night (classic Spaniards not even starting until 8pm) and day trips to Toledo and Él Escorial).

Personally I find planning for a holiday pretty entertaining. I'm travelling on the 15th too; going to China, and the number of places I have written down is ridiculous and I will probably will not be able to visit them all. If I were in Madrid I would at least visit the following:

  • Royal Palace of Madrid (official residence of the Spanish royal family; reserve a ticket in advance for this one)
  • Church of Saint Anthony of the Germans (17th century baroque church with some spectacular floor-to-ceiling frescoes, you can't really miss this one in my opinion)
  • Royal Basilica of Saint Francis the Great (18th century church, baroque style, possesses the fourth largest dome in Europe. Here are some of the paintings you can find on the interior).

There's also the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple moved straight from Aswan to Madrid, the Cerralbo Museum, a private mansion containing the private art collection of the Marquis of Cerralbo, alongside a bunch of other museums and palaces that are worth visiting if you have time.

If you're willing, a trip to Toledo is just a 30 minute train ride away. It's a historic town that's on the UNESCO register; its centrepiece is the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo, a High Gothic church (one of the only three in Spain) featuring a gigantic carved altarpiece. I'd say it may be worth your time; there are many other historic sites, synagogues and even former mosques in the city from the Moorish period. Just walking around the old town and checking out whatever you can would probably be rather fun.

Temple of Debod is closed right now, but I'll head to the churches for sure. Have a ticket for all three of the art museums, and am going to go to Toledo and El Escorial for the day sometime this week.

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