Parc du Retiro

Chris Springman
Apr 23, 2016
2 min read

On our last day in Madrid, we had to check out of our apartment at 10am, but our train for home did not leave until 4:48pm. So we had an afternoon to fill. We decided to take our luggage to a locker in the train station walk to the Parc du Retiro which was right across the street and up a block. Best day ever! The weather had cleared but was still cool. The sky was blue with big puffy clouds. We weren't pulling our suitcases and we weren't in a hurry! This park was acres and acres and acres of lush green grasses, trees, flowering bushes, streams, ponds, and some surprise attractions we weren't expecting.

The entrance is beautiful:

First, there were turtles. Ellie counted 98 as we walked around.

And black swans.

A surprise! We came upon an area of the park that was set aside for cats! Here there were two or three big sections--maybe an acre all together--where dozens of cats roamed. They had some shelters and food and water was set out for them. They laid around, chased pigeons, played with each other, and generally enjoyed life while people watched. They weren't interested in associating with the people, but they did not look like feral cats. They were very well fed and clean. All sizes and all colors. We decided this was cat heaven and we were just visiting.

A bit farther along our walk we saw a major attraction of the park called the Crystal Palace. This is a large empty pavillion-like structure composed of glass walls. It is nestled in trees and in front of it is a pond with a fountain and a small waterfall. People sit on its steps and relax or picnic or take lots of pictures like we did. Beautiful.

The park has tennis courts, a football (soccer) field, a small and odd modern art museum, fountains, a couple of concession booths where we had a gelato, and wandering musicians. As we sat outside and ate our gelatos and listened to the birds and to a violinist playing the theme from Schindler's List, I asked John, "How can we possibly describe this to anyone?" This is a feeble attempt.