Dinner - somewhere cheap, beautiful with tasty food?

No problem! With all the restaurants in Madrid you dont need to settle for a place which is cheap and nasty, or expensive or beautiful, or with great food with the view of a nice busy road. I was doing a course in Madrid (yes I know I live here, but I just finished an interuniversity course which took me all over Spain, one course being in Madrid) and on one night with a group of my friends from the course we naturally wanted some dinner.

We tried to get a table in the Museo del Jamon off Puerta del Sol but at 11pm they told us it was due to close soon. A dilema! However we are blessed by the multitude of fast food shops around the area, including the wonderful Moaz Falafels (a vegetarian fast food place with is tasty, cheap and relatively healthy) and if you want more traditional you can pick up a cured ham and cheese sandwich from the museo del jamon.

We all went to our fast food place of our choice (me - I took the tasty falafel salad!) and took our food to the plaza Oriente. This is right in the centre in between the Opera house and the Palacio Real. Now who can complain with a view like this:



We were infact seated on the benches at the foot of the statue pictured. It was lovely to sit there eating our cheap fast food of our choice with a spectacular view where a restaurant would have charged us 20% for the pleasure. It was awesome!



I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies a nice picnic in the city centre. Maybe with a date? I could imagine this being highly romantic on a lovely moonlit summers night.

Debod Temple and the Parque Oueste

Some cities have some interesting suprises, and Madrid is one of those cities. One of it's many parks and gardens, the Parque Oeste in the centre has a very interesting feature - A whole Egyptian Temple. Crazy I hear you say, and I concur, but after seeing this in real life a couple of times I have had to accept it is real.



Apparently the Debod Temple was a gift to Spain from the Egyptian government, so I guess it's not so bad as a whole Temple stolen by some of the other countries in the world (Britain and Germany I am looking at you!) which are concealed away in public museums.

It is rather surreal to walk off Plaza España into a park which greats you with a monument built by the ancient Egyptians, but at least the weather is more comparable in Spain so it doesnt feel too surreal (as opposed to if it was in London or New York). But still it is an interesting and pleasant sight. I have never arrived at the park in time to go inside the temple, and I intend to make it a mission in the future when I have time to explore Madrid again.



The park around it is lovely, with wonderful views of the Palacio Real and the Cathedral which are a must see for any budding photo-snapping tourist, or a romantic who adores gorgeous views. I think that the Parque Oeste is one of the more under rated parks in Madrid. Most visitors will go to Retiro, which while Retiro is grand and has a certain "je ne sais quoi" about it, Parque Oeste also has some wonderful features which are definately worth seeing. I mean, how many parks have an Egyptian Temple and a breath taking view of the palace? Not many I wager.