Page 52 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2022 DISCOVERING MADRID

Madrid’s Parks & Gardens

the many fountains and marble monuments, is a Crystal Palace, shaped like a Greek Cross and
magnificent artificial lake for boat rowing and a now home to special art exhibitions. Locals were
sparkling Crystal Palace of glass and iron that lined up to enter it, as well as nearby museums
once housed botanical rarities. The park is usu- and Botanic Garden, glorious with spring flow-
ally pretty quiet on weekdays but offers splendid ers. Rather than wait in queues, we strolled a bit
people-watching on weekends. more before deciding to return on another day.
We picked a sunny Good Friday, a public holi- To see the entire 300-plus acre park obviously
day in Madrid, for our visit to the park, known as would require several return visits.
the city’s “lungs.” It’s only a third the size of San A couple days later we made a return visit on a
Diego’s Balboa Park, but it certainly boasts more non-holiday afternoon with a guide for Free
beautiful water features, wide walking paths, Walking Tours Madrid who highlighted both
and grassy lawns for picnics under its canopy of botanical and archaeological wonders around
trees - some 15,000. No wonder we were joined the park. This time we discovered the artificial
on our stroll by what seemed like half of Madrid. lake and the enormous monument to Alphonso
It took us a while to find the iron and glass XII that towers on one edge, as well as Ve-

52 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2022