Kyran and Mercedes Findlater travel the world: Spain -Week 3

This weeks adventures were very minimal as much work needed to be done on other fronts.

Some other events of this week is I managed to secure a Job till January so it look like we will be staying in Spain for a little while longer. Also it was my Birthday, but that was a complete fail.

In up coming news next week we will be heading to Bilbao which is in the north of Spain.
So you can look forward to some more touristy things next week. I might try to do a couple of posts for next week as there might be to much content for one post.

Parque del Buen Retiro

The Parque del Buen Retiro, literally means "Park of the Pleasant Retreat" it is the one of the largest parks of the city of Madrid, Spain. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park.

The Buen Retiro Park is a large and popular 1.4 km² (350 acres) park at the edge of the city center, very close to the Puerta de Alcalá and not far from the Prado Museum. A magnificent park, filled with beautiful sculpture and monuments, galleries, a peaceful lake and host to a variety of events, it is one of Madrid's premier attractions. The park is entirely surrounded by the present-day city.

Below: The Monument to King Alfonso XII, The monument is situated on the east edge of an artificial lake near the center of the park.

In 1902, a national contest was held to design a monument for King Alfonso XII at the initiative of the Queen Mother Maria Christina of Austria. The winner was the architect José Grases Riera, whose design consisted of a grand colonnade alongside a pond in El Retiro, with several sculptures surrounding an equestrian statue of the king, with everything constructed in bronze and marble.

Above: View over the Retiro Park Pond, where you can hire rowboats to paddle about the Estanque.

Above: Palacio de Cristal ("Crystal Palace"), a glass pavilion inspired by The Crystal Palace in London, undoubtedly the gardens' most extraordinary building. Built along with its artificial pond (Below) in 1887 for the Philippine Islands Exhibitions, the Palacio de Cristal was first used to display flower species indigenous to the archipelago.