My impression of Madrid would probably have been permanently influenced by the few days I spent there. The hotel I stayed in (Palacio San Martin) was a nice old building in a nice old part of town. (A quick aside – it has creepy lights that switch on when motion sensors detect you moving in corridors)

Madrid in the morning

It was at a fantastic location. Very close to the Puerta del Sol (the plaza which houses the famous bear and tree statue) and the Plaza Mayor, it is at the very center of the old city. Bounded by the Gran Via (Broadway) to the North, the “golden triangle” of museums to the East and the Palacio Real (royal palace) & Cathedral to the West. The second night I was there, I walked up to the Espana square – a 15 minute walk even in the freezing conditions. I did not realize it then, but I was just one block away from the palace itself.

Espana houses a fountain and a column dedicated to Miguel de Cervantes. The column has a statue of Cervantes and he looks upon statues of two of his most famous creations – Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Not too far from this is the temple of Debod. This temple was to be a victim of the building of the Aswan dam in Egypt. Anwar Sadat offered the temple to Spain and it was shipped stone by stone and reconstructed in Madrid. It is a beautiful monument.There is something incongruous about an Egyptian temple surrounded by modern European office buildings, though.

My taxi driver informed me that the monument at the entrance to the the garden that houses the temple was erected in memory of the people killed in the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004.

PS – photo above taken with my N900

Update: Fixed a typo “s/wound/would”