The second-largest city of the European Union, the capital of Spain, and the economic and
cultural hub of the Iberian peninsula — welcome to Madrid!
Or as you say in Spanish: Bienvenidoa Madrid!
Do you hear the birds? — Yeah?
Ah nevermind that's just the traffic lights.
Sounds more like guns to me. Star Wars type of guns.
This is Puerta del Sol. One of the most famous and busiest squares in the city.
It literally means 'A Sun Gate'. It's also the centre of Madrid.
Literally, there s a stone here on the pavement, which marks the kilometer zero of Spain
— from where all the roads in Spain start from.
There are three statues in the square. One is of King Carlos III.
One of the most famous mayors of Madrid, known for making progressive reforms in the city.
There's another statue there of a bear
who's eating from a strawberry tree.
And on the other side, there is a statue of a lady.
In front of this square, is also the government headquarters.
So there is a lot of media here today.
And there is one guy protesting for quicker distribution of vaccines.
Now right next to the Puerta del Sol we have the Plaza Mayor.
It's the 15th century centre of Old Madrid. It was a marketplace back in those times.
It got burned down by fire three times and the latest reconstruction of the buildings
that you see around me, Is from 1790.
The old city centre is so full of these beautiful houses.
All the streets in the old city are called Calle.
And they have some very pretty signs marking them.
These are some of the traditional dishes from Spain that you find almost everywhere in Madrid.
The calamares bocadillo is fried calamari inside bread.
Or the paellas.
The Covid situation in Madrid is currently slightly different from most other European countries.
Almost everything is open here. Eating inside restaurants, cinema halls, shopping malls
and even many tourist attractions.
But of course with the requirement of wearing masks.
That magnificent building behind me is called Centro Centro.
It's the City Hall of Madrid and you can actually go up there.
Up here on the Centro Centro, there's an observation deck on the 8th floor
but it's close today, so we can go to floor 6 though.
where there's a restaurant and a bar.
This is the sort of view that you can get from up here. However, the observation deck is currently closed
so we can't go up to the very top.
Here we are at the green lung of Madrid: the El Retiro park, with over 15,000 trees.
It's like a green oasis in the middle of the city.
You can come here to relax, workout, or see some exhibitions with your family.
The park is full of interesting sculptures and fountains.
And it also has a large artificial lake in the middle.
Here we can also go to row the boats. Do you wanna go there?
Yeah, let s do it. Yeah? Okay.
Hola!
Renting this boat can cost up to 6 euros for up to four people
and you can ride this for 45 minutes.
The lake itself is not very big. I can see from one end to the other end
but it's a nice chilling activity. Not my personal favorite,
but if this is something you're into, then you can have it on your list when coming to Madrid.
Are you enjoying yourself? Yes. — Yeah.
How do you like it, darling?
Behind me, you can see the Palacio de Cristal,
the Crystal Palace, which is a very famous attraction here.
It was built as a greenhouse in 1887 but today it is used for art exhibitions.
Unfortunately, I cannot get much closer to it
because of these restrictions again.
La Casa de Papel. You might remember the famous TV series Money Heist
in which a group of robbers steal money from the Royal Mint of Spain.
Behind me is the real Royal Mint of Spain
however, the fun fact is that the series wasn't actually shot in front of this real Royal Mint,
it was shot in front of the Spanish National Research Council building.
This magnificent palace behind me has 3418 rooms
it's the Royal Palace of Madrid, one of the top tourist attractions here.
It is the official residence of the royal family,
but nowadays, it's mostly used for state ceremonies and it's open for public.
Every year, more than 2 million visitors come to see the rooms inside.
From the inside, some of the rooms are absolutely mindblowing.
It wasn't allowed to film inside the best rooms,
so, unfortunately, I can't show you all the inside decorations here,
but even the main hall area where filming was allowed,
is really beautifully decorated with paintings, designs, and statues.
Madrid is actually a very busy and rather noisy city.
The situation of traffic that you see behind me,
is pretty common to see at all times of the day,
If you prefer having a more peaceful time, I would recommend that you stick to the old city area.
The last thing that you would expect to see in Madrid,
is a 2,000-year-old Egyptian temple. But here we are at the Temple of Debod.
This is actually not native to Madrid. It was donated by the Egyptian government
to the Spanish government in 1968.
When you come here, make sure not to stand in this area
because there will be a guy over there whistling and telling you to stop.
The temple is located in a nice park
which offers an amazing views over the whole city.
It's especially nice to come here at sunset.
Outside Madrid, there are two beautiful towns of Segovia and Toledo.
If you're staying in Madrid for longer, I would definitely recommend visiting
either of these towns or both of them.
Right now we are in Segovia, and one of the most unique things
that you can do here is a hot air balloon ride.
And that's exactly what we re planning to do.
The hot air balloon will rise up and give us an overview of the whole city.
Right now, it's around 6:30 a.m. The sun hasn't even risen yet.
The balloon ride happens right at sunrise.
Are you feeling cold? Yes.
Looks like you're in the arctic again.
As soon as the fire goes up it starts to feel extremely warm, no?
We're moving.
Segovia looks like a city that can be straight out of Game of Thrones.
It was declared a World Heritage site in 1985.
Some of the prominent attractions that you can see from the balloon are the Roman Aqueduct bridge,
the Segovia Cathedral built in late Gothic style,
and the Alcázar of Segovia.
It's a unique mediaeval castle which served as an inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella castle.
At least it didn't fall on us.
Hope you enjoyed this short overview of all the great things that you can do in and around Madrid.
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See you next time!