Lonely Planet India – August 2019

The

New

Outdoors

WHEN ALEXANDRE

Dumas, author of

The Three Musketeers,

visited Madrid during

the 19th century, he wrote that Plaza

Mayor had ‘the most beautiful and

best-painted vault’ he had ever seen.

He meant the vast Spanish sky. “Dumas

understood that our sky – with its stars

and clouds – is very charming,” says

Ana Llorente, a tour guide and history

professor at the Centro Universitario

Villanueva, gesturing upwards. “At these

moments you realise how wonderful the

sky over Madrid is. It has a kind of magic.”

Madrid’s climate and atmosphere tend

to lure visitors outside, and a modern-

day Dumas would have plenty

of options for stargazing, including the

Picalagartos Sky Bar. “This is a new

concept for Madrid,” says Ana, standing

near the edge of the rooftop bar belonging

to the NH Collection Madrid Gran

Vía Hotel. She gestures down over Gran

Vía, one of the city’s most important

thoroughfares. “Perhaps, as a city,

we wanted to find ways to take advantage

of every corner, and we were also seeking

a bird’s eye view. From here, you can

see the contrast between different

buildings, from towers based on

the skyline of Manhattan to the orange,

tiled roofs over there that could be

in a small town in Castile.”

Madrid’s new landscape isn’t just about

new vantage points. Whole sections

of the city have been overhauled to create

more outdoor space. The most ambitious

project is Madrid Río Park, which

was begun in 2005. A six-mile stretch

of highway in the centre of Madrid, beside

the Manzanares River, was effectively

buried underground in a warren

of tunnels, and the resulting space

Ana Llorente, tour

guide and history

professor, looking out

over Madrid from

Picalagartos Sky Bar

Facing page:

Journalist Sara

Morillo at cultural

venue and bar

Sala Equis

TRAVEL FOR CITIES MADRID, SPAIN

August 2019 75