{"id":524,"date":"2007-12-04T14:27:47","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T20:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/discovering-madrid\/"},"modified":"2016-12-17T23:26:02","modified_gmt":"2016-12-18T05:26:02","slug":"discovering-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/discovering-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Thurston Hatcher<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Madrid seems to have been a little overshadowed by popular tourist draws like Rome, Paris, London &#8212; even glamorous rival<city w:st=\"on\"><\/city> Barcelona &#8212; among <a href=\"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/App\/PerformMDLPDealsContent?deal_id=europe&amp;cnt=OVI\" target=\"_blank\">Europe vacation<\/a> destinations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">But it definitely belongs right up there on the must-visit list, as I finally discovered for myself last month during a week-long <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donquijote.org\/english\/madrid.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Spanish immersion program<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Yes, the incredible, sprawling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.museodelprado.es\/en\/ingles\/\" target=\"_blank\">Prado<\/a> &#8212; home of Velazquez&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.museodelprado.es\/en\/ingles\/collection\/whats-see\/1-hour-in-the-museum\/obra\/the-family-of-felipe-iv-or-las-meninas\/\" target=\"_blank\">&quot;Las Meninas&quot;<\/a> masterpiece and enough turbulent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.museodelprado.es\/en\/ingles\/collection\/pintura\/pintura-espanola\/goya-y-la-pintura-del-siglo-xviii\/\" target=\"_blank\">Goya works<\/a> to impress even the most reluctant museum-goer &#8212; offers reason enough to check it out. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">But there&#8217;s so much more to see and explore. From colorful Plaza Mayor to the picturesque Parque del Buen Retiro &#8212; Madrid&#8217;s answer to Central Park &#8212; It&#8217;s a happening, sophisticated, stunningly beautiful city of many subtle surprises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Here are a few of my photos:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" scrolling=\"no\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" align=\"middle\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/slideShow\/index.gne?group_id=&amp;user_id=10040057@N07&amp;set_id=72157603366154851&amp;tags=Madridtravel,Madridvacation\"> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><small>Created with <a title=\"Admarket.se\" href=\"http:\/\/www.admarket.se\/\">Admarket&#8217;s<\/a> <a title=\"flickrSLiDR\" href=\"http:\/\/flickrslidr.com\/\">flickrSLiDR<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Orbitz resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/App\/PerformMDLPDealsContent?deal_id=europe&amp;cnt=OVI\" target=\"_blank\">Europe vacations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/App\/PerformSDLPDealsContent?deal_id=madrid&amp;cnt=PKG\" target=\"_blank\">Madrid vacations<\/a> <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/App\/PerformSDLPDealsContent?deal_id=barcelona&amp;cnt=PKG\" target=\"_blank\">Barcelona vacations<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Thurston Hatcher is a writer and editor at Orbitz.<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.newscred.com\/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT05ZTQ1YTU1ZDQyOTFmMmI1ZjNhNzQ1OWU1YjhkNWUwYg==\" alt=\"\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" class=\"nc_pixel\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Madrid has long been overshadowed, and undeservedly so, by more familiar cities like Rome, Paris, London and Barcelona among European vacation destinations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28,61],"tags":[2223],"class_list":["post-524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-photography","tag-europe-vacation"],"acf":{"api_active":null,"api_title":null,"api_excerpt":null,"api_featured_image":null,"api_lob":null},"posts_api_cpm_point":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Discovering Madrid | Orbitz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/discovering-madrid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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