Madrid’s green heart and full of elegant gardens, the Retiro is just a few steps east of the Prado and was a royal property up to the end of the 19th century when it was opened to the public.
If you’re visiting with little ones, paddling on the Grand Pond next to the monument of Alfonso XII is a fun option on a sunny afternoon.
The iron and glass pavilion built to house the Philippine Exhibition in 1887 is magnificent and growing in the pond in front of it are bald cypresses and strange swamp trees that turn a lovely golden brown in summer.
The oldest tree in the city is close by It’s a Montezuma Cypress planted in 1633 and ringed by an iron fence.
