{"id":2236,"date":"2018-03-27T19:22:57","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T02:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2018-03-27T19:22:57","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T02:22:57","slug":"madrid-is-on-the-move-with-spring-sports-and-artistic-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/2236\/madrid-is-on-the-move-with-spring-sports-and-artistic-opportunities","title":{"rendered":"Madrid Is On The Move With Spring Sports And Artistic Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hotel

Hotel Orfila\u2019s open air garden terrace<\/p><\/div>\n

We enter, now, the baseball and golf seasons with last week\u2019s Detroit Tigers Opening Day and this week\u2019s Masters Tournament \u2013 each event being a celebrated traditional rite of springtime, as is spring break travel. In Madrid, though, it is bullfighting season that is just underway; and an online search of the word \u201cMadrid\u201d will yield a flood of results not about the capital of Spain and the leafy boulevards, exciting local tapas and pinchos cuisine and astonishing art scene of Europe\u2019s third largest city, but rather, about its century-old Real Madrid soccer team. \u201cReal\u201d translates to \u201cRoyal,\u201d and the team, with a worldwide following, plays in the 81,000-seat Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and earns nearly $700-million annually, making it one of the world\u2019s most valuable sports teams.<\/p>\n

Historic Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, which, since 1931, has seated 23,798\u00a0Sunday<\/span>\u00a0spectators for bullfights between March and October – and daily during the San Isidro festivities from mid-May to early June – prices its tickets between $50 and $100 based on whether the assigned chairs surrounding the bull ring are shaded or situated in sunny Spain\u2019s rays.<\/p>\n

\"Hotel

Hotel Orfila\u2019s elegant welcome<\/p><\/div>\n

Madrid offers more than shade for comfort since its hotel offerings can seem as artistic as the works of Van Gogh, Titian, Goya, and others in the Prado and National Museums. A panoramic view from the Hyatt Centric Gran Via Hotel\u2019s rooftop Via Fantastica restaurant shows guests, with handcrafted cocktail and authentic street food in hand, just how close they are to Madrid\u2019s monuments and museums.<\/p>\n

Staying at the Gran Melia Palacio de los Duques is like waking up in a stately museum. The 1850-era former palace, teeming with large reproductions of masters works of art, is a five-minute walk from Madrid\u2019s Royal Palace.<\/p>\n

Local artisans contributed to the reconstruction of central Madrid\u2019s Urso Hotel and Spa which provides an artistic sense of place through fanciful ironwork, vintage photographs of Madrid a century ago, and stained glass windows. Upon arrival, or at happy hour, a plate of traditional ham and cheese croquetas in Urso\u2019s Media Racion restaurant further cements you are in Espania. The spa is super sleek, and the contemporary property\u2019s location near Madrid\u2019s \u201cGolden Triangle\u201d of art \u2013 the Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums) is prominent and convenient yet secluded.<\/p>\n

\"Paella

Paella at Bougainvillea restaurant<\/p><\/div>\n

There is an artistry to bullfighting and soccer.\u00a0Hotel Villa Magna is 1.3 miles from the bullfighting ring and is located in an exclusive neighborhood near the U.S. Embassy and a street-side restaurant called \u201cBougainvillea\u201d with perfect paella dishes \u2013 a Spanish specialty. You can walk off the flavorful, filling, rice-based dinner by strolling and shopping your way back to Villa Magna.<\/p>\n

Hotel Orfila is a small and secret, neoclassical hideaway in the middle of a leafy lane with 19th<\/sup>-century d\u00e9cor and a secluded garden terrace \u2013 a perfect escape suitable for a sipping a glass of Cava in the center of the city. Each of its\u2019 32 rooms are different and regal \u2013 and the quiet hotel is 3.5 kilometers from Real Madrid\u2019s booming soccer stadium.<\/p>\n

\"Big

Big city style with charm and color at Villa Magna<\/p><\/div>\n

Madrid gave birth to performers such as Penelope Cruz and\u00a0Julio Iglesias\u2026and tolerated big visiting stars such as\u00a0Frank Sinatra\u00a0and Ava Gardener\u2026and it\u2019s also home to the world\u2019s oldest restaurant \u2013 Botin \u2013 a spot Ernest Hemingway used for the final scene in his book \u201cThe Sun Also Rises.\u201d To obtain access to tickets for and exclusive visits to Madrid\u2019s aforementioned activities and charms, visit\u00a0MadeForSpainAndPortugal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We enter, now, the baseball and golf seasons with last week\u2019s Detroit Tigers Opening Day and this week\u2019s Masters Tournament… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1044565,499897,15,597860,1750,1019757],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-travel","tag-hotels","tag-europe","tag-vacation","tag-spain","tag-madrid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2018\/03\/IMG_5028.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2242,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}