Palacio de Cibeles

The 18th century fountain & statue are eye catching in front of the palace's & museums. It's a 18th century government building & post office. The observation deck of the beautiful palace was closed but we took the lift up to 6. There was a cocktail bar with a €10 admission. On the basement is an auditorium.

I love that this beautiful building has a wonderful space like CentroCentro as an occupant now. I was visiting Madrid and came to visit an exhibit about Gaudi (that was 14 euro) but was pleased to find that all four floors of the building and some sort of interesting exhibit about art, culture, and the history of Madrid.

PRO TIP: building has wonderful views of the surrounding city. You can pay to visit the observation deck on the roof or you can just sneak a photo out a window on one of the upper floors.

I visited on a holiday but there are also some government service and post office inside. If you are just visiting, it is worth wandering into this building to see what is going on. There is even a (free) cowering space on the ground floor!

This palace is super interesting and serves mostly as their city hall. The outside is incredibly majestic and is an iconic piece of Madrid architecture on one end of a massive roundabout near the city center. We wandered in one day and were surprised to find little art exhibits on the top floors. There was also an elevator to go up to the top of the building for a fun view. If you're visiting Madrid for under a week, I wouldn't say that you need to come here, but after months of living in the city, it was an interesting spot to cross off our list.

Funny fact, somehow I left this one out of my must-see list for Madrid. And then later on I saw this on the postcard, so my hubby and I decided to visit this place.

It was quite easy to to get to, it was just next to the Parque de El Retiro. We took the metro to get here. From the metro station Banco de España to this place took us about just 5 mins on foot. When we were there, part of the building outside was under constructuon. It was a bit putty, but I could still check out the details on the building.

Soon after we walked in the building, we just head to place which sell ticket to visit the top of the building. The ticket was quite cheap, 4 euro. There was a lift right next to the ticket place. It took us highest floor, then we have to walked a bit to the other side, as usual, we got to wait again, even that we were almost the first couple poeple here. They would let u in until the time was the time showed on the ticket. Then we could take another lift/stairs and reach the top.

From here I could see basically the whole city centre. Althought the building wasn't so tall. There weren't tall buildings around this place. I enjoyed that quite a lot. And I could walked around here. It allowed me to see the whole city in 360°. Of course, It was great place for photos as well. I try to use my 360° camera to take some cool picture as well. Too bad that the towers around the building block some of the view. So I could get the picture that wanted it. And noticed that tripod is now allowed. The staff me that.

After awhile we decide left, but this time we choose the stairs. I realized that there was a exhibitions from 1F-3F. It was free to visit.The ticket I paid it was for the observatorium. I went through all of them, it did get some really nice works here. Overall, I like this place quite a lot. I'm so glad that I didn't miss this one during my trip.

This is the building that makes the plaza/circle/square area beautiful along with the fountain. It must be a place to visit while in Madrid.

Palacio de Cibeles is the city hall, which has just been cleaned lately. The outside wall looks sparking. The inside, which requires security check, is bright and shining too. It high ceiling and beautiful pillars are nice match to its color paining on the top. It has several elevators, but I suggest you take the stair where you can see these colorful and cautious mosaic on the staircase wall. There is a huge art modern art collection upstairs, which I I cannot understand a bit. You can also watch these videos for some behavior art. Anyway, it definitely worth visiting even just for its architecture.

P.S. It is free.

Get out your cameras and smartphones -- this is an absolutely stunning building. Great for posing in front of, planking, flash mobs, and/or eating a pita filled with chicken shawarma & tzatziki. Paella is okay, but I prefer to eat at a restaurant with some good sangria.

Years back, I had oil painted my way thru 9 countries in Europe. As a completed painting would dry well enough, I would ship them back to my US address. My buddy spoke fluent Spanish, but we were going thru a little bit of a riff (off and on for the entire 3 months). The main reason is that he also spoke better English, French, and Italian than I did -- and my German had yet to be used yet. So, over time, he grew tired from being depended on so much. Totally understandable, right? Even my tears for help with puppy dog eyes wore out.

Not wanting to spend a million dinero on shipping, I had read somewhere to ask to "ship by boat" for far less money. It could take 2 months to arrive, but I didn't care about that. Determined to prove my point to my friend that I could take care of the request at the Post Office without his help, I used my little English to Spanish dictionary to say "Send by Ship, please". The long line was good for me, as it gave me plenty of time to study the phrase. As I walked up to the window, just a little breathy noise omitted. My voice resembled the sound of a whistle with its' little ball stuck.

After struggling to loosen the "ball" for about 30 seconds, my friend saved the day (yet again) by saying, "Enviar a barco, Por favor". Wow, that sure sounds easy now.

The original post office main hall now the centro centro arts pavilion. There's an admission fee to the curated art exhibits, but the hall itself is free to enter past the metal detector. The interior is definitely worth a look and the gift shop had reasonably priced Madrid souvenirs we didn't see anywhere else.

We bought 2 euro tickets to the observation deck only to be told when arriving at the upper floor that the elevator was malfunctioning. They "cheerfully " refunded our admission.

post office in Madrid, I got attendant that doesn't know English, but she did her best to help me understand what she meant....., I was able to mail package without any problems.
when I go here, I didn't know and didn't see ticket machine, so when I saw lady behind the counter not busy I approached her and asked about mailing small package to Germany...., she helped me out and I spent about 8euro for an envelope with buble-wrap and postage to mail a cell phone to Germany..., I messed up on writing adress, but she corrected it, after I mailed package I saw some gentleman holding a number and waiting on a bench, I asked him where hi got the number and he showed me...., then I saw screen with numbers behind the counter....
In post office here is no toilet but there is air-conditioning and WiFi....,

I don't know what this place was supposed to be for but take the tour to go to the top of this building! ITS FREE!!!

Best view of Madrid i think from the top. You can't see Old Town but mostly the Metropolitan area.

There was i think 8 floors. The first floor had security scan your bags and the second floor had a little lounge with iPads and a information booth.

This place is next to the Banco de Espana and Fuente de Cibeles.