Here’s a post made largely of pictures to give an idea of what things look like around our Madrid home.

Our apartment building: Raimundo Lulio 22

None of the apartments you can see from here are ours, though, because our apartment faces the courtyard.  Almost all Spanish apartment buildings have a street side and a courtyard side, and apartments open on to one or the other.  The courtyard is a lot better for us, since it’s quieter.  There is also a lot more shade.

The books warned that Madrid is brutally hot in August.  We arrived on September 4, braced for a few uncomfortable weeks in our apartment with no air conditioning, but the nights have been lovely, breezy, and cool.  The Spanish really know how to tweak their architecture for maximum comfort.

The view down our street, Raimundo Lulio

Most of the buildings in this area appear to have shops below and apartments above.

The view north, along Sante Engracia, from approximately Raimundo Lulio

The major road by our apartment is Sante Engracia, which is filled with shops and restaurants.  There are two (small) grocery stores, a pastry shop, two butcher shops, and a fruit shop within a one-block radius.

The view south, along Sante Engracia

On the other side of Sante Engracia is a plaza called Plaza Chamberi (this is the Chamberi district).  There’s an other larger one called Plaza Olavide about three blocks in the other direction on Raimundo Lulio.  There are plazas everywhere.  They fill up with people visiting and children playing by 7pm.

Plaza Chamberi