There are a couple of other museums well worth visiting near El Prado. El Prado can get very busy because it's on everybody's list of things to visit. I've been there on a quiet day at some point and it's very enjoyable. But when you have to queue up for 45 minutes just to get in, it's probably a lot less nice. Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum has a pretty amazing collection and is right across the street. And down the street is the Reina Sofia, which has a nice modern art collection (think lots of Miro, Picasso, Dali, etc.).
If you have time and a car, driving around Spain is very enjoyable. I've seen most of it's larger and smaller cities over the years.
+1. But the train, specially being in Madrid, is a very good alternative to the car to travel around Spain.
But for the more rural regions and smaller cities, you pretty much need a car.
Also went West and caught a boat to Tangiers in Morocco for a day trip. It was my first time experiencing culture shock. Tangiers was so different from either America or Europe. I made friends with two Danish soldiers and the three of us explored the Casbah together. It was also the first (and last!) time that I ate a sheep's eyeball! Little kids everywhere were begging for money. I understood perfectly why they spoke to me in English. But when they found out my friends were from Denmark they switched to speaking perfect Danish! These kids knew a smattering of a dozen languages or more.
Sadly, Barcelona is a bit too hyped and gentrified. It suffers from the same kind of issues SF has.
Both are great in terms of access to an inexpensive talent pool.
But be aware that the London salaries upper tail is wider, possibly brought up by the quant firms (which are a different kind of company than most are accustomed)
levels.fyi gives 112kE as the median and 200kE/90% for London vs around 60kE for the median and 90kE/90% (pretax for both)
Glassdoor lists the average for SWEs for Madrid at 35k€ vs London at £66k (76k€) which even accounting for cost of living is quite a big difference
Both of you are wrong for different reasons. The truth is more nuanced.
First, Madrid is very different from the rest of the country. Salaries are higher, still half of what our neighbors of the north have. 15k/20k sounds like a rest-of-the-country average.
Even in Madrid 40k€ is far from average, that it's more likely 28k.
40 is the salary for a very senior o very specialized programmer/analyst.
But there's a caveat that makes you closer to reality for Madrid and it's if you add forced pension and health insurance that the employer pays. It's around 40% on top of the raw salary, so someone earning 30k is really costing 42k to the employer.
After income tax, those 30k become 24k :(
See here: https://www-canaldeisabelsegunda-es.translate.goog/-/madrid-...
Original: https://www.canaldeisabelsegunda.es/-/madrid-la-ciudad-edifi...
And about ruins, they are, but they are also hidden: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muralla_cristiana_de_Madrid
:)
Ironically, my comment about ruins, rivers, etc, I lifted from a sign in the lobby of that very hotel. And here they are sitting on top of it ;)
We do have a river, but if it doesn't seem much to you, take the train south and in half an hour you reach Aranjuez:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranjuez
There you have the Tagus river and gorgeous gardens.
Distances in Spain are different than in US. Some cities are connected from here in an interval of less than two hours (one-way) by fast train AVE so reserving one day to explore another city as a bonus is doable with some extra work. This comprises Valencia, Salamanca, Burgos or Cordoba. You could basically go from one point to the other coin of Iberia in a day by train if you don't mind to burn a day looking at the landscape. Or sleep in the train and wake up in a different coastal city in a different Sea. Is just a question of money and planning.
In the same way if you go to Barcelona I would strongly advise to explore near destinations in Pyrenees or the South of France also.
Nobody takes siestas in Spain but the elderly, children and people without A/C in hot zones in summer, and I suppose in some rural towns as well.
In the cities, people do not stop working midday to nap. Now if you are talking about rural towns, that is another thing.
Other than that, we like the city, and especially our neighbourhood.
The trouble with Barcelona these days is the tourists have ruined it. Both the tourists themselves, and the city itself pandering to the tourists.
I avoid the place like the plague these days.
I had almost no idea about Spain before I moved to Europe and soon realised that it is a friendly place with amazing reasonably priced food and some of the most amazing artwork. Every new city has these qualities and adds its own stories and beautiful architecture.
Also Spain is to gin and tonic what New York is to pizza and Australia/New Zealand are to coffee: they did not invent it, but they certainly perfected it. a giant fish bowl of gin mare and good tonic water filled with ice and maybe some rosemary for scent.
Not that long ago gin and tonic was considered an old person's drink and there were very few brands available, but 10~15 years ago it exploded in popularity. All of sudden you could find a million brands of gin and another million of tonic water, even in small villages, and bartenders started to take its preparation quite seriously.
And of course I have several friends who brag about drinking it before it was cool xD
James and Yoly really enjoy living here in Madrid, and they explain the good and the bad of our culture and customs. No bullsh*t, warts and all.
Avoid July and August, horrible heat and most people have left the city
You mean it's bad that you don't have to wait in lines or get into crowded spaces?
I preferred it over Barcelona, too.