I had checked on search before I left but with no joy.
The Retiro Park Lake has been emptied!!! Why did I not know this!! I took my parents there for the afternoon, thinking we could sit and look at the lake etc but it is all blocked off, and likely to be for a few months
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
Hi madsue, I think I am going to have to read you the riot act here. All my hard work and photography could not save you the disaster of an empty lake this time. Not my bad however, it was here on the board, you just missed it.
I just did a search on my SEARCH PAGE with the words "Retiro Park" and came up with 5 resulting threads.
The first one entitled "Retiro Park open in January?" has all the info you could possible have needed in order to know about the disaster area before ya left
There is a link in that thread to my "monuments & sites under construction thread" which I continually update with info on just that and the progress of the construction. There are even photos of the empty and torn up lake.
Moral of the story: "Spend more time on Jer's message board before ya go"
Don't seem to be able to use your search facility correctly!!!! Just did another one and it came up with one link which was..... my original post!!! Oh well!! Would it or could it have been that I searched under Parque de Retiro and not Retiro Park? When I just put Retiro I had about 200 links about all SORTS of odd things!!
Still anyway, I had a wonderful time in Madrid and bought some postcards of the lake!!
Madsue xxxxx
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
Hey Sue, yeah, keep in mind that my site is oriented towards people who can read English hence the "Retiro Park" was a better choice for a search phrase. Unless it is a place that is normally left in its original Spanish such as "Plaza Mayor", "Puerta del Sol", you should always try both the English and Spanish ways to say it, ie:
"Palacio Real" and "Royal Palace" "Fuente de Neptuno" and "Neptune Fountain" etc...
When I did the search on "Parque del Retiro" instead of "Retiro Park" I also cam up with only one resulting thread.
It is my proud duty to report that the Retiro is almost back to it's original glory and with a few improvements to boot.
1) The water is clean in the "estanque" (or it was a few months ago when they emptied, cleaned and refilled it )
2) The hideous orange and white barriers that were blocking off the main lake are now gone
3) The "paseo" (walkway along the front of the "estanque" (the main lake) is being extended to go down to the left when you reach the end of it along the front of the lake
4) The many statues located throughout the park have also been cleaned up quite a bit.
This is now, by September it will all be done (ie. the "paseo" will be open along the far side of the lake).
One thing however, the "peces asesinos" (killer fish) are not back in the water yet. Not sure when or if they will return.
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
and did not realize it.
