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‘Free’ really meant ‘free’ on walking tour through Madrid
By Tom Adkinson
December 8, 2023
Red umbrellas make guides for SANDEMANs free tours easy to find in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor. Image by Tom Adkinson
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MADRID – I had an afternoon in Madrid to combat jetlag, meaning I needed to ward off the fatigue of an overnight flight and stay awake long enough that night to get my body into the right time zone to function normally the next day.
Instead of wandering aimlessly – and unproductively – in a major city I’d never visited, I signed up for a free walking tour.
Free? Really? My inner skeptic screamed, “Timeshare come-on.”
If a trustworthy Spanish friend hadn’t recommended two companies that offer free walking tours, I probably would not have signed up. I chose a company and a tour online. Yes, the company with free tours had an excellent website and asked for a non-binding commitment to show up.
All I had to do was get to Plaza Mayor, a bustling pedestrian destination in the heart of this city of 6.3 million people, and look for someone holding a red umbrella. That’s where I met Joaquin Forchino.
Two tourists mug for the camera in front of a statue of a bear and a strawberry tree, which is one of Madrid’s symbols. Never mind that strawberries don’t grow on trees. Image by Tom Adkinson
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My skepticism melted after a few minutes of preliminary conversation. He’s a full-time professional guide – eight years pounding the pavement – who does lead paid tours, but this one was on the house. Leading the free tours boosts his reputation and that of the organizing company. (More on the company later.)
The premise is that people pay the guides on free tours what they think the experience was worth after the tour ends. If you have no conscience, I suppose you could shake Forchino’s hand, offer a thank you and walk away. However, considering the volume and pace of Madrid’s urban traffic, karma might flatten you for pulling that stunt at the first intersection you cross.
There were 20 slots on the tour signup, but only five people accepted the offer the afternoon I needed some exercise. Forchino, whose heritage is Argentine and French and who has lived in Madrid for 12 years, led us on an invigorating walk with wonderful tidbits of information and a couple of surprises, even to Forchino.
The dark statues atop this building on the Gran Via once were shiny, which wasn’t a good thing during the Spanish Civil War. Image by Tom Adkinson
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Forchino’s tour repertoire includes itineraries that go deeply into Spanish history, the arts and even the Spanish Inquisition (which sounds like a bit of a downer tour), but our tour was to get a basic history of the city, see a handful of notable landmarks, dive into a department store for a great (and free) rooftop view of the city and delight in the Gran Via.
The Gran Via is Madrid’s most famous thoroughfare. Creating it required demolishing more than 300 buildings and 50 smaller streets in a project that lasted from 1910 until 1929. Today, the Gran Via is a playground with impressive high-rise buildings, shops, theaters, restaurants and statues. Think of it as New York’s Times Square that goes on for blocks and blocks.
A plaque in the sidewalk in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol marks Kilometer Zero, starting point for measurements on Spain’s main roads. Image by Tom Adkinson
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One of our stops was a plaque embedded in the sidewalk. It was Kilometer Zero, a place where everyone takes a photo to document being at the starting point for Spain’s national roads and therefore the spot from which distances are measured.
At another point, Forchino pointed to impressive sculptures of horses and a chariot atop a former bank building. The sculptures, now blackened, originally gleamed in the Spanish sunshine, but Forchino explained that made them sighting beacons for artillery officers to use during the Spanish Civil War.
Chotis dancers perform for a weekend crowd on a Madrid plaza along the Gran Via and outside a subway station. Image by Tom Adkinson
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By chance, we got some free entertainment when we came across a troupe of folk dancers performing in a plaza outside a subway station. Their dance was the Madrid chotis, which has roots in Czech polkas rather than Iberian folkways.
Chocolatería San Ginés, located just off the Gran Via, is probably the most famous chocolate emporium in Madrid. Image by Tom Adkinson
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My special bonus from the tour was when Forchino pointed me to the Chocolatería San Ginés – a nationally famous source of caffeine-laden treats – nature’s way of staying awake.
(About the tour company: Among other outfits with free walking tours, I landed on SANDEMANs New Europe, begun in Berlin in 2001 by American Chris Sandeman. It has many types of tours in 20 cities.)
Trip-planning resources: NewEuropeTours.eu, TurismoMadrid and Spain.info
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