The Ice Palace

Stuck for things to do in the afternoons after your Spanish classes? People coming to visit and you’re not sure how to entertain them? If the answer to those questions is yes, I think I might have found the perfect activity for you. Allow me to introduce the Ice Palace...

Dreams: El Palacio de Hielo is a large complex on the outskirts of Madrid (but still only takes about 20-25 minutes on the metro) which offers absolutely everything you could need to entertain you and your friends on a rainy, or just very cold, afternoon: an ice rink, bowling lanes, a cinema and a shopping centre.

If you go between 20.45 and 23.00 on Mondays and Wednesdays you’ll benefit from the best prices. For just 7 euros (6 if you have your own skates, which I highly doubt you do...) you can skate away to your heart’s content. What’s more, over the Christmas season they're open every day of the school holidays, including Sundays, apart from the 24th and 31st December when the rink will close for the afternoon sessions and the 25th December and 1st January when it will close for the mornings. Seems fair enough to me!

As mentioned above, for those of you for whom ice-skating isn’t really your thing, there’s plenty more to keep you busy while your friends make fools of themselves on the ice. You’ll find not only 24 bowling lanes (see link for opening times, prices and deals: http://www.bolerapalaciodehielo.com/) and a 15-screen cinema (http://www.cinesdreams.com/), but also a shopping centre with all kinds of shops, restaurants and various other services. And if you leave realising there's nothing in the fridge for dinner, fear not; there's even a hypermarket!

It's impossible to dispute that this place really does have it all. How dreamy.  

photo via: http://www.palaciodehielo.com/subseccion/3/1/Pista-de-Hielo.-