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Published: April 26th 2008
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April 21 - 25, 2008
MADRID, Spain
Arrived here this afternnon ( Monday ) and took a short walk around the very large shopping district close to our hotel in the old center of the city. Madrid looks like a very modern, very clean, city with some of the old city architecture we expected in Europe. Spending Euros here is going to be interesting as our dollar is not too strong here. ( about $1.60 to buy a Euro ).
Tuesday morning was a quiet morning and in the afternoon we took the “city tour” by "Hop on Hop Off”, open top bus. This was a beautiful spring day so it was nice to be in the outdoors. This is really the way to go when first visiting any city as it gives you a relatively inexpensive way to see the highlights and a chance to get off where you want and back on (about every 20 minutes here) to continue the tour on your own time schedule.
This evening we took another look at the large shopping area and found an interesting dinner. Meals are going to be a challenge here as it seems that nearly
all the restaurants here are small “Tapas Bar” places. ( and there are thousands of them ), The better restaurants are closed in the evening until 8:00 or 8:30 P.M. And that makes for a late dinner. Most businesses open in the morning, close from 1:30 or 2:00 to 4:30 - 5:00 and open again until 8:00 or 8:30. The shopping here is very good and prices are fairly competitive if you look around. The main shopping area is several streets that are closed to most traffic. It's a neat place with lots of “mimes” and street performers. You would not believe the number of shoe stores and handbag stores !!!, from very expensive to very inexpensive.
Wednesday we spent a rather uneventful day browsing around and visited the Palace area and some of the local sites we saw from the bus tour. Most places are in walking distance ( if you are into walking several hours a day ) from the main hotel district. This is a nice city and there is lots to see. There are many theatres and the Moscow Ballet is playing here and looks like a big attraction. ( not for us though ).
Thursday we had another quiet day browsing around central Madrid..
Madrid is a very nice city to visit. very large and lots of traffic but very clean and modern. We enjoyed our short stay here and are looking forward to seeing some more of Spain.
Friday morning we picked up our car that we will “own” for 11 weeks . This is kind of a “tax free” car rental deal where North Americans can buy a new car from Peugeot in France and they guarantee the buy-back when you are finished with it. Comes with insurance and unlimited kilometers. This is not a particulary cheap arrangement but neither is renting any car in Europe. It pays if you are renting over 6 or 7 weeks. Next time we would plan things differently as we paid a hefty fee to have the car delivered from France to Spain. All in all it's a fair deal and you can pick the size and options you want. We got a Peugeot 308, Premium, diesel, 6 speed automatic. Nice car. We are looking forward to the flexibility of coming and going at our own pace without the airports and buses.
We drove this afternoon to Valencia through the very beautiful Spanish country side. Lots of nice grain and hay farms, Orchards, Vineyards and other crops. Very good roads and an easy drive. We drove a little past Valencia to Playa Voramar to spend the night in this very nice beach town. A little quiet this time of year but a very nice place.
Off to Barcelona tomorrow.
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Travels with Tom and Alice
Tom and Alice Gardner
Hi from Andorra
Glad you are enjoying our comments. We will follow you trips as well. We only stayed in the Kyiv in the Ukraine. Stayed at the President Hotel. Rated 4 or 5 star but service wise a good 3 star. Good location and decent rooms. Very good hotel, if you are in Barcelona, was the Hotel D'Icaria. Very good 4 star. Decent location ( not downtown though ) In Madrid we were very comfortable at the Senator Espana. Great rooms and good location. We were at the Vincci Capital in Madrid for a few days but it's not nearly as nice as the Senator Espana. We booked on Expedia and got very good rates. Travel safe. Tom and Alice