Blogs from Madrid, District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 13

I feel like today has spanned the course of 2 days. It's amazing how much easier handling jet lag is this time around. I can still stay up too late (138am) & sleep too late but it was a great day! Started out on a 2 hour walking tour. Love them because it helps me get my bearings and understand the important places to go in a short period of time. After all, we aren't here long. It turned into a 9 hour walking, eating & boating tour. Katie & I walked around for the rest of the day w/ new friends from the walking tour. We walked across the city to the park & rented boats! Afterward we walked clear across to the other end of the city only to find that they stopped admitting ... read more

Today is a historic and important day for Spain. King Juan Carlos has ruled for 39 years and abdicated the power to his son Prince Felipe. We are so lucky that the ceremony for Felipe to take the oath and become King took place just across the street. The police presence was absolutely unbelievable as they were posted everywhere on the street, on building rooftops, flying around in helicopters and on bicycles, motorcycles and cars. We quickly headed up to the hotel rooftop terrace on 6th floor and found a great corner where we could watch the pageantry and preparation. We watched several groups of military, the band, some in dark uniforms, some white, some in green then the color guard. We also saw the 1920's style Rolls Royce convertible that King Felipe and Queen Letizia ... read more

Another really early morning as we had train tickets to Madrid that departed beautiful San Sebastián at 7:30am. Last night we showered, packed and laid out our clothes for today to quicken our departure to the train station. The hotel called a cab for us and it arrived quickly. Interestingly, he shoved all 4 of our luggage into the front passenger seat then proceeded to give the big ones a kick to close the car door. Traveling is an adventure and you see it all. The train station was pretty close and only cost 9 euros. We found our check in, tickets were in order and we headed to platform 2 and waited the arrival of the 1st leg of our train to Zaragoza. While standing we began chatting with a very nice lady on holiday, ... read more

J’écris présentement du train qui nous mènera à Barcelone ! Je n’ai pas de connexion internet, donc je mettrai le tout en ligne plus tard, mais pour l’instant je prends le temps d’écrire. On dirait qu’on est en première classe dans le train tellement on a de l’espace ! Pourtant on n’a pas payé plus cher… tant mieux ! Plein d’espace pour les pieds, plein d’espace entre nos deux sièges pour mettre nos sacs, et en plus la cafétéria est dans le wagon juste à côté. Comme la vie est belle ! Bon, étant donné que j’ai 4 jours de retard à raconter, je me demandais si je faisais un résumé… mais j’en suis incapable, il faut toujours que je raconte dans l’ordre jour par jour avec les détails. C’est la première fois que j’en fais ... read more

J’ai pris du retard pas mal dans mes posts de blog, mais ça ne veut dire qu’une chose : le voyage est le fun et j’ai pas le temps d’écrire ! Demain je devrais être capable de rattraper mon retard très possiblement, car 3 heures de train m’attendent… eh oui, on quitte déjà Madrid pour Barcelone demain ! Je suis excitée, j’ai vraiment hâte de voir Barcelone, après tout ce que j’ai entendu… mes attentes sont hautes ! Petit résumé de mes impressions de Madrid : c’est une ville intéressante, grosse mais qui se visite rapidement / facilement à pieds, pleine de petits bijoux de bars à tapas et restaurants, bruyante mais alors là BRUYANTE toute la nuit, j’ai bien dit TOUTE la nuit. On s’y attendait, mais il reste que nous ne sommes pas vraiment ... read more