Blogs from Madrid, District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 7

Last official,day of the tour which is really just breakfast. Many have already left on the early transfers, but we have booked another 2 nights at the same hotel. Decided to have a little sleep in. Finally got up at 1030'ish and spoke to Jessica, Chris and the kids. Just caught them before they went to bed (Charlie and Pippa that is). Finally went down to breakfast around 1100. At least 9 others still there (also staying a bit longer). Chat and eat without worrying about having to be on a bus in 30 minutes. Nice.... We make the most of this breakfast as we have decide to save €54 per day by not paying for breakfast off our costs for the last 2 days. Back to the room and chat with Stephanie for a while ... read more

Early start this morning as we have a big day on the bus to Madrid. Put the bags out on time and the porter takes them from my hands. Breakfast done and dusted - they are quite good here. Then away towards Madrid. We have a stop on the way at Córdoba to visit a "special" cathedral. Arrive and find our local tour guide who 3 weeks ago was the tour guide for Harrison Ford when he visited this city.. And now she has us - hmmm. This cathedral is actually built inside a mosque which was built in the 8th century. When the Catholics kicked the Muslims out in 1236 they kept the mosque and just added the altars and changed the entry doors a bit. There are stil the original Muslim writings of the ... read more

General info: Currency: Euro Cost of living: coffee in Cafe 1eur, 1pack of chorizo sausage about 2eur, breakfast for 2 in small restaurant about 9eur Madrid is a very charming city, where you can feel very positive and calm aura, friendly people, just feel like you want to be there. It was not the only reason to me to be pleased, being in wonderful place, but as well being in wonderful company. My dear indefatiguable Mr. M came one more time to see me and spend that day together. We were both that charmed by this place so we planned to learn some useful spanish phrases and come back here one day again (unfortunately it is not very common here to find english speaking person). You can't see anywhere here that rush, which is so pervasive ... read more

Day 3 – May 6 We managed to get a bit of an earlier start, or at least we got down to breakfast sooner so the hot items were available, but the breakfast room was crowded. A muse about travelers This is my first muse or aside for this blog and it was inspired by this morning at breakfast and the last couple of days on the metro. The short version is that people are simply rude no matter what country they are from. It is not reserved for New Yorkers or US citizens, but other nationalities can just step right up to the plate and take their lumps with the rest of us. That is not to say that the people of Madrid our rude, but rather it is a commentary on those ... read more

This is our first trip to Europe since moving to Manhattan, we are excited because it will take 6 or more hours off our travel time as we can fly non-stop of Newark airport to all most any destination. The journey actually began a few days before we left. Since Christina, who normally has taken care of Tarragon is actually meeting us in Paris for part of this trip, we had to flow in his old cat sitter from Portland for the three weeks we will be gone. The advantage is that the cat already knows Chad, the disadvantage other than the price of the ticket is that Chad has never been to New York before and does not know the city. In addition, to him being overwhelmed by the City he has an ear infection. ... read more