Blogs from Madrid, District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 94

The study abroad program had organized an excursion to Madrid for this past weekend. We left early Friday morning via bus. It had been rainy all week in Malaga so the 6 hour long bus ride was melancholic, periods of drizzle interspersed with random sunny spots. The countryside was beautiful, we passed through all kinds of terrain. I liked the mountains the best, although the goats in the prairies were quite amusing. I napped for part of the time... I knew I had a packed weekend ahead of me. Once we arrived in Madrid we immediately took the metro to our hostel, which was in the center of the city. More like a hotel, we divided up into groups of 3 for our room assignments. As usual, Amanda and Jamie and I roomed together. We went ... read more

Adam and I took an almost two week backpacking trip to and through Spain and while I didn't want to take the time while there to "Blog," I LOVE reliving my travel experiences and sharing them, so I've decided to write now about our travels since we've been back. We went to 5 cities and I will most likely make 5 entries, but don't feel obligated to read any of the following. Though as always, I enjoy reading your comments. :) On Thursday, March 20th, we left St. Louis for Madrid via Atlanta. We left STL at 2pm and were scheduled to arrive in Madrid around 8am local time, including a 6 hour time change. Not the best flight ever, but very doable. We were several hours into our international flight over the Atlantic ocean, when ... read more

March 29, 2008 I decided walking to Santa Justa, the train station, would be easier/faster/cheaper than a bus or taxi. I had never been through, so I had no idea how long it would take, so I got up at 5, left at 6, and made it to the train station at 6:30, an hour early! It was finally time for our train, which was amazing- super nice and smooth! I watched parts of Stranger than Fiction and slept til we arrived in Madrid. We took taxis to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and went to the Museo del Prado. This museum is one of the most famous and biggest in the world. We saw tons of art, but the main sections we focused on were Goya, El Greco, and Velázquez. We then had some ... read more

I had to go to Madrid recently for work. It was a totally fantastic city. I must admit that I had never thought that Madrid was anything special. I thought that it would be a pretty ho hum kind of space but I was so surprised by the city itself that it isn't funny. It was a wonderful place. We ( my work colleague Craig and myself) arrived really rather late at night on the Sunday. Just in time for our workshop to start on the Monday. We had two days in Madrid at this workshop (which actually turned out very well). Our work colleague Elaine took us out for tapas one night in downtown Madrid. We wandered around the town a little bit and then settled down at one tapas bar. The tapas and sangria ... read more

Word of advice, if you’re planning on booking travel…..look into it! We had to somehow make our way from Barcelona to Madrid and realised it was a good 5 hours and 100€ by train! However, by bus it was only 3 hours more and more than a quarter of the price!!! 8 hours later we were in Madrid!!!! Woohoo! Ahhhhh we fell in love with Madrid…we don’t know if it was the beautiful weather we had or the people, but in all it’s just a gorgeous city!! We booked a hotel right in the centre next to la Puerta del Sol. Nice and clean hotel and coincidently well situated with a Maccas right next door (haha) but little did we know that at all hours of the day and night there were pro’s lingering around our ... read more