Blogs from District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 11

I split these cities up, for a special reason.* I went to Barcelona first for a couple days, then bused it through the countryside to Madrid for a day and a night, then back to Barcelona in time to celebrate my birthday with all the BCN NYE hoopla in the main square with fireworks and a live band. First, Madrid was grand, in a word. Things are larger here and the styles are also slightly more grand than Barcelona and Lisbon. The roadways and layout are quite large, so I could sense that way back in the day when there were horses instead of cars, there was plenty of room to allow for a bustling, metropolitan city. I absolutely loved the giant Buen Retiro Park where I spent many hours wandering and admiring. There was even ... read more

Still waking early – so made the most of it and headed out for an early morning run (Just me, the street cleaners and the homeless under the bridge out and about at 6:00am) Indulged in some more bridge-spotting and made a circuit down to the Puente de Toledo across the Rio Manzanares. (Quite a nice Baroque style bridge from the 1700s – now just pedestrian access). I had written Madrid off, in hindsight a little unfairly, as just another big city with nothing more of interest than a few museums (which are not normally that big on our agenda anyway). Therefore, the plan for Madrid was to spend just a few days and move on quickly. Today, we planned a reasonably easy day with a stroll down the Calle Mayor, taking in some churches, the ... read more

Non pas que je n'ai rien à raconter ou que je suis surchargée, je n'ai tout simplement pas pris le temps de poster. Ma vie n'est pas non plus hyper passionnante mais ça va, tranquillou. Je prends le temps de vivre on va dire. La semaine passée, je suis allée à Madrid pour le boulot. Nous étions dans un super hôtel du côté de las Ventas (quartier des arènes) et ma collègue m'a fait visité quelque monuments le soir. Je n'ai pas réussi à tout prendre en photo à cause de l'éclairage (ou du non-éclairage parfois). J'ai été choquée de voir que l'arrêt la puerta del sol s'appelle Vodaphone sol. Quelle horreur. A quand le rebatême de Bir-Hakeim en Bouygues? J'ai revu deux collègues d'Oviedo, ça m'a fait plaisir (c'est que je suis une personne importante ... read more

I have to admit that I did very limited research into Cuenca before the start of our trip. I only knew that it was a beautiful little town known for its picturesque Hanging Houses. So when we arrived in Cuenca, I was caught off guard when the train dropped us off literally in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea that the train station was so far away from the city center. We had to take a cab into the city center, costing us around 15 euro. At this point we were running low on funds and only had enough money for the cab ride back to the train station. In the city center we were unable to locate an ATM machines. However, we contemplated about withdrawing more money because we didn’t want to pay ... read more

Today marked the official end of our Contiki tour to Spain, Morocco and Portugal. We said goodbye to our fellow travelers at breakfast as Renata and I set off for our Segovia and Avila tour with Julia Travel. We arrived at the Julia Travel agency only to discover that the agency had moved to another location in Madrid. Luckily, we found two Julia Travel representatives whom connected us to our bus going to Segovia and Avila. We arrived in Avila first, known for its amazing castle-like walls surrounding the city. We visited the basilica of San Vicente where the interior houses a beautiful altarpiece and tomb. We also visited the convent and museum of Teresa de Jesus. It is here where you can find many relics including the room where St. Teresa slept and the finger ... read more