Blogs from District of Madrid, Spain, Europe - page 6

After an enjoyable sleep-in we were off to Manzanares de Real to see a 15th century castle in the Elizabethan Gothic-style. The castle was initially conceived as a fortress but quickly became a residential palace. On arrival to the town we noticed there was a huge medieval fair going on. It was enjoyable to wander through the decorated streets with a large variety of vending stalls. We enjoyed a coffee with churros dipped in hot chocolate sauce before heading off to tour the castle. The castle was very impressive from the outside as it has been substantially restored both inside and out. Once inside we enjoyed wandering through different rooms, galleries with tapestries, and viewing paintings and other artworks. We especially liked visiting the ramparts and turrets where we enjoyed great views of the mountains and ... read more

Today we travelled again by train to Madrid. From our home in San Lorenzo de El Escorial it is an easy, comfortable, and inexpensive 1 hour trip to the city centre. Upon arrival we boarded a hop on-hop off bus for a tour of the city. We first toured most of the historic city centre, then got off and had a coffee at a nice street cafe. Then we took a walk through a park to the Royal Palace and its gardens, before re-boarding the bus. We finished the historic city tour, and then switched lines to tour the modern city. It was a great way to get an overview of the city's and, given that it is very hot, it was much less exhausting. After our tours, we returned to the train for our comfortable ... read more

Today we are off on a 45 minute train ride to the beautiful city of Madrid. Madrid is the capital and largest city in Spain with a population in the city of roughly 3.3 million and with a metro area population of almost 6.5 million. Madrid is best known for its great cultural and artistic heritage but also boasts some of the liveliest nightlife in the world. On arrival at the main train station in Madrid Allison and Patrick purchased train tickets to Malaga for the next day. Unfortunately tomorrow they will be leaving us as the following day they fly back to Canada. We have had a wonderful time traveling with the two of them and they will be missed. After the train station we found a coffee spot in a pretty area where we ... read more

This morning we caught a 4 am taxi to the airport in Porto. We are flying with RyanAir for our flight to Madrid. On this flight Jim had to book a separate seat just for his guitar! RyanAir is a no frills airline, but they were on time and the plane was clean. We were met at the airport by Pablo, the exchange home owner of where we will be living for the next week. He drove us to his lovely home in Madrid and there he and his wife Gema offered us a coffee. Once coffee was done we jumped into one of their vehicles which we will be using for the next week and followed them to their second home in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It is a big beautiful home on a ... read more

J'essaie de publier ce message à nouveau parce qu'il semble qu'hier vous ne l'avez pas vu. chut! Je pense qu'Omer va changer de religion... Il va passer du Canadien de Montréal au Real de Madrid! Dans le taxi, on aurait cru entendre Roger Brulotte... pareil, pareil! (Corina, c'est une blague pour les québécois). Au resto, même chose! Nous avons un fun fou en Espagnol. Sur ma liste d'immersion: dire à un chauffeur de taxi où nous allons (check 3 fois!) prendre le bon autobus √√, demander comment se rendre quelque part√√√√√√√ excepté quand on nous a parlé de la "rotonda", (un rond point!) ... avoir su! Je commande toujours en espagnol au resto maintenant! On écoute la TV en espagnol, l'oreille s'habitue! Bon, on se calme! Journée de pluie aujourd'hui, on visite à l'intérieur: le fameux ... read more