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Central Madrid |
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Madrid's airport is big...it took us 30 minutes to walk from our Terminal (1) to the Metro station at Terminal 2. (Glad we weren't at Terminal 4!) The ride into the city took about 30 minutes, with two transfers. As we approached our hostal, just down from the Anton Martin metro, I became concerned about my choice even though the Internet photos looked good. The building was pretty weathered but I later noticed that many Madrid buildings have weathered exteriors. Inside, I felt much better. The room had all-tile floors and an all-tile bathroom. Strong water pressure and scalding hot water. The bathroom had a shower with a half-tub, something we'd not seen before but which we found to be the norm in Spain. (In Spain, a hostal is not a hostel, which they also have. A hostal is a small, often family-run, "no frills" hotel which has no amenities such as breakfast, no bar, etc.) Check out our hostal! |
| After a two hour nap to recover from jet lag, we headed out for our first sights of Madrid! On a map, Atocha (our street) appears to be a wide street but it is only two lanes. We headed west on towards the Royal Palace and in less than 5 minutes came upon a small plaza (Jacinto Benavente) which featured two places for churros, which I often ate growing up in Manila. Churros are tubular-shaped Spanish "doughnuts", dipped in either hot chocolate or coffee. How convenient for breakfast! We liked Maestro Churrero, in business over 100 years. Visit the Maestro Churrero website to see what churros look like.... |
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Our churros & chocolate spot |
Theatre across from churros |
Madrid bear emblem on a door |
| Our next stop was Plaza Mayor, one of the City's larger and most historic plazas. It was fairly empty, except for other tourists, since it was barely 5 PM. (We had just missed the 2-4 PM lunch action.) We headed on to the Royal Palace and adjacent Almudena Cathedral to look around the outside. (Since many stores are closed Saturday, that's when we visited the Palace.) |
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| Almudena Cathedral | Susie at Royal Palace | A closer view |
| Across from the Royal Palace is Plaza Oriente and a small park with 44 statutes of Spanish royalty. These were to be placed on the roof of the Royal palace but were too heavy so they ended up at the park. Maybe it was just the time of day, but this seemed to be "lover's park." |
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Felipe IV statute at P.
Oriente |
Plaza Oriente park with |
I loved the ornate
doors |
After
an 8 1/2 hour flight from Philadelphia, we
arrived over Madrid (at 2500 feet Europe´s highest capital) in the
early morning to a brisk 55 F. The bear symbol
on the left is Madrid's official emblem.
