Gran Via Madrid

What a weekend in Madrid!!! Here is a summary: walking, eating tapas, dancing, not sleeping and taking pictures....hahaha

One of my first travels from Zaragoza and it was definitely a lot of fun, and left me craving more! I went with 3 other friends. Kristen, Katharina (a friend from my Spanish class) and Alina (a friend from Kristens …

As I have mentioned already, we were flying from London to Lima through Madrid, where we had around 10 hours break, so we decided to visit the city. We landed to Madrid Barajas airport at around noon and left our luggage at the airport, took the metro to the centre and easily walk in the city enjoying the fresh air, sunny day and nice architecture …

We arrived in Madrid by 6pm and had a smooth transition to the hostel. It is a fairly new place to open so was still pretty cheap and was a great location - right on the Plaza Mayor. The first couple of days we dipped into the Spanish culture. We went to a flamenco show on our first night which was brilliant. The dancers and singers were so …

The train journey to Madrid was another pleasant one. It took us through the northern countryside around St. Sebastian down to central Spain. It was a longish journey and Mandeep decided to take a nap while I was happy to be at the window and kept gazing the beauty outside.

We reached Madrid around 10 in the night and called up the …

Sadly it was time to head to our final Spanish destination, Madrid! We had breakfast and headed to the train station bright and early where Jen and Katie bought some tea for the journey. We boarded the train, and although we had assigned seats, we decided to be rebellious and sit in a random four seater so we could all be together. Whilst loading …

Today is Good Friday. It is a holiday in Spain, so virtually everything is closed. We decided to take the Madrid Vision bus tour. These are double-decker buses. The top deck is open air. There are two routes; one is old Madrid and the other is modern Madrid. Each tour takes about 75 minutes. While riding the bus you can also listen to the audio of …

Leslie and I went on a 4.2 mile "death march" through Madrid. We left home at about noon and walked to the light rail station, Pozuelo Oeste, near our home. Once on the Metro, we made our way to the Plaza de Espana stop.

When we emerged from the Metro, we found ourselves at the corner of Gran Via and the plaza. We crossed the street and …

... . Checked out the natural history museum on our day with Livia and Tolo. Lots of stuffed/preserved specimens from all over Spain and all over the world. The snow leopard and Tasmanian tiger were two of the highlights. Toledo Day tripped out to ...

... Colombian culture in one of the main squares in Madrid. Earlier in the afternoon we had walked around town checking out the main sites (Gran Via, Plaza de Espana, Palacio Real, A few churches, City Hall, Puerta del Sol, etc.) and when we stopped at ...

... .  I made it to the hotel, switched into my sweatshirt, grabbed my umbrella, and headed back out.  I walked back up Gran Via and, of course, the sky cleared up again.  On my walk, I saw this cool statue. Then I went to another piazza, ...

... winding instead of wide and tree-lined, leading into plazas with ornate fountains. We walked down the Gran Via, a huge avenue lined with nineteenth and twentieth century ornate buildings, coming to the Plaza de la Cibeles, which has a gorgeous fountain ...

... a bit of high-end shopping and several areas that were under construction.   On our second day, we walked around our area, Gran Via.  We didn't take many pictures, since the area seems to be a tourist/shopping/eating area.  Don't get me ...

... el ruido de los autos. EN este sitio en Frente del palacio de cristal tomamos nuestra comida. Despues de comer nos dirigiomos por la Gran VIa hacia un bar, que al parecer es el favorito de Mari Tere, pero yo antes tenia que cumplir mi mision :) bueno ...

... dormir en el tren esa noche por lo cual me puse a buscar un destino que contemplara esa alternativa, pero que me permitiera retornar a Madrid. En otras palabras: dormir en tren, pasar el dia en lugar X, dormir en tren nuevamente y estar en Madrid al día ...

... there--it is the plaza where Real Madrid gathers to celebrate championships. So we continue on past the Palacio de Comunicaciones and on to Gran Via--the main shopping street. One can walk Gran Via the whole way, but I would recommend steering off at ...

... of the city - the Parque del Retiro and botanical gardens; the Mueso del Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza; and doing some shopping along the Gran Via. Amusingly, the day we chose to visit the museums was also Spanish National Day, which meant entry ...

... ; I called about 4 numbers before finding a place with rooms available.  We ended up staying at Hostal Triana in Madrid off of Gran Via.  We took the Metro from Barajas to Gran Via and schelpped our bags to Hostal Triana.  That trek took ...