Praga Hotel Madrid

We took a guided tour on a bus to Spain, Morocco, and Portugal. We w**e not sure we'd like a guided tour with a lot of people we didn't know, but w**e lucky. The tour was a "budget" one through Trafalgar. Since it was budget, we w**e supposed to have more time to do things on our own and we didn't stay in the highest rated hotels. It worked out v**y well for us. Th**e w**e nine options off**ed and we took all but one. As it turns out, the options w**e well worth the price. Our guide assured u...

Another early start-packed the last few things and then checked out. We caught the number 3 bus which took us all around the suburbs, but we got to the bus station eventually. We had just enough time to buy some croissants and churros for breakfast before boarding the bus. 4 hours and 25 mins on the bus later and we arrived at Madrid bus station. We caught the metro to where we thought we needed to get to (according to Multi-map) and started to walk. Once we got to the road we needed to be on...

A nice comfy bed resulted in a fairly good nights sleep. Still had a lie in though! We went to La Gloria to get some churros for breakfast then to the Internet café to use the phones to ring the bank at home. We caught the metro to Hipercor (a huge Corte Inglés) and had a good look around there. Gaf got some new shoes and we got some gifts to take back home. We caught the metro to Sol to find the Kukuxumusu shop to get Glyn's t-shirt. We couldn't see the one we wanted so I went up to the guy ...

A bit of a slow start to the day but we got going eventually. We set out for the metro to Rastro, the flea market. There were loads of stalls, selling all sorts of things, but the majority were clothes, accessories and the like. We had a look all around there then went for tea and tostada for breakfast. Caught the metro back to the hotel and had a lie down. As the weather had cleared up we rode the metro to Parque del Retiro, near the Prado museum. We had a walk round, took some photos and at...

Had a good lie in this morning, didn't get moving until about 11 o'clock. We went to get some breakfast and to use the net. Gaf spoke to Russ about tomorrow then we walked back to the hotel. I stopped to get some cherries, which were huge. We had a bit of a sit down to watch the tv when the maid came to do the room, so we went out. We caught the metro to Gran Via and started to walk down it. When we got to the bottom we saw the massive post office, which looked more like a palace, so we went ...

For my fourth overseas trip, Shea and I decided to venture over to Spain. We took advantage of a special deal Contiki was offering where if you book by a certain date, the second person flies for only $100. After splitting the airfare in half, our round trip tickets to Spain via Germany were only about $450 per person. Months of planning and anticipation had finally arrived, it's time to leave for Spain! As usual for me, my procrastination made the morning of May 18th into a mad rush to get ...

The last day of the tour began with an early morning trip to the Spanish Royal Palace. For the past few days, Madrid had been abuzz with the excitement from the royal wedding of Prince Felipe. The wedding took place at the Catedral de la Almudena, adjacent to the Spanish Royal Palace. Now over a week since that historic wedding, here we were standing in the courtyard of where it all took place. Our tour of the Spanish Royal Palace was guided and with all guided tours, I quickly lost interest...