Hola! Bienvedidos en Espana!
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2005
1
19
149
Trip End
May 22, 2006
Madrid,
Spain
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
We had to get off the plane in Barcelona and then re-board. This was a good stretch for the legs. Breakfast on the plane was simple and before we knew it, we were descending into Madrid.
We took the metro into the city center and quickly found our pre-booked hostel. We're staying at Los Amigos Opera location. It is a simple and extremely clean place. We have a double bed! What a treat! Our room is spacious enough with a lot of space to lock up our bags.
We had a quick lunch in Plaza Opera (2 seconds from our hostel) and returned back to the hostel for a short nap. 2 hours later, we awoke. Okay, we were still pretty groggy so I'm not sure if "awoke" is the correct term. We knew that if we slept anymore we'd never sleep at night.
We decided to take the map and just walk around and see what we could find, familiarize ourselves with the surrounding neighbourhoods, and get a feel for Spain. We accidentally fell upon what looks like the Fifth Avenue of Madrid: Gran Via. We spent some time in a huge bookstore and then continued on our way. A bit further down this street, we stopped in at the local McDs to check out what is the local addition to the menu. It was pretty much the same except that the interior was by far the most fancy of any McDonald's we've ever seen! Truly, the walls and ceiling were all gold inlaid with all sorts of fancy architectural additions. It looked like the interior of a fancy hotel in Canada. There was even McCafe. Yup, McD's version of Starbucks has special coffees and all sorts of yummy deserts. We may have to check that out later in the week.
We continued our journey and were pleasantly surprised at how clean and organized the city is. At one point, while looking down a street with a beautiful wide, green boulevard, Gerald mentioned that Madrid was much nicer and appealing that he was expecting. Same goes for me. It is a pretty city. We walked down a very wide boulevard (about 50 yards or so) called Paseo de Recoletos. The boulevard contained a playground and a few mezzas, pretty little patio bars with wrought iron chairs and tables. We came across Plaza Santa Domingo, the beautiful Banco de Espana, the national library, Plaza de Cibeles, numerous fountains, and the Plaza de Colon.
That's where we found the local Hard Rock Café. As many of you know, Gerald and I have collected Hard Rock glasses from all of the cities that we've visited. We've picked up Paris, Hurghada, and Sharm El Sheikh so far (will get Cairo in April). We decided to treat ourselves to dinner and a beer. Actually, the prices here are very reasonable compared to the others we've been to on this trip. We walked away completely stuffed with the Hard Rock pilsner glass in tow.
We retraced our steps for a while and then decided to continue on in a different direction to get us back to the hostel. It was now about 7pm and the streets were packed with people, some tourists mixing in with some local people. Puerto del Sol (another square) was bustling and we continued home on Arsenal. Shops, shops and shops. Tons of shoe stores! Most of them had amazing sales on the most colourful leather flip flops you've ever seen. All of my Bermudian colleagues would have gone nuts!
We made it back by about 8:30, checked our email, organized ourselves and hit the hay. What we appreciated most about our day was that we never once had any taxi drivers honk at us and hassle us. All of the shop keepers stayed in their shops and didn't hassle us to come in. Not one person came up to us to try to sell us something. Aaaah...what a break.
