Spain - June 2010

Mad Dash to Madrid

The Guinness

It was all a bit rushed having arranged this trip at short notice and only having a day in Madrid. It’s amazing what you can do with a little iTouch and WiFi access. I’d managed to book two hotels, look up trains and have a brief look at Guinness outlets, all before I’d left Andorra. On arriving in Madrid though things were different. As I interspersed the sightseeing with tracking down a pub serving Guinness it quickly became apparent that there were a lot of ex-Irish pubs around that had either now shut down or no longer selling the black stuff. I eventually found one open.

Much relieved after finding a Guinness at the Triskel Tavern

Wendy kindly pours me another before picking out my next destination - Oslo. 

 That should do nicely for a summer holiday!

Getting There and around

From Andorra I took the coach back to Barcelona and then jumped on the new high-speed train to Madrid. It wasn’t cheap but it certainly saved making a return trip at a later date. And a great train journey it was too gradually getting more arid as we approached Madrid.

The Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) high speed trains modelled on a duck?

Team Makeup

A solo effort on this trip.

Accommodation

I failed to find room in any of the hostels at such short notice so ended up at the Aristos Hotel on Avda Pio XII.

Don Quixote I do believe.

Food

Such was the brevity of my trip that I ended up eating snacks rather than a traditional Spanish meal.

Those lions must be well trained to pull a chariot.

Sightseeing highlights

Lots of classic architecture and wide boulevards lined with state buildings and shops.

Plaza de Cibeles with the Cibeles fountain built in 1777 which depicts the roman goddess of nature in a chariot pulled by two lions.

The Callao cinema art deco building with its curved corner built in 1928.

The very impressive Royal Palace, Palacio de Oriente and nearby ornamental gardens built in the 1750s.

Plaza Mayor, a giant old square, teeming with people

Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium.

Quirky moments

Not realising that Madrid is Europe’s third largest capital city behind London and Berlin. No wonder I kept getting lost.

The architecture of the Atocha railway station itself was also impressive as was the atrium complete with indoor tropical botanical garden, pool and turtles, some of them pretty large.