Monday, October 25th
 |
| This plaque marks the exact middle of Spain! |
The train ride last night was such a great experience. We
were all able to get a little sleep and had a great time in our little Harry
Potter compartment. We arrived in Madrid at 7:21 on the dot (so nice to be in a
place that is so punctual-Italy is awful in this respect!) and hopped on the
metro towards our hotel. By this time, we’re kind of metro masters so what
could have been a stressful situation (transferring three different metro
lines), was totally under control. We got off the metro and followed the
directions to our hostel. We checked in and were able to put all our bags in
our room, before exploring Madrid for the day. We are staying in a 6 person
room, and the other girls in our room arrived at the same time as us. They are
from Denmark and were also traveling around Spain on their break. They were so
sweet and their English was great! It was so much fun talking to them about our
different adventures.
 |
| Churros and Chocolate! Yumm! |
We found out there was a free tour of Madrid provided by our
hotel that met in the main Plaza at 11:00, so we decided to go explore a bit
before the tour. We stopped in a couple shops and then went to a churro
restaurant that is recommended in every book as a “must try”. They serve HUGE
churros and each person gets their own huge cup of thick chocolate to dip the
churros in. It was so delicious and filling! After this, we met our tour group
in the Plaza.
 |
| Me in front of the royal palace! |
We had a three-hour tour of the city, with our tour guide
Tom (what a cutie!). The tour included: Museums, famous facts, the royal
palace, a huge beautiful park, and a great history of Madrid. It was BY FAR the
best tour I’ve had so far in Europe. Tom was about 25-years-old, with a
completely adorable accent, and had so much information! He had some great
one-liners and totally geared his tour towards our age group. So much fun, and
it was free!
 |
| The largest bank in Madrid. I wish the banks in the U.S. looked like this! |
 |
| Tom, our adorable tour guide! Had to get a picture! :) |
After the tour, we found a great Tai Restaurant and I had a
taste of my new favorite, delicious, out of this world, food; Pad Tai!
Ahhhhhhh! So yummy! Hollandale may need to get a Tai Restaurant! After lunch,
we wandered around a bit, finding some amazing city views, a huge beautiful
cathedral, and some ancient ruins. For dinner, our hostel recommended a
restaurant famous for their flamenco dancing, so we went back, got a little
dressed up, and headed to towards the restaurant. I’m glad they mentioned that
you must make a reservation days in advance to get in (there was a full page waiting list!). After trying
to pay off the hostess (in Spanish), we decided to give up on the idea of seeing
Flamenco in Spain and head to another eating destination. After having some
delicious Paella, we decided we were completely exhausted from a long day of
touring and ready for some sleep in our floral, stiff, hostel accommodations.
We went to bed, excited for all the great sights we saw, considering we spend
only a day in Madrid. A great accomplishment, but very tiring!
*Note to self: In Spain, most museums and tourist
attractions close down on Mondays. If we had known this, we would have
scheduled Madrid for a different day. There are so many great museums and
artifacts to see (especially the Prado), so if you’re ever traveling in Spain,
keep that in mind!
No comments:
Post a Comment