Yesterday was a light travel day. We had the oil changed in Toledo before heading North up to Madrid. It was only about 60 miles, so we had plenty of time to get there. The campground in Madrid was easy to find, although it is old and not really in the “best” neighborhood. It is located right next to one of the many freeways and it seems like the only one that the big trucks use. To say its quiet is not quite telling the whole story, although we haven’t had any trouble sleeping. Wake up time was just after 8am, so after a shower we headed over to the main road to catch a bus that would take us to the metro. Between the traffic and ALL the construction, the bus ride took us about 45 minutes instead of the prescribed 20. I know, why would we (I) be watching a clock??? Force of habit… We rode the bus to the end of the line and then went across one of the many streets and with a little luck, we found the metro. Madrid has many parks and plazas, but the only one we had interest in this morning was “Puerta del Sol”. Fortunately it was easy. The Puerta del Sol has a plaque in the street that indicates the starting point for all the kilometer (mileage) markers throughout the country. All roads start here… Our first stop was to find breakfast…a “Madrid” breakfast…a cup of THICK Hot Chocolate and a serving of Churros. After the chocolate “high”, we headed out to see the sites. First the Plaza Mayor, a large plaza that is surrounded with a 3 story building from the 1600’s. I’m sure it is normally very nice, but right now, there is a large building project going on taking up the whole plaza. We think it has something to do with Christmas, but right now it’s an eyesore. Our next stop, the Palacio Real. The books tell us that this is one of the 3 most beautiful Palaces in Europe. Construction started in the early 1700’s, and took over 25 years to build. It is large… As we didn’t have a formal invitation, we just wondered up to the door and knocked…”sorry, today we are not seeing commoners, we are having a “private royal party and your invitation got lost””. OK, we’ll take our time elsewhere. Across town (30 minute walk) is Madrid’s version of Louver, and we were ready to spend the rest of the day there. We did enjoy the “Prado” and all it’s wonderful collections, although I must admit, after a full day of looking at all this art I’m not too sure I am ready to spend another 10 minutes doing the same for a while. This morning we purchased a 10 ride ticket for the bus/metro that would give us about a 50% discount on these rides. Going back to the campground, we were told about a secondary option to get back. This would be a train ride for about 15 minutes and then a bus ride right to the front door of the campground. Well, because we were closer to the train station from the Prado, we headed off to catch our train. When we went to go through the turnstiles, we had a little difficulty, but finally it worked…we were on our way. A funny thing happened after we arrived at our destination…we had to put our ticket through the gates again to get out, but the machine wouldn’t take it… Finally a lady a few years our senior, came up and motioned to us to sneak through with her on her ticket…it was tight, but all three of us made it chuckling all the way. As it turned out, our bargain tickets were for the bus and metro system in the “city” only… Well, live and learn, just so we stay out of jail.
23 November ’05, Wednesday.
Yesterday was a light travel day. We had the oil changed in Toledo before heading North up to Madrid. It was only about 60 miles, so we had plenty of time to get there. The campground in Madrid was easy to find, although it is old and not really in the “best” neighborhood. It is located right next to one of the many freeways and it seems like the only one that the big trucks use. To say its quiet is not quite telling the whole story, although we haven’t had any trouble sleeping. Wake up time was just after 8am, so after a shower we headed over to the main road to catch a bus that would take us to the metro. Between the traffic and ALL the construction, the bus ride took us about 45 minutes instead of the prescribed 20. I know, why would we (I) be watching a clock??? Force of habit… We rode the bus to the end of the line and then went across one of the many streets and with a little luck, we found the metro. Madrid has many parks and plazas, but the only one we had interest in this morning was “Puerta del Sol”. Fortunately it was easy. The Puerta del Sol has a plaque in the street that indicates the starting point for all the kilometer (mileage) markers throughout the country. All roads start here… Our first stop was to find breakfast…a “Madrid” breakfast…a cup of THICK Hot Chocolate and a serving of Churros. After the chocolate “high”, we headed out to see the sites. First the Plaza Mayor, a large plaza that is surrounded with a 3 story building from the 1600’s. I’m sure it is normally very nice, but right now, there is a large building project going on taking up the whole plaza. We think it has something to do with Christmas, but right now it’s an eyesore. Our next stop, the Palacio Real. The books tell us that this is one of the 3 most beautiful Palaces in Europe. Construction started in the early 1700’s, and took over 25 years to build. It is large… As we didn’t have a formal invitation, we just wondered up to the door and knocked…”sorry, today we are not seeing commoners, we are having a “private royal party and your invitation got lost””. OK, we’ll take our time elsewhere. Across town (30 minute walk) is Madrid’s version of Louver, and we were ready to spend the rest of the day there. We did enjoy the “Prado” and all it’s wonderful collections, although I must admit, after a full day of looking at all this art I’m not too sure I am ready to spend another 10 minutes doing the same for a while. This morning we purchased a 10 ride ticket for the bus/metro that would give us about a 50% discount on these rides. Going back to the campground, we were told about a secondary option to get back. This would be a train ride for about 15 minutes and then a bus ride right to the front door of the campground. Well, because we were closer to the train station from the Prado, we headed off to catch our train. When we went to go through the turnstiles, we had a little difficulty, but finally it worked…we were on our way. A funny thing happened after we arrived at our destination…we had to put our ticket through the gates again to get out, but the machine wouldn’t take it… Finally a lady a few years our senior, came up and motioned to us to sneak through with her on her ticket…it was tight, but all three of us made it chuckling all the way. As it turned out, our bargain tickets were for the bus and metro system in the “city” only… Well, live and learn, just so we stay out of jail.
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