Madrid

2 am in Madrid, and the party is just… getting… started. We arrived at our first stop with little in the way of problems: our flights were all on time, our bags were there, and the Madrid Metro was fast and easy to navigate. Got in at around 4pm in time to check-in and wander around the streets trying to stay awake. Supposedly there was a Championship League finals match between Barcelona and Manchester United going on that night… It would have been nice to check out but we didn’t quite make it that far into the night. All we heard were cars honking their horns down the street later that night: an apparent tribute to the victor (still not sure who won!).

Ana booked us a place on Gran Via just outside the Chueca district: a pretty sweet location that was quiet enough but still central to lots of locations. The room was small (tiny!) but good enough for our purposes. We didn’t spend a lot of time there.

Madrid (centro at least) is a really easy city to visit. Walking around here is no problem, taking maybe 30min to cross from one end of the city to the other. We’re not really big museum buffs, so we mostly walked around town, soaking in the atmosphere of the plazas, parks, and people walking around. Each of our 4 nights in Madrid went something like this:

1. wake up around 11am, pack a lunch
2. get some coffee, maybe a snack
3. walk around town, head for a park or plaza and picnic
4. unroll jacket in said park/plaza and nap for a hour or two
5. back to room, check email and such
6. cocktail in room (we brought our own Bourbon)
7. head out for dinner around 10pm
8. head out to the bars around 12am
9. head home after too much drinking

Sure, we saw the Prado as well, but that was just window dressing on the real thing to do in Madrid: Party! If I could give one piece of advice for someone traveling to Madrid it would be to not bother planning anything in the morning. There’s really no need. No one is awake and all the action in the city happens at night. Picture the most crowded part of any city and then imagine that for all of downtown at 2am in the morning. That’s Madrid on a Saturday night. Old couples are still strolling down the street, kids are playing outside, and everyone else is at a bar or cafe socializing… And there are lots of bars. By default, any restaurant converts into a bar after a certain time of night. Nice.

The other thing I would recommend here is to go to the Parque del Retiro to hang out. The parks here are spectacular, and everyone seems to use them extensively. Just find a shady spot and bring a book or magazine along.

Some cool things I found out in the last few days:

• London Heathrow has a booking terminal inside the security area, so we were able to check our bags all the way through to Madrid… even without a boarding pass. saved us a lot of hassle.
• Almost all of central Madrid can be traveled by foot, so it really didn’t matter where we stayed.
• Schwab is the BEST financial provider for traveling abroad. We’ve been double checking our ATM and Visa cards, and all of the advertisements are correct: no foreign transaction fees or percentages. No ATM withdrawal fees. Always give the latest exchange rate… and 2% cash back!
• For some reason, chuck taylors and slip-on Vans are back in style. How come no one told me?
• If you can wait until 6pm, the Prado has free admission.

Pictures are coming up soon…

Tags: Madrid,Prado,Retiro