Any Madrid experts here?

[weezie]

Possible trip to Madrid-Barcelona in April, AFTER the Final Four in fabulous Indy. Anybody have any serious recommendations re sights, hotels, restaurants in Spain?
Gracias, mi amigos.

[blazindw]

Weezie, I have studied abroad in both Madrid and Barcelona, ran track in Barcelona and have toured most of Spain on several occasions...I can tell you anything you need to know! Just let me know what you're into and I can provide some insight.

[JBDuke]

Y'all please share here, if you don't mind. Spain is a future vacation destination, and I'd love to have suggestions archived on the DBR boards.

[weezie]

Excellent blazin! Got about ten days to play with. Of course the Madrid museums but after that, what else in or near the city? What are the better neighborhoods for hotels? Any awesome restaurants that are not to be missed?
Fast train to Barcelona or do we rent a car? Then, after the Gaudi, what's in Barcelona? Is the weather too much of a gamble in late April/early May?
Should we plan on a night or two at a parador in the countryside? What are the villages like and are any can't miss?
Probably will fly in and out of Madrid since United is starting new service the fares will be pretty cheap. Is Madrid a walking type town like Paris is?

And, what was your track specialty?!

[bjornolf]

I spent a month there on a study abroad program back in high school, so it's been a while. We stayed in Salamanca, but visited Segovia, Avila, La Granja, Pamplona, and Toledo. We also spent the last three days in Madrid. It was pretty amazing. I'd recommend seeing all those myself. They have an amazing cathedral in Toledo, not to mention the swords. Avila is an original city/fortress from the Moor days. Fascinating. We saw the running with the bulls in Pamplona, which was awesome. La Granja was really cool. It was the summer get away for many of the kings of Spain in the old days, so it's beautiful. When we were in Madrid, we visited El Prado art museum, and saw a Flamenco demonstration, which was cool. If you like ice cream, order a "helado de nata" (basically cream flavored ice cream) from a street vendor or ice cream parlor. It's not to be missed.

[OldPhiKap]

Y'all please share here, if you don't mind. Spain is a future vacation destination, and I'd love to have suggestions archived on the DBR boards.

Agreed, Barcelona is on my list.

[blazindw]

Excellent blazin! Got about ten days to play with. Of course the Madrid museums but after that, what else in or near the city? What are the better neighborhoods for hotels? Any awesome restaurants that are not to be missed?
Fast train to Barcelona or do we rent a car? Then, after the Gaudi, what's in Barcelona? Is the weather too much of a gamble in late April/early May?
Should we plan on a night or two at a parador in the countryside? What are the villages like and are any can't miss?
Probably will fly in and out of Madrid since United is starting new service the fares will be pretty cheap. Is Madrid a walking type town like Paris is?

And, what was your track specialty?!

Ok, here are some suggestions for both Madrid and Barcelona. If you are doing a tour of Spain, I would also recommend Toledo (quite close to Madrid and can get there by car or bus very quickly), Salamanca, Valencia, Sevilla, Mallorca/Ibiza (Balearic Islands) and Malaga.

In Madrid, you do not need a car to get around. The Metro is one of the biggest in the world, but also one of the easiest to get around. It's very quick to get to most places in the city. There are tons of Plazas that you can go to, especially Puerta del Sol (nice part of the city with many shops) and Plaza de Cibeles (near a lot of the museums). For the soccer fans, a tour of Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid, is a must-do. You tour the stadium, the museum and get to tour the locker rooms and even sit on the bench...just don't touch the pitch :-).

Also in Madrid, they have a lot of tours of federal buildings since it is the capital of Spain. Also, you can do a bus tour of many of the landmarks, especially the palace where the royal family lives as well as the Parliament building. For those who love open spaces, check out Madrid's most popular park, Parque del Retiro. It's near the Atocha train station, where the 3/11 attacks occurred. There is now a memorial in Retiro to the people who died that day (haven't been to Spain since '03, which was before the attacks). The Real Jardin Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden) is really nice as well.

Other museums you should go to (I went to just about all of them while I was there, as we were studying Spanish art and architecture) include the Museo del Prado, the National Archaeological Museum, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Museum of the Americas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

You should also check out a bullfight while you are there. For that, head to the Plaza de Toros. You can get a poster there with the names of the bullfighters that perform that day you go.

For Madrid, the nightlife is incredible. Most people don't go out until 11pm or so (after a 10pm dinner) and will stay out all night, heading to tapas bars in the morning before heading home. My favorite club is now closed, but Kapital is the megaclub that is there. 6 floors, 5000 people on any given night. It was excellent.

Now, onto Barcelona. Outside of the Gaudi museum, I would highly recommend checking out La Sagrada Familia, the church that is currently being built. It will eventually have 18 spires for each of the 12 Apostles, the 4 Evangelists, the Virgin Mary and Jesus. I believe 8 are built right now, and my hope is that in my lifetime it will be finished so I can return to see it in its completion. You can climb to the top and get breathtaking views of the city. Also, check out the Olympic Park up on Montjuic, the mountain that overlooks the city. You can take a gondola tram up the mountain to see the Olympic Stadium, lots of Gaudi sculptures made for the village, and just walk through the park. Plaza de Catalunya is where you want to go to walk around and find all the shops.

Other places in Barcelona you should see include the statue of Christopher Columbus, the National Museum of Art of Catalonia, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, the Gaudi museum, the Fundacio Joan Miro, the Picasso Museum and Fundacio Antoni Tapies. There's also the Barcelona cathedral, the Palau Nacional (National Palace) and the Santa Maria del Mar church. Finally, a tour of Estadi Nou Camp and the FC Barcelona sports complex.

Barcelona gets to be warm and muggy during the summer months, but not so much in May...usually takes until late June for it to really heat up. Madrid can get surprisingly hot in late May and June, but it's not as muggy as Barcelona. I don't remember any of the restaurants that I ate at (there were so many), but Spanish food is amazing. You cannot go wrong with a little bistec de pollo (chicken steak) or arroz con pollo (rice and chicken) or paella. The paella is better on the coastal cities like Barcelona and Malaga, I've found. Both Barcelona and Madrid are very walkable cities and have reliable metro systems, although Madrid, in my opinion, is much more accessible and easy to get around. You really can't tell sometimes that it's a city of 5 million people!

One thing I do not have a lock on is hotels since I stayed with a Spanish family while abroad and in a hotel far from the Barcelona center with the track team (although it was right on the beach). In Madrid once, I remember staying at a hotel very close to Puerta del Sol, and while I don't remember the name, I do think that's a great area to stay in. You will want to train between the cities, no need for a car. Trains are easy and have many time options.

For a getaway to the countryside, I definitely recommend Andalucia. Very beautiful there, and you can get a villa and have your choice of some of the best wine in the world. For a wild party weekend, there is no place better on planet earth than Mallorca. BCM Nightclub is the 2nd largest club in the world (behind one on Ibiza), and while I was there, for 15 euros, we got admission, free bottle of champagne each, open bar all night, a burberry hat, lots of t-shirts and other swag, and the chance to party with 10,000 of your closest friends. Most fun night I've ever had was in Mallorca.


And, my track specialty was the 100m and 200m. Won gold in the 4x200m relay in Spain and silver in Paris in the 4x100m. Got 4th in Spain in the 100m and 200m (to 3 other Americans on my team).

Hope that helps! Any other questions, please let me know.

[weezie]

Bless you my friend! I'll be studying this more thoroughly in the next few days. Well done; a wonderful outline (you JDs are so good at that ) to begin the planning.
Geez, ten days seems pretty puny doesn't it?

And can I get a "hell, yeah" for our fleet-footed, shall I say "blazin'" dw?!


And ps, did you see the replays of Avila's HR off the roof of the Tampa dome? Good grief!

[blazindw]

Bless you my friend! I'll be studying this more thoroughly in the next few days. Well done; a wonderful outline (you JDs are so good at that ) to begin the planning.
Geez, ten days seems pretty puny doesn't it?

And can I get a "hell, yeah" for our fleet-footed, shall I say "blazin'" dw?!


And ps, did you see the replays of Avila's HR off the roof of the Tampa dome? Good grief!

In 10 days, you can see a lot if you plan it well. The first trip I took to Spain was a 10-day trip and we went to 7 cities, spending 2 days in Madrid and 2 days in Barcelona. One part of Spain I have not been to is the Basque region, Asturias, Galicia and Santander (which I hear is beautiful). I hope to return to Spain soon to see that region of the country.

[bjornolf]

One of the cool things about Salamanca is where we studied, La Universidad de Salamanca. It's the oldest university in Spain, having been founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It was also acknowledged in 1254 by Pope Alexander IV as being one of the four great universities of Europe, along with the universities of Oxford, Paris and Bologna.

One of its walls is a giant relief cut featuring tons of detailed figures. Hidden in it is the frog on a skull, or, la rana as they call it. If you find it, supposedly you are guaranteed academic success. There's a photo of it here:

http://www.spainexchange.com/travel_...lamanca-24.htm

[hurleyfor3]

The Puerta del Sol area has a reputation for pickpocketers and other petty thieves. Worth seeing but no need to spend all your time there. It's Madrid's Times Square or Piccadilly Circus.

The Prado goes up to the 19th Century and the Reina Sofia has all the modern/contemporary stuff, including Guernica, and oodles of Miro works. (There is some controversy about the home of Guernica; briefly, it was promised to always hang in the Prado before modern works got their own museum.) I forget which museum has the Impressionists but that's not what you go to Spain to see. Do not plan on visiting any other museum the same day you hit the Prado. The Thyssen's collection is weaker than the other two museums' but it has an interesting layout and would be the best art museum in any other city than Madrid. It's pronounced "TOO-sun", btw.

We usually ended up eating at tapas bars when we were hungry. Just walk in to any old one; don't worry about finding a "good" one. This was far more fun than some of the allegedly famous restaurants we went to. Get churros and chocolate for breakfast at least once. If you took Spanish as a kid brush up on it; a little bit goes a long way.

Restaurants and bars usually have multiple price lists depending on where you're eating: at the bar, at a table or outside. The "bar" prices are generally quite reasonable. Same food all around. I think most of continental Europe is like this, actually.

The Madrid version of Duke/unc is Real Madrid vs. Athletico. Real is the better team historically. Either way people spontaneously gather in public and burn stuff when their team beats the other, just as duke and unc kids do.

I think weezie is a bit beyond the club scene, but nothing stood out about Madrid. That's what Ibiza's for.

[weezie]

I think weezie is a bit beyond the club scene

Oh you do, do ya'?! Maybe so, but the clubs might have a handicapped ramp I can slide my walker down.
Thanks for the info, though. I'll be studying it along with all of the other very helpful tips here.
You young people are so kind to an old lady. I'll be sure to remember you in my will

[bjornolf]

Things may have changed in Spain in the eighteen odd years since I was there, but when I was there, the clubs weren't all that. Plus, there was a haze of cigarette smoke over the dance floor, and every time I wore a white t-shirt to a club, it was a dingy gray when I left. When I was there, they warned us that 3/4 of the population smoked. I found that the best way to meet people when I had to talk to someone for a school assignment was to buy a decent pack of cigarettes and just carry it around offering people a smoke. Worked wonders for breaking the ice. Like I said, maybe things have changed.