Travel: Madrid, Spain

As soon as school ended, I left for a trip to Spain organized by my school. We visited six cities in Spain, but this post is only about the first city, Madrid. The posts about the other cities will follow. We landed in Madrid airport and went to our hotel immediately. The room reminded me more of a hostel than a hotel room because it had a kitchenette and even a washing machine and dryer. The accommodation was very comfortable. After freshening up, we went out to explore with the other groups. We first went to "El Plaza Mayor" which roughly translates to "The Grand Plaza".  It was huge and very pretty. After eating dinner, we returned to the hotel and slept. Still tired and jet lagged, we woke up early the next day and hopped on a bus to go on a photo tour of Madrid. The bus took us to the third largest bull fighting arena, Real Madrid's soccer stadium, Miguel De Cervantes's statue, and an Egyptian temple that overlooked the city. After this, we were dropped off at the Royal Palace where we toured the inner rooms. We were also given time to explore the armory which had weapons from yesteryear. After the royal palace we stopped for lunch, and then we were back to exploring. The next stop was the Prado museum of art which featured some beautiful artwork. However, I am not one who really enjoys art, so I spent my time walking around for the most part with some of the other members of my tour group. That evening, we went to a tapas bar that was at the top of a building. We had a great view and enjoyed some amazing food. We concluded our day by walking around the busy city center and visiting the busy "Mercado de San Miguel" (Market of Saint Miguel). We took the metro back to the hotel that night. The next morning, we had  the day to ourselves to explore the wonderful city. We however, decided to go to a neighboring city called Toledo, which will be the subject of the next travel post.

A quick note on the subject of the Madrid Metro System. In Madrid, the metro was a very useful method of transportation. Unlike in other countries, the metro was clean, straightforward, on time, and easy to use. While the stations weren't spotless, they were, for the most part well maintained and clean. When you enter, one enters a card into the machine, and a base fair is charged regardless on the duration or distance of the trip. The trains were for the most part, on schedule. The longest we had to wait for a train was probably 5-7 minutes. And when there was a delay, announcements and electronic signs displayed the delay. And last, the metro stations were a maze of corridors to get to the platforms (even the small stations were mazes). But one would simply have to find the name of the station they were headed to, then follow the signs to get to the platform. At each turn, two boards would list all of the stations that trains from that platform would go to. One would simply have to turn the right direction. I would highly recommend using the metro.

Stay tuned for more content. Until next time!