Spain Holidays: Tips on holidays in Spain

By admin, 1 year and 5 months ago

Spain Holidays 2010 - September 5, Sunday – Madrid

Day 8 of Spain Holidays 2010 - September 5, Sunday – Madrid

8:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

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Breakfast at NH Arguelles Hotel, Madrid

9:00 Packed our luggage. Checked out at the reception and left the bags in the hotel's storage room (we emailed the hotel before booking to confirm that this option was available).

9:20 The online trip planning tool gave us two option to get to the Ventas Plaza de Toros – by bus and be metro. Both offered similar time to get there, so with greater experience with the metro we selected the metro option – Line 2 from Canal to Ventas (13 stops, but the time on the metro runs fast…).

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Ventas Plaza de Toros (Bull-Fighting Ring), Madrid

9:50 Arrived at Ventas metro station , then short walk to Plaza de Toros. According to the online information (http://www.las-ventas.com/prensa/taurotour/ingles.pdf) the guided tour was to start at 10:00, but we were told to wait a little – they didn't even start to sell to tickets for the guided tour. Finally, they started to sell the tickets about 10:20 and around 10:30 the guide took us inside. There were quite a few people participating in the tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and she spoke in English very fast. This was a very memorable experience to visit this world's most famous bullfighting ring. Incredible atmosphere! Our visit to Spain wouldn't be complete without Plaza de Toros…

11:40 Metro Line 2 from Ventas to Goya (2 stops) and from Goya to Velazquez (1 stop). We hoped to do some shopping between the Velazquez metro station and Plaza de Colon – at streets like: Calle de Goya, Calle de Velazquez, Calle de Serrano. Unfortunately, almost all of the stores were closed as it was Sunday. Some (very few) were starting to open at 12:00. Still, at least we did some window-shopping at such top-class stores as: Loewe (leather goods), Cortefiel (fashion) and found Manolo Blahnik's (super-expensive shoes) «outlet».

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Plaza de Colon, Madrid

12:30 Plaza de Colon – statue of Columbus, monument to Columbus - Jardines del Descrubimiento - Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid – the twin Torres de Colón.

12:50 Back at Plaza del Callao. Took metro Line 4 from Colon to Alonso Martinez (1 stop) and Line 5 from there to Callao (3 stops). More shopping at Calle de Preciados and around Plaza Sol (13:10)

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Shopping at Calle de Preciados, Madrid

13:10 Metro Line 2 from Sol to Canal (6 stops). Short walk to the hotel. Picked up the luggage (13:40). Changed clothes for the plane trip in the hotel's basement washroom.

14:00 Took the luggage to the Canal metro station. Line 7 to Avenida de America (3 stops) and from there Line 9 to Colombia (3 stops). Finally, Line 8 from Colombia to Barajas – the Madrid Airport.

15:20 Check-in for Air Transat's flight TS949. Had something to eat, did duty-free shopping, sent postcards, etc.