This Post is the sequel to Budget trip to Barcelona. Madrid is another city which is expensive for my type of blood. I hope this post will stir more young people to visit Madrid.
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Moving from Barcelona to Madrid
Here’s a thing, Easyjet (the poor man’s planes) doesn’t fly from Barcelona to Madrid. There’s this super fast Rail service that travels from Barcelona to Madrid in a very short amount of time but it is bloody expensive, around Euro 150 – Euro 200 which relatively a few times more expensive than the France-Barcelona flight.
So, instead of travel super fast + costly, we decided to take the midnight train, the trip took more than 9 hours and it cost around Euro 50 per person. By doing this, we can save one night hotel money in Spain. haha…
The economy class was quite ok… if there’s no one else in your unit.
The next day, we arrived Madrid at 7:30, Madrid was really quiet in the morning. As compared to French, I think Spanish are not morning people.
Our first place to visit in Madrid is..
Plaza Mayor
The best known plaza in Madrid, this impressive square is now one of the main stops on any tourist visit. Originally built outside the city walls, this square has played host to bullfights, markets, symphonies, tournaments and executions. The statue of Felipe III sits in the middle across from the beautifully painted Casa de la Panadería, the former headquarters of the bakers guild. One of the access to the square is Arco de Cuchilleros, beautiful stairs down. Near Plaza Mayor, is Mercado San Miguel (Saint Michael Market), built in 1913 and full of a wide range of high quality food.
There’s one interesting new-old market adjacent to Plaza Mayor
MERCADO DE SAN MICUEL
Mercado de San Miguel is a recently refurbished old concept market, it covers a wide variety of groceries and nice delicacies. It was still early when we arrived Mercado de San Miguel. People were setting up their stores.
Lot’s of fresh fruits..
Salty bacon..
and wine..
I set my self a Rebujito, It was my first sip of liquid after the long night in the train. taste like heaven…
Mercado de San Miguel is actually a very interesting place to visit, I will highlight more about this at the latter part of this post.
We came to the Royal Palace of Madrid, but didn’t enter.
Spanish start their meals rather late. I think their daily lifestyle is 2 hours delayed than the rest of the people on earth. You can look for the cheaper food in most of the restaurants if you have early meals.
Somewhere the National Archeology Musuems
and visited Madrid Hard Rock Cafe
Visited the Golden (art) Museum Triangle
I’m not really a art lover, this kind of places will bore you dead… sigh…
Visited the Largest Park of Madrid in El Retiro with nice weather
and nice pic with pipi
People in Madrid don’t need to Sleep at night!
We participated in one of the mega-midnight-ball-fight!
This was the scene before the Ball-Fight started, The balls were prepared and everyone was waiting around the plaza.
Nice Plaza decorated with lot’s of Balls
Then everyone started,
Including Pipi =)
Playgrounds were built in the middle of the most happening street Grand Via in Madrid at Midnight!
With constructions materials…
WIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Hello! hello!
Then….
Morning Market at La Latina!
Can shop for various types of antics
Breakfast at the market!
Interesting performance
A visit to Real Madrid FC =)
The tour was a bit too expensive for us, haha
Pipi was trying to look for Christiano Ronaldo in the shower room
Going back to Mercado de San Miguel in the afternoon definitely open up your appetite!
Lot’s of Spanish seafood,
and Tapas =)
1 Euro per piece yum yum =)
and some nice Sangria in the hot afternoon will cheer you up for sure =)
Some stunning people doing some MTV outside the Catheral
A magnificent view at Templo de Debod in the evening
dinner seafood + Spanish beer
Enjoyed the so called ” beer-tarik” beer fountains, it utilized the gravity to create the splash and enhance its flavour
Nice Seafood
and nice bread to chew with
Well.. not that kind of Black Forrest.
