JennWire: Madrid

The journey to Spain was pretty rough. Flight from JFK to Heathrow, shuttle to Gatwick, 4 hour layover, then flight to Madrid. This was pretty much the only highlight-- shots of the English countryside on our way into Heathrow.

British clouds

River Thames and The London Eye

El Hotel Regente...great location on the Gran Via in MADRID (not London, we just flew into London for our connecting flight).

We slept the whole first night we got in but then hit the ground running via the Madrid Vision bus tour the following day. The best part of it was the audio.

First up was the historic route. This is The Temple de Debod. Jess is a genius and pointed out that it looks a lot like The Temple of Dendur we saw at The Met.

It was scorching hot.

We walked around the adorable little park next door. That's The Palacio Real in the background.

Catedral de la Almudena. It's a Catholic cathedral that faces The Palacio Real.

This is the official residence of the King of Spain known as The Palacio Real. The royal family doesn't actually live there.

You need to pay to go past this gate.

Plaza de Oriente

Words can't describe the heat, but we toughed it out and stayed on the upper deck for the better view.

Puerto de Toledo

I loved the area around the Plaza Mayor. So cute with all its windy streets and little shops.

The Plaza Mayor. Note the singer, bassist, and accordian player in the middle.

You can only snap shots like this in Europe.

Puerta del Sol

Museo del Prado

random building behind the museum

The main park for the city of Madrid, El Retiro.

These stood out. I don't know if they are permanent or not?

We took a picture and then this guy asked for money. I think Page gave him some change. Lesson learned!

Plaza de la Independencia

Plaza de Colon (Christopher Columbus statue) and the Biblioteca Nacional in the background.

Palacio de Communicaciones

At this point, we hopped off the red historic line and got onto the blue modern line. You'll notice a definite change in the buildings. We were so hot and exhausted at this point that we didn't bother to actually get off at any of the stops.

The left building is known as Torre Picasso. It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki who also designed the twin towers of the WTC.

The home of the Real Madrid futbol team.

Look at the little cars!

gas prices in euros

Back to the city center. More old skool buildings.

Famous hotel in the Plaza de la Cortes.

Madrid 2016?

We went out to get dinner and ended up in a club before we could get food. Free passes and free bags?

vodka soda with limon, por favor

shanghai club

weird wall mural in the bathroom

The lighting reminded me of Tryst.

Domingoooooooo!!!

Protest outside of our hotel. I don't know even know what they were protesting about because I can't read the signs. Did I mention I speak and understand absolutely zero Spanish?

Trying out the Metro.

It was fantastic! Clean, speedy, easy to navigate! Best we've tried yet...and we are becoming metro pros!

Buying our bullfighting tickets.

Macro setting again.

Lunchin at the nearby cafe.

giant lollipops at VIPS

our refrigerator

back on the metro for the bullfight

more statue pics

So I was admiring this...

And then these policemen on horseback strode past. Looks like the cops are hotter in Europe, huh Keani? :p

hi!

There were a lot more people this time around. Good thing we bought our tix early!

Another pic with yet another statue.

My 5 euro silhouette shirt!! Best purchase of the trip so far!

We had to wait to go in between fights.

Page bought a fan!

So you can buy seats in the shade or in the sun. The seats in the shade are more expensive, but we decided to splurge. Actually, not really because we still chose the cheapest section and ended up in the last row of the stadium.

Still a good view! I don't think I could've handled watching this from any closer anyway. Here is a sequence of shots to get an idea of what it was like. I have much more graphic pics/video that I won't post, but lmk if you're interested in seeing them!