Things to do in Madrid Essential Summer Guide
I was fortunate enough to have two great friends come to visit this past weekend in Madrid. Having friends visit is always a great excuse to be a total tourist for a few days and go on a day trip to Toledo. Sometimes living abroad one can forget to do all the fun travel stuff, we get tied up in our day-to-day routines and forget that there is life outside the city we live in.
At first, my friend Kenny had Facebooked me to ask about going to Seville for the day, I told him on short notice how expensive it could be and that a two-hour and 45 minute train ride does not make a great day trip, not bad but very tiring as I have done it before. So I suggested we go to Toledo, 33 minutes on the Avant train from Atocha station. Bought on-line, printed the tickets, less than 20 euros a piece and we were good to go. Taking the train in my opinion is the only way to go. Train pluses: 33 minutes, toilet on board, leg room, you can take a quick nap if necessary and you can drink all you want. Train drawback: tourists. If you go in a car it’s over an hours drive and returning Sunday evening there is bound to be some traffic and you better not have more than one glass of wine at lunch! We took a 10:50 train and had gotten to the center of town via taxi (3.65 euro) by 11:45. Sunday had started snowy but by the time we got there it was clear blue skies and not too many tourists although it was a bit heavy on the Italian representation.
Let me just say I LOVE my iPhone map! It really is great tool for not wasting time getting lost or arguing which way to go, granted getting lost can be fun on a trip but not when you have limited time and want to have a totally stress free day of relax. I whipped out the iPhone and we casually headed for the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes.It makes for great pictures here as its full of light as opposed to the Cathedral which is very beautiful but I have seen hundreds of Cathedrals in my time.
After the monastery we decided to walk the south side of town, beautiful views and we were so happy to have the warm sun. Spending the day in a museum was not on the list as it was not outside. We wound our way by the Sinogoga Santa Maria Blanca, then the Real Fundacion de Toledo and cut through Cuesta de San Justo and ended up an out-of-the-way terrace overlooking the Hospital and the Parador de Toledo. There we parked it to have a drink and some lunch. The terrace was obviously new, fairly modern, but to my surprise had plenty of friendly young staff. They were enough so that they could attend everyone properly, a rarity in Spain. We had some wine and a tapa….it was good enough to stay for lunch and know its good when most of the customers there are Spaniards. We spent a good hour and half or so enjoying the wine and sun before we went in search of coffee and sweets.
At the main plaza there is a bakery that had these delicious little pastry almondy cookie things that Kenny and Wayne went crazy for. It’s an almond butter cookie with an angel hair jam in the center that is made from the pulp of a Siam pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia). Highly recommend it! By this time we were ready to head back to the train station, with plenty of time we walked over the foot bridge and down to the train station. I’m glad we got there early, it gave us time to really look at the station. It was opened in 1916 and is filled stained glass and islamic patterns in the ceiling and wall tiles. The people watching was pretty good too!
We got on the train, quick cat nap all around and before I knew it I was home on my sofa no less than an hour later!
Definitely a good day!
March, 2011 I was fortunate enough to have two great friends come to visit this past weekend in Madrid. Having friends visit is always a great excuse to be a total tourist for a few days. Sometimes living abroad one can forget to do all the fun travel stuff, we get tied up in our day to day routines and forget that there is life outside the city we live in.
At first, my friend Kenny had facebooked me to ask about going to Seville for the day, I told him on short notice how expensive it could be and that a two hour and 45 minute train ride does not make a great day trip, not bad but very tiring as I have done it before. So I suggested we go to Toledo, 33 minutes on the Avant train from Atocha station. Bought on-line, printed the tickets, less than 20 euros a piece and we were good to go. Taking the train in my opinion is the only way to go. Train pluses: 33 minutes, toilet on board, leg room, you can take a quick nap if necessary and you can drink all you want. Train drawback: tourists. If you go in a car it’s over an hours drive and returning Sunday evening there is bound to be some traffic and you better not have more than one glass of wine at lunch! We took a 10:50 train and had gotten to the center of town via taxi (3.65 euro) by 11:45. Sunday had started snowy but by the time we got there it was clear blue skies and not too many tourists although it was a bit heavy on the Italian representation.
Let me just say I LOVE my iPhone map! It really is great tool for not wasting time getting lost or arguing which way to go, granted getting lost can be fun on a trip but not when you have limited time and want to have a totally stress free day of relax. I whipped out the iPhone and we casually headed for the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes.It makes for great pictures here as its full of light as opposed to the Cathedral which is very beautiful but I have seen hundreds of Cathedrals in my time.
After the monastery we decided to walk the south side of town, beautiful views and we were so happy to have the warm sun. Spending the day in a museum was not on the list as it was not outside. We wound our way by the Sinogoga Santa Maria Blanca, then the Real Fundacion de Toledo and cut through Cuesta de San Justo and ended up an out-of-the-way terrace overlooking the Hospital and the Parador de Toledo. There we parked it to have a drink and some lunch. The terrace was obviously new, fairly modern, but to my surprise had plenty of friendly young staff. They were enough so that they could attend everyone properly, a rarity in Spain. We had some wine and a tapa….it was good enough to stay for lunch and know its good when most of the customers there are Spaniards. We spent a good hour and half or so enjoying the wine and sun before we went in search of coffee and sweets.
At the main plaza there is a bakery that had these delicious little pastry almondy cookie things that Kenny and Wayne went crazy for. It’s an almond butter cookie with an angel hair jam in the center that is made from the pulp of a Siam pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia). Highly recommend it! By this time we were ready to head back to the train station, with plenty of time we walked over the foot bridge and down to the train station. I’m glad we got there early, it gave us time to really look at the station. It was opened in 1916 and is filled stained glass and islamic patterns in the ceiling and wall tiles. The people watching was pretty good too!
We got on the train, quick cat nap all around and before I knew it I was home on my sofa no less than an hour later!
Definitely a good day!
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