First the on board entertainment (movies) somehow stopped completely in the middle of the flight. Then we had our second meal very late, in fact so late that I was hungry, something which I had never experienced before on an international flight. There were no apologies and no announcements by the captain. I sensed that there was something not right (maybe some power issue) but anyway, we were all very glad that we touched down safely at Madrid Airport in the morning of 1 May. Was this an early warning sign that all was not well on this tour? There were 26 of us in the tour group, including the tour leader. Let's see, 26 = 2 x 13, so two times unlucky?
Since we could only check into the hotel in the afternoon, we started our morning tour of Madrid immediately after our arrival. As today is May Day (1st of May), it was a public holiday and some part of the city is closed for their May Day rally. Thus we could not enter the main city area and our first stop was at the bull ring, Plaza de Torros. It was rather chilly that morning, about 15 degress Celsius.
Some asked about attending a bull fight but Rome was not too enthusiastic about arranging one, citing the high costs involved. Later I found out that it was quite cheap for a bull-fight ticket (just a few Euros), so don't believe everything the tour leader tell you but she probably had her reasons to discourage us.
Next stop was the dream of all football fans, to the stadium Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid FC.
We then went to Plaza de Colon and the main attraction is the square dedicated to Christopher Columbus on the discovery of the New World.
The hard Rock cafe was just across the road and most of the ladies in our tour landed there as they were more interested to buy souvenirs here than hear the story of Columbus landing in the New World.
Our next stop was the Plaza de Espana where there is a monument that commemorates Cervantes, the Spanish author of Don Quixote. (Do you know that Cervantes share the same death date as Shakespeare on April 23, 1616?)
We even found Don Quixote and Sancho Panza wondering around the square too!
This is a short walk to the Plaza de Oriente where there is a bronze statue of King Felipe IV.
What's this, another sculpture? The headless torso?
The Royal Palace or Palacio Real is just next to this square and this is one of the tourist attractions of Madrid.
As it was a public holiday, there were not much traffic on the road so we could move around quite quickly but then Madrid looks strangely deserted without the crowds. So it will be good to check if any public holidays fall within your tour period as some sites may be closed or not accessible at those days.
After our tour we checked into our hotel (Velada Madrid) which was modern and pleasant.
Since it was free time after lunch, we had our own walk around near the hotel. As usual, we looked for mineral water and some snacks. We found a convenient store (like a small 7-11) that was ran by a Chinese immigrant who spoke Spanish. In fact we found several stores along the street ran by Chinese so they are really all over the place and while other shops were closed for the holidays, they were opened.
We had a good rest after our dinner to recover from our jet lag as we were also very tired after the tour that came so soon after the long flight. This wasn't the best arrangement but I suppose they have to maximise the touring time to fit in with the available flight schedule. The best arrangement was the one I had in Vienna the previous tour where we arrived at night and had a good night's rest before we went on tour the next day. That's another story.
Ronald Kwok
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