Date of Visit: 10 - 11 September 2011
Bienvenido a España! We are in Madrid!!! Walking into the city, it felt completely different from Rome. This is a city that is very clean, tidy and orderly. Much like Singapore. All the buildings seems clean, though they are not new. And the streets are washed every morning. Not bad at all I say.
We stayed on the main street, called the Gran Via. It's filled with restaurants and shops along the sides of this huge boulevard. It's nice to look at the architecture of the buildings while walking down the Gran Via. All the buildings look so nice!
On the first day, we stumbled across this nice church while on the way to the Prado museum. Or rather, we reached the Prado Museum at 1730 and realised that it's free entry from 1800 onwards, so we walked around the neighborhood a bit.
We walked into the church, and guess what, someone was having their wedding there. I managed to catch some photos of them coming down the church steps. Nice way to start the Spain leg of our trip.
Our accommodation does not come with breakfast, so we asked our host what do spanish people normally eat for breakfast. And here's the answer: Hot Chocolate with Churros. Churros are basically thinner versions of you-tiao, and we have to dip it in the cup of thick chocolate. The churros will soak up all the chocolate and when you bite, all the sinful chocolate will just explode in your mouth. The chocolate is so thick that the spoon can be rested on it.
A famous place to go to is Plaza Mayor. It's a nice square in the middle of the city, which was used as a marketplace in the olden days.
Spain is still a country ruled under a monarchy, much like the UK. However, I guess they attract much less media attention than their UK counterparts. So here's their palace, looked a little like Buckingham Palace in my opinion.
We wandered about the city and found this ancient Egyptian Temple. Apparently it was donated to Spain by Egypt. Donated... lol.
On our second day, we saw police closing down roads in the city. And it's all the major roads that were closed. We wondered what was going on, but we found the answer shortly after, it's the final leg of the 2011 Vuelta Espana competition, something like the Tour de France. The competition has a huge entourage, with the police vehicles in the front clearing the way, though the roads are already closed, then the leaders will pass by, followed shortly by the main body of cyclists, and then a huge train of support vehicles. Pretty lucky to be there to see them during our stay.
We can't resist making use of the chance to take a photo in the middle of Gran Via, since the roads are all closed.
Bienvenido a España! We are in Madrid!!! Walking into the city, it felt completely different from Rome. This is a city that is very clean, tidy and orderly. Much like Singapore. All the buildings seems clean, though they are not new. And the streets are washed every morning. Not bad at all I say.
We stayed on the main street, called the Gran Via. It's filled with restaurants and shops along the sides of this huge boulevard. It's nice to look at the architecture of the buildings while walking down the Gran Via. All the buildings look so nice!
On the first day, we stumbled across this nice church while on the way to the Prado museum. Or rather, we reached the Prado Museum at 1730 and realised that it's free entry from 1800 onwards, so we walked around the neighborhood a bit.
We walked into the church, and guess what, someone was having their wedding there. I managed to catch some photos of them coming down the church steps. Nice way to start the Spain leg of our trip.
Our accommodation does not come with breakfast, so we asked our host what do spanish people normally eat for breakfast. And here's the answer: Hot Chocolate with Churros. Churros are basically thinner versions of you-tiao, and we have to dip it in the cup of thick chocolate. The churros will soak up all the chocolate and when you bite, all the sinful chocolate will just explode in your mouth. The chocolate is so thick that the spoon can be rested on it.
A famous place to go to is Plaza Mayor. It's a nice square in the middle of the city, which was used as a marketplace in the olden days.
Spain is still a country ruled under a monarchy, much like the UK. However, I guess they attract much less media attention than their UK counterparts. So here's their palace, looked a little like Buckingham Palace in my opinion.
We wandered about the city and found this ancient Egyptian Temple. Apparently it was donated to Spain by Egypt. Donated... lol.
On our second day, we saw police closing down roads in the city. And it's all the major roads that were closed. We wondered what was going on, but we found the answer shortly after, it's the final leg of the 2011 Vuelta Espana competition, something like the Tour de France. The competition has a huge entourage, with the police vehicles in the front clearing the way, though the roads are already closed, then the leaders will pass by, followed shortly by the main body of cyclists, and then a huge train of support vehicles. Pretty lucky to be there to see them during our stay.
We can't resist making use of the chance to take a photo in the middle of Gran Via, since the roads are all closed.
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