In mid-July my friends from Vienna and I decided to head to Madrid, where I also got to reunite with one of my Au Pair Buddies from the USA.
14.July 2017
Since our flight was going to depart around 11am my friends and I met around 8am on our way to the airport. Well we were my friend Angi (who visited me in April 2016), my friend Meli and me.
As always we checked in online the day before, but printed our tickets at the airport just in case. Of course my bag was randomly selected at the security check.
At the gate we had to wait for quite a while until we finally got to go on a bus and get to the parking position of our plane. Well of course there was one person who checked in a bag and didn’t show up for boarding, so they had to get her bag and well, we missed our departure time slot and had to wait for 1 1/2 hours in the bright sun at noon for our new slot. That it got hot in the plane is the least I can say and all we got was one cup of water. The flight itself was fine, but the basic fare really means no Snack or drink.
Once we got to Madrid, we changed into some shorter clothes and used the subway to get our Hotel, where we were able to check-in and get to our room right away.
We got out for a little walk around the Retiro Park. On our way back to the hotel we went to Lidl to get some food and drinks for the next couple of days.
15.July 2017
We started the day quite late and after enjoying some breakfast in our room, Nadja (yes the one from the USA) came by and we started to make a plan for the day. Shortly afterwards we started our sightseeing walk through the city and we managed to see everything you have to see within a few hours. So we decided to go to a little “bar” close by where Nadja lives. We got back to the hotel around midnight. The stops of the sightseeing were:
- Retiro Park
- City Hall
- Puerta del Sol
- Bear with Strawberry Tree
- km0
- Cheeros @ Chocolateria San Gines
- Plaza del Mayo
- Palacio Real
- Almudena Cathedral
16.July 2017
We met Nadja again around noon and walked around the city for a little bit. We ended up at the Gourmet Experience Gran Via. This is kind of like an observatory deck, but with a food court and the view is for free. Afterwards we relaxed at the Retiro Park for a little bit, before we decided that it’s too hot and we would crash at Nadja’s Pool.
17.July 2017
After we finished packing our suitcases and checked out of the hotel, we walked with all our stuff towards a park, just to find out that it’s closed on Mondays. So we took all our stuff back to the Retiro Park, where we relaxed in the shade of some trees, until it was time to get to the airport.
On our flight to Barcelona I would’ve been able to sleep very well, but it was way to short and very turbulent. Once we arrived in Barcelona we used public transportation to get to our hostel and our first impression was, that we ended in a shady area (but more about that at the end of the post)
Kathi's Travel Adventure 