Tuesday - Sunny

The night bus wasn't too bad, think I got a couple hours sleep. One thing that I don't understand is why people are making phone calls at 3 in the morning, on a bus! Who the hell are they calling? The lady next to me was on the phone from about 2-4am.

We got dropped off at a metro station in Madrid and it was very easy from there to get to our hotel. 15min on the train then a 5min walk from the station. It's in a great location, it's right in the centre of Madrid.

It was around 8:30 when we got to the hotel, way too early to check in. The receptionist gave us a coupon for a free city walking tour which started at 11:30, so that gave us some time for breakfast and a short walk around the nearby streets before the tour started.

We ended up finding a very nice and cheap place to have some breakfast. The waiter was extremely friendly and told us to have a cappuccino and I'm not sure what its called, but it was a toasted baguette with olive oil, salt and chopped up tomato salsa with herbs. Very tasty and only €2. So far our first impressions of Madrid are very good.

We then had a walk around the area and the streets are very cool, all the bars and cafes have tiles on the outside walls that form colourful pictures and words. It was getting close to the start of the tour, but we were still a bit sleepy, so we stopped in at another cafe for a couple of espressos and some churros.

The tour was good it went for 3hrs and took us through the old towns twisty streets and grand boulevards.

The tour started in Puerta del Sol, the guide gave us a brief history lesson on the city. Apparently it was also built on a swamp like Berlin and became the capital of Spain in the 16th century.

In Puerta del sol there is a statue of a bear and a strawberry tree, we were told that its the symbol of Madrid. Puerta del sol is the heart of the city too, kilometer zero is a plaque on the ground, directly in the centre of Madrid, and like in Moscow, all the measurements are taken from this point.

We then walked through a few streets to get to Plaza Mayor. Which has held many of Madrid's events from markets, bullfights, soccer games, public executions ect.. The square is surrounded by stunning three story residential buildings with balconies facing the Plaza.

We then walked over to a nice market that sold a great range of food and drinks. Then past the worlds oldest restaurant, on the way to Cathedral de Almudena. Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and when Madrid became the capital in 1562, the city had no cathedral. Plans to build a church had been discussed since the 16th century. The construction finally began in 1879, and wasn't finished until 1993!

Adjacent to the huge cathedral is the Palacio Real de Madrid and is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family. However today it is only used for state ceremonies. The Royal Family do not live in the palace, they live on the outskirts of Madrid in another palace. The palace is on the site of a 9th century fortress, and Construction of the current palace started in 1738 and finished in 1755. It contains 3,418 rooms! making it is the largest palace in Europe by floor space. There are some nice gardens around the palace with mazes fountains and statues of all the Spanish kings.

Down the road in a nice park is the Temple of Debod which is an ancient Egyptian temple rebuilt in Madrid. In 1960 with the construction of the Great Dam of Aswan. UNESCO asked for help with saving some sites and monuments from the consequences that may occur from building the dam. As a sign of thanks for the help provided by Spain at the temples of Abu Simbel. Egypt donated the temple of Debod to Spain in 1968. The temple was built originally 15kms south of Aswan in the early 2nd century BC, and dedicated to the god Amun, and it was good to see some hieroglyphics again.

Then we had a short break in Plaza de Espana where we were told that two buildings behind the statue are the tallest in Madrid, and one is completely empty and the other is only 40% full. They have a big problem with the high number of unoccupied houses in Spain.

The tour finished in Plaza de Oriente which is opposite the royal palace, and from there Kim and I returned to our hotel to checkin.

We had a nice arvo break emptying the free mini bar and Kim made a few more bookings. We eventually got hungry and we went out for some sangrias and paella.

Then we went for a night photo walk over to the palace and Egyptian temple. Madrid definitely comes alive at night. The bars and restaurant were full and don't close until the wee hours of the morn. The public squares were full of people and had lots of really good street performers too. After the walk we went home and crashed, we shouldn't have any problems sleeping tonight that's for sure we were dead.