Madrid
We'll be traveling to Madrid from Valencia on this beast:
It takes 1h 38m to get there - at speeds of up to 195mph - and arrives at the Madrid Atocha railway station whose interior looks a lot like the atrium at Bellagio!
I looked for somewhere central to stay in Madrid. It appears that Madrilenians can't decide whether it's the Puerta del Sol or Plaza Mayor. So I picked Plaza Mayor:
It reminds me of a larger version of the piazza outside our hotel in Reggio Emilia in 2009. The Puerta del Sol appears to be a little more 'touristy' and is not all pedestrianized.
The hotel we're staying at is the Hotel Intur Palacio San Martin which is a 5-minute walk from the Plaza Mayor, but is located on its own plaza - Plaza San Marin. The exterior of the hotel looks like this:
and the restaurant is set up in the plaza outside:
I was going to call it al fresco dining, but remembered that it's an Italian word. However, it's also Spanish for 'fresh'. The phrase al fresco is borrowed from Italian for "in the cool [air]", although it is not in current use in Italian to refer to dining outside. Instead, Italians use the phrases fuori or all'aperto. In Italian, the expression al fresco usually refers to spending time in jail! Spaniards use fuera or al aire libre to refer to dining.
The route above shows that it's a 5-minute walk to Plaza Mayor, regardless of the route you take.
Now all that remains is to figure out where to go!
It takes 1h 38m to get there - at speeds of up to 195mph - and arrives at the Madrid Atocha railway station whose interior looks a lot like the atrium at Bellagio!
I looked for somewhere central to stay in Madrid. It appears that Madrilenians can't decide whether it's the Puerta del Sol or Plaza Mayor. So I picked Plaza Mayor:
It reminds me of a larger version of the piazza outside our hotel in Reggio Emilia in 2009. The Puerta del Sol appears to be a little more 'touristy' and is not all pedestrianized.
The hotel we're staying at is the Hotel Intur Palacio San Martin which is a 5-minute walk from the Plaza Mayor, but is located on its own plaza - Plaza San Marin. The exterior of the hotel looks like this:
and the restaurant is set up in the plaza outside:
I was going to call it al fresco dining, but remembered that it's an Italian word. However, it's also Spanish for 'fresh'. The phrase al fresco is borrowed from Italian for "in the cool [air]", although it is not in current use in Italian to refer to dining outside. Instead, Italians use the phrases fuori or all'aperto. In Italian, the expression al fresco usually refers to spending time in jail! Spaniards use fuera or al aire libre to refer to dining.
The route above shows that it's a 5-minute walk to Plaza Mayor, regardless of the route you take.
Now all that remains is to figure out where to go!
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