Spain - Highlights of Madrid

This post was long overdue because of courses and group project deadline that I had to meet before graduation (yeah yeah I know, I keep making excuses).

I had a wonderful trip to Madrid, Spain, at the beginning of June. As I explained in my earlier post about foods to try in Madrid, my sole purpose to go there is to try as much local food as I could. But of course, sightseeing is part of the itinerary, especially when I discovered that there is always something interesting to see at every corner of the streets in Madrid.

The Hop-On-Hop-Off bus is normally my favourite way to explore a new city, but I decided that since most places can be reached by the Metro or on foot, it would be quite pointless to ride the hop-on-hop-off bus. 

The best word to describe the overall feeling I get from Madrid is "friendly". Although my friend warned me of pickpockets and people who would steal cameras from tourists if you asked them to take pictures. Luckily, I didn't have any of such encounters throughout my visit.

These girls were asking me if Spanish guys are hot, and then asked me to take a picture of them using my camera

Well, let's start with tapas bars. When you go to Madrid, you definitely have to visit at least one tapas bar for some wine or tapas (appetizer-like dishes). If you have dietary restrictions like no alcohol or no pork, it's probably a little bit hard to enjoy the gastronomical side of Madrid, but it's not that hard to find halal food. Unless you add seafood into dietary restriction.

The most famous street filled with tapas bars is called Cava Baja. It's pretty close to Plaza Major, just to the south of it.

Tapas bar in Cava Baja

Plaza Major

Another thing that catches attention is the cute city mascot:

If you want to take a picture of the bear statue, go to Puerta del Sol.

Statue of Charles III at Puerta del Sol

When I went to Puerta del Sol, I saw some kind of football gimmick. Maybe it's because the World Cup was coming! :)

Football gimmick: penalty shoots game

Madrid is heavily decorated with churches, cathedrals and monasteries of different architectures.

Iglesia de Los Jerónimos (near Museuo Nacional del Prado)

Iglesia de Los Jerónimos, interior

Monasterio Descalzas Reales

Santa Iglesia Colegiata de San Isidro

San Francisco El Grande

San Francisco El Grande, interior

Santa Cruz

But if there is one church that I strongly recommend going, it would be the Catedral de la Almudena, which is located next to Palacio Real (the Royal Palace).

Catedral de la Almudena

Catedral de la Almudena, side view

Not only it has wonderful interiors, but also you can climb the tower and see the whole Madrid from above.

Catedral de la Almudena, interior

Catedral de la Almudena, tower

That being said, the Royal Palace seems to be a worthy place to visit, but you have to start waiting in the queue before it opens. The line to enter the Royal Palace is always long - in the morning or in the afternoon. In the end, I did not manage to get inside, but the exterior can satisfy you enough if you don't have time to wait in the line. Just behind the Royal palace is Jardines del Campo del Moro.

Palacio Real (Royal Palace), side view

Palacio Real (Royal Palace), from behind

Palacio Real 

Jardines del Campo del Moro

As an addition, there is a beautiful viaduct just next to Catedral de la Almudena. Not literally next to it, but you'll find it if you walk a little bit to the south of the cathedral.

Plaza de la Villa is also quite beautiful. There is not much to do here, but it's a nice spot for pictures.

Another place I highly recommend visiting is Palacio de Cibeles (formerly Palacio de Comunicaciones or the Palace of Communication). There is a tourist information centre there, it has gorgeous interiors and various eye-opening art displays, and most importantly, it is FREE. And for someone who thinks that 25 degrees C is a little too hot for a full-day walk (like me), the air conditioner in this building is like an oasis in the dessert.

Palacio de Cibeles entrance

Palacio de Cibeles interior

I'm not a fanatic art enthusiast and sometimes I cannot appreciate abstract paintings or any other artworks, but I really enjoyed most of the displays.

One of the art displays in Palacio de Cibeles

That being said, I did not enter Museo Nacional del Prado. Almost everyone I knew recommended me to visit that museum, but I was more interested in discovering the city.

Caja Madrid Obelisk is not too far from Prado Museum, but unfortunately, you cannot enter the surrounding garden. You can still take pictures from afar, though :)

Now, about shopping. The city centre is lively with shops, department stores and restaurants. Since the weather is really nice around summer, it's also really nice to sit outside for lunch or dinner.

Callao

Terrace seats

Shopping streets (C. Preciados, between Callao and Puerta del Sol)

There's also a cute Angry Bird shop on C. C. Parquesur (street name).

Angry Birds merchandises

Not too far from Callao is the Teatro Real (Royal Theatre).

For food, try Plaza de San Miguel market or read my other post about food in Madrid for more info

Plaza de San Miguel market

Interior of Plaza de San Miguel market

And last but not least, visit Puerta de Alcala and Parque de El Retiro. Puerta de Alcala is located on the northwest side of Parque de El Retiro, so if you have the chance to visit the park, do visit Puerta de Alcala as well!

Puerta de Alcala

Parque del El Retiro entrance

The park is rather large, so if you have limited time, make sure to see the Alfonso XII monument in front of the lake as well as the rose garden on the south-most part of the park. I'm not sure if there are going to be any roses in winter, but at least it is beautiful in summer.

Monumento Alfonso XII

Rose Garden

Madrid is an awesome city to explore. You can also go to Toledo, a medieval city not too far from Madrid. A day trip is possible. I will cover Toledo in my next post :)

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Spain - Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

When I had my first offline meeting with this particular online friend whom I know from an internet forum back in April, I saw pictures of Sagrada Familia on my friend's cellphone and they made me very interested in traveling to Barcelona. Who would have thought that I would be in Barcelona so soon?

One thing for sure: I regretted not bringing a proper camera for this trip because I hate carrying heavy stuffs when I travel. What a terrible mistake.

You'd probably seen this scenery somewhere lurking on the Internet or Barcelona guide books and I am pretty sure that the pictures you found are much better than mine. Let me tell you this: no photos can encompass the atmosphere brilliantly created by Gaudi's touch.

When I entered Sagrada Familia, I knew that something was special about this place. It gives you the "Oh, God indeed lives in this place" kind of feeling. After all, Sagrada Familia's full name is Basilica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia, which is translated to the Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family.

The queue to enter Sagrada Familia was long, and from what I looked up on the Internet, it seemed that the line is almost always long, even during weekdays. We were there on a Thursday and I think we waited for at least 40 minutes. Despite what people say about the losses of waiting for too long in the queue, I would highly encourage you to enter Sagrada Familia, especially if you know that you won't be visiting Barcelona for the time being. 

You can buy the ticket at the front of the line, just before you enter Sagrada Familia. As usual, they have discounts for students. Make sure to exploit this benefit if you're a student ;)

We bought the ticket for the elevator as well because we somewhat learned from our previous visits that there might be something very exciting at the highest place of Gaudi's works. They have specific timings for the elevator and we ended up having to spend about 1.5 hours on the ground floor. But that's actually not very long, because there are just too many things to admire on the ground floor.

There was a museum close to the Sagrada Familia souvenir shop that tells you how Gaudi acquire his inspirations: the nature. The field of architecture is not my forte, but I was just amazed by Gaudi's ability to transform a shape from nature into seemingly very complicated patterns and structures.

He studied leaves, trees, roots, and even crystals.

The level of details of his works are simply too amazing. As my friend said when I posted my experience about Palau Guell: "It's Gaudi, don't ask why, just appreciate".

I think that is the best advice for me at this moment. Any attempts to understand what's going on in Gaudi's mind when he designed and planned all this would probably result in overheating of brain functions.

I wanted to show more pictures of the views from the top of the tower of Sagrada Familia, but it seems that the pictures were not uploaded properly and I already deleted the pictures from my phone because it was too overloaded. Such a pity. But I managed to get this: 

After the elevator ride, you still have to climb hundreds of stairs, but I think it's really worth the effort. And apparently, there are two elevators that you can take. One requires you to climb down the stairs on the way out, and one allows you to take an elevator down. We had to take the stairs down and I think we had no choice. When we bought the ticket, the staff told us to take the elevator located at the back.

And try to come slightly earlier than the time indicated on your ticket because the elevator only takes about 5-6 people, and there are definitely more than 6 people allocated to the same time allocation. Well, unless you're not really in a rush to visit as many Barcelona attractions as you can.

The way down is a little bit narrow, and if you're claustrophobic... it's not really the best option. I'm not sure if you can opt to take the elevator down because when we were there, there was no such option.

And make sure not to get too dizzy from the spiral of staircase. We had a little bit of "traffic jam" because a kid kept stopping because he wanted to look outside every window he found. In the end, we had to skip him and his parents.

It's really a shame that I lost all the photos I took from the tower. But I guess Google will solve all the problems ;)

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