My Travel Story : Eurotrip (3) ~ Arriving in Madrid

Buenos dias!

I finally arrived in Madrid at 11 AM, local time.

In Madrid Barajas Airport, there is a metro station that goes to the city center or basically anywhere around Madrid. There is also a tourist information center that you can find before you see the gate to the metro. I was kinda thinking of joining a local tour, so I decided to walk in to the tourist center to see what deals I could get. After looking at some of the local tour packages, I eventually just bought a 2-day Madrid pass that covers all transportation costs and various museums and tourist spots entrance inside Madrid for 2 x 24hrs (starting from the first scan). The pass costs me 58 euros and it comes with a guide book. The guidebook comes in handy, it consists of information on all attractions around Madrid that you can enter with your tourist pass, including opening schedule. Just to give you a slight picture to calculate, the metro in Madrid costs 1.4 euro for one trip (all stations). The 2-day pass for transportation alone (without museum entrance pass) costs 14 euros. That means the remaining 44 euros are spent for attractions entrance.

If you think you need a sim card, I can suggest to get the Vodafone one. There's a Vodafone shop at Puerta del Sol. It just costs 10 euros for 800MB of internet usage, 20 minutes phone calls and 20 SMS (if I'm not mistaken) for one month.

Madrid Metro Line

Madrid has a lot of beautiful museums and buildings. Most of them need an entrance fee. Of course buying a tourist pass might save you some euros (and queuing time!). But before deciding to buy the pass, estimate carefully how many places you can possibly visit during your visit. Don't forget to check on the opening schedule of the museums you want to visit as some closes on Monday. One attraction costs around 8 to 15 euros. You will benefit from this pass if you can visit at least 4-5 places during your stay. This pass also gives additional benefits such as discounts for selected restaurants and flamenco shows. 

Madrid Metro

Special tips on Madrid Pass:

1. Prior to your arrival in Madrid, make list of tourist spots you want to visit. You can finalize your route after you arrive, since this has a lot to do with metro and bus routes that you might only find out upon your arrival.

2. Possibly, you can only visit 2-3 places a day: 1 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Most museums open at 9 or 10 and close at 18 or 19.00. 

3. Leave all the fancy meal time/culinary trip in the evening. The museums close at 18.00, but the cafes and restaurants open until night. 

4. Visit as many paid museums as you can. All the free scenery can wait when you have some spare time.  

Guide Book from Madrid Pass

I stayed at a hostel in the city center: Barbieri Sol Hostel. It was very cheap (28 euros for 2 nights) but clean. The staff were helpful and friendly. The location was great: around 500m to Sol Metro Station (at Puerta del Sol), or just a few minutes walking distance to Gran Via and Plaza de Cibeles.

Here's some places I visited during my 2 night-stay in Madrid:

1. Estadio Santiago Bernabeau:

 The stadium and museum for Real Madrid football club. There are showcase of historical stuff of the club such as: the uniforms, shoes, trophies; as well as tour to the backstage: changing room, bathroom, etc. The Madrid pass gives you a priority pass so you don't need to queue to buy the entrance ticket.

Real Madrid museum inside the stadium

Photo session with your favorite football player

2. Reina Sofia Museum:

An art museum. There are some of Piccaso's pieces also, but I didn't really enjoy this place. I'm just not really into this stuff. I just went there because the Royal Palace of Madrid was closed on Monday :( I intended to see the other palace but apparently the location was far and quite unreachable by public transports :(

Museo Reina Sofia

3. Parque del Retiro:

This park is really huge and beautiful. There is a pond inside the park where you can rent a boat. There are gardens inside the park and benches every where. I can imagine myself relaxing on a bench and read a book. With the nice weather in Madrid's autumn, it must be a perfect way to spend an afternoon :)

Puerta de Alcala

Pond inside the park

One of the gardens inside Parque del Retiro

Puerta del Sol, city centre

Crowd at Puerta del Sol

KM 0 at Puerta del Sol

Gran Via

Plaza de Cibeles

View from the top of Plaza Mayor

Culinary delights in Madrid:

1. Museo del Jamon --> just a few walks from from my hostel at Puerta del Sol. Provides many kinds of jamon (bacon) and sangria too. It is also budget friendly ;)

2. Sangria --> Spanish red wine mixed with fruits. Light and refreshing. 

3. Chocolateria san Gines --> very famous churros place. They have a very thick hot dark chocolate but doesn't taste too sweet nor fatty.   

4. Coffee at most of coffee shops in Madrid --> They're not expensive and most taste very good. The bakeries are also delicious!

Museo del Jamon

Chocolateria san Gines

Hope you find this post helpful!

Ciao! ^^

~Dolliechic~