Day 02 - Madrid

We have finally reached Madrid Spain!!
Time to change our watches to the local time which is 7 hours behind Singapore's time.
The weather was good - it was a fairly warm winter where the temperature hovers between 10-17 degress in the day.

The new airport was looking really fantastic! Designed by Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers.
The roof has a wavy shell like structure and finished with wooden panels giving it a very warm look coupled with orangy granite tiles.
The columns were coloured in zones - red, orange, yellow, green and blue...we arrived at the red zone.

after we had gotten our bags which took quite awhile...we hopped onto our coach which we will be travelling in for the next 10 days. On route to Madrid city I chanced upon MVRDV's building!!! How cool was that!!! it was so fast but i managed to catch a quick shot of the top part only while on the coach.

here's how the actual building looks like which i had gotten from another website.

On the coach, we saw some amazing modern apartments on the way which had me snapping like crazy. Spain is so much more modern than i had expected!

Our first stop was to the Royal Palace which had a big courtyard and many rooms. I found it pretty boring really, the rooms that were opened to public were the common rooms, bed chambers, dining room, room where they kept all the crockery which were gifts from other royalties etc etc...actually the rooms were quite dilapidated.

here's wj making a jump!

here's wj and ahren both at the royal palace courtyard.

Lunch on provided as part of the tour package. And we had tapas!
Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers or snacks in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold like our sour salad and mushrooms or warm like our calamaris, croquettes.
The serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them.
This was quite true cos we had to share a table with another elderly couple and got to know more about them and at the end of the trip, we ended up mostly sitting and eating with them cos we were so comfortable with them!

after lunch, the tour leader dropped us off at a local market to get a taste and feel of the locals. And it was pretty near to the Plaza Mayor where we did some shopping!

as you can see, people are hanging out by the bars having tapas and conversations plus glasses of wine.

after visiting the local market, we went to Plaza Royal for a cuppa coffee and to bask ourselves in the sun which all the locals are doing! There were alfresco dining all along the square but only those that had the sunlight were the most popular cos the sunlight helped to keep the locals warm and happy as they drink and eat their meals.

Buskers at the Plaza Mayor, there was flea market going on too, but we really dint have to the time to browse. If it was a free and easy tour, we might have just spent an entire afternoon here soaking in the atmosphere!



see even spongebob is here basking!!

on the streets of Spain - Madrid

after walking the streets of Toledo, the tour leader brought us to Chic Shopping outlet at Madrid - where we did serious damage to our wallets!!! But it was so worth it because all the items we bought were at such a huge discount!

that's me and my brochure of the place...we had about 2 hours of shopping time there and didn't manage to grab our dinner cos we were so busy shopping!

End of the day buys-
HE: 2 pairs of campers, 1 Polo Ralph tee
SHE: 3 pairs of campers, 1 Rayban shades Wayfarer, 1 Polo Ralph Bag, 2 sets of CK lingerie
For Our cute little one: 5 CK rompers, 1 Polo Ralph shirt

then it's time to head back to our hotel - Nuevo Madrid. Rm 302.


Continue here for:
Day 1 Spain 
Day 3 Spain