We weren’t in Spain for too long. We got there Saturday morning and went straight to the Expo after dropping off our luggage at our hotel and left the next day a few hours after the race.
But, we did do a little sight seeing so here are a few pics 🙂
I mentioned in my race recap that there was a long line at the Expo:
It wrapped around there towards the right of this pic. It moved along pretty quickly so in about an hour we were inside. The expo was actually quite large with a lot of vendors. I made sure to stop by one of my faves 🙂
After the expo, we headed back towards the hotel to grab a bite to eat. We took the metro and while we waited, I saw this advertisement:
I teach Shakespeare’s Macbeth (it’s my second favorite Shakespeare play) and thought it was so cool to see this play being done in Spanish. I would have loved to see it!
We got off near our hotel and walked a few blocks to it. Here’s a view:
The streets were really crowded; it kinda reminded me of New York.
We ate at a nearby restaurant and was shocked that my beverage of choice, Coca-cola, was 8 Euros ~ $10+ dollars!!! For ONE CAN. It turned out to be like this at most places which really saddened my heart. Even water was expensive at around 5 Euros a bottle 😦 But even though buying a coke broke the bank a little, I had to. I thought of it as a souvenir 🙂
Once back at the hotel, my husband and I decided to check out the roof top. The view:
We decided to take the stairs back down to our room 🙂
We called it a night soon after and the next day, on our walk to the start of the race, we did a little more sight seeing. We passed a bookstore and I saw this:
You might have heard of a little series called The Hunger Games. It was so cool to see it in Spanish–and for some reason, reading the title in Spanish made me giggle.
We reached a main cross street on our walk and came across the main post office.
On our hike to gear check, we found that it was in side Parque Madrid–Madrid’s main park. It was absolutely stunning. The bushes were manicured, the trees were lush, and there were gardens and statues throughout. It was also very big!
We were at the airport a couple of hours after the race headed to Italy so there wasn’t a whole lot more we were able to do. I kinda wished I had carried my phone during the race because I was able to see a lot of the city in 13.1 miles. I’d like to return to Spain someday and spend more time there. I want to visit other cities too–Valencia, Barcelona, and maybe Seville. Regardless, the time we did get was so much fun. I loved being able to talk to the locals and really get a feel for what it was like there.
And the race. The race was awesome 🙂
–Have you seen a play or movie or read a book in another language? (one of my favoritest foreign films is Life is Beautiful in Italian)
–Would you pay $10 for a coke? What outrageous prices have you encountered in your travels?
Next stop, Italy!
$10 for a coke is ridiculous and I’m from London, one of the most expensive cities in the world (apparently)! Madrid looks beautiful though, definitely on my to-go list.
I’ve seen plenty of movies and shows in foreign languages as I studied Asian languages at uni. However usually they talk so fast that I still require subtitles to understand properly!
I imagine Asian languages being difficult to learn–go you!!
Very cool! Great pics! Looks like you had fun. I minored in Spanish in college, so between that and my film classes I had to watch lots of foreign films.
I remember visiting Italy and it was the same thing – a bottle of red wine was like 4 euro, but a can of coke was twice as much. Luckily I don’t drink soda (gave it up in ’93), but I do drink wine!
I’m not much of an alcohol person (I know, crazy!) so I did splurge on a soda here and there. I did drink wine in Italy though–had to! 🙂
That’s one of my favorite things to do in foreign airports- browse their books. I always giggle a little at the loose translation. I want to visit Seville- home of tapas- and do a true tapas tour (imagine a bar crawl from restaurant to restaurant with drinks). So jealous of your trip! 🙂
A Tapa Crawl would be SO much fun!! I’d love to read about that whenever you do it 🙂
Your pictures are gorgeous! And yes, soda and water in Europe are EXPENSIVE! I just drank beer and wine instead. Most of the time it was cheaper.
I’m not much of an alcohol person so I splurged occasionally on soda 🙂 My husband did go the beer and wine route though
Wow I seriously cannot even imagine paying that much. I’m honestly in a bit of shock right now. It looks like you had a great time though and I couldn’t be happier for you. Top prices payed are probably in airports for food for me.
Yikes! Was the food really expensive too? My husband and I were just in Switzerland and everything was so expensive, we kind of couldn’t eat or drink anything, or even really take public transportation! A “cheap” lunch was almost $30 each. We are thinking about going to Spain, but might rethink that if everything is very pricey! I guess I need to do some research…
Soda was really the only ridiculously expensive thing. We definitely found food moderately priced and public transpiration was affordable and very easy to figure out. Switzerland sounds amazing!
Oh, and I def recommend doing research. Especially when looking for hotels.
$10 for a coke!? Holy crap! I love that you got one for a souvenir though. These pictures are all wonderful!
Never a play, but I saw The Little Mermaid in French. Come to think of it, I’ve never even seen it in English!
Love the little mermaid!!
This trip, minus the expensive drinks, looks so amazing. The view from the roof is just beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing!
It was so amazing 🙂
Looks like Madrid was fun..I can’t wait to hear about the rest of the trip. I wouldn’t pay $10 for a coke, but that is only because I don’t drink any soda. I find that drinks in general in Europe are way more expensive, and while $10 seems crazy, you did get a cool souvenir, so that is worth it!!
$10 for a Coke is pretty crazy! On the Alaska Highway we paid some pretty steep prices (like $17 for a sandwich and fries for lunch per person!) so I feel your pain. But hey, if you’re craving it it’s worth it!
Definitely lol!!
I’m so jealous of your trip! I would pay $10 for a Coke once so that I could say I had it and to keep it as a souvenir. But the rest of the trip would be Cokeless for me!
I definitely limited my soda intake for sure jaja!!
Looks like you had an amazing time! I can’t believe it was 8 euros for a coke though, I think I would have passed, but I don’t like soda 🙂
I seriously have to work on this addiction…I think I’m the only soda-loving runner lol!
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