We arrived in Madrid via train from Valencia. The trains are an amazing way to travel. The high speed trains are just under 300 km/h 😮😮😮. It doesn’t seem like your are travelling that fast because the ride is so smooth.
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| 296 km/h!! 😱 |
From the Madrid train station we taxied to the hotel. Madrid is the capital of Spain and the largest city in Spain. We were curious about the various populations of each city, unbeknownst to us we visited the three most populous cities in Spain: Madrid (#1), Barcelona, and Valencia (#3). Of the three cities I am sure Julie and I can agree Barcelona was our favourite!!!
The people in all of Spain have been welcoming and kind. There are toilets to use- even without paying (same cannot be said about Italy) and the toilets all have seats (also opposite to Italy). The language has proved challenging- I only used Duolingo for Italian! In actuality in Italy most people spoke English but here in Spain our limited Dora the Explorer Spanish is proving inadequate. 🤣
The cities in Spain have been very very clean. They are filled with huge areas of green space often populated by families and everyone out for walks and fresh air. The parks are beautiful.
In Madrid we didn’t have any tours booked but we had booked a two day hop on hop off bus. This was perfect. There were two different lines- one an historic route, the other a modern Madrid route. We used both routes to view the major sites of the city. We listened to the bus narrative and filled in info with Google.
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| Hop-On-Hop-Off Selfie |
We had heard about the nun cookies in Spain and knew we wanted to try to get some- when we arrived there was a sign saying there were no cookies on Wednesday! 🤦♀️ Darn it.
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| Dang!!! ☹️ |
The desserts and empanadas in Spain are incredible. We sampled the delicious sangria as well. Julie asked a shop worker if she had any suggestions for where we should try churros- she pointed to a sign literally 30ft away where the most famous churros are located!! Our luck has been quite frequent like this on the whole trip as a whole- things that we hoped to experience just manifested.
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| Goodies!! |
The architecture in Madrid was stunning and you can see the evolution to the buildings into more modern designs. Beginning in Rome and travelling through Florence into Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid really was an interesting progression from ancient to modern. Incredible.
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| Royal Palace |
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| Egyptian Temple Circa 200 BC - Relocated To Madrid |
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| Madrid Street Sign |
As the trip nears its end we can only be thankful to have been able to experience this journey with lifelong friends, connected beyond distance. Fifty is looking great and has shown us everything is possible for the future. ❤️❤️❤️
Ps - Awaiting our departure from Madrid to Montreal. Back to Canada soon!
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| Madrid Airport - Return To Canada Underway |
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