Travelogues of our Blue Sky Holidays

Day 8 - Barcelona

2011-02-23T08:56:00.001-08:00

Highlights: Barri Gotic, Picasso Musuem, the Pope!

to be completed

Day 7 - Barcelona

2011-02-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

Highlights: Park Guell, Nou Camp

to be completed

Day 6 - Barcelona

2011-02-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Highlights: Hoteltren, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas

to be completed

Day 5 - Granada

2011-02-23T08:52:00.001-08:00

Highlights: the Alhambra, and... everything else about Granada!

to be completed

Day 4 - Madrid-Granada

2011-02-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Highlights: Palacio de Communicacion, Prado Museum, depart for Granada

to be completed

Day 2 - Madrid

2010-12-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

Highlights: Santigo Bernabeu and Retiro Park

Woke up to gorgeous weather, no more rain!

Jetlagged and excitement got the better of us and we were up and about at 7:30am. Went for a chilly morning stroll around the hotel's neighbourhood Gran Via and then over to Sol.

The neighbourhood is really pretty! What a welcoming area to go out into in the mornings, and to return to in the evenings. Some evenings I totally looked forward to going back to the hotel which is rare for me unless I am absolutely exhausted.

Immediate neighbourhood of the hotel

solidarity of Sol in the early morning, and is that a bear with a giant broccoli (:

On the way back and in search of a hot breakfast, we walked past a couple of lovely looking bars serving fresh pastries but unfortunately the "next-one-could-be-better" syndrome kicked in and before we knew it we were back in front of the hotel. So Faborit it was. Wonderful hot chocolate (:

3 pastries + 2 hot beverages = 8.80 Euros

ESTADIO SANTIAGO BERNABEU

This was probably one of the trip highlights for Steven. Locating it was a no-brainer since it was right outside the station named after the stadium. Speaking of metro stations, we were constantly harrassed by aggressive school girls who would try to stop us for donations which I read before the trip to be mostly scams. It was a bit of a buzz kill sometimes to have to deliberately go around these girls or to put on a mean face so they would back off. While they mostly would leave me alone, Steven often had to yank his jacket free from their grabbing hands.

Back to the glorious Real Madrid stadium. We were so excited at arriving (so was the little girl in the psychedelic pink parka) that we took a right and went a complete round of the entire HUGE stadium only to find the taquilla was less than 50 metres to the left of this picture.

More queuing in the cold. 45 minutes easy.

And then we're in!

Seats over 80,000 spectators. How much do they made on a sold-out match? cha chink$$!

dazzling trophies

this one is huge!

eeks to sweaty men sharing a hot tub

Man U plays Real Madrid

shopping!

Good times (:

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this visit even though I have close to zero interest in the sport. But one stadium visit would be enough for a lifetime. For me. I think.

RETIRO PARK

We were famished after visiting the stadium so our guide book led us to Alfredo's for some burgers. Alfredo's is a quaint little pub which was crazy busy when we arrived. As the weather seemed nice we decided to do a little picnic at Retiro, which was just as well sinec there wasn't any available tables. Perched by the bar, we waited an hour salivating before we got our food.

Picnic wasn't the best decision we made, we got our fingers completely frozen by the time we were done! The chilly winds did it. Nonetheless, it was hell of an experience sitting by the playground watching local children having fun whilst trying to wolf down our burgers before our fingers fell off. Also, the burgers were awesome! Perfectly grilled, it was smokey and slightly charred on the outside byt moist and pink on the inside.

Retiro Park is beautiful. We had deliberately planned to come on a Sunday to join the multitudes of couples and families spend time at this popular local destination and be entertained by street performers.

Kitty taking a stroll

My favorite part of the part was the area near the Crystal Palace, and the glasshouse itself. See how picturesque!

Cristal Palace lake

mr. and mrs swan

We spend a couple of tranquil hours exploring the park and reluctantly left in search of the Prado Museum which is located next to the Park. We wanted very much to locate the status of the Fallen Angel - Lucifer. It was interesting that the statue is erected at 666m above sea level. Sadly we couldn't locate it before we had to leave.

all in couples <3

Bye bye Retiro!

We wanted to visit Prado then because of the free admission the museum offered on Sundays from 5pm to 7pm. Alas, the queue was horrendous and we decided we would rather buy tickets then to waste precious time standing in queues.

For dinner I went in search for the fantastic McD CBO! Fell in love with this burger during my previous trip to Prague. Also discovered the McBacon.

Day 1 - Madrid

2010-12-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

Highlights: Arrival, Palacio Real, Mercat san Miguel, Chocolatier san Gines

After over 17 hours of traveling, we arrived in Madrid at 2:17pm local time.

Slight hiccup in trying to negotiate with the metro ticketing machines to spit out a T10 ticket. In the end we managed.

Hotel Regina seemed like a pretty good choice, given its location right smacked in front of Seville metro station.

It was clean, spacious, and sufficiently stocked with amenities. Air-conditioning was off for the winter so the room was a tad stuffy, but leaving the windows ajar quickly solved the problem as it was chilly outside!

The weather was somewhat grey and dismal with light drizzles, so our first plan was to have lunch at Faborit - this nice little cafe located just next to our hotel entrance.

What with the hunger, any food would do. Faborit offered decent hot sandwiches, coffee, and english-speaking staff to complete us. Our panini and focaccia were good enough for us to consider coming back since our hotel is literally twenty steps away.

2 sandwiches + 2 juice + 2 hot beverages: Euro 13.90

FABORIT

Alcala 21,

28014 Madrid

PALACIO REAL

First stop is to pay homage to the much raved about Palacio Real.

En route we walked past a jamon shop. The Spaniards sure love their ham, which is awesome for us.

it rained incessantly

Check out the queue - try to spot Steven!

We queued for a long time (an hour?) in the drizzle just to get in. The long wait meant we only have about one and a half hours to explore the largest palace in Europe! How about that for some touch and go?

sprawling royal grounds

No photography allowed inside which was a shame because some of the Official Salons were really lavish. When visiting palaces I tend to end up with a sore neck because I have a thing for gorgeous ceilings and ornate cornices. Apart from the ceilings, the salons were also filled with incredible details, tapestry, carvings and furniture. Not forgetting plenty of paintings (many of Goya's works) and potraits eyeballing the countless admiring residents and visitors.

My favorite part of the palace was the pair of grand sweeping staircases at the entrance, right below the most fantastic ceiling painting ever. Picture of the right is a stock picture from lonelyplanet but it doesn't bring out half the grandeur and regal that was so very imminent.

What was also fascinating was the room housing the Stradivarius collection. King Carlos II ordered five instruments from Stradivari. One viola was lost from the palace when Napoleon's troops robbed it. The remaining four instruments are a viola, a violoncello, and two violins. These have the name of the Spanish Quartet and when the four instruments are played at the same time, it sounds like there are a dozen instruments playing. It is estimated that the Spanish Quartet has a value of 100 million euros!

Then of course you have the salons which are fabulously over the top such as the Porcelain Room and Dining Room which makes my head spin with all the garish bling.

The Armoury Room was a little intimidating what with all the weaponry and protective gear dating back to the 16th century and I could not shake the thoughts that any of the exhibits before me could very much have witnessed a battle or took a life before. It is incredible the amount of strength soldiers would have needed to have to bear the weight of all that armour and fight, and to have to pierce those metal in order to kill. Don't even get me started on how impossible it seemed to weak little me to be able to yield a 2-metre spear with one hand.

The Royal Pharmacy was alright - plenty of pretty glass, ceramic and porcelain containers for various pharmaceutical uses. I was with fantasical expectations of mysterious apothecary instruments and magical looking bottles of potions a la Hogwarts spells class. Um, really really not.

When we exited Palacio Real it started to rain heavily so we ducked into the Almudena Cathedral which was quite frankly a waste of time considering the richer history and architecture of other churches in Europe.

Plaza de Oriente

Plaza de Oriente is a pretty and colourful little square in front of the palace filled with streetside cafes which would have made a lovely coffee stop if not for the rain. It made me sad to learn that 56 homes were removed from the site in order to build the square.

Within the square we see a bronze status of Felipe IV and his horse, designed by Velazquez. Apparently he had troubles figuring out how to balance the statue solely on the horse's hind legs, but Galileo intervene and came up with what seemed like a simple solution in retrospect - make the front half of the horse hollow.

In all, I enjoyed seeing Palacio Real and would probably love it more if I didn't have to hurry. It has every potential to contend with my current favorite palace - the Schoenbrunn Palace in Venice. The king who ordered the construction of this palace died before it was finished, which is why the palace has only (yes, only) 2,800 rooms which is like a quarter of the original intent. With my sense of direction, or the lack thereof, I could get so lost in there if all of the 2,800 rooms were open for visiting.

MERCAT SAN MIGUEL

I was really excited about having tapas at Mercat san Miguel due to the raving reviews on multiple travel research platforms. At best, it was an interesting place for observing Madrilenos socialise while suffering mediocre food.

I know foodies and culinary professionals around the world wax lyrical about the quality and the exciting variety that is Spanish cuisine, but I strongly feel that growing up in Singapore with the amazing amount of cheap but excellent food here it would take something really special for us to be wow-ed. And most of the food places during this trip, including this mercat, didn't quite cut it.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, just not as awesome as I thought it might be.

We decided on having breakfast food for dinner dessert. Chocolateria san Gines have been around since 1894 and is still thriving today because of their churros con chocolate. Throngs of locals and tourists pack up the place which opens 24/7. Again, despite the hype, it was just nice. The churros was too oily, was crispy but not fluffy enough, and didn't withstand a half hour walk in the cold and became quite chewy.

Shortly after I took the shot of the churrons, Mr Klutz toppled the entire cup of thick, gooey chocolate all over the hotel room table. So I went to bed.

The rain was a bummer but otherwise it was a lovely, relaxing first day in Spain!

Espanya - here we come

2010-12-12T02:26:00.000-08:00

Day 0 - The Journey

Our blue sky holiday in Spain begun on 29th October, where we rushed home after work to grab our luggages and then off to catch our midnight flight via British Airways.

We had a stopover in London after 13 hours of flying, and I was excited when I spied the London Eye and River Thames as we were about to land - our holiday starts!

The food on BA was close to being uneatable. The inflight entertainment, though, well made up for it. I watched a couple of TV shows, had yet another run of Breakfats at Tiffany, and then drifted in and out of sleep while listening to a selection of blues and jazz.

At 1:55pm Singapore time / 6:55am local time, we arrived at our layover destination and the battle with the jetlag begun. All the waiting around for the flight to Madrid didn't help.

Fatigued.