Madrid: Leaving Chicago and first half of Day 1 in Madrid!

And the great solo Madrid trip begins! I made a decision a few months ago to take my first solo international trip and chose Madrid for a couple of reasons. First? I was traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday and I didn’t want cold, rainy or snowy. I can get that at home. The chance for sunshine was rather appealing! I also wanted my first solo trip to be in a Western European country, for safety reasons and also because the chances of there being some English speaking folks locally. So Madrid it was!

Headed out from O’Hare on a 4:45 flight on Tuesday, November 26. I chose a flight from American with a codeshare with Iberia Airlines. The flight was slightly delayed getting out of Chicago but otherwise the process was routine. The only downside was that for some reason I was unable to sleep much on the flight. Normally I can sleep for several hours and can land slightly rested. This flight? Not so much! I think I was able to get a total of 2 hours in an 8-hour flight. Ouch. Oh well, you can sleep when you’re dead, right?

Landed at Madrid’s Barajas airport about 8:00 am on the 27^th. Now if you have never been to Barajas let me tell you, it is huge airport. Very modern and spread out. When you land you come into terminal 4S and have to take an airport train to terminal 4 to pick up your bags and get to the exit. The way it works is that you get off the plane, go through several jet bridge type corridors then proceed to passport control/ immigration. After a quick look and a new stamp on my passport, I was off. Then you move down several sets of escalators about 3 levels to the lower level and grab the train to terminal 4. Then back up a few sets of escalators to another level in T4 to get your bags. Once retrieved you pass through customs (nothing to declare so just proceed through) and then to the main lobby area.  Easy Peasy!!

I made a quick stop at an ATM to grab some Euros. I had ordered about 100Euro at a local bank before I left so that I had some cash on me in case my card didn’t work at the airport. Normally I don’t worry about this because I am usually traveling with other people and if one card doesn’t work then another person’s will. But I had to depend on only myself so I needed to make sure that I had cash for the taxi driver. Research had told me that most of the taxis only take cash and not cards so I wanted to be prepared. I grabbed some Euros (the card worked just fine) and headed out to the taxi stand. I was prepared for the taxi driver as well, at home I printed out the name and address of my hotel, as many of the taxi drivers don’t speak English. And he didn’t speak English, so it was a good plan!

Taxi ride to the hotel from the airport took about 20-30 minutes.  It was about 35Euro total, including the tip. My hotel was a Marriott property named AC Palacio Del Retiro. It was located across the street from the Parque Retiro (Retiro Park). The property was formally an early 20^th century palace that has been converted into a 50-room boutique hotel. It is considered a 5 star hotel and I have to say it was fabulous! I was able to use Marriott points for 2 of my four nights so I splurged a bit on the other 2 nights but it was well worth it! By the time I got to the hotel it was about 10 am and they were able to accommodate me for an early check in! What a wonderful thing after the long flight to be able to freshen up in your room and drop your bags and re group before heading out into the city! Since I checked in so early I wasn’t able to get a room overlooking the park but I didn’t care, my room was clean and overlooked the small courtyard in the center of the hotel.

Outside photo of my hotel at night

View of courtyard from my hotel window

Tiles in hallway near my room.

Building dates back to about 1900

 

Front entrance into hotel

View of the common area near elevator

Can I get this stairway in my house??

After about 30 minutes of re-group time I headed out into the city! I had planned to stop a café/bakery that was about a block or two from the hotel to grab a bite to eat. Harina is a small place that carries sandwiches, croissants and bakery items and you can eat there or take it to go. I chose a quick ham/cheese croissant with a bottle of water and chose a seat by the window. Total cost? About 5Euro. Cheap and good, Yay!

Then it was off to investigate the Metro. I had investigated the Madrid Metro online and had an idea of what to expect. (I will admit to even going on YouTube to check out videos of the Metro as well as the ticket machines to be informed before I got here). Yes, I’m a little OCD. I embrace it! Honestly, if you are traveling to a city you have never been to before, there is nothing wrong with doing a little research beforehand. I say this whether you are traveling to Madrid, London or Pasadena. I feel that if you are traveling alone, a little preparation goes a long way.

Metrobus 10 ride ticket

Sadly not the Scientology picture but still cool 

Now I have to say the Madrid Metro is wonderful. You can buy a Metrobus ticket that is good for 10 rides for E12.20 (gives you a break on the single ticket price). I ended up using two 10-ride tickets during my 4 days! The Madrid Metro is the best way to get around the city. It is clean, safe, and efficient and the trains run about every 5 minutes. The transfers are very easy to navigate and although the trains can get very crowded I never felt unsafe or uncomfortable. There was an obvious police presence within most of the stations (this may be due to the information that Madrid has a problem with pickpockets on the Metro). Funniest thing seen while using Metro? The large advertisement on the wall of a station with the word “Scientology” on it. Now I don’t know if they were advertising for new potential new members or advertising a warning for the “church”. Either way, each time I passed it while on the trains, I chuckled. 

Stay tuned for the next blog post about my first day navigating the city!