The decision for the last place of travel for my stay in Italy has got to be something either not so common or exotic. We had narrowed down to Prague, Athens and Madrid. The better air ticket for Prague required us to depart from Bergamo and return from Malpensa and this is impossible since we need to park our car at the airport. As for Athens, we do not have enough time to plan and time may not be enough. But Athen is damn cheap can? Only about 35 euro! We don't want to go Barcelona cos everyone from Singapore coming to this training was visiting that place. Moreover, Madrid is the capital of Spain so that gives it another better reason to go.
We arrived in Madrid at night. Their metro stations and trains are one of the cleanest we ever seen in Europe. Took the metro to our lodging place near Plazza Sol, one of the most crowded place in Madrid it seems. The place is as infested with people as Orchard Road during the New Year countdown. We slowly squeeze our way to our hostel which is like just beside a Starbucks and in the midst of all the crowd. Our hostel room is just enough to fit 3 double-deck beds and there is barely enough space for the 6 of us to manoeuvre around, but there is an attached bathroom which is of a reasonable a size and clean (most important!).
We arrived in Madrid at night. Their metro stations and trains are one of the cleanest we ever seen in Europe. Took the metro to our lodging place near Plazza Sol, one of the most crowded place in Madrid it seems. The place is as infested with people as Orchard Road during the New Year countdown. We slowly squeeze our way to our hostel which is like just beside a Starbucks and in the midst of all the crowd. Our hostel room is just enough to fit 3 double-deck beds and there is barely enough space for the 6 of us to manoeuvre around, but there is an attached bathroom which is of a reasonable a size and clean (most important!).
The next day, we made our way to Plazza Mayor and there is a small X'mas market selling mostly X'mas decors. I miss the fanciful X'mas market in Innsbruck... Then we went to the Madrid Royal Palace. This is the first time that a palace/castle is readily available for visit despite so many we came across during our travel. We joined one of the guided tour at 5 euro. We learnt that one of the king actually made his queen bore him 24 children and due to complications, the Queen died at a early age of 30+. 24 children!!!! My god! But at least those ang-mo kings seems more faithful. Not like that Chinese kings who has a concubine palace of 3000 wives! Does that means he'd had sex at least 3000 times before? Who on earth can reach that number! Does Guinness Book of Record has the name of the person who has the most number of sex partners? Bet it must be a Chinese king! The tour was about 2-3 hours, walking through the heavily decorated rooms and explaining to us what room was it. Amazing thing is the Spainish king and queen have separate rooms. There is a room especially for the Queen. We saw some porcelain plates and cups there and the guide told us it was given by China when it was still under the Emperor's ruling.
We planned to make this trip a relaxing one... that is no places that must be covered, no need to strictly follow itinery. We went to the Madrid Garden next. Heard from one of my friend that "San Mao" wrote a famous short story and one of the setting was in Madrid Garden. The garden is indeed big with a small lake in the center where families row around in small rented boats. The garden reminds me of the many gardens I visited while in Melbourne.
Some of Spain most famous for are bull-fighting and tap dancing. We went to this bull-fighting arena and it was big. It looks something like the Colosseum in Rome. Was a pity the bull-fighting season is over, but we tour and learn more from the guided tour nevertheless. When the bull-fighters (called metadors) met with a mishap and died during a performance, he will be taken to this small room and his family can collect his body there. And before a matador goes for his performance, he will pray in silent at a small chapel in the arena. All this makes this bull-fighting thing so scary. But it is a classic experience to be inside the bull-fighting arena, one of the most famous in the world.
