Brittany and I managed to survive and successfully navigate the buses from Navaleno to Soria, then Soria to Madrid. From there we also had to master the Metro system, which we did, and arrived at our destination approximately 5 hours after we started traveling. This was on Saturday. We met up with Tahreer, Laura, Eva, and Cassandra at our hotel, Suites Foxa 25, near the Chamartin train station. From there we headed out to the city center. We crammed a lot of action into this one day so I will only describe the highlights...
We went to the Museo Reina Sofia to see Pablo Picasso's work (namely Guernica.) If I can find it, Brittany illegally took a picture of it; it was really inconspicuous too, considering that she left the flash on..............
On our quest to find my destination, El Parque del Retiro, we ended up at the (dead) botanical gardens. I still enjoyed it. (We never actually made it to Retiro Park.)
Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid con Eva
La Puerta del Sol is considered the very center of Madrid. From there were strolled down Gran Via and hit up REBAJAS. I bought 2 pairs of boots (win.)
We saw the Palacio Real de Madrid, or the Royal Palace. It's the official residence of the King, Juan Carlos. It is huge and very ornately designed.
Palacio Real con Brittany
Close by, we saw Santa María la Real de La Almudena Cathedral with the sunset in the backdrop. Que bonito. Our last stop in the city center was the Plaza Mayor, filled with restaurants, shops, and more.
Santa María la Real de La Almudena Cathedral at sunset
Somewhere along the way we had quite the experience in the metro. We had unintentionally gotten on a subway going in the wrong direction. Easy fix, we will just get off at the next stop... For normal intelligent folks that would be an easy task, but you haven't been to Madrid with 6 girls before have you? Well long story short we couldn't figure out that the doors are NOT automatic on the metro, and by the time we did, only half of us made it out alive (only after beating up a few old women with my shopping bags [lo siento!] and Brittany's near loss of a limb after getting stuck from the knee down in the doors.)
We ended our night with the classic dish paella and some sangria. Sunday was spent traveling all the way back to Soria.
This is amazing! Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us missing you over here! :-) Love ya!
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