Halfway down the Danube

Madrid

I fell in love with Madrid. And I haven't even seen much of it yet and won't see much more in the short time that's left before we have to leave for Caceres. But, oh.

Those buildings.

The plazas, which have big, generous fountains in the middles and are lined up like pearls on a string.

The funky neighborhoods. (Of course, we stayed true and ended up in the gay neighborhood of town. How? I booked the hotel through the internet, so there was no way of telling. But we somehow always manage and we always feel right at home, then. We used to live in Dupont Circle in DC, you know.)

The little busy side streets.

The buildings.

The atmosphere.

The buildings.

I'm not sure this impression is correct but it seems that Madrid is a very well done cross between Paris and New York. Actually, coming right out of Romania, the first thing I said to Doug was: "This city is unbelievably rich!"

We have to come back, that's for sure. However, next time maybe we won't do the trip through Frankfurt to save a few bucks. We had 90 minutes to change planes and it was barely enough.

Anyhow. Madrid is gorgeous and we already regret that we have so little time. Next time, is what we console ourselves with. Alan and David think it's cool, too. They love the busy streets and that there is so much to see. But in two hours or so, we are heading to Caceres.

[And I had an idea. I'm going to start a blog solely for traveling parents to share tips where to stay and what to do on the road. Like, is there a child friendly hotel in Madrid? Because ours isn't. It's perfectly nice but it has stairs in odd places and a teensy elevator. Or is there such a source? I'd be interested to know!]

Posted by claudia at April 2, 2004 08:32 AM