Hi Jer and everyone,
Back in the UK now after probably the best weekend ever in Madrid.
Below I have listed just some of the things we did:
Friday:
Arrived from UK at 15:00.
Picked up by limo and driven to Hostal Persal on the Plaza Del Angel.
Ditched bags, went out to explore and located Los Gabrieles on C/ Echegaray 17, What a place! had a few beers then dropped into the Cerveceria Alemana for a beer and tapas, the tapas was excellent but expensive..for four persons it came to 62 Euros.
..oh well..you live and learn!!
Went back to hotel for siesta to prepare for big night out.
Our guide arrived in the shape of Stephen Drake-Jones at 20:00, we took his "Hemmingway" tour as several of our group knew of Hemmingway and enjoy his writing.
Stephen even managed to add four American women into our tour as well!!!
Stephen took us to places we wouldn't have found by ourselves and we were all impressed with his talks and knowledge.
We visited the following places:
Cerveceria Alemana (again, but this time cheaper, we were charged "tourist prices" first time)
Cuevas de Sesamo C/ Del Principe (Great atmosphere, great piano, great vino)
El Patio C/ Arlaban 1 (Great Tapas, excellent bar, first class tapas)
Cuando Sali De Cuba C/Ternera 4 (Excellent Daikari's, Excellent live music, Excellent food)
We then moved onto the Joy Club in C/ Del Arenal, bit pricey and music was o.k, moved onto the Dreams just down the road..free to get in and much better music and cheaper beer...danced for a while then moved onto the Kapital club in Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, danced the rest of the night away until about 05:00...in bed at 05:30!!!!
Saturday:
Up at 9am for breakfast and headed to the Bernabau to see if we could locate tickets...luckily there had been some returns to we got 8 tickets in the "Lateral"..we headed back into the city via C/ Orense.
Headed straight for "Puerto Rico"..as there was 7 of us..(one had bailed back to hotel with hangover
) we had to wait but the waiter told us to go to bar opposite and he would come and get us...which he did after 15 minutes, we had a great table and all had Menu del dia, we ate well for under 10 Euros each and the Sangria was great!!! :cheers:
Headed back to hotel for 3 hour siesta.
Got up and headed for Futbol....then the heavens opened!!
we saw lots of people wearing plastic ponchos to keep dry so we bought some and looked like a novelty condom outing...but we were dry...
Got into the stadium and watched an excellent game with great atmosphere...got the metro back to Sol and went to Los Gabrieles for a drink, went round the corner to a restaurant next to Carbones and had excellent tapas to fill out stomachs for the night...
Went for a wander and found La Fontana Del Oro I think which is an Irish themed bar in C/ De La Victoria..we danced the night away with a Bachelorette party we met as we toured Madrid..
Got kicked out at closing and head for Choclateria San Gimes and ended the night here..
Back to hotel at 07:15
Sunday:
Up at 10:00..breakfast and out...
Lazy day..spent sightseeing and mooching about...ended up back in Los Gabrieles, the barmaid made us Sangria in front of us. It was wonderful.
Another 3 hour siesta until 19:00.
Walked up via Plaza Mayor to Plaza de la Paja and Plaza de San Andres, here we found the local Madrid bars we love so much, we moved from bar to bar soaking up the evening sun and excellent atmosphere.
Headed off for our Flamenco show at Corral del a Moreria. Excellent show, reasonable food, good vino!!!
Walked back to Viva Madrid in C/ Manuel Fernandez y Gonzalez via Plaza Mayor and stayed there until it closed...we asked the barman where we could go to dance and he said not much was open apart from a gay club by Callao Metro called "Week End".
I asked "How gay??", my group are all straight...The barman replied "Muchos Muchos gay"..we all said "What the hell" and walked there!! Got there about 2am I think...got in and yes..it was "Muchos Muchos gay" but we all love a good time and we drank and danced until 04:00...headed back to the hotel via a quick drink in a bar on C/ de Espoz y Mina.
Monday:
Shopped for my wife to be in H&M which she and I love...bought a mug with 100% Toro and a keyring..
Got a taxi to the airport and left...
We all loved Madrid...we made the most of our time there and everyone treated us with respect and helped us with any problems/questions we had.
Thankyou to Jer and all of you for any thoughts..comments you posted when I asked for help..without your help this weekend wouldn't have been the success that it was..
We will return...
Mike "Muchos Muchos" Boyce
Madrid Holiday 30/05/03 - 02/06/03
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