Hey everyone, just thought I would post on the free ice skating rink that Telef�nica has sponsored in the Plaza de Felipe II (Metro: Goya) for the 3rd year in a row (click the link below for the cool map).

http://callejero.lanetro.com/apps/lanetro/mapas/mapas.asp?id_via=6737&pais_geoc=ESPA%D1A&nombredevia=Avda+Felipe+II&numerovia=0&nombre_fichero=dc1madrid&lite_provincia_geoc=Madrid& lite_municipio_geoc=Madrid

The rink is there from Dec. 15th untill Feb. 15th and is absoultely free. Skating hours are from 12 noon to 9 pm every day of the week.

I went last week with my (adopted) niece (my girlfriend's brothers daughter ) who was in Madrid for xmas. Keep in mind that you should arrive early if you do not want to wait hours on line. Who am I kidding, you are going to have to wait forever no matter what time you go! We arrived at 12:30 pm on a Friday and ended up entering the rink at 4:00

Problem is that the rink takes 1509 at a time and a new group enters every hour. Each group of people gets 15 minutes to get into their skates (which are provided for free as well), 30 minutes to skate and then 15 minutes to change out of their skates again, making an hour per turn.

I must admit that it was the tradition more than anything else (not to mention the 9 year old niece begging me to take her ) that had me 3.5 hours on line, but it was a lot of fun as you can see from the photo links below:

1) Psyched to Skate!

2) Me & Patricia (my niece) on Ice

3) Overview of the Rink

Saludos, jer...

p.d. No! I did not break anything !

How strange! I was just about to post a message asking about the outdoor icerink in Madrid - and here you've answered my question before I even asked it. I saw something about it on the Telefonica website a month ago, but couldn't find it again.

Some of my favourite memories of Europe in winter are skating in Amsterdam and Paris on the open-air icerinks - and now hopefully I'll get to do it in Madrid as well.

Muchas Gracias,

Sally

My pleasure sally

Saludos,
jer...