Teleférico de Madrid, Spain

El Teleférico de Madrid is a cable car or aerial tram.  

It's departure point is on  Paseo del Pintor Rosales, close to the Templo de Debod and soars over houses, the river, the railroad tracks, the highway, and parks to Calle Cerro Garabita in Casa del Campo. 

It was one of the things I seen in my research on fun things to do in Madrid, that I wanted to do.

And it was fun, first, you have to understand that I have issues with heights, they make my knees go all wobbly, and cause my heart to race and my vision to narrow.  But I like to force myself into situations involving height so that I remain in control.

So we decide to go to the  Teleférico  one afternoon and take off mid day from our hotel.  We walk and stop and sightsee along the way.  One of the things we came across was the Templo de Debod.

We get to the  Teleférico  location and find we have an hour to wait for them to reopen.  Their hours are quite difficult to figure out and change frequently due to season.  So off we go again to explore.  We found a great little neighborhood restaurant/bar and went in.  It was great, we shared a meal, had a few beers, and got back to the  Teleférico  and bought our tickets.

We get into the staging area where the cars come and go; we stand behind the black line till our car stops and the attendant motions us in - 

we enter the car, sit, and what do I see, we are in car number 

Not to worry, I am in control!

All the drama aside, the ride was awesome, amazing views - 

this is an amusement park on the Cas de Campo side

 

and on the Casa de Campo side there is a snack bar that makes great smoothies, 

walking trails, and wildlife. 

A very fun afternoon!

El Templo de Debod

In my research about fun and interesting things to do while in Spain, I came across information about a Teleferico (cablecar) in Madrid.  Tom and  I  went in search - and as frequently happens when you go wandering you find things.  We actually came across several interesting things on our way to find the Teleferico, this is one of them.

El Templo de Debod   

We were out walking, enjoying the day, looking for the Teleferico and came across what appeared to be Egyptian buildings.  Now I knew about the Roman occupation, but Egyptian?  

Seems that back about 1960, when the Great Dam of Aswan was going to be built, there were several historically significant monuments that would have been lost due to the flooding.  Spanish archaeologists provided  assistance to the Egyptian state in helping to save the temples of Abu Simbel, and to show their gratitude the Temple of Debod was donated to Spain in 1968.

The temple was relocated and rebuilt in Madrid's  Parque del Oeste, which is near the Royal Palace of Madrid; It opened to the public in 1972.

We stopped at the temple during its closed hours, and had fully intended to return to go in to see the temple, but you know how it is when you are out on walkabout.  you never seem to go back the way you came!

The temple itself  is a small room/chapel originally dedicated to the god Amun, it was later dedicated to Isis of Philae.

Still in Madrid!

Monday, 2 July -
Today was to be one of our 'day-trip' days. I'm not feeling my best, so we are changing our schedule about a little bit. That's the nice thing about building in a few free days.

I have to say that the things we did do today were pretty darn cool.

We went for breakfast, then I was feeling worse so we did a bit of shopping for things to help me feel better and came back to the room. I nappped, Tom napped, Tom tried again to reach KLM. We're trying to ugrade our seats for the return flight but they are making it very difficult. I was going to write up glowing things about them, but now, no!

Okay, Anyway, so we decided to go do some things close to the hotel, we went to parque de españa to see the statue of don quixote, then to the Temple of Debod, the only complete Egyptian monument outside of Egypt, it is over 2000 years old. Then we went to the Teleférico de Madrid. We were too early for the Teleferico so went for a beer, and shared a plate of marinated green beans, and a cooked trout, yummmyyyyyy! The Teleférico is a cable car that crosses a huge park, the railway, the river manzanitas, and offers some awesome views. It's one of my favorite things so far.

Then about 8pm the Championship futbal team was passing by enroute to present the trophy to the King. Now you all know I am no sports fan, but Tom and I stood out there for quite a long time to be able to get photos to share with you.

Tuesday, 3 July -

Today we did one of our scheduled day trips - we went to the Royal Monastary of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. As a tourist attraction it has merit, I'm just a bit blah about it! The size of the place is more than impressive, the grounds and gardens are extensive. The carpentry, stone masonry, and building expertise blows your mind. The frescoes are incredible. It is granduer, it is amazing, I'm glad we went, but I don't need to see it again. The town of Escorial was far ore impressive, reallylovely, built on the mountain so lots of stairways and turns. We had a very good lunch atba hotel restaurant across from a park that if they hadn't built their municipal building there woud have an amazing view out over the expanse towards Madrid. In fact I could see the 4 Towers Business complex from that vantage point.

We took the Metro, then a bus both ways and after we exited the bus and were headed to the store where we now buy our water and bananas we were commenting on how now, just as we're starting to figure our way around we're getting ready to leave.

Tomorrow we pack up and head to Toledo for a night. Then off to either Granada, Seville, or Cordoba. Need to figure out which one would be the best base rather that relocate every night

Tom tried KLM again, no luck! Now we've used the skype and had a long conversation with a friend with no problems, but both times with KLM they've said the signal was bad and they couldn't hear. Hmmmmmm, is it? Or are they just using that as a ploy?....



Any of you out there use Blogger with your ipad that can tell me what I need to do to be able to attach photos???

Randomness about Madrid

So let's preface this with - we are tourists, doing tourist stuff, we don't know the insider stuff. We are in the heart of downtown Madrid.

It is beautiful.

Wide streets, wide sidewalks, streets and sidewalks in good repair, no holes to fall into or things to trip over, tidy, no trash blowing about, excellent mass transit, Metro, bus, etc. The architecture is awesome.

Sidewalk cafes abound.

Don't let anyone tell you its going to be cheap here because of the economy. It's not! In fact I'm really confused by just how expensive things are.
Ni modos!

Art museums aplenty. We've so far been to The Prado, The Reina Sofia, The Thyssen-Bornemisa, .... The Thyssen is my favorite so far, didn't make it yet to the Sorolla.

We've wandered many beautiful parks, and admired some pretty darn fancy buildings.

Tom keeps saying it is so 'civilised'. He's comparing it to Merida. I'd have to agree.

People are more - urbane? I mean cars stop and let you cross the road, they don't try to run you down or act as if you are not there, they don't blow their horns at you.

There is a bit of gentility in the driving, they use trash cans, there are recycling bins on the streets and people actually detour to use them.

Still, it is a big city with all the hustle and bustle feel.

The weather is awesome, we were warned that it was going to be really hot in July, uh, no! It's like mid 80's, with almost no humidity. In fact, my very light hand cream just isn't doing the job so I had to buy a more subsantial cream today. A small tube of hand cream was over 2euros. This is the .79cent size in the States. Gads!

The food is meat intensive, and especially hams and sausages. Not my favorite stuff, salads are mostly white lettuces, you know like iceburg, blech, but it is what it is. I did have a smoked fish plate the other night - pieces of smoked salmon, trout, and anchovies, really yummy.

So tomorrow we start some of our daytrips out of Madrid; Segovia, el Escorial, Toledo. Then we start to relocate...

Oh, in trying to figure out how to add photos, apparently I need to buy some interface software, and buy more space on Picasa to upload my photos to that first. Just warning you, might not happen.

It's one thing to sit here at 1:30am and keyin in these missives because my mind can't deal with the time differential, its another to deal with all that research!

Ok, hasta pronto! Sleepless in Madrid!

Saturday in Madrid

I am starting this post at 11:59/2359 on Saturday night. We've had a full day. After waking at nearly 10am it took us till nearly noon to leave the room. Things started out shaky because we were not quite in our best travel state of mind. We went for breakfast just a few doors from the hotel, the Serena Verde, omg, did I order poorly, well lets not revisit that.

Then it was off to explore the merits of both the Madrid Pass, and the Turibus pass, we've decided we'll make out better by paying as we go, so didn't get either pass.

 

We made our way to the Prado, with a few stops of course.

Entry for the Prado is currently 12 euros per person, not the 8 euros that Rick Steves says in his 2012 travel Guide. What's the sense to have the most recent guide??? We spent quite a while there. The Prado deserves its own post.

The Botanic Gardens are beautiful,

 

we passed a monster amazing church

 

just as a bride was exiting her limo and entering.

Some more stops and detours and we were at the museo Reina Sofia, doesn't deserve much of a mention from me.

Then we decided to return to the room. Crazy, crazy, one thing lead to another, we stopped or food, oh shoot, I really need to figure out how to include photos here.

Oh, BTW, tonight is the Gay Pride parade and celebration right here in the street in front of our hotel, so that, and the bottle of wine with our late dinner, then the digestifs comped us by our very nice waiter, they REALLY like that we speak Spanish, or Castellano as they say here!

Anyway, it was a good day. We like Madrid!

Ok hasta mañana, oh wait, it is mañana!


 

First afternoon in Madrid

So the plane got in to the Madrid-Barajas airport! we gathered our luggage, and we were on our way. We had the directions to get to the hotel using the Metro then just a short two block walk, and we had two free metro tickets.(thank you jim and marianne)

Unfortunately the gifted tickets had expired which gave us the opportunity to try out our debit card - We bought new tickets, and were there at our hotel in no time, Hospedaje Romero. Hospedaje Romero was a recommendation from Mel and Erid of Hotel Julamis.

Sra Charo greeted us and was just so sweet, and so thrilled that We could speak Spanish.

Our room is small, quite small, the bathroom - the shower stall in particular, is teeny tiny - Move just a bit and the water is off, hot, cold, etc.

We unpacked, changed clothes, and took off. Our plan was to go to the Prado museum, walk in Retiro Park, get some tapas, maybe go to museum Reina Sofia.

 

 

We ended up walking to puerta del Sol, the plaza mayor, the Palacio Real, a gorgeous mercado, a fabulous church, and a few other really lovely sights.

 

We decided to have some wine and tapas in the Plaza Mayor and people watch.

 

 

We are such rubes! We ordered wine, which came very quickly, then we ordered 3 bocadillos and some calamari. The Head Waiter came out and explained that bocadillos were like paninis, full size sandwiches. He suggested we get half orders so we got fresh anchovis, two types of meat, and the calamari. The ancovis were awesome. The breads here are amazing. We really have gotten out of breads because they, for the most, aren't very well done in Merida. I've eaten more bread in two days that I normally eat in a month.

Ok so its been a very long day,we headed back to the room because we were both really dragging. We ambled about, got to the room, showered, and I started this blogpost. My head and eyes kept dropping so I finally conceded defeat. Good thing too because this morning some parts were indecipherable.

So were called it quits and were in bed and out like the lights by 9pm. We just got up a bit ago, Tom says when he rolled and looked at the clock it was 9:45am. So not bad - a full 12 hours of sleep.

 

Day 3 - Houston till 4pm, then off for destination 2

WTF - awake at 5am thinking about the stuff I forgot, the stuff I want, should I take 3 pr of shoes or just the 2 pr I originally decided on...

okay, one last shopping excursion, ziploc baggies, almonds and raisins for the flight, baby wipes, ....


One thing I've been thinking about is how much easier it would be living in the United States.  No language barrier, no cultural barrier, seriously It would be ay easier living here.  Also, we've been commenting on how much less expensive things are here. Clothes, food, dry goods, well for the most part, not across the board, - electronics, appliances, furniture across the board cheaper. Definitly need to discuss this at more depth.


About 1:15 Thursday, Houston time we headed out for the airport.  It was a long flight, we took off at 4pm, we tried to upgrade our seats, but couldn't - the plane was full and had been sold out for quite some time. This flight was full of screaming kids, it was nerve wracking. I had intended to read but all I could do was watch movies at full volume to deaden the screeching. And there were so many young kids, teenage kids, a christian youth group going to Romania to stamp out poverty one village at a time, a Boy Scout troop on their way to Paris for who knows what benevolent humanitarian project.

So about 8am AMSTERDAM time, 2am Yucatan time we roll in to Amsterdam. I was hoping to have a look around he airport but our flight was a bit late so all we could do was race a great distance because our gate got changed through the airport without even seeing it. 

Our connecting flight, about 2 1/2 hrs long, deposited us in our Country location of da da da daaaaaa - España, first stop Madrid.

So here it is 7:43 Yucatan time/2:43 Madrid time, and that is my last time conversion, from now on the time is the time wherever I am.

We've been up a looong time.  I have to say , KLM is a great airline.  I'll talk more about them later, but for now, here it is nearly 3pm, we are in Madrid, and I hear a tapas bar screaming our names.