I spent just over 24 hours in a sunny Madrid, for a few meetings in the office there. Flying out from City Airport in the morning, I got to sample the huge new departure lounge there - with comfy armchairs, plasma screens with Sky Sports News, and everything that you'd normally expect to see in an executive lounge. Apart from the food and drink, which was excruciatingly expensive, and not at all very good. A flight (which seemed to take ages, because of the small and therefore quite slow plane) later, and I had swapped cloudy London for very sunny Madrid. 30 degrees in the shade by mid afternoon - quite a change.
Spending the evening in Madrid, I wandered the streets of the city centre near my hotel, to get a feel for the place (and to find something nice to eat). Walking along the main roads, they seemed to be absolutely full of banks, which of course were closed - maybe it was just the part of town I was in, but there wasn't much life (apart from lots of traffic) on the main roads. It was in the backstreets that all the action was to be found, with bars and restaurants galore in the secondary streets. I found a promising looking restaurant, and settled in. One advantage of Spain is that the colonial food is South American - with kilos of meat all round. So, dinner was a huge kebab on a hanging skewer, for about 10 Euros. Then on the wander home, I was forced to stop for some cold beer to wash it down with.
Pleasingly, I managed to get my meetings finished early the following day, so I got a bit of a chance to walk around and see some stuff. My office is 2 minutes from the Prado, less than 5 minutes from Parque Retiro, and almost next to the Madrid Stock Exchange - a really great location. Walking around the city, I was struck by how massive some of the roads are. I know they are called "Gran Via", but some of the tree lined boulevards are absolutely huge. They even put the big boulevards in Paris to shame - with lots of big roundabouts and squares with arches, fountains, and all sorts of other spectacular stuff around as well. All in all, it makes Madrid seem like a grand and important city - and one that I thoroughly enjoyed a walk around in the sunshine.
After the walk, I took a Metro ride back out to the new Terminal 4 of the airport, a majestic and spectacular building, with an equally fantastic twin on the other side of the runway. It is only one terminal, but it is effectively a separate airport, on a site near to the "other" Barajas airport. It is so big that it can take a while to get through the place, but the sweeping, corrugated roof makes it a great place to spend time. And the executive lounges is one of the blingest in Europe, with excessive amounts of premium spirits on hand to pass the time until the flight leaves. A really enjoyable trip to Madrid - need to go back for a few days off if possible.
Spending the evening in Madrid, I wandered the streets of the city centre near my hotel, to get a feel for the place (and to find something nice to eat). Walking along the main roads, they seemed to be absolutely full of banks, which of course were closed - maybe it was just the part of town I was in, but there wasn't much life (apart from lots of traffic) on the main roads. It was in the backstreets that all the action was to be found, with bars and restaurants galore in the secondary streets. I found a promising looking restaurant, and settled in. One advantage of Spain is that the colonial food is South American - with kilos of meat all round. So, dinner was a huge kebab on a hanging skewer, for about 10 Euros. Then on the wander home, I was forced to stop for some cold beer to wash it down with.
Pleasingly, I managed to get my meetings finished early the following day, so I got a bit of a chance to walk around and see some stuff. My office is 2 minutes from the Prado, less than 5 minutes from Parque Retiro, and almost next to the Madrid Stock Exchange - a really great location. Walking around the city, I was struck by how massive some of the roads are. I know they are called "Gran Via", but some of the tree lined boulevards are absolutely huge. They even put the big boulevards in Paris to shame - with lots of big roundabouts and squares with arches, fountains, and all sorts of other spectacular stuff around as well. All in all, it makes Madrid seem like a grand and important city - and one that I thoroughly enjoyed a walk around in the sunshine.
After the walk, I took a Metro ride back out to the new Terminal 4 of the airport, a majestic and spectacular building, with an equally fantastic twin on the other side of the runway. It is only one terminal, but it is effectively a separate airport, on a site near to the "other" Barajas airport. It is so big that it can take a while to get through the place, but the sweeping, corrugated roof makes it a great place to spend time. And the executive lounges is one of the blingest in Europe, with excessive amounts of premium spirits on hand to pass the time until the flight leaves. A really enjoyable trip to Madrid - need to go back for a few days off if possible.
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