March /April 2017, June 2018, May 2019

We were in Madrid(population: 3.2 million) 4 times within last two years, and, based on this experience, we make following suggestions for those interested in visiting Madrid for the first time. Madrid is great for art lovers and foodies, and we’d encourage everyone to plunge in and enjoy.

We would recommend visitors to stay at least 4 nights to get to know the city, which will allow 3 full days in Madrid. It will be good to include a Sunday and a Monday: El Rastro Street Market is open on Sundays, and my favorite art museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza, is free on Mondays. Another free event to consider is the lunch time free concert at Royal Opera House from September to February at 1 PM on Fridays and some Sundays.

Central Madrid is small enough to cover by walking, and the Metro and the buses are convenient. Uber works well and just a tad bit cheaper than taxi. Therefore, staying any where in the city within the boundary of the map below will be fine. To give an idea, from the Retiro Park, the green rectangular area toward the eastern part of the city, to the Royal Palace, another green rectangular area toward the western edge of the city, is about 2.5 km(1.6 miles).

We have stayed at 4 different Airbnb apartments: one near Anton Martin station (between Atocha & Puerto del Sol), one right across the river from the Royal Palace, another one right near Puerto del Sol, and one near Tribunal station(between Callao and San Bernardo). You can look at the full metro map here.  Our favorite so far was the last one because the narrow streets in this area were more intimate and neighborhood-ly, and we could walk to every where within 20 minutes, and there were so many places to eat, shop, hang out etc. that locals were frequenting.

One of the things we love in Spain is “menu del dia” lunch specials. Every restaurant in Spain was required by law to offer a lunch deal during the week up until 2010, and this tradition is still carried on. These multi course meals come with drinks: soda, beer, or wine. In Madrid, you see lots of deals around 8 – 14 euro range. One thing to remember is that lunch time doesn’t start till 12:30 or 1 PM at most restaurants. Here is a sample of best “Menu del Dia” offerings compiled by a tour company in Madrid:

Other than the Thyssen Museum mentioned above, I recommend two other art museums: Prado Museum(one of the great art museums in the world) and Reina Sofia Art Museum(modern Spanish art). Both have free admission hours daily.

I like Thyssen because it offers a panorama of great art works in a more intimate setting, and you can actually look at each art work and appreciate better. Reina Sofia gives you an idea how active Spanish artists have been in modern times. Prada, really, is one of the great museums in every sense: the depth/width of their collection, the architecture, sheer enormity of the place etc. You feel that you are touched by art just by being there. Sadly, though, these great museums simply have too much to look at & attract too many people so that walking around in your own pace is almost impossible.

Here’s how I would organize daily schedules around free museum hours and varied food tasting opportunities. Unfortunately, arriving on a weekend will erase chances of getting more/better lunch special deals.

Day 1: Saturday

• a walking tour starting from Puerto del Sol around 10 AM or so. Look around.
• continue to Plaza Mayor and the small streets around there, walk around
• stop at Plaza de la Villa, walk around the area and a bit south
• go back up to Plaza Mayor area & have lunch at San Miguel Market, one of the most attractive food courts in the world, in my opinion. The stalls here have gotten more upscale and expensive, I’ve noticed, but you can hunt for some bargains if you study carefully. For instance, there are 1 euro tapas and 2-3 euro sea food preparations

• Uber to Atocha Station & go inside to see the unusual design of the interior.
• walk north for several blocks & stop at CaixaForum to view the building design & go up to the top floor to rest at the cafe, catch some exhibits if anything interesting is going on
• go across the street & visit the botanical garden(4 euros)
• go next door to Prado Museum(free admission 6-8PM on Saturday)
• dinner: La Malontina, a 10 minute walk from Prado, exquisite food under 20 euros
• stop for churros and hot choco at Maestro Churros

 

Day 2: Sunday

• go to El Rastro flea market(9 AM – 3 PM): better to go after 11 AM for people watching but earlier for shopping and haggling
• have tapas in the area
• go to Toledo circle & get on #C1, that circles around the city to see more of the city while resting your feet
• the bus will go north, then turn east, then turn south; get off at an eastern entrance to Retiro Park. (Av. Meneddez Pelayo stop will work well, there’s a big children’s hospital near the stop)

• enter the park, slowly walking toward the pond in the middle
• sit around the pond, admire the artsy settings, watch people
• continue walking toward the western edge of the park & you will come out behind Prado Museum. Pass this area, cross the street, walk down south on the tree lined street, Paseo del Prado
• at the end of this street, go around the corner & arrive at Reina Sofia Museum (free  from 1:30 to 7 PM on Sunday), get to the ticket window to pick up the free tickets & enter the museum
• dinner: Uber to San Anton Market & pick what appeals to you.

 

Day 3: Monday

• go to Plaza Espana to admire Cervantes and two of his famous characters: Don Quixote and Sancho
• walk 10-15 minutes to the Royal Palace (looks more modest than the pictures) to see the official residence of the royal family. We never went inside, thus, we are not sure whether it’s worth the money and time to go inside. The Cathedral is next door on the south side, but, there are more attractive buildings in this town. It doesn’t look as impressive as in the photos.
• across the street from the Palace is Oriente Plaza, and you will see the Royal Theater behind it.
• walk east toward Puerto de Sol for 15-20 minutes and go to Museo del Vino(Wine Museum) restaurant to experience their 12 euro lunch special. They open at noon, and the food portions are extremely generous.
• walk east for another 10-15 minutes & reach Thyssen Museum, free on Mondays from noon to 4 PM.

• exiting the museum, walk north for a few blocks to the City Hall. Admire the view of this area & start walking on Gran Via, the Broadway of Madrid. As soon as you step onto this street, you will notice an outdoor artisan market diagonally across from the City Hall. Browse through if the market is open. Walk slowly on Gran Via, looking around, stepping into some stores. Primark is a huge fashion store with reasonable price tags. Walk south toward Puerto del Sol from here & mingle with the crowd that fill up the streets around here. Keep walking & pass Plaza Mayor, reach San Miguel Market & turn south from there to find Cava Baja Street, A.K.A the Tapas Street.
• dinner at Casa Lucas. Great food & wine. 4  people in our party, we spent under 20 euros per head.

 

March 2017

Valetta(population: 6,000) was the last stop before disembarking the ship at Barcelona to finish up the Suez Canal cruise that started from Dubai. We were told that the best scenery you get would be the view you get as the ship enters the port of Valetta, and we were not disappointed. We knew the city might not be fully awake, but we got really antsy waiting on the ship and got off the ship around 8 AM.

 

From the cruise terminal exit, we turned right and walked for a few minutes to reach the lift that took us up to the city center on top the hill. As we walked out of the park around the lift exit, we came to an area with government buildings, pictured above. We walked to the City Gate and walked out of it, and there was a big bus stop with the route numbers marked for each parking stall. We had decided to go to an old capital, Mdina, first to beat the crowd. We found the C2 bus(2.60 Euros for all day) stall at the lefthand side of the road separate from the traffic circle. The 30-minute bus ride was like an introduction to Malta mini-tour.

 

Mdina(population 300) is not the last stop for the C2 bus, but you won’t miss the stop. Most people get off there anyway. It is just a few minutes walk from the bus stop to the Mdina city gate. Here’s a map for the town. You will see 6 maps. The first one is for Mdina. The main cathedral of Malta, St. Paul’s, is in this tiny town.

 

We spent a little over an hour walking around the town discovering nice surprises in little alleys and buildings.  Then the tour buses started arriving and filling up the streets, which turned the sleepy little town into a major tourist attraction with hundreds of selfie sticks poking at your face. We quickly gave up on the idea of having a leisurely cup of tea at a cafe and headed back to the bus stop.

 

We were back in Valletta just in time for the Military Band March & Display that started at the City Gate at 10 AM. We followed them to the main square, St. George’s Square, and, they performed there for 45 minutes.

 

For a little town of 6,000 people, it has a lot going. There’s history, arts, culture — museums, beach, food, and, of course, churches.  You can discover all that just by walking. It still is a capital city, and, even for a small country like Malta(population: 450,000), that means something. The whole city is recognized as the UNESCO Cultural Heritage site.

Another main cathedral of Malta is in Valetta. Saint John’s Co-Cathedral(called such because it shares the function of the main cathedral with Mdina’s St. Paul.) doesn’t seem much from outside, but you HAVE TO go inside. Trust me. You will not be sorry. In fact, you will thank me!

 

I had read about this wonderful restaurant in Valletta, but it was closed forever. But we found a pretty good one behind the Cathedral called LaPira Maltese Kitchen.

The evening view of the city of Valletta was as impressive as the early morning view. I had a feeling we might return to this charming little place.

March 2017

 

We thought Athens (population: 660,000) would be one of the first cities we’d visit in Europe, but it never turned out that way. Only after visiting 100’s of other places around the world, the day came for us to finally see Athens. Our Suez Canal cruise stopped in Piraeus port for a day thanks to the political instability in Egypt which made the ship skip Egypt entirely and created room for a chance to include another ancient city in the itinerary.

It seemed there was a lot to see and might not be enough time to cram all that into a day if we traveled on our own. So we booked a tour on shorebee.com, a shore excursion specialist for cruise ship passengers. It was a 6-hour group tour on a bus with an English speaking guide. We paid 25 Euros per person, but the site shows the price at $35 Euros now. (admission to Acropolis was not included)

The tour was to cover:

• Stop at the Panathenaic Stadium (10 minutes)
• Stop at the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian‘s Arch (30 minutes)
• Stop at The Acropolis to visit the Parthenon and Mars Hill (90 minutes)
• Stop at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier for the changing of the Guard (10 minutes)
• Sightseeing of Athens center; Academy, University and National Library (30 minutes)
• Walk into the Plaka area of Athens with free time for shopping and lunch (90 minutes)
• Return to Piraeus cruise ship port before “All-aboard time”

Our bus was waiting for us at the cruise terminal parking lot. After stopping briefly at a high point by the sea in Piraeus, we went straight to  Panathenaic Stadium, a 2,000-year-old stadium built entirely in marble. (pictured above)

 

Changing of the Guards ceremony was interesting mainly due to the unusual footwork that the soldiers displayed. The pointed toe on their shoes was used as a weapon as needed in olden days, it was explained.

 

We drove passed the national research institute, the Academy, and the University next door, and the National Library in central Athens on our way to the Acropolis.

 

We got to the Acropolis just before it was mobbed by tour buses. This is a place every single tourist to Athens visits, and the ticket line could be very very long, our guide explained. By this time, we were hungry, but only a small food kiosk was available in the area. We had some snacks to tide us over, then marched into the site. We spent an hour or so exploring and admiring the works of ancient Greeks. If we had more time, we would have loved to visit the Acropolis Museum down the hill to learn more about the Acropolis.

Next, we stopped at the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian‘s Arch. By this time we were starving and all the monuments started looking the same. After a quick photo op, we were dropped at the entrance to Kolokotroni Street in the Plaka area. We finally had our late lunch at Paradosiako Restaurant, and we were satisfied with the food and the price.

When our tour bus dropped us off at the cruise terminal, we walked off to see more of the town of Piraeus. It was just a port town where everyday people lived their own lives.

Athens is not really a huge place, and the public transportation system was well in place. Cabs were not expensive. So we could have done this trip on our own. But the tour was worth 25 Euros, we thought.