Smacked in the Heart of Madrid

I couldn’t pick a better hotel for my first ever trip to Madrid. Hotel Atlantico (pictured above) is located right in the midst of the bustling Gran Via (akin to Singapore’s Orchard Road, London’s Oxford Street, et al) and within walking distance of the cinema/theatre/shopping/dining precincts as well as some of the top cultural attractions of the Spanish capital. Location in a foreign city while touring is extremely important if you are a person – like me – who can’t really walked that much and doesn’t really want to waste much time to doing unnecessary travelling.

Sited right smacked in the middle of Gran Via, there are stores the likes of Zara and H&M just a stone’s throw away from the hotel, and a string of cinemas and show theatres (one even showing The Lion King) literally just round the corner. Add to that, the Metro Callao is but a minute away and this station is conveniently joined to the lines that can bring you up north to say Santiago Bernabau (home of Real Madrid) or to the west to Ventas (the classic bull ring Las de Toros) or even a simply stop down south to Opera which will bring you closer to top attractions such as the Grand Palace (below left, the Cathedral of Madrid (below right) and the Royal Theatre (above right).

Having a hotel easily within reach and especially close to a metro has a lot of advantages: if you bought some heavy stuff at a nearby shop, you can simply popped back up to your room, dumped the buys and moved out to start another shopping spree with your hands free and easy. And in my recent case, after buying two pairs of shoes that cost more than 200euros and which technically enabled me as a tourist to claim back tax at El Corte Ingles (kinda like a Spanish Marks & Spencer) at a precinct three metro stops away, the lovely shoe salesman insisted that I returned to my hotel to get my passport to claim for the tax return form because “3 stops is not very far!” Well, he was right, it didn’t take me more than half an hour to go to my hotel and back to the store and eventually I managed to claim back 25euros which effectively paid for yet another pair of shoes! Yea!

The bus-stops for the Madrid City Tour bus was also close by which provided me with another quick mode of transport. With a 2-day ticket, it allows me to travel around Madrid to the key attractions such as the museums (Prado with its Renaissance arts is highly recommended) or the busy squares such as Plaza Mayor (above left) and Puerta del Sol (above right) without walking even though the latter two are actually walkable.

Add to location, Hotel Atlantico itself was a brilliant hotel – with all the amenities I need and one of the best reception staff I ever have the pleasure to deal with. You can read my review of the hotel here at Trip Advisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187514-d227459-r179667830-Hotel_Atlantico-Madrid.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT

Unless you are on a really tight budget, or just planning a quick one-night stay, having a good hotel at a good location is very important when touring as far as I’m concerned. Thanks be to God that I made the right choice for my maiden trip to Madrid!

Breakfast in Madrid is a Steal… Almost literally. ..

“Beware of snatch thieves!” That’s what almost everyone told me when they heard I’ll be in Madrid after completing the Camino de Santiago up north of the country. Well, it’s my third day in the Spanish capital and seriously it has to be one of the most convenient cities that a tourist can find themselves in. As a new travel friend said, the city is big but necessities and amenities are extremely conveniently within reach. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, most of the locals especially service staff speak brilliant English. And if you keep your things tightly around you, especially in crowded areas, the city is relatively safe…

However an amazing incident this morning proved that you have to be on your guard at all times, even INDOORS. Before making my way to a tour of the Santiago Bernabau (home of Real Madrid), I opted to have a leisurely breakfast at a nice cafe a few doors down from my hotel on Gran Via called Le Pain Quotidien. I chose a table by the glass door entrance, seated facing it, meaning technically I can see everyone coming in. I ordered the nice set of items you see in the picture at the top. Ok, that huge baguette was an overkill as I didn’t know the Huevo Ecologico (soft 2-minute egg) came with 3 different pieces of lovely bread. The delicious Cortado coffee was served in a bowl and I drank it like I would Chinese tea. All these for just €6.50. Without the baguette, it wld have been only €4.40… Anyway, as any Singaporean would, I took a picture of the delightful sight with my mobile and placed it right next to my plate, as I usually do…

As I was whipping my egg – sorry, I’m not uppity enough to eat a soft egg in an egg cup – suddenly a young lad came over my table shoving a brochure of what seems to be baby strollers into my plate. He was pointing frantically at it and as I couldn’t understand a word he said, I said a firm no and just pushed his hand away cos frankly what annoyed me most was that the brochure was getting into my egg! I simply though he just wanted money cos there are well dressed beggers, mostly the elderly, who do that but here’s where a Madrid citizen hero, or rather heroine, sprung to my rescue. Before you could say Holy Batgirl!, the punkish waitress rushed out from behind the counter, grabbed the kid’s hand, snatched the brochure and voila – my handphone was right beneath it! With her fellow waiter, they both proceeded to throw the cad out of the cafe. She came back to me saying, “Don’t fall for the brochure ruse, that’s how they take things from the table.”

Ay Carumba, but I was inside a cafe! You’d think you would be safe! Well, that goes to show you need to be on your guard all the time in Madrid. Just want to thank the good Lord for protecting me, keeping me cool and calm throughout the whole proceedings – I actually continued eating my breakfast as if nothing happened as did the rest of the diners – and most of all, that there was a super duper alert and plunky waitress around to save the day for me. God knows what I’d do without my phone….

So lesson learnt: be alert at all times and don’t leave your valuables lying around as easy bait! In Madrid or anywhere else in the world for that matter!