redbeardtravels Blog Posts
- Madrid one more time 13As well as all the tasty food, good beer and free museums that Madrid can offer, the city is surrounded by plenty of diverting places that would make an ideal daytrip. Whether you want beautiful mountain scenery, lavish palaces or historic old towns...
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on Jan 23, 2012
...CRACK: very addictive! Apparently I've had over 35,000 hits on this site so far. Thanks for reading! Don't let me feel shattered though... Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments. - Madrid one more time 12Cats and food are not an appetising mix. How often have you drank a glass of cheap white wine and thought to yourself: 'how does the cat manage to balance on top of a bottle long enough to fill it?' And we all know about the lost kitten posters you s...
- Madrid one more time 11MORE freebies? Of course! You can never have your fill of freebies, so take my tip and make the trip to Madrid's finest art gallery in the evening when it's free. That's right, the Prado is free after 6pm, giving you a couple hours to look around one...
- Madrid one more time 10Leaving behind the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano we made our way to one of Madrid's main thoroughfares, the Paseo de la Castellana which eventually becomes Paseo de Prado further along where it passes the city's three major art galleries. At this end...
- Madrid one more time 9Most of the freebies in Madrid depend on good timing. It's all about showing up on the right day, or at the appointed hour. For instance, show up at 3.30pm at the Lazaro Galdiano Museum and you're free to walk around this private art collection house...
- Madrid one more time 8You're no doubt familiar with a particular chain of sandwich shops which claims you can 'eat fresh' (they are after all the world's largest franchise). Watch out Subway, because there is competition in town and they are going to make you eat your wor...
- Madrid one more time 7We were so poor growing up, we had to go to K-Mart if we wanted to watch TV. We ate our cornflakes with a fork to save on milk. The first time we went to McDonalds, we had to put my Happy Meal on layaway. Needless to say these days I am in the first...
- Madrid one more time 6That same night after polishing off our delicious onion rings and organic burgers, we had a nightcap at Mama Ines, a cafe in the Chueca district. Most mornings we had our breakfast here as well, since it was only about a 5-minute walk from our...
- If you go: Segovia practicalities Segovia would be the perfect daytrip from Madrid, if it weren't for the hassle of buying a ticket for the superfast train service which makes the journey in a quarter of a time. As it was, we didn't leave Madrid until after noon, arriving in...
- Madrid one more time 5Despite being one of the food & drink capitals of Europe, Madrid can be a frustrating experience when you're starving at 7pm and nothing is open yet for dinner. And although the locals prefer a series of light bites for their evening meals, somet...
- Madrid one more time 4Cobbled streets lead away from Segovia's cathedral for our third and final destination of the day, the alcazar or town castle. All of Segovia's old town sits atop a lump of rock which narrows towards the western tip. Separated by the town by a deep c...
- Madrid one more time 3Segovia earned its world-class status as a UNESCO heritage site by having three stunning structures crowded together in a small city of about 50,000 people. It makes an ideal daytrip from Madrid (or even a half-daytrip after the nightmare we had book...
- Madrid one more time 2If I had known the near impossibility of buying a train ticket for our outing to Segovia, I would have set the alarm for about 6am and skipped our lovely breakfast at a Chuecatown cafe. You just don't expect to spend half of the day trying to buy a t...
- Just publishedAnd just in time for Halloween, here is my newest book: a collection of photos ranging from the scenic to the spooky during a visit to the English seaside resort of Whitby, the legendary landing place of Count Dracula. Whitby (Day & Night) is pr...
- Madrid: una vez mas!Madrid, one more time! Lilttle more than a year after our first trip to Madrid, we found ourselves returning for another week to what has become our favourite city on the Continent (to date). Thanks to the delicious food, abundant wine and laidback...
- Berlin 6 - wandering around West BerlinThe Communists got the good stuff! When the city was split after WWII, the old historic heart of Berlin ended up under Soviet control, while the Allies focused their rebuilding efforts of the western half of the city around a district called Kufurste...
- Berlin 8 - Goodbye, LeninWe had already had a peek across the wall and into the former East Berlin earlier in the trip, when we had walked around the posh bits like the Hakesche Hofe (courtyards done in a Art Nouveau style) and the New Synagogue. We'd even spotted a buxo...
- Berlin 7 - mein hostess with the mostestSomeone say time for ouzo?? A quick word first about the B&B, the aptly-named Berliner Bed & Breakfast in the leafy Schoneberg neighbourhood. Walking to the B&B in the hot sunshine of early May, it felt as warm as an English summer. The...
- Berlin 5 - crossing the wallFifty years after the Communists sealed off West Berlin, I'm sure many visitors to the reunified city will be surprised to find there are remarkably few remnants of the Berlin Wall. Since 1989, the Germans have taken great pleasure in obliterating i...
