Dec 20th, 2008 at 5:00PM: I assure you that when the ball drops on the last day of 2008, I will not be in Times Square. I will be nowhere near Times Square. So, unless you like the thought of being shoulder-to-shoulder with people you've never met while freezing and lamenting the lack of public bathrooms in that part of town, take a look at some of the choices you have this year. Chomp twelve grapes in Spain Think of it ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
madrid posts
Need New Year's Eve ideas? Crash some plates!
Dec 20th, 2008 at 5:00PM: I assure you that when the ball drops on the last day of 2008, I will not be in Times Square. I will be nowhere near Times Square. So, unless you like the thought of being shoulder-to-shoulder with people you've never met while freezing and lamenting the lack of public bathrooms in that part of town, take a look at some of the choices you have this year. Chomp twelve grapes in Spain Think of it ...The Best Holiday Light Displays Around the World
Obscure Holiday in the US is a Big Deal in Spain
Oct 7th, 2008 at 1:30PM: Try to keep your excitement under control: Columbus Day is coming. While post office employees and history buffs have been waiting, this holiday will pass unnoticed for most people. That is, unless they try to go to the post office or local library, most of which will be closed in memory of Christopher Columbus, first white guy to set foot in the Americas (sorry Leif Ericson, but you didn't write ...Breaking News: 147 People killed in Madrid plane crash
Aug 20th, 2008 at 2:15PM: A Spanair plane bound for the Canary Islands from Madrid caught fire after skidding off the runway killing 147 people; 173 were on board -- 26 are known to have survived. The plane was delayed for an hour because of technical reasons and when it finally tried to take-off from Terminal 4 of Barajas International Airport, it hardly got off the ground before it swerved off the runway as its engine ...Where to find the world's 10 best rooftop bars
Jul 16th, 2008 at 3:00PM: With summer in full swing it, finding good outdoor spaces to have a drink is the thing to do. Nothing says summer more than a couple of friends sitting on an outdoor terrace sharing a pitcher. But even better than your average terrace or patio has to be a rooftop. Stopping for an evening drink is an excellent activity, but if you can find a bar on top of a tall building with an excellent view of ...Silent raves come to Madrid
Jul 2nd, 2008 at 9:40AM: I've never understood how the concept of a silent rave ever got popular. People in a club listening and dancing to their own music on headphones. The hook is around the fact that you can dance to whatever music you want in a social environment. How is this fun? Why wouldn't you just do the same at home? It's a social thing, but when do you talk? On drink breaks? The concept originated in the ...Photo of the day (06/23/08)
Jun 23rd, 2008 at 9:30PM: Ha! The title of this photo is "Making friends with the locals." Could not have said it better myself. It was taken by RXX in Madrid. ***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr Pool and post it. Make sure it is not copyrighted, otherwise we can't post it here.*** ...Madrid airport luggage handlers smuggle 17 kilos of cocaine into Spain
Apr 22nd, 2008 at 12:20PM: 4 luggage handlers at Madrid Barajas Airport have been arrested for smuggling cocaine into Spain by taking advantage of their position and access to luggage that is unloaded off air crafts. A bag with over 17 kilograms(!) of cocaine was loaded onto the plane from an unspecified destination. The "loaders" then contacted their friends who worked at Barajas with identification details of the bag that ...Noisiest places in the world
Apr 15th, 2008 at 9:00AM: The noisiest city I have been to is Athens--at least what I remember. I'm basing this on a fuzzy memory of an experience crammed onto a bus thinking that the people around me were angry, bit finally decided that they were having a chat and had to raise their voices to be heard above the din of the traffic. That was one bustling place, and I've lived in New Delhi.
There's an article in the New York ...Spain's new high speed train connects Madrid and Barcelona
Feb 20th, 2008 at 4:00PM: Spain's high speed link between Madrid and Barcelona is finally open, after more than two decades of construction and administrative delay. Transporting passengers at 300 kilometers per hour (186 miles per hour), and at a price of 180 euros round-trip, the train is expected to compete with air travel. Madrid and Seville have been connected by high speed bullet train since 1992. Motivated by the ...Want to get around the Prado Museum line?
Jan 10th, 2008 at 10:00AM: I promise I will stop writing about the painfully long lines everywhere you look in Madrid, starting with the lottery lines to the King's cake line, but seriously...look at this line at the Museo Nacional del Prado. People as far as the eye can see! I haven't seen a line of art lovers this long even at the Louvre.
Granted, Prado is an amazing museum featuring one of the finest art collections in ...The lottery obsession in Madrid
Jan 6th, 2008 at 10:00AM: I would never pass up the opportunity to spend a few days in Madrid. On my way from Portugal, I couldn´t be so close and not come here for some tapas and paella. When asked if I prefer Barcelona over Madrid (and I have been asked this question more than once) Madrid would get my vote. I can´t really explain why.
There is only so much one can write about Madrid that hasn´t been ...Christmas in Madrid, where's your wig?
Dec 24th, 2007 at 3:30PM: One of the strangest things people do in Madrid for Christmas is wear crazy wigs around the city. What's stranger is that nobody really knows why! For the last 30 years or more, Plaza Mayor has been home to a Christmas market with over a 100 stalls that sell all sorts of things: miniature statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary; novelty gift-wrapping material; carnival accessories like tinsel wigs, ...Bragging about Gran Via on its centennial
Oct 29th, 2007 at 5:00PM: Around August last year, I was living in Valencia and went to Madrid for the weekend. As I was aimlessly walking down Gran Via -- the main commercial street in Madrid's city center -- I distinctly remember thinking "I could live here". A few months later I moved and it was one of the best decisions I made. Being someone who lately has been repelling anything big and mercantile, it's funny I had ...Photo of the Day (10/10/07)
Oct 10th, 2007 at 2:13PM:
When looking for photo for Photo of the Day, I thought kids. Iva's post about kids and travel got me thinking about what makes kids on a trip fun. They'll do their thing no matter what's going on. This shot captures a kid's world perfectly. Look at the sea of legs. This little girl in Madrid, Spain is not letting being surrounded by adults stop her from a good time. Jon Rawlinson who took this ...Travelling to Madrid? Let MAP Magazine be your guide
Sep 24th, 2007 at 6:57PM: People travelling of living in Madrid have a new resource to turn to for news, events and so much more -- brand-new MAP Magazine is an trendy online source that helps peel away the layers of this dynamic city. Offering (in English) what they call 'your daily dose of Madrid', MAP offers lots of insider tips as to where to go and what to do when you're there. And they have an advantage over ...Madrid Airport Stuck in Low Gear
Dec 13th, 2006 at 7:51AM: You might remember our baggage disaster, reported on these pages (by the way, thanks for the great comments). Well, three months later, almost to the day, believe it or not, we got our bag back (just as we were still wrangling about getting paid for the lost contents). Funny thing is, even though we didn't go to Madrid, our bag did, judging by the multitude of tags. Now I can see what the problem ...Bullet Trains in Spain
Dec 8th, 2006 at 1:15PM: An interesting article (which was actually a long, but well-written advertisement!) in MIT's Technology Review this month, talks about Spain's push to lay high-speed rail throughout the country.
Spain had been hampered historically, from interlacing their rail system with the rest of Europe, since they used a different gauge track; but they developed high-speed switching wheels that switch gauge ...Wallpaper* City Guides
Oct 1st, 2006 at 9:34PM: Just when you start to sleep on Wallpaper* they go and make their debut in the publishing world with these nice little City Guides. Their reason being, after 10 years in the game uncovering the best new design and urban travel spots globally, packaging that decade of experience into well-thought out yet simple guide books was only obviously. They make it clear that the traveler's time is as ...Photo of the Day (8/12/06)
Aug 12th, 2006 at 2:35PM: Somehow seeing this shot makes me a little sad. Don't get me wrong, the beauty found in the design of the Barajas airport in Madrid is without a question, but I can't help thinking back to my first and only trip to Madrid. Did I fly into a different airport or was I in such a hurry to escape the hordes of tourists looking to tackle the city that I missed such an elegant piece of interior scenery? ...
