{"id":2338,"date":"2017-02-01T22:59:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T14:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/?p=2338"},"modified":"2017-10-04T22:46:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T14:46:58","slug":"20170201madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/01\/20170201madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 0 of Spanish Vacation: Madrid on February 1st, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post follows the previous ones about flights on Qatar Airways from Hangzhou to Madrid, and is about the rest of our first day in Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>After getting off the plane, the city of Madrid welcomed us with its modern and spacious passenger terminal (T4S). The only thing not so nice about that bamboo design was that my camera seemed not so sure about its white balance.<br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PVZi3M3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PVZi3M3l.jpg\" alt=\"Lines at Madrid-Barajas Airport T4S Immigration\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Lines at Madrid-Barajas Airport T4S Immigration<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">The images in this post are hosted on Imgur. Email me should there be any display problems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, that warm-hearted greeting wore out quickly, as we walked towards the airport immigration with winding queues.<br \/>\nTo make matters worse, my newly-installed Sim-card didn&#8217;t work. My fault that I later learned it&#8217;s a German number and I should include country code and enable data while roaming.<br \/>\nTo make matters even worse, I needed to answer several questions before I can use the Airport&#8217;s free WiFi, which I wasn&#8217;t able to because the &#8220;submit&#8221; button just didn&#8217;t work.<\/p>\n<p>So after a Facebook-less hour we cleared all the airport stuff and boarded the commuter train downtown.<\/p>\n<p><del>After nearly forgetting to transfer trains, <\/del>We got off the train at Sol Station, and walked towards our hotel near Plaza del Callao.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/CZy3LHI.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/CZy3LHIl.jpg\" alt=\"Buildings around Puerta del Sol\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Buildings around Puerta del Sol<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So 4:30pm and we finally got things settled at our hotel. Given that we didn&#8217;t have much of a day left, we decided to visit Museo Nacional del Prado for the rest of day (since we were still students and could enjoy free admission).<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/zUfkmvO.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/zUfkmvOl.jpg\" alt=\"Hotel Stairs\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Hotel Stairs<\/br><span style=\"font-size: small;\">It was a little bit scary to look down along these winding stairs to the ground.<\/span><\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2tdpkdH.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2tdpkdHl.jpg\" alt=\"Building around Plaza del Callao\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Building around Plaza del Callao<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/cymqqci.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/cymqqcil.jpg\" alt=\"Buildings along Calle Gran V\u00eda\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Buildings along Calle Gran V\u00eda<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/oPswR6C.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/oPswR6Cl.jpg\" alt=\"Buildings along Calle Gran V\u00eda\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Buildings along Calle Gran V\u00eda<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/wJ33qxn.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/wJ33qxnl.jpg\" alt=\"Metropolis Building on Calle Gran V\u00eda\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Metropolis Building on Calle Gran V\u00eda<\/br><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Insurance company.<\/span><\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/uOaadpj.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/uOaadpjl.jpg\" alt=\"C\u00edrculo de Bellas Artes Facade\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>C\u00edrculo de Bellas Artes Facade<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/e4VqVdV.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/e4VqVdVl.jpg\" alt=\"Statue of Miguel de Cervantes\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Statue of Miguel de Cervantes<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/zlxvVi0.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/zlxvVi0l.jpg\" alt=\"Balcony Art of Objetos de Arte Toledano\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Balcony Art of Objetos de Arte Toledano<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/v4fHyZI.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/v4fHyZIl.jpg\" alt=\"Pedestrian Street of Paseo del Prado\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Pedestrian Street of Paseo del Prado<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Museo Nacional del Prado was a store-your-bag no-photo museum, with quite a collection of arts. My friend and I seemed particularly interested in the landscapes by Goya.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PgfrrMH.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/PgfrrMHl.jpg\" alt=\"Statue of Goya outside Museo Nacional del Prado\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Statue of Goya outside Museo Nacional del Prado<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2c1bYJZ.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2c1bYJZl.jpg\" alt=\"Museo Nacional del Prado Visitor Entrance at Night\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Museo Nacional del Prado Visitor Entrance at Night<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/B5bMMid.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/B5bMMidl.jpg\" alt=\"Balcony Art of Objetos de Arte Toledano\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Balcony Art of Objetos de Arte Toledano<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/9TxNxVz.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/9TxNxVzl.jpg\" alt=\"Plus Ultra Seguros Building\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Plus Ultra Seguros Building<\/br><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Insurance company.<\/span><\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/EqtcN27.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/EqtcN27l.jpg\" alt=\"Congreso de los Diputados\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Congreso de los Diputados<\/br><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Spain&#8217;s lower house of representatives.<\/span><\/p><\/div><br \/>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2vcNPre.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2vcNPrel.jpg\" alt=\"Plaza del Callao\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Plaza del Callao<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>When checking into our hotel, we found there was a Five Guys just down the stairs. Since I still had vivid memory of how <del>exactly five<\/del> six people managed to run a fastfood restaurant near Rockefeller Center, we decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/cIPL0rs.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/cIPL0rsl.jpg\" alt=\"Burger and Fries at Five Guys\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/br>Burger and Fries at Five Guys<\/br><span style=\"font-size: small;\">As oily as the American ones, more expensive though.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>It turned out that, the burger tasted still like the American ones, the fries were as oily. It&#8217;s just that I counted 17 people working in the store instead of five (including one that stood at the doorway doing nothing, which was very Europe by the way.), which troubled me greatly.<\/p>\n<p>END<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post follows the previous ones about flights on Qatar Airways from Hangzhou to Madrid, and is about the rest of our first day in Madrid. After getting off the plane, the city of Madrid welcomed us with&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2017\/02\/01\/20170201madrid\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,2],"tags":[272,270,276,273,271,275,274],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2769,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2338\/revisions\/2769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}