Jade

Part 1. Madrid<BR><BR>Hi fellow fodorites:<BR><BR>I recently returned to Sydney, Australia from a 3 week trip to Spain and Italy, and decided that I should post a trip report. Return the favour…<BR><BR>My partner Jordan and I left for Spain on 17th September, and after 33 hours of exhausting travelling in total, finally arrived in Madrid Airport.<BR>We stayed in the Hotel Regente *** (3 star), situated on the Calle Mesoneros, just off the Gran Via (equivalent of Broadway to New York) for 3days/nights. We were very pleased with the hotel. It was within our budget (90 euros per night) and we had a very decent, clean room overlooking the Gran Via.<BR><BR>Madrid surprised me by being one of my favourite destinations during the whole trip! It was my second time in Madrid (the first time for a few days) and I was really pleased with most things. <BR><BR>The food was fantastic. We ate mostly at little bars near our hotel that served the most delicious tapas. This came to cost us approx. AU$30 in total for dinner (about $15 US). We also found a fantastic restaurant around the corner from our hotel (calle Mesoneros) called ‘El Jamonal’. They served the famous Spanish cured ham called ‘Jamon Iberico’, which we made sure we ate on both visits there (it was all so nice, we had to go back for seconds). It serves very typically Madrileno dishes. This place was slightly more expensive than eating at the bars.<BR><BR>We decided to dine one night at ‘El Botin’, which the Guinness book of records lists as the ‘oldest restaurant in the world’. My sister recently eaten there and raved about it, so off we went one night. It didn’t disappoint! It is a gorgeous little restaurant. I think that one of the key things to getting the most out of Madrid was that we adapted to their eating times and customs. We knew that the locals do not have dinner before 10.30pm, so we went to Botin at 11pm, where we found a jam-packed, enthusiastic bunch of diners having a ball, and we were two of them! We at suckling pig, (the house specialty) with a nice Spanish Rioja wine. It was great. I highly recommend it!<BR>

jade

trip report cont'd...<BR><BR>Things that were ‘must do’s from what we experienced in Madrid this time around include;<BR>Hanging out at the Puerta del Sol after work hours – it’s amazing to see how these Spaniards arrange to meet up with friends after work and hang out, Shopping at Zara and the Corte Ingles shopping departments. Lots of bargains to be found in clothing and house items. Using the metro system instead of taxis to get around town. The Madrid metro is as good as Paris’.<BR>Trying out lots of bars and eating tapas at the bar rather than sitting down at restaurants and ordering a la carte.<BR><BR>Now, on a not so nice note…we were pick-pocketed in the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid! Yes, that thing that no-one ever thinks can happen to them because they are being super-vigilant of their belongings and pockets. We have travelled many, many times through Europe, and this is the first time that anything of the sort has ever happened to us. We were admiring the amazing ‘Guernica’ painting, by Picasso. <BR><BR>After admiring the painting for about 20 minutes, we came to a gift shop right next to the painting. My partner, having been very taken with the painting, decided to buy a mouse pad of it. So he paid cash for this and we moved on to the next room, which was the Salvador Dali room. Now, I feel it is important to mention that Jordan was wearing one of those cd-rom audio guides while looking at paintings. I believe that this strongly contributed to his having been ‘selected’ for pick-pocketing. Jordan is usually very careful to walk with his hands in his pockets (so as to guard his wallet), but my theory on how this could have happened to us was that he was selecting one of the ‘numbers’ to enter into the audio guide, and in the time it took to select this info from the audio guide, the pick-pocket reached in to his right front pocket and stole the wallet. Jordan put his hands back into his pockets after selecting the audio track and noticed that his wallet was missing. <BR><BR>Now he knew that only minutes earlier he had used the wallet to pay for the ‘mouse pad’. At this point, he came over to where I was examining a Salvador Dali painting, and asked me, ‘Jade, do you have my wallet?’. My heart sank. Of course, I did not. We immediately went to a museum guard who reported the theft to all the security guards, but nothing came of this. We left a contact phone number for the next hotel and city that we were due to depart for in 1 hour.<BR><BR>Our next city was Bilbao. We got there by train, and spent most of the trip on our mobile phone, cancelling the two credit cards that were in the wallet. Our hotel in Bilbao was the Petit Palace Arana on Calle Bidebarrieta. In the old quarter of Bilbao. As soon as we entered the lobby we were informed that the Reina Sofia had called and that they had found the wallet in the toilets (please note that we did not use the toilets there!)<BR><BR>The damage was not as bad as it could have been. They stole the Euros that were in the wallet (150 of them), and this was the funny bit, they left the $65 Aussie dollars that were in there for our return to Oz! I know that the Aussie dollar isn’t worth much at the moment – but this was incredible! The credit cards were still there, but alas we had already cancelled them so they were now useless. <BR>

jade

Anyway – moving along to nicer topics…Our hotel in Bilbao was fantastic value for money. We paid 85 Euros per night. We had a fantastic room with sound-proofed windows. The hotel is just finishing with renovations, and we were seriously impressed. Everything was absolutely brand new. The room was in modern–executive style. There was a computer in our room. It had halogen downlights, wood floors, exposed wood beams everywhere, spotless, and the bathroom was fantastic too. It had this special shower cubicle that had features such as hydro-massage, a seat to rest on, radio, light, mirror. And all this right next to the river, the best restaurants in town, the Guggenheim etc. We would definitely go back.<BR>I was born in Bilbao and migrated to Australia with my parents 22 years ago, so I have been to Bilbao many times and have done the sights like the Guggenheim already. <BR><BR>For anyone planning a visit to Bilbao for the first time – don’t miss the Guggenheim. It is really amazing, and I am a fan of the old masters, but even I can tell what is good modern art. <BR><BR>This was the first time that we stayed in the Old Quarter of Bilbao (El Casco Viejo). The food in many of the dozens of bars in this area is unbelievably good. I was fortunate enough to have a native guiding me through the current hotspots, but I noticed that a good guide to picking a place for dinner that served great food was to go to one of the bars/restaurants that looked like an old Basque farmhouse on the inside. If it looks really modern on the inside, it probably serves diner-like food. Pre-made ingredients and menus with things like hamburgers on them. Stay away from these! <BR><BR>On the other hand, the bars with things on the menu like squid in its own ink, hake in pil pil sauce, stuffed red peppers with cod, garlic prawns, these are the ones to go to. The food in the Basque country is considered by most in Spain to be the best in the country. I happen to agree! J <BR>tbc…<BR>

iron

Thanks for your report. Especially I read Bilbao part with much interest because my friend and I are considering a visit there and your report motivates us even more. Please continue with Italy part. We will be visiting Venice in November for the 2nd time. Ciao.<BR>

Julie

Your report of the pickpocketing incident is cheering in its own way. You apparently are very careful and very observant on this score yet it happened and you did all the right things to minimize the damage, including not letting it cloud your judgment about the city, the country or your trip. Great lesson to us all. I hope we don't have to use it, though.

Jade

Hi Guys,<BR><BR>Thanks for the feedback, Iron and Julie.<BR><BR>Julie, thanks for the pick-pocketing sentiments. I hope that no-one on this forum has to use the advice either! I am seriously turned off renting any further cd rom's though! We certainly didn't rent them for the rest of the trip! <BR>I have to clock off from work right now, but I will report on Venice tomorrow Iron!<BR>Regards,<BR>jade <BR><BR>

tommy

Great report Jade. You are just the type of traveller that should be posting on this forum. No shrill warnings or ranting about crime. Just an informative description of what happened, with suitable commentary to show how it did not ruin your holiday or bring on the end of the world. I am glad you had an overall good trip and appreciate the honest and fair description you have provided so far! Looking forward to your Venice report.

Lisa

I was pick-pocketed in Barcelona and it in no way has colored my view of that fantastic city. I loved the city so much that my husband and I are going back this summer.<BR><BR>There is a chance for crime anywhere you go. If we were to stop visiting every country or city that has an elevated crime rate we would all surely miss out on many wonderful experiences.<BR><BR>As long as the city is not known for violent crime, I would rather go and take the chance that I might lose a few Euros.<BR><BR>BTW, a few months after my return from Spain I received a package from the American Consulate containing the contents of my wallet. EVERYTHING was there except for the approx. $30 in pesetas. The consulate did not send back my wallet for some reason though.<BR><BR>Jade, I am looking forward to the rest of your trip report, especially Venice and Positano.

Jade

Hi guys,<BR><BR>Well, I will start on the next part of our trip, Venice. Our stay in Venice was for 3 days and 3 nights.<BR><BR>I haven't had much time at work today, but here is what I've managed so far. More to come.<BR><BR>It was my first trip to Italy, and I guess I have formed quite strong first impressions.<BR>Venice amazed me for many reasons, both good and bad. From Bilbao we flew to a Barcelona connection to Da Vinci airport, Venice. I just couldn't bear the thought of another long train trip from Spain. <BR><BR><BR>We were actually very confused as to how to actually get to ‘Venice’ from the airport because everyone arrives in Venice from different sides and therefore needs different transport to get into Venice, eg vaporetto. I finally noticed a sign in Italian that indicated that there was a free shuttle bus to a ferry station. (I was actually very glad that Spanish is so similar to Italian, b/c Italy doesn’t have as many signs in English as other countries IMO) We hopped on the free shuttle and shortly arrived at a ferry/water taxi pier.<BR><BR>We could not get into the accommodation in Venice that we were after. All of the places our friends recommended were booked out. So we had to resort to going to a place our travel agent found for us, called the ‘Hotel Panada’ in St Marks. Supposedly three star. It was terrible. Please do not go there! I will explain why further along. <BR><BR>Anyway, back to how we got to St Marks…<BR>We saw fancy little water taxis and a big commuter ferry and so walked onto the ferry. We were told that we would be charged 10 Euros each, which sounded fine to us considering what we were told by friends we could expect to pay for a private water taxi. The ride was about an hour long, and we occasionally caught ourselves looking wistfully at the water taxis whizzing past us (my grandmother could have swum there faster than our ferry moved). It was night when we arrived (and freezing/raining hard). We were dropped off at the St Marks vaporetto stop.<BR><BR> The Hotel Panada turned out to be very close to the vaporetto stop, so we found it after only a few minutes of getting our bearings. For those of you that even contemplate getting around Venice with heavy luggage that has no wheels, perish the thought! We would definitely have had to hire the porters in the streets to trolley our luggage if they hadn’t had wheels. I can’t stress this enough. It’s easy to forget that Venice has no cars to take you to the front door of your hotel.<BR><BR>To summarise the Panada; the staff were entirely inhospitable, the hotel was completely rundown, the room grotty, and the bathroom gross. I wasn’t expecting a palace, but for 3 stars and 190 Euros per night you at least expect clean and everything in working order. I think that we made a big mistake in actually staying in Venice regardless of the fact that the places we had been recommended were full. We took a risk on this hotel, spending what I think is a lot of money for our room per night, and it didn’t pay off. We should have either only day-tripped (which in hindsight would have been a much better idea for our bank balance), or only gone to Venice on a trip when we could stay at a hotel that someone we trusted had been in and recommended.<BR><BR><BR>

Jade

cont'd...<BR><BR>This is probably the biggest lesson we learned on this last trip of ours. That for future trips, we are not going to ‘make-do’ with hotel accommodations. We decided to go on this trip quite spur of the moment, and therefore ended up having to settle for sometimes staying in hotels that we knew absolutely nothing about. <BR><BR>In future, if we find we are unable to book hotels that we are after, we will either move the trip down the track, or not go to that city. This theory is obviously partly dictated by what sort of traveller you are. If you don’t really spend any time whatsoever in your hotel room (we like to rest in our room for a few hours after touring around for 7 hours or so!) I guess it doesn’t matter so much what your hotel room is like. BTW – skip this info if you are not a first time traveller to Venice and you don’t feel you need to read about any of this, however, this is stuff that I wish I had known before I personally went to Venice.<BR><BR>Our first night in Venice we dumped our bags in our dump, and decided to go for a walk and get some dinner. As we walked around the St Marks area, we instantly noticed something that we had not encountered anywhere else in Europe. Short of the Italians who worked the restaurants/shops, there were no Italians to be found walking in the streets of St Marks, Venice. Everywhere you looked, all you could hear was American, German or English conversation. Jordan and I were instantly perturbed by this…<BR><BR>Starving, we saw a trattoria that was quite full and decided from the menu (in 3 languages) that this would do. Well, my sister (and Fodorites) had told me about the specialty pasta in Venice being the squid ink spaghetti, so I picked this, and Jordan has a pizza. From the plates we saw at other tables, we knew that one dish each would be enough. Well, the pizza was very average, and my squid in pasta was not bad, but pretty minute. It would seem that there are not many squids left in the Venetian lagoon from the tiny few languishing on my plate! J This meal cost us 65 odd Euros, no wine included, 2 mineral waters. Ouch. <BR><BR>After this rather disappointing meal (I had been warned however that Venetian food is nothing to rave home about), we wandered over to St Marks Square as we heard music playing. As it was a freezing cold night, we decided to go to a caf&eacute; and get a couple of hot chocolates. <BR><BR>We decided to sit at an outside table at Caf&eacute; Florian and listen to the band. <BR>We ordered 2 hot chocolates once the blood drained back into our faces from reading the price (9 Euros per cup). Well, of course, 5 minutes into sitting there, the band stopped playing. After trying to down the most expensive hot chocolates we’ve ever bought, (they weren’t great) we asked for our bill. The bill came to 27 euros for 2 hot chocolates! It turns out that they charged 9 Euros for the music! And the funny thing is, we were too tired and amused even, to dispute with the waiter the fact that the band only played for 5 minutes during the time that we were sitting there. So we paid up, and had a funny story to tell the folks back home. Our A$50 hot chocolates story!<BR><BR>I have to finish up at this point now. Will continue with more on Venice on Monday (it’s Friday afternoon at work here in Sydney).<BR>Regards to all,<BR>Jade.<BR>

jt

The lesson shouldn't be to stay out of Venice, but STAY AWAY FROM SAN MARCO. Elsewhere everything can go swimmingly with brainless, cheap airport transport, less crowds, less tourist trap mediocre restaurants, more enjoyable surroundings, affable locals, and hotels that have to compete on quality rather than a falsly prestigeous address.

Carol

Thanks Jade. <BR>This is great advice. I'm glad I stumbled upon your passage. I'm planning on going to Venice and Rome in a couple of weeks. I'll be waiting for your continuation. Take Care and Thank You.

xxx

Topping for Jade

Craig

Keep it coming Jade. I am interested to hear what the rest of the trip was like!<BR>Best wishes, Craig

blow

Thanks for that TOP Rex....whoops "Craig"!<BR><BR>Best Wishes!

Jade

Venice cont’d.<BR><BR>I would have agreed with JT on the theory that if we had just stayed away from the San Marco area we would have found everything ‘swimmingly’ easy, if I believed that it existed at this time of year in Venice. I did not read of any special event in Venice at the time of our stay there, but as we were soon to learn, it seems that every time of year pretty much is ‘high season’ in Venice. <BR><BR>Venice was without a doubt the most crowded, touristy destination that I have ever encountered in Europe. And I think that I have seen my fair share of European cities. This is not to say that it is not without its merits. I actually thought that the town itself/per se was unbelievably beautiful. The water was surprisingly clean (I hear this varies a lot), and apart from a few streets not very smelly either. <BR><BR>Unfortunately though, it was ridiculously hard to walk around the streets during the day. The pedestrian traffic was almost overwhelming. We could not walk for more than 10 metres at a time without having to come to a pause to manoeuvre ourselves around the hordes of people. At nighttime things were better. All of the day-trippers had obviously left and the streets were free once more to stroll through without any dodging movements.<BR><BR>We did not go to Murano, as I found that there were so many glass/jewellery shops everywhere, and shipping things back to Australia is just too expensive. So instead I drove my boyfriend mad, stopping at every second glass shop and looking at their earrings in particular. I bought a few really nice pairs, but found that there was not much originality to be found as most of them had pretty similar designs as a whole. <BR><BR>Venice to me was in a lot of ways like Disneyland. It’s 100% tourist geared, you know that you are going to get ripped off for any food you buy, and the rides are going to be expensive but you’ll feel compelled to go on them anyway.<BR><BR>The restaurateurs we encountered, without exception, were at most mildly friendly and you simply sensed that they had had quite enough of tourists. I longed to experience Venice before it became the exploited place it is now. We ate at a restaurant/caf&eacute; on the side of the Accademia Bridge one lunchtime. We quickly learned to look for menus that said ‘service included’, after having been stung for extra money for mysterious ‘service’ taxes in other places. It was another pizza/pasta joint. Another mediocre meal, another rip-off. <BR>TBC

Jade

We climbed (took the lift) the bell tower (it’s name eludes me right now) the second day for a great 360 degree view of Venice. The bells were ringing as we were up there, and we had to block our ears to conserve our hearing. That was a memorable experience. Of course, it wasn’t cheap. <BR><BR>We did St Marks Basilica on the 3rd day. We waited until mid afternoon to do this, as the tourist groups and individual tourists made an intimidating sight all lined up in a very long queue. When we finally went inside, we were a bit disappointed. I guess that we were expecting something different to what we saw. It was not lit up very well, and so it was quite hard to see some of the artwork. They were also in the midst of some restoration work, which hindered further what we saw. Oh well. <BR><BR>We saw the Doges Palace next. It was very nice, but the entrance fee was too expensive in my opinion. I would be interested to know if other people think the same thing. I personally preferred the Palace of Versailles. We walked through the Bridge of Sighs (quite interesting) and toured the jails. That was quite interesting.<BR>TBC

Jade

Next thing on our list of things to do was to take a gondola ride. The weather was a bit unpredictable in our time in Venice. Like I said, a terrible storm the first night, and then alternating hot/cold/hot temperatures. We bit the bullet on the second day, as we had been asking around for prices. Let me start by saying that these gondoliers must be filthy rich. We saw them ripping off tourists left right and centre. The worst targets of their greed seemed to be the poor Japanese tourists. We heard Japanese people accepting prices of 150 euros for 30 minutes. That’s a lot of money! These prices were for day trips. Nighttime prices seemed to be even worse.<BR><BR>No gondolier wanted to give us a fixed amount of time that the trip lasted for. They would all say that they did not go by minutes, rather by a circuit that they took around, particular to the area that you were in. So after hearing prices like 150 euros for 30 minutes quoted to us too, we finally came across a gondolier who told us that he would give us a ride around the backstreets (canals) of the Doges Palace area for 80 Euros. I asked him how long the ride would be for, and he of course also told me that he could not give me a time, that it depended on how much traffic there was. I looked reluctant at this point and started to turn away, so he told me that the trip would last 30 to 45 minutes. I confirmed this with him and we agreed on this. <BR><BR>We got in, and yes, the views we got of Venice from inside the gondola were stunning. It was amazingly picturesque yes; it was also unbelievably unrelaxing. The gondolier was very skilled at turning us around corners and manoeuvring the gondola, but he was also moving us along at record speeds. We could just sense that he was speeding us towards the end of the ride. Sure enough, after what felt like 20 minutes of looking at our watches to see just how much time he would indeed allocate us, we were back at the starting point, and it was time to get off. They are such thieves, these gondoliers, and yet at the same time, such smooth operators. So that he did not have to look us in the eye when the 30 to 45 minute trip that was really 20 minutes came to an end, we were pulled up to another gondola that we were to step into, and pay another gondolier. He pulled away the moment we stepped out and we knew that it was futile to start arguing over the time that we were given to this other man. It left a sour taste in our mouths, and yet we did one of those things that we have always wanted to do, and it was now out of our systems. To be frank, we actually felt that we could now truly enjoy the rest of our time in Venice, because we felt that we had spend a good chunk of it hunting around for a good gondola quote and it’s not a pleasant thing.<BR>So my advice (for anyone who wants it) would be to definitely try and share the ridiculous cost of the ride with a few couples if like me, it’s something that you’ve always really wanted to do. Otherwise, if you were not fussed about it, I would recommend that you save the money to put towards paying for your dinner (with their prices you’ll need it) or something else. We wanted to do the ride on our own because we thought that that would be more romantic. We were wrong! <BR>

Jade

Venice cont'd,<BR><BR>We caught vaporettos several times on the third day of our stay. It’s not what I would call cheap, but compared to the gondola anything’s cheap. We took the routes that were on the main canal and just went all the way to the end of the line at the train station (Santa Lucia I think). It was lovely warm weather, and so for the best views, we always sat outside on the back of it. I found that this was a great time to take photos. We took a digital camera with us, which was perfect for taking photos on a moving vessel. I wouldn’t have dared to take as many photos with a standard camera for fear that the subject would have moved out of range. We saw the house where Lord Byron lived from the vaporetto. I highly recommend doing this. <BR><BR>Anyway, my conclusions on my experience in Venice were that the sights were pretty special, the ‘locals’ quite reserved to cold, and the food nothing special. How would I improve upon these experiences on a future trip? Since I would be spending an absolute fortune on crap food in the regular restaurants, I would spoil myself by going only to the restaurants renowned for being the best in Venice. If you are going to spend $150 Aussie dollars on very average to bad food, you may as well spend $250 on great food. This is my theory anyway. I have to go now, will continue on to the Rome part soon.<BR><BR>Regards,<BR>Jade.<BR>

Mina

Jade, I am reading your report with much fascination and delight. I love your attitude! Your pickpocket story (specifically the Aussie dollars left in it) and the $50 hot chocolate story had me chuckling out loud. Kudos to you, my dear!<BR><BR>Very much looking forward to the rest.