A Visit to Valencia and Madrid

THE ROYAL PALACE

PLAZA DE AYUNTAMIENTO, VALENCIA
We recently made a flying visit to Valencia and Madrid, Mary won 2 train tickets and two nights in a hotel in Madrid in a newspaper competition, the tickets were for the High speed train which runs from Valencia so we decided to drive up and explore the city at the same time. We have never been to Valencia before so we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the grand architecture and historic buildings. We parked the car at Victoria Car Parking for 4 days as driving and parking in Valencia is no fun at all, and got the very efficient metro to central Valencia where we stayed for the night before getting the AVE train around Midday. The speed the train goes is amazing, hitting 300 kilometres an hour at times and provides a comfortable and fast journey taking just 1 hour 35 minutes. Our Hotel in Madrid was on the Gran Via which is likened to Broadway and life never seems to stop, loads of people around all the time and the shops never seem to close. In our two days in Madrid, we visited the Royal Palace,the Prado Museum and the botanical gardens among other places. We did find nice Tapas bar with a terrace where with every drink was included a large tapas and found an evening meal was never needed after that. The time soon went and before long we were speeding back to Valencia to drive back to Blanca the following day.