Madrid (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal).
Time travel:
Airport:
Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain
Route : Madrid - Pegoes - Sintra-Lourel - Cascais - Ericeira - Peniche - Lisbon - Merida - Madrid.
Automobile:
OPEL MOKKA
First of all, a few words about preparing for the next road trip.
We set goals, firstly, to visit our countryman from Lvov, Roman Nikolayevich, who has been living in Portugal for about 15 years.
Secondly, we invited our parents abroad. They haven't been there for several years.
And, thirdly, we ourselves have accumulated debts in Portugal for visiting attractions, which we did not sell 6 years ago, when we did not receive the luggage there on time.
Flight from Tel Aviv to El Al to Madrid was noticeably cheaper than other companies.
Automobile. We ordered a Volkswagen Touran MPV with an automatic transmission. It seemed to us that the trunk is the largest in this class of cars.
Hotels. We booked all hotels on the Booking.com website, including a villa in the Sintra region in Portugal. Such an opportunity appeared relatively recently.
On other material and technical support. In recent years, auto travel, we have armed ourselves, as they say, to the teeth:
- GPS-navigator with relatively recent (2015) maps of Spain and Portugal;
- conventional road maps;
- digital video camera;
- digital camera;
- an e-book with dozens of files to read;
- iPad with applications related to our auto trip;
- two mobile phones;
- spare batteries and chargers for all equipment.
Madrid
We flew from Ben Gurion to Madrid at 6:00 am. The flight went well. We sat very well: 22-23 rows right after the business class.
We arrived in Madrid around 10.30 local time. In Madrid, on the first day of our trip, we are scheduled to receive a car from Enterprise-Alamo. In the end we got the Opel Mokka. Good car, diesel, but the trunk is a bit smaller than we thought.
Already by car we went to a hotel called Principe Pio.
Here is her address:
The most important thing about this hotel is its location. Next to it is the Plaza de España (Plaza de Espana), the Royal Palace (Palacio Real de Madrid). The Grand Via starts not far from here.
We were also lucky that 50 meters from the entrance to our hotel was the entrance to the underground parking. So we returned the car when we checked into the hotel and received it when we went to Portugal two days later. A scrupulous home study of the route had an effect.
The next day we booked a private tour of Madrid. This time we used the service of a private guide. Sergey is a highly professional guide. He talks about a lot of interesting facts about the history of Spain and Madrid. At the same time, he knows how to present these facts in a relaxed and interesting way. Sergey gave us more than 5 hours of excursion, we managed to get around the city center on foot, and then by Sergey's car we took a tour of different areas of Madrid.
We saw:
Monument to Don Quixote and Sancha Panza in Plaza de España (Plaza de Espana)
Royal Palace(Palacio Real)
We are at the sculpture Bear and strawberry tree
Lisbon
On the morning of September 29, after breakfast we left for Portugal. We had to cover about 650 km. Here is the map:
On the way, we met with our fellow countryman from Lvov, Roman Nikolayevich. Moreover, it was done easily, again the home study of the route had an effect. Now there are 5 people in the car and we went to a villa in the Sintra region, 30 km northwest of Lisbon.
... So, we got to our villa. By the way, it was our most successful choice for the entire trip. This needs to be told in more detail.
First of all, the location of the villa. For the first time, our GPS-navigator, which we called Vovka, with difficulty, but coped with this task. The fact is that the address did not have a house number, that is, there was only a street name. On the first satellite map, our address is marked with a label:
There, next to the gate, it says: Villa da Pena. There is a very convenient landmark - the Continente Modelo supermarket, exactly 420 meters from it to the gate.
There are 11 units (from A to L) and a communal swimming pool in the area, fenced with an automatic gate.
On the second satellite map, the entrance to our villa is marked with the same label: block B.
This is our door
The villa has three levels: main floor, upper and lower floors. The main floor includes a large salon, three bedrooms (one with ensuite), a private bathroom with jacuzzi, a kitchen equipped with the latest technology. In general, this villa is what is called a smart home.
On the top floor there is a fourth bedroom, as well as access to a large terrace.
On the ground floor there is a garage, utility room with washer and dryer, bathroom with shower and, most importantly, a cinema room with billiards.
But we didn't come here to sit in the smartest home.
We were in Sintra, looked Quinta da Regaleira,
Well of Initiation
then we saw Pena Park and Palace.
We went to the Atlantic coast. We visited Ericeira (Eriseira), Peniche (Peniche), Obidos (Obidos).
And, of course, we were in Lisbon (Lisboa) and Cascais (Cascais).
Here is the map:
On the way back from Portugal to Madrid, we, firstly, brought Roman Nikolayevich to the place, and secondly, we made two stops. One is already in Spain, near the border with Portugal, in the city of Merida. The hotel is called Hotel Ilunion Las Lomas. Here is her address:
And the second one is already in Madrid, not far from the airport, Hotel B&B Madrid Airport.
Here is her address:
Here is the road map:
