Roof tops tour of Madrid

With just one full day in Madrid, we decided to do the Hop On - Hop Off bus to give us a feel for the city and decide if there was any specific place we would like to go and explore further. As result of being on the bus, all we really got was rooftops of most buildings, but still interesting, nonetheless.

We stayed in this little hotel, only about 18 rooms, near the center of Madrid. The building was about 10 minutes walk from a large main square and there were lots of little squares around and innumerable places to eat. This place deserves a longer look sometime in the future. The building is over 100 years old and had this amazing set of stairs, worn with age, leading to the rooms. The treads were one board only, about 12 inches deep, and you had to be careful going down them because of the curvature of wear, meaning it would be easy to slip on them.

the symbol of Madrid since the middle ages - bear and strawberry (madrona

or arbutus) tree

now for our tour of the city - it seems all are welcome here

I this must have been some sort of shrine, because 3/4 of the bus passengers go off here - actually, it is the home turf of the Real Madrid Football Club - Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

Christmas street lights were going up - they won't be turned on until the last Saturday in November

a little carousel in the middle of the city

spotted something red at the top of a building, so zoomed in and this is what it was, wonder what the significance is

entry to an underground parking garage - we were old that there is a parking structure running for 2 kms under the city with multiple entry and exit points