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how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

Old Aug 17th 2002, 4:07 am
  #1  
Dragon Ball
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Default how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

Hi all,

I am planning to go to spain for about one week. I hear some friend in two extrem:
saying madrid and barcelona extremely boring or interesting. So, would like to
hear more opinion. Or is other place worth going ? like seville ?

Also, I wanna join the festa de la merce in barcelona. Is that great ?

Thanks.

Perseus
 
Old Aug 17th 2002, 4:07 am
  #2  
Miguel Cruz
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

dragon ball <[email protected]> wrote:
    > I am planning to go to spain for about one week. I hear some friend in two extrem:
    > saying madrid and barcelona extremely boring or interesting. So, would like to hear
    > more opinion. Or is other place worth going ? like seville ?

I found Madrid boring until I clued in and adjusted my sleep schedule to match that
of the locals. Then it was lots of fun.

Seville on the other hand didn't impress me much by comparison. There's some nice
architecture but it's not sufficiently different from Madrid (to my perhaps
imperceptive eye) to make much of a difference. The city is much sleepier, not as
much to do at night.

I would recommend some of the smaller cities near Madrid - Toledo and Avila for
example. Really really beautiful places.

Also try to make it down to Alhambra if you can.

miguel
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Old Aug 17th 2002, 5:24 am
  #3  
Oopsdaisy2
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

    >Subject: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others? From: "dragon ball"
    >[email protected] Date: 8/16/2002 11:07 PM

    > I am planning to go to spain for about one week. I hear some friend in two
    > extrem: saying madrid and barcelona extremely boring or interesting. So, would
    > like to hear more opinion. Or is other place worth going ? like seville ?
    > Also, I wanna join the festa de la merce in barcelona. Is that great ?
    > Thanks.
    >Perseus

Depends on your definition of boring and interesting. Tell us you definition, and we
can tell you if the cities fit.
 
Old Aug 17th 2002, 9:13 am
  #4  
Dragon Ball
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

    > I found Madrid boring until I clued in and adjusted my sleep schedule to match that
    > of the locals. Then it was lots of fun.

Can u explain a bit further on this ?
 
Old Aug 17th 2002, 10:37 am
  #5  
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

Originally posted by Dragon Ball:
    > I found Madrid boring until I clued in and adjusted my sleep schedule to match that
    > of the locals. Then it was lots of fun.

Can u explain a bit further on this ?
Spanish hours: 10 am breakfast
3pm lunch
11pm dinner
12pm bars
4am club
6am home to bed

I wouldn't stay in Madrid more than a day, there's more interest in Toledo, Sevilla, other historic towns than the capital which apart from a tight historic centre is disappointingly 'samey', modern, un-Spanish!, but a good place to party if that's your scene. I also like Salamanca, Segovia, Cadiz, Ronda, Cordoba, all great historic and characterful places you can get a real feel to very quickly and they seem like small towns (though that's not really true).
newstartnz is offline  
Old Aug 17th 2002, 9:10 pm
  #6  
Oopsdaisy2
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

    >Subject: Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others? From: newstartnz
    >[email protected] Date: 8/17/2002 5:37 AM

    >Originally posted by Dragon Ball:
    >> > I found Madrid boring until I clued in and adjusted my sleep schedule to match
    >> > that of the locals. Then it was lots of fun.
    >> Can u explain a bit further on this ?
    >Spanish hours: 10 am breakfast 3pm lunch 11pm dinner 12pm bars 4am club 6am
    >home to bed
    >I wouldn't stay in Madrid more than a day, there's more interest in Toledo, Sevilla,
    >other historic towns than the capital which apart from a tight historic centre is
    >disappointingly 'samey', modern, un-Spanish!, but a good place to party if that's
    >your scene. I also like Salamanca, Segovia, Cadiz, Ronda, Cordoba, all great
    >historic and characterful places you can get a real feel to very quickly and they
    >seem like small towns (though that's not really true).

And this just goes to show what people consider interesting and boring are
relative. The OP needs to tell us what his interests are....for any responses of
value to him/her.

I could spend all of my time in Madrid and not be bored for a second. Toledo is a
fine few days. Sevilla is an ok few days. Cordoba and Granada can easily consume a
week each, in my book. Cadiz, Ronda....yawn. Barcelona has great sights....well,
worth the time to see them....but I prefer Madrid's social atmosphere.
 
Old Aug 17th 2002, 9:40 pm
  #7  
Paul Tauger
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

"dragon ball" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
    > Hi all,
    > I am planning to go to spain for about one week. I hear some friend in two extrem:
    > saying madrid and barcelona extremely boring or interesting.
So,
    > would like to hear more opinion. Or is other place worth going ? like seville ?

I haven't been to Barcelona. However, both Madrid and Seville are interesting and
fun places to visit. Five nights in Madrid would be sufficient to get a feel for the
city; three or four nights in Seville should suffice.

Madrid has a nice night life and lots of good restaurants.

In Seville, try to attend a bullfight.


    > Also, I wanna join the festa de la merce in barcelona. Is that great ?
    > Thanks.
    > Perseus
 
Old Aug 19th 2002, 1:40 pm
  #8  
David
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

    > I could spend all of my time in Madrid and not be bored for a second. Toledo is a
    > fine few days. Sevilla is an ok few days. Cordoba and Granada can easily consume
    > a week each, in my book. Cadiz, Ronda....yawn. Barcelona has great sights....well,
    > worth the time to see them....but I prefer Madrid's social atmosphere.



I agree. Madrid is something. It's big, VERY Spanish. The best food. Art. You could
easily spend three days walking the city center visiting sites. Day trips to Toledo
or Segovia. There is always El Escorial and The Valley of the Fallen for a day trip
as well. Barcelona has a more international feel. The Gothic quarter and all that
Gaudi are worth the trip to Barcelona alone. Ahhh Spain. Cordoba is definitely one
city I plan to revisit.
 
Old Aug 20th 2002, 1:48 am
  #9  
Ifjed5555
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Default Re: how many days for madrid, barcelona or others?

    >...Spain for about one week...Madrid and Barcelona extremely boring
or >interesting.

Depends on which Spain you'd like to visit. Madrid is an enormous city in which I
find little of interest (my wife is from there and I've spent a lot of time there).
But Madrid's a good location to visiting a lot of neat towns lying all around its
perimeter (e.g., Segovia, Toledo, Miraflores de la Sierra, Chinchon, and countless
other little mountain towns that you won't find mentioned in most guidebooks). Also,
if you like hanging out in bars and dance halls until 7 am absorbing the local
ambience (as I did in my younger days) you might like Madrid. Barcelona is a lot
prettier city...but it's also a big city, about the same size as Madrid (each has
about 4 million inhabitants). Barcelona is much more artistic, e.g., with its Gaudi
cathedral and park, and its food is very distinct from the rest of Spain, more
"gourmet". As a non-city person, I stayed there because I had a free place to stay
with a friend, I enjoyed it for a day or two, but mostly used Barcelona as a base
from whichto travel to the outlying towns and regions that I found more interesting.
But if you're the kind of person that can spend a week visiting art museums and
sitting in cafes, you might like a week in Barcelona and Madrid. And if you're the
type of person who like spending a week in Manhattan, you'd probably like hanging out
in either city.
 

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