We left Salamanca a little after nine in the morning. While refueling on the way, we headed to Avila in the direction of Madrid. This is also an old town that has been registered as a World Heritage Site.
The wall surrounding the city is very characteristic. As a matter of fact, when I came to Spain 4 years ago, I drove right beside this town by car.
But I didn’t have time to visit it at the time, so I just passed it by and finally visited it this time.
(laughs) I’ve already seen so many old towns and world heritage sites that I’m not satisfied with that much anymore, I guess.
We left Avila at 11:30am. We arrived in Madrid around 1pm. We did end up returning the car earlier than planned, but we got pretty lost in Madrid!
This is because suddenly, when I was in the city, the signal condition deteriorated and the Google Map was not updated, so I lost my current location because I completely relied on this.
Thanks to that, I wandered around for about 30 minutes after I entered Madrid. Well, it happens often, but when I came here 4 years ago, I arrived at Atocha station where I could return the ticket more easily than I expected, so I was a little underestimated…
It took me a long time to return the car because the parking lot was a bit far from the station and there were many people who were returning the car or renting a new one. I usually return the car at the airport or local city, so I was a bit annoyed by this waiting time.
I also had an unfortunate accident. Yesterday, on the highway from Santiago de Compostela to Oviedo, a stone suddenly flew from in front of us and hit the windshield with a huge noise.
Luckily the stone wasn’t too big, but it did scratch the windshield.
This was completely unintentional, but I still had to pay for the repair. But I was lucky that my insurance covered it and I only had to pay about 100 euros.
So this is the end of my car trip. Today’s hotel was in front of Atocha station, which I had booked in advance in Japan.
It’s been 4 years since I’ve been to Madrid as I mentioned above, but it’s been 8 years since I’ve spent any time there. At that time, I stayed there for about three days, a paid trip right after I changed my job for the first time in my life.
The Prado Museum, which I hadn’t visited in eight years, was free from 6pm today!
We were very lucky to be able to see one of the best collections in the world for free, although it was very crowded.
Afterwards, we walked around the city for a bit.
I think this taxi is characteristic of Madrid. Barcelona is also a taxi, though.
Oops, of course I had to get this badge!
さあいよいよ明日の夕方の便でいったんParisへと向かい帰国の途につきます。
