As predicted, we woke up to a dreary day here in Madrid but that did not deter our excitement for the day ahead. After breakfast, we headed out on our quest to find the Santiago Bernabeu football stadium which is apparently one of the biggest in the world (I only really went to marvel at the architecture). It was pretty easy to navigate from our hotel as it was one straight road all the way there and we passed some marvellous modern architecture…
We reached the stadium in the knowledge that me and one of my PAs got in for free, however the nice lady at the ticket office let us all in for free, what a nice woman she was! We were told to walk around the stadium to a particular gate where we were greeted by security when we were taken up a glass elevator beginning our tour. The tour included some high tech gadgetry for which filled me with excitement before continuing into the actual stadium.
Normally you are allowed to go onto the pitch, however, this isn’t wheelchair accessible so as an alternative you are allowed to visit the wheelchair seating area where we noticed that the V.I.P area was a stones throw away! As I have discussed over the past few years writing this blog I have a phobia of pigeons, or as I like to call them the devil. As a result I was particularly drawn to the fact that pigeons seem to gather on the actual football pitch for which I found fascinating, and the architecture was too…
Upon our exit, we went on the hunt for a Real Madrid shop which was to no avail, however what we did find was a quiet old shopping centre for which made a perfect stop for lunch. It is usually common sense for shopping centres to sign post the location of the lift, however the lift in this shopping centre appeared to be by the toilets with no sign postage. I say lift, it was actually a cargo lift which I swear dated back to the 1980’s, it even had no sensors on the doors so was attempting to shut on my PA. After a magical adventure in the cargo lift, we found a place to eat although the price was extortionate due to its close proximity to the stadium.
After lunch, the sun decided to appear as we wandered off around the other financial district that Madrid possesses. As usual, my artistic style of photography showed as we wandered around and soon began to get lost amidst the excitement. I thought that the hotel would be easy to find due to the straight road going back and the sky scrapers surrounding it but neither of these two were evident. To add to this, all of our phones had no internet access or had run out of battery. We headed down some back streets and eventually found out that we were following the metro line albeit the wrong way! As there was an accessible metro station nearby, I couldn’t resist going on it to get back to the hotel.
In terms of accessibility, the metro reminded me a little of Paris as only some of the stations are accessible. Depending on what line you wish to go on the gap between the train and the platform edge varies and in this case super bunny had to take a leap of faith whilst attempting not to run over anybody.
I forgot to mention about the general accessibility of the stadium tour, the exhibition was fully accessible but the dressing rooms and the pitch were not-not bad for a freebie!
Tomorrow. we head back to the metro to visit another one of my favourite things a observation deck and to top that off the train station!! Oh and going for a walk around the centre to hopefully find a Real Madrid shop.
See you tomorrow!😀