Atletico Madrid season tickets

Last week saw Atletico Madrid season tickets holders, or abonados as they are known in Spanish, receive their tickets for the 09-10 campaign. The sending out of these signifies the start of the opening of season ticket sales to the general public starting with those that joined the waiting list. It also saw Madrid guide Spain receive a few enquiries and seeing as the topic came up earlier this year in the forum we thought it would be a good idea to complete the picture with pricing and process details.

Pricing:
The Atletico Madrid season ticket prices are in this section of the official website choosing from the menu:

Precio de los abonos

Application

All applications have to be made in person at the clubs offices inside the Vicente Calderon between the hours of 0900-1900 Mon – Thurs and 0900-1500 on Fridays.

Applicants will also have to present the following documentation:

a) A photocopy of their passport or residents certificate
b) Contact details
c) Bank account number

For those who enjoy the passion of the fans the Grada Joven in the Fondo Sur, where the more passionate Atletico fans congregate, has sold out but the tier above still has some availibility.

Spanish football fixtures 2009-10

The La Liga season kicks off on the 30th August with Real Madrid playing at home to Deportivo La Coruña and Atletico Madrid away against Malaga. For the full set of fixtures for the Spanish football season 2009-10 check out the official website of La Liga.

If you want to see a match whilst in Madrid and experience the unique atmosphere that Spanish football has then check out the Sport section of the main website where it explains getting hold of Real Madrid tickets and also Atletico Madrid tickets direct from the clubs themselves!

Note: Matchday timings are normally 5pm on Sunday but for the start of the season this changes to 7pm and for a number of matches each weekend their timings change for television.

Madrid airport Hotels – Read before you choose

Each week we receive a very full virtual mailbag relating to choosing a Hotel in Madrid. This week we want to concentrate on Madrid airport hotels and explain honestly the pitfalls with blindly reserving online. Who wants to stay on the Madrid airport industrial estate?

Location

Its easy to say that the Madrid airport hotels are all in the same area but its not true. Yes they all share the same postcode but thats about it. In fact some Barajas airport hotels are actually in the Cargo area or next to a Motorway!

Services

The only service that a Hotel can offer thats important for a 24hr stay is the complimentary airport shuttle bus apart from that accomodation wise things are pretty much the same. Yes, theres the difference between the Hilton and the Holiday Inn but I think we’re all accostomed to the differing levels of service and number of “stars”.

What do we recomend?

Of the 60 plus  hotels proporting to be Madrid airport hotels there are only THREE that are worth considering. The only hotels for Madrid airport we believe to be worthwhile for your stay are those that:

• Are located in Barajas village – This village has a large number of restaurants, bars, shops and cafes as well as a beautiful square or plaza so you are not restricted to the hotel. The metro can take you into the center of the city in less than 20 minutes so you have the option of eating out in Madrid then returning to the hotel before an early flight the next day.
• Offer a shuttle bus – Whilst Barajas village offers a one stop metro connection to the airport in the event that your shuttle bus has gone astray the benefit of a Madrid airport hotel with a shuttle bus of its own is obvious. No heaving around your luggage and no trying to find the hotel!!! 

What hotels then?

Meeting the previous conditions the list of recomended Madrid airport hotels can be whittled down to just three:

• Tach by ClementHotels – One of the most modern and comfortable hotels in Barajas village
• Clement Barajas – This is the forerunner of the above and offers the same benefits
• Tryp Alameda Aeropuerto – A large hotel and ideal for groups from an established Hotel chain

There is a cheaper option in Barajas although it comes with one drawback, namely, You must telephone the Hostal directly to arrange the Shuttle service before you travel. Hostal Viky

We strongly don’t recomend
Theres nothing worse than geeting stuck in a bad Madrid airport hotel so heres a list of those hotels to avoid!

• The Madrid airport Hilton – Its in the middle of an industrial estate
• Tryp Alameda aeropuerto – In a somewhat rough neighbourhood
• Melia Barajas – As per Tryp Alameda
• Tryp Diana – As per Tryp Alameda
• Auditorium Madrid – Its around 30 minutes from the airport and next to one of Spains busiest motorways!!

We hope that this article in some way helps with your accomodation decisions and please fell free to coment on its usefullness!

Funky restaurants in Madrid

Its always difficult when someone asks for you to recomend “funky restaurants in Madrid” as everyones definition of funky is very different! For the idividual that asked us this week we had a little think in the office and came up with what each person defined as their “funky” restaurant.

lacasadelabuelo
located in Calle Goya no 57 this is more about traditional Spanish food in a traditional setting than Funky, of course if your not from Spain then its certainly an experience.

Wagaboo sell themselves as a fusion of oriental, occidental and Spanish cuisine in vibrant surroundings. What exactly that means is a little lost on us but we do that its great to be able to choose Vietnamese Spring rolls for a starter and then tuck into a steak bearnaise for the 2nd course! With a few restaurants in Madrid the brand and food is certainly becoming popular with the “chic” crowd.

Within the old area of Madrid (Barrio Las Letras) one of our personal favourites is the Basque restaurant Zerain which is located in the basement of one of the 18th century buildings that make up the zone. Basque cider (very different from the English version) shoots out from the wall mounted barrels in a jet of ambar liquid into your earthenware jug…. if you’ve positioned it correctly! The “Golden cod” starter before the tradional rib eye beefsteaks is also omething to get the taste buds excited. The fact that the restaurant is very very authentic only adds to the appeal.

More than that though its the spacing of the tables, attentive waiters and the fact that the whole area is full of excellent bars for pre and post drinks. It enjoys a certain level of clientelle which means theres no hmmm… riff raff!

Finally, for a bit of fun while you eat the:

Corral de la Moreria

Allowa you to take in Live Flamenco whilst eating at a very very exclusive restaurant… Just look at their website and you’ll quickly be impressed. Seeing as the King, various presidents of the United States and major sports and film stars go there…

If none of the above are doing it then there is of course always the option of the Hard Rock Cafe on Madrids Castellana boulevard and next to Plaza Colon:
Directions

Anyone for Snooker?

Thats right, Madrid has a Snooker club thats open to all. So if you fancy relaxing and shooting some framesto escape the midday sun then it’s possible in Madrid. Its not that easy in most Spanish cities mind you as the bars tend to be dominated by “futbolin”, this is Table Football to you and me excepting Joey and Chandler from Friends that insisted in calling it “Fussball”.

Located in the North of Madrid the Westbury snooker academy has a number of full size Snooker tables as well as 9ft snooker tables which are ideal for children. Westbury also partake in the Spanish snooker leagues so if you like the game and are going to be in Madrid for some time then its an ideal place to meet friends whilst enjoying a common interest.

Location

Westbury’s are located in the Northern Madrid barrio of Fuencarral which is easily accesible from line 10 of the Madrid metro which passes through the centre of the city on its way to the stations of Fuencarral and Tres Olivos. For directions by car and to see the route from the station to the Snooker club simply use the following: directions to Westbury snooker club

Times and Prices

Opening hours: Everyday 1700 until 2300

Prices:

• 12ft table: 14€ per hour
• 9ft table: 12€ per hour

For additional information and enquiries check out the Westbury snooker Madrid website Which although it is in Spanish it does give you an idea of the facilities on offer… That and the telephone of English speaking Mark to assist you with your visit!

Madrid to Alicante – The easy way

The author has had to make a series of trips between Madrid and Alicante recently and after having done the trip in the car and suffered with the tailbacks on the motorways full of holiday traffic decided it was time to find a better alternative. After all the sunny days in Spain are great…. only if you’re not cooking in your car!

The Madrid to Alicante guide on the information site lists the different methods of travel between the cities: Car, bus, train and plane however having been stuck in a car there was no way the author would change that for a bus so Rail or air were the only options available.

By train

Costs were around the 70€ mark seeing as the cheap tickets had already gone by the time one started looking. In actual fact it was suprising to see just how full the trains were due to the start of the Spanish childrens holidays. I guess thats what happens when you leave things until the last minute! Another suprise was the fact that what is normally a 3 hour train journey was being shown as almost 4 hours. A little bit of digging around and it was discovered that this is due to the construction of a parrallel high speed rail line causing restrictions on the existing line.

Ok, 70€ isn’t an expensive fare, 4 hours however is about the same travel time as in the car from door to door though. Once you’ve added in the time from home to Madrids Atocha or Chamartin train stations plus the travelling to the destination in Alicante the travel time rapidly approaches the 6 hour mark!!! Not what one was looking for! It is of course different if you are travelling city center to city center.

By Plane

Normally one wouldn’t have even considered flying but noticing that Ryanair now fly the route ones curiosity was stirred as to their possibility as an alternative travel option. Before I go on I want to make it clear that Ryanair are not everyones cup of tea due to:

1. No flexibility with travel changes
2. Charges for checked baggage
3. a miserly 10kg (22lb) cabin baggage allowance

and

4. Continuous sales pitches in flight

What they are however famed for are their rediculously low fares. So, buyer beware but if you can travel light and are thick skinned enough to ignore the sales pitch then you’ll be fine. Personally I recommend a good book!

As you can probably guess by now one ended up flying between Madrid and Alicante and for the stunning price of 33€ return travelling out on the Friday afternoon and back on the Sunday evening. Cost wise it couldn’t be beat! The other airlines operating the route had fares in excess of €120 so one “paid ones money and took ones chance” as the saying goes.

The flights

A word of caution for visitors from the USA about European skies in the summer: Air traffic control is about as effective as that in the NE corridor between Boston and New York when a winter storm blows in! Thats to say; its congested, and delays of between 20 minutes and an hour on the majority of departures are par for the course between 0700 and 2100.

Getting to Madrids Barajas airport was easy via the Metro and took no more than 20 minutes. Almost as long as it took to get from the airports metro station to the gate itself as with online check in with Ryanair means you can forget lining up at check in and pass directly through security with your printed boarding pass. Heres where things started to dissappoint.

Madrids airport is split into two parts Terminals 1, 2 & 3 are dingy antequated affairs whilst Iberias Terminal 4 is a glass monolith with everything a traveller could wish for. Ryanair of course use Terminal 1 as its the cheapest although one can hardly blame the airline for the airport policies. One of which appears to be extracting money from passenegers at every turn from the excessively over priced food outlets to the vending machines that start at a whopping €1,50 for a bottle of water! The other bug bear is that although all three terminals are connected (T4 stands off on its own and needs a bus transfer) at times different access gates are closed. This means your aircraft can park in between terminals 1 and 2 and you’ll be left with no option but to walk to T1 arrivals and then have to double back to to go to the Metro in T2… ahhh, the ways of the airports.

Once aboard the aircraft the flight time was given as 45 minutes and true to his word the Captain touched the aircraft down on Alicantes single runway at precisely the aforementioned time. A short wait and the buses had all passengers in Alicantes arrivals hall within 20 minutes. A note of caution: As with all airports Alicantes is located outside the city so you’ll be forced to take either a bus or taxi into the city. Taxis are around 20€ and the bus a great value 1,20€.

Authors thoughts

For a total of around 40€ and a travel time of 3 hours door to door flying to the coast for the weekend was certainly a lot more relaxing and economical than taking a car and would be so for 2 people travelling together. For larger groups and those with a lot of luggage a car is definately more cost effective although it could be said that when on holiday who wants to drive!