Travel: November 2008 Archives
Little Known Fact Among Tourists:
The Old and decrepit La Sepulvedana Bus Station on the Paseo de la Florida, 11 has moved across the street to the new "Intercambiador" at Príncipe Pío Station and Shopping Center. This happened about a year ago, by the way.
All the old guides - and some of the new ones - list the Old station as the location to travel from Madrid to Segovia by bus. It no longer exists. Now, a PC City computer store occupies the space. I LOVE this computer store chain. And now it's RIGHT on my local bus route. Woo Hoo!!
For years, the old bus location had received many complaints about bad smells, dirty conditions, beggars & drunkards hanging around. Even I, MadridMan, recall going to Segovia at least twice through this "hole in the ground" entry. Upon entering the front door you would have to go down a series of ramps to get to the lower-level where one could buy tickets, wait in the waiting area, eat something at the cafeteria, and wait for your bus to leave - HOPING you'd get on the correct bus.
The new station across the street at Príncipe Pío, located also underground in the "intercambiador" - joining buses, metro, and train - is newer, cleaner, and patrolled by police. The buses leave the station through a series of tunnels until they leave after crossing under the Manzanares river and out the Avenida de Portugal.
While I haven't been able to get a very current price, last year's one-way ticket price was about 6.43 Euros. That's cheap for the 1-hour trip to Segovia, in my opinion.
The bus station in Segovia is not far from the Old downtown either. You can walk from the station to, say, the Roman Aqueduct in about 15 minutes maximum. And on the way you pass a number of old churches. This bus line JUST invested in a brand new, ultra modern fleet of buses.
If you have any doubt about the departure or approximate price of the tickets, ask at any Madrid Tourist Check Point or Tourist Office around the city.
Links of interest:
http://www.adn.es/local/madrid/20071008/NWS-0120-Sepulvedana-cambia-acera.html
http://www.nortecastilla.es/20071009/segovia/parada-sepulvedana-madrid-trasladara-20071009.html
http://www.lasepulvedana.es/
The Old and decrepit La Sepulvedana Bus Station on the Paseo de la Florida, 11 has moved across the street to the new "Intercambiador" at Príncipe Pío Station and Shopping Center. This happened about a year ago, by the way.
All the old guides - and some of the new ones - list the Old station as the location to travel from Madrid to Segovia by bus. It no longer exists. Now, a PC City computer store occupies the space. I LOVE this computer store chain. And now it's RIGHT on my local bus route. Woo Hoo!!
For years, the old bus location had received many complaints about bad smells, dirty conditions, beggars & drunkards hanging around. Even I, MadridMan, recall going to Segovia at least twice through this "hole in the ground" entry. Upon entering the front door you would have to go down a series of ramps to get to the lower-level where one could buy tickets, wait in the waiting area, eat something at the cafeteria, and wait for your bus to leave - HOPING you'd get on the correct bus.
The new station across the street at Príncipe Pío, located also underground in the "intercambiador" - joining buses, metro, and train - is newer, cleaner, and patrolled by police. The buses leave the station through a series of tunnels until they leave after crossing under the Manzanares river and out the Avenida de Portugal.
While I haven't been able to get a very current price, last year's one-way ticket price was about 6.43 Euros. That's cheap for the 1-hour trip to Segovia, in my opinion.The bus station in Segovia is not far from the Old downtown either. You can walk from the station to, say, the Roman Aqueduct in about 15 minutes maximum. And on the way you pass a number of old churches. This bus line JUST invested in a brand new, ultra modern fleet of buses.
If you have any doubt about the departure or approximate price of the tickets, ask at any Madrid Tourist Check Point or Tourist Office around the city.
Links of interest:
http://www.adn.es/local/madrid/20071008/NWS-0120-Sepulvedana-cambia-acera.html
http://www.nortecastilla.es/20071009/segovia/parada-sepulvedana-madrid-trasladara-20071009.html
http://www.lasepulvedana.es/
Google Maps recently revealed it's Super Cool 360º "Street View" function for the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Valencia. It's a great way to take a virtual stroll through these favorite city streets.
One you go to Google Maps, type in an exact address in the aforementioned cities or just simply the city and country in to the search field. Once there, click the "Street View" button in the menu towards the upper right hand corner of map to show, in blue lines, which streets are covered by the Street View function.
If you chose the city-general Google Maps and see the available streets outlined in blue, double click the street you'd like to see in "Street View" and another window will pop-up on top of the map giving a 360º view of that location at street level. You'll see graphical lines and arrows showing the names of the streets. Click the arrows to move forward or backward, click-and-drag around the Street View image to move anyway, spinning around throughout the photo, up and down, 'round-and-'round, zoom in and out. It's super cool!
A number of the pedestrian streets and not all of the city streets have been mapped though. For example, almost none of the streets in the old Santa Cruz neighborhood in Seville are mapped. NONE of the streets in the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona are mapped. About half of Valencia's old town are mapped and most all of Madrid's old downtown is mapped.
The Google Street View cars were driving throughout The Top Four Spanish Cities last spring 2008 and just recently made this cool, new function available. Many of the big cities in the United States of America are already mapped. While I didn't see the cars myself in Madrid, I did find the photo of them (to the right) on the internet. They're a strange-looking vehicle with the tower-camera mounted to the roof of the car. While it drives through the city streets it takes a series of photos of a given location. Those photos are then stitched together, creating the 360º image. I have to wonder how long it took them to drive through these cities. Maybe only 2 days each! You can see the different heights of the sun in some photos, going from one corner to the next, sometimes it's cloudy and then 100 meters later it's sunny.
So if you'd like to take a stroll down Memory Lane from a long-past visit to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, or Seville, visit Google Maps, go to an address or, generally, one of the aforementioned cities, and take a virtual stroll to see how it's changed.
One you go to Google Maps, type in an exact address in the aforementioned cities or just simply the city and country in to the search field. Once there, click the "Street View" button in the menu towards the upper right hand corner of map to show, in blue lines, which streets are covered by the Street View function.
If you chose the city-general Google Maps and see the available streets outlined in blue, double click the street you'd like to see in "Street View" and another window will pop-up on top of the map giving a 360º view of that location at street level. You'll see graphical lines and arrows showing the names of the streets. Click the arrows to move forward or backward, click-and-drag around the Street View image to move anyway, spinning around throughout the photo, up and down, 'round-and-'round, zoom in and out. It's super cool!
A number of the pedestrian streets and not all of the city streets have been mapped though. For example, almost none of the streets in the old Santa Cruz neighborhood in Seville are mapped. NONE of the streets in the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona are mapped. About half of Valencia's old town are mapped and most all of Madrid's old downtown is mapped.
The Google Street View cars were driving throughout The Top Four Spanish Cities last spring 2008 and just recently made this cool, new function available. Many of the big cities in the United States of America are already mapped. While I didn't see the cars myself in Madrid, I did find the photo of them (to the right) on the internet. They're a strange-looking vehicle with the tower-camera mounted to the roof of the car. While it drives through the city streets it takes a series of photos of a given location. Those photos are then stitched together, creating the 360º image. I have to wonder how long it took them to drive through these cities. Maybe only 2 days each! You can see the different heights of the sun in some photos, going from one corner to the next, sometimes it's cloudy and then 100 meters later it's sunny.So if you'd like to take a stroll down Memory Lane from a long-past visit to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, or Seville, visit Google Maps, go to an address or, generally, one of the aforementioned cities, and take a virtual stroll to see how it's changed.
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