MADRID: WEBCAM
MADRID:
WEBCAM
Spanish city, spanish state capital with the "Villa and Corte" title. With a very unknow origin dated at the end of the VIII century, then Madrid was a village around a fortress. The original name was "Magerit", a word from the arabic languaje, Madrid was take by Ramiro II and conquered by Alfonso VI, after the capitality was in Valladolid, Alfonso VI give the capitality to Madrid in 1561, so Madrid suffers a great growth and an intense cultural life and historic.
Carlos III was the main supporter to Madrid, opening great avenues and making the most representative monuments of this beautiful city, Alcala Door, Real Palace, The Retiro, and fountains like La Cibeles or Neptuno, and a neverending number of beautiful buildings and monuments that represent the gold years of Madrid.
At the end of the XIX century Madrid had more than 500.000 inhabitants, but in the XX century Madrid got the current city structure transforming itself to one of the biggest metropolis in the world, the third of the European Union and the first metropoli of Spain. As a fact in the sixty´s years Madrid receive more than 1.000.000 of emigrants, this has configurated the current Madrid, cosmopolitan and a very big size, as big that Madrid has added different old towns like Carabanchel, Villaverde, Vallecas, Vicálvaro, Barajas, Hortaleza, Fuencarral, Aravaca and more little villages, now it forms a great city and an urban continous with more councils with 50.000 to 200.000 like Pozuelo, Getafe, Alcorcón, Móstoles, Fuenlabrada, Leganes, Majadahonda, Las Rozas, Boadilla, Villaviciosa de Odon, Alcobendas, S.Sebastian de los Reyes, S.Fernando, Alcalá and Torrejon, and other little towns, in total, a big urban extension with a very high size, more than 1000 Sq.Km and 4.845.851 inhabitants..
Madrid is the main comunications centre of Spain, its comunications net consist of six radial highways (N-I, Burgos, Bilbao, S.Sebastian. N-II, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Gerona. N-III, Cuenca, Valencia. N-IV, Cordoba, Seville, Cadiz. N-V, Badajoz, Lisbon. N-VI, Valladolid, La Coruña), and another little radials to another big cities (Murcia, Malaga, Toledo, Salamanca...), Madrid has three different ring highways, two on the capital (M-30 and M-40) and another surrounding the metropoli (M-50), being build with more than 130 Km. Madrid has the biggest airport of Spain with three runways, two crossed and another independient designed with the last terms about special runways for very heavy planes, it has three terminals and two parkings, and a big comercial extension with sightseeing services, hotels, offices and more details. Furthermore our airport has two bus lines, taxi and a subway stop.
View off the north part of Madrid and our mountains. In the center the Puerta Europa skyscrapers.
In the train transport Madrid has three main train stations, with international trains with direct connections to another big european cities, their names are Chamartin, with international train lines. Atocha, with trains to all the spanish cities, and Portugal and Principe Pio, with regional trains to close provinces.
Its 175 km of underground net and more than 150 subway stations, with 170 bus lines and 20 night bus give to Madrid the best public transport of Europe, more than 15.000 taxis complete the great net, and there is also a big local trains net (Cercanias), Cercanias offer to madrilenians good connections with surrounding towns, metropolitan area and capital districts in the Madrid autonomous community. Cercanias has 60 stations in the Madrid metropoli.
All of this make to Madrid as an open city, dinamic and very attractive for the visitor, with the best nigh life, an excellent hotel service, a big cultural life, opera, theatre, cinema, restaurants and hundred of atractive places, like the big urban parks, the beautiful Retiro and the biggest urban park of the world, the "Casa de Campo" with more than 1.700.000 m2 has a big atractions park, Zoo, teleferico and a good lake with acuatic sports and forest...
Not only this, Madrid has a very big forest extension with 50 Sq.Km., The "Monte de el Pardo", where you can find the Pardo palace, Zarzuela palace (the real family home) and very pretty buildings in a forest enviroment, close to the city, with many animals (fallow deers, bunnies, lynx, wild boars and birds...). The shopping persons can go to the second biggest market in the world, Mercamadrid. And the best second hand market in the downtown streets called "El Rastro", where you can find good stands with antiquies and MSX products (YEAAH!!).
It is impossible to tell about all the things that Madrid offers, so if you want to know more about this incredible capital, it is better to write us, where we can offer you a guided visit to Madrid.
Useful information
Last month weather: September, 2000 - highs: 25,9 - lows: 14,1 - 25mm of rainfall - 12 cloudy days - 15 sunny days - 5 days of some rainfall. And two windy day. Lowest temperature: 8 (day 20). Highest temperature 31 (day 9)
Look for our WEBCAM and enjoy it!
-- We give you different texts made by famous spanish writers, we prefer to put it in Spanish:
"La gran ciudad aparece a lo lejos, arriba, empinada, en grande, inmenso, formidable montón de paredones grisos y rojizos muros, tejados resaltantes, humosas chimeneas, torres agudas, panzudas cúpulas, moles disformes que rompen violentamente el conjunto de diminutos tejadillos y sobresalen salpicadas en los puntitos negros de sus ventanas. El Observatorio, a la derecha, destaca su redondeada silueta; cerca, contrastan con el uniforme gris las rojas paredes de la Escuela de la Caminos; más allá, dominando la inacabable mancha negra, brilla la bola del Banco de España, radiante, áurea, luminosa." Azorín, Diario de un enfermo. (1901).
"El madrileño que alguna vez, por casualidad, se encuentra en los barrios pobres próximos al Manzanares, hállase sorprendido ante el espectáculo de miseria y sordidez, de tristeza e incultura que ofrecen las afueras de Madrid con sus rondas miserables, llenas de polvo en verano y de lodo en invierno. La corte es ciudad de contrastes; presenta la luz fuerte al lado de la sombra obscura; vida refinada, casi europea, en el centro, vida africana, de aduar, en los suburbios." Pio Baroja, La Busca. (1904).
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