by Real Traveler The Hallgrens
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Injustice in Madrid

From Our Adventures in Madrid, Spain on Sep 18 '07

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The Hallgrens has visited no places in Madrid

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With less than 24 hours in Spain´s capital, we made our best effort to see and do as much as possible...so we spent several hours in their Prado Art Museum. Housing countless masterpieces of art, the Prado Museum in Madrid is a must see. Works from Velazquez, Goya, and Rubin, only name a few of the pieces from a broad collection that is remarkable.

Now for the injustice. Madrid, and Spain for that matter, has to be the most underrated city and country during our year-long plus travels. I rarely hear Americans say that they are going to Spain on vacation. It´s always Italy, France, Mexico, North Korea, okay, maybe not the last, but it´s a shame that more North Americans don´t visit this wonderful country. Madrid and Barcelona are both outstanding. Yet I hear so little from people, even well-traveled ones, that they have explored into the cities of Spain. Had we known Madrid and Barcelona were so great, we would have definitely spent more time. It was a complete injustice to spend less than 24 hours in a city with great architecture, art, and ambience.

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bkh

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The Hallgrens on Sep. 19, 2007 @ 09:21PM said

Interesting. We've talked to many Europeans that travel there, but not Americans--this is what I am referring to. I'll make a change in the blog to reflect the same. That said, I am still surprised that it comes in second. I would think the US, France, and Italy would have more visitors. Curious where you got this information for my reference. bkh

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perro_del_hortelano on Sep. 19, 2007 @ 09:21PM said

ehem, I'm glad you liked Madrid, but, did you know Spain is the second most visited country in the world, after France?? So Spain is hardly an "undiscovered" or "unknown" destination...

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perro_del_hortelano on Sep. 19, 2007 @ 09:21PM said

The second place is either for Spain or for the US, depending on the year. Spain has been a major destination since the 60's, in fact, it can be said that the tourism saved the country during the dark years...and Spain is -for Europeans- one of the major , if not the major- destinations. I know in the US Spain's underrated -if rated at all-, and often confused with Mexico, which is a shame. Spain's tourism board has to work on that. Nonetheless, if you come to Madrid or Barcelona in the summer, you will see thousands of american tourists, literally, so I think the perception of Spain in the US is changing. There are many sources, just google in "second most visited contry" and you will get several links, like this one: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0198352.html

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