Photo of the Day (10/10/07)

by Jamie Rhein on

When looking for photo for Photo of the Day, I thought kids. Iva’s post about kids and travel got me thinking about what makes kids on a trip fun. They’ll do their thing no matter what’s going on. This shot captures a kid’s world perfectly. Look at the sea of legs. This little girl in Madrid, Spain is not letting being surrounded by adults stop her from a good time. Jon Rawlinson who took this one and posted it on our Gadling pool at Flickr, knows what any photographer of kids knows, get down to their level, be patient and you’ll get exactly the right moment when a rope comes around.

If you have any shots of captured moments, we’d love to see them. Post them on the pool (above link) and you might see one of yours as a Photo of the Day. This one was posted June 2005.

Travelling to Madrid? Let MAP Magazine be your guide

by Martha Edwards on

People travelling of living in Madrid have a new resource to turn to for news, events and so much more — brand-new MAP Magazine is an trendy online source that helps peel away the layers of this dynamic city.

Offering (in English) what they call ‘your daily dose of Madrid’, MAP offers lots of insider tips as to where to go and what to do when you’re there. And they have an advantage over traditional guidebooks, in that they can update and add new info whenever they need to — which is particularly important when it comes to events. They also offer videos, contests, a blog, a photo of the day feature and a lot more. Very cool.

So cool, in fact, that MTV Spain has labeled MAP “the premier underground music, arts, and politics e-zine in Madrid for young expats.”

Check it out!, particularly the funny videos.

Madrid Airport Stuck in Low Gear

by Iva Skoch on

You might remember our baggage disaster, reported on these pages (by the way, thanks for the great comments). Well, three months later, almost to the day, believe it or not, we got our bag back (just as we were still wrangling about getting paid for the lost contents). Funny thing is, even though we didn’t go to Madrid, our bag did, judging by the multitude of tags. Now I can see what the problem was.

It turns out Madrid’s $8B shining new airport is a logistical nightmare: it has 24-minute treks between terminals, and one of Europe’s worst flight-delay records among other problems. The international terminal alone is two buildings that sit 1.6 miles apart, connected by rail. Not too surprising, for the world’s largest airport terminal.

This means that there are delays for bags, too. At best, it will take your bags 15 minutes to get to the nearest carousel. Handlers are trying to double the speed of the conveyors, to make up for the long distances.

I’m guessing our bag was lost somewhere within the 8.5 million-square-foot facility (that’s larger than the entire square footage of NYC’s 19-building, 22-acre Rockefeller Center). What one wonders, however, is how this was supposed to benefit passengers, rather than some architect’s fantasy.

Bullet Trains in Spain

by Iva Skoch on

An interesting article (which was actually a long, but well-written advertisement!) in MIT’s Technology Review this month, talks about Spain’s push to lay high-speed rail throughout the country.

Spain had been hampered historically, from interlacing their rail system with the rest of Europe, since they used a different gauge track; but they developed high-speed switching wheels that switch gauge at the push of a button, and they’re laying new track with the European standard gauge. Their push is so big, that since 2003, Spain is putting more money in rail than in roads, seeking to link all of their major cities with high-speed rail by 2020: 10,000 km in all, servicing 90% of their population.

Already, the Seville to Madrid line is fully operational (and only 2 hours, 20 minutes), and is so efficient that they’ll refund your money if the train is more than five minutes late (which happens only 0.25% of the time). Their trains reach speeds above 200 km/hour (120 mph), and hit as high as 300 kph (185 mph).

Why the push for rail? One big reason is oil independence, and another is air pollution. Rail helps with both goals, plus, it whisks travelers right into the heart of the city.

Wallpaper* City Guides

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just when you start to sleep on Wallpaper* they go and make their debut in the publishing world with these nice little City Guides. Their reason being, after 10 years in the game uncovering the best new design and urban travel spots globally, packaging that decade of experience into well-thought out yet simple guide books was only obviously. They make it clear that the traveler’s time is as important as their own and they don’t waste it chucking in massive quantities. It’s about quality and they very best. The first 20 were published this past September and another 20 will be published every six months after that. Current titles include Mexico City, Los Angeles, NYC, Madrid, Bangkok and Stockholm to name only a few.

The books can be purchased at Phaidon. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Stay tuned for the rest in 2007!