The Atocha Railway Station in Madrid, Spain

It was quite a long drive from Granada to Madrid. After 5 days of sightseeing in the Andalusian region of Spain, we headed near Madrid. It is around 400 km and it took us around five hours driving with the bus including the stops we took in between. Actually our hotel was in Layos, a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain.

During our 6th day in Spain, we drove again with the bus to Madrid. Our first stop was in Atocha Railway Station to fulfill the calling of nature. I guess you know what I meant with this.

The Madrid Atocha Railway Station is the largest railway station in Madrid. If I am not mistaken, this is the only railway station I had been to in Europe with an interior garden or plant show inside. That is quite interesting because I enjoyed watching it while we were inside.

It was so far a wonderful trip we had in Madrid. I know I will come back to this city next time. Here are some snapshots I took during our short stop-over in Atocha.

the turtles in Atocha's garden during our visit last December 10, 2011.

the interior of Atocha railway station in Madrid. You can find some shops, restaurants and coffee bars inside.

the garden inside the Atocha Railway station.

The Atocha Railway station is the primary station serving commuter trains (Cercanías), intercity and regional trains from the south, and the AVE high speed trains from Barcelona (Catalonia), Saragosse (Aragon), Seville (Andalusia) and Valencia (Levante Region). These train services are run by the Spanish national rail company, Renfe. wikipedia.

Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England

This is a part of Windsor castle in Berkshire, England. The castle was built from around 1070-1350 during the time of William The Conqueror. It is known to be the largest inhabbited castle in the world. It is also known ot be one of the three principal residence of the British monarch. The castle has a floor area of about 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft).

It was a nice experience visiting this castle last 2008.
taken from outside of the castle. I don't normally planned to go inside during our visit last November 2008. Finally, I decided to go inside taking the opportunity of already being there. Sad to say, taking images inside the castle rooms are prohibited.

Brussels-Zuid, Train Station in Brussels, Belgium

I believed it is good to share some train stations in Europe. Don't you know that one of the best way to explore Europe is traveling by train? I am introducing today Bruxelles-Midi or Brussel-Zuid, known in English as Brussels South. It is the biggest railway station in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. It is said that around a thousand trains pass between Brussels-South and Brussels-North railway stations everyday. Can you imagine how busy are these two train stations?

Brussels Midi or Zuid railway station was designed by Payen and was opened in 1869.

Some travel tips if you wish to explore any European cities by train;
Be sure to book your ticket as early as you can. Sometimes you can find cheap train tickets if you book it months earlier. You can already find cheap ones as early as 3 months before your plan travel. You can even save up to 50% cheaper when booking earlier.

Some images I took in Brussels-Zuid last August 2010. We traveled from Paris Gare Du Nord to this station. This is the train we boarded from Paris to Brussels South train station.


The tallest building in Belgium stands in front of the main exit from the station (the crossroad of Avenue Fonsnylaan and Rue Couverte/Overdekte straat) and is named the South Tower.