Today post offices are often just small shopfronts, stuck in some neglected corner of a shopping mall and it’s been many years since anyone routinely carried stamps in their wallets. Its size and scale is a reminder of just how important the postal services once were. It is a grand Baroque building, positioned in a central spot in the city’s main square. This large, striking red brick building with the flags, was built in the 1760s as the headquarters of the main Post Office. Nowadays, the building has the flagship store for a mobile phone company and regular free exhibitions and talks so you are able to go inside if you want a closer look.Įven if you have limited time in Madrid you'll find yourself at some point in Puerta Del Sol, Madrid’s large central plaza. How easy is it to misinterpret tone when you rely mainly on texts and emails? Coolidge might have been talking almost 100 years ago but weirdly his words seem even truer and more relevant now than then. The international telephone, therefore, which carries the warmth and the friendliness of the human voice, will always correct what might be misinterpreted in the written word.” Coolidge said, “… I believe it to be true that when two men can talk together the danger of any serious disagreement is immeasurably lessened and that what is true of individuals is true of nations. For the most part, they talked about the importance of this new technology. Still curious, later in the day, I looked it up. Immediately, this made me wonder what they said. Instead of messages between envoys and ambassadors, the two leaders were able to speak personally to each other. Ii) It was also here that the very first transatlantic conversation between a US President (Calvin Coolidge) and a European leader (Spain’s King Alfonso XIII) took place on. You can imagine him making his way along the Gran Via, in between avoid bombing raids, to file his reports at the Office of Foreign Press inside the building. Ernest Hemingway worked as a foreign war correspondent here at this time. The basements became air raid shelters and bombs rained down around it. I) During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) it was the prime target for Nationalist bombing because it was Spain’s main hub of communications. I found the stories around the building, more interesting than the building itself: It remained Madrid’s tallest building until 1953. Its doors first opened on 1st Jan, 1930, and at that time, standing at 89 metres, it was not just Spain’s tallest building but the tallest one in Europe. It’s main claim to fame is being Spain’s first skyscraper. Its towering, solid structure made me think of Gotham City. This is one of a number of note-worthy buildings that line Madrid’s most famous street, the Gran Via. All in all the train was very nice and so were the people who helped us. We flagged down a larger taxi in order to have the suitcases fit. There was no taxi stand, which was a little unusual for us. She took us to where we could catch a taxi on the street. When we arrived at the Madrid train station, we were greeted also by the assistance that help though the lady said that she could only help us with one suitcase. So we had our luggage put at the end of the train in our overhead over our seats. We also had to go through security, which was. Not sure about that but it might be something you look into. Someone said that you had to have bought your meal online or else they wouldn't serve you any refreshments on the train. The train ride from Seville to Madrid was uneventful. We found the same thing there, but were able to get on the train earlier which was wonderful because we had three suitcases. But found out our knees got shot during this trip, so when we arrived at the Sevilla train station early we went to Customer Service and asked that we have somebody help us with our suitcases. We had purchased RRENFE train tickets in the states.
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