XIII.
Several restaurants we had heard about
and wanted to try are up two or three
high stairs, or up one and down two, or the dining room is
upstairs. Although only a minority of
restaurants had these barriers, we encountered them more frequently in
Buses and Metro. Because the city center is compact and
strolling there is enjoyable, we didn’t use public transportation. We saw many buses with retractable wheelchair
ramps at the side door; they appeared to have the same design as those in
The
Taxis. We ordered an
accessible Eurotaxi one very rainy late morning and waited only 20
minutes. The driver was terrific. We also had a good experience taking a taxi
to the airport. Phone 011-34-915-478-200
or 011-34-915-478-500 or 011-34-915-600 or 011-34-915-471-059.
Where We Stayed
Hotel
Intur Palacio San Martin.
Four star. Placa San Martin,
5. Phone 011-34-917-015-000; fax
011-34-917-015-010. www.hotelinturpalacio.com.
This 90-room hotel opened three years
ago. It’s centrally located - a
five-minute stroll to Plaza Mayor and 15 minutes to the Prado - but the
immediate area, including Plaza San Martin, is nondescript and drab. The hotel is in an old palazzo, but is far
less grand than “palazzo” connotes. The
renovation is not well done, with mediocre design and finishes. The large atrium lobby is a missed
opportunity – it could have been grand.
One good thing about the hotel is the
large, tasty and varied buffet breakfast served in a spacious dining room on
the top floor with a good view of
We were in Room 003 on the ground floor,
which we were told is the only adapted room.
The bedroom is medium size, with adequate wheelchair maneuvering
space. It is dimly lit; there are only a
few lamps and no recessed lighting; the latter could have been installed easily
in the dropped ceiling. The room is
partially below ground level; there is some, but not much, natural light
through an opaque window on the upper third of the wall. There is no view and it’s impossible to
ascertain the weather by looking out the window. On the positive side, the light switches and
receptacle for the master cardkey necessary to turn on the electricity are low
and easily reachable.
The
bathroom is fairly large, but, unfortunately, the architect squandered its size
by poor design. The only bright spot is
side transfer to the toilet. There is a
fixed (wall- and floor-mounted) grab bar at one side, and a wall-hung flip-up
grab bar at the other, with plenty of space transfer space next to the toilet
when the bar is flipped up. There is a
bathtub with grab bars, and no roll-in shower.
There is no shower curtain, so water splashes on the floor when an
able-bodied person showers, and there’s not even a curtain rod, so there is
nowhere to hang towels or clothes. The
shower spray hose is just too short to reach the sink, so it’s impossible to
wash one’s hair in the sink. The sink is
shallow and a bit unstable. The faucet
handle is small and difficult to reach.
There are no shelves for toiletries.
The bathroom door opens against the
toilet, which prevents it from opening completely and complicates access to the
toilet, so hotel staff removed it at our request. One of the
biggest problems is that the sink is directly opposite the toilet, leaving
insufficient space for a wheelchair to face the sink. So a person in a wheelchair must use the sink
from the side, which is extremely awkward.
(This would have been even worse with the door in place.) Finally, this was our only hotel in
Other
Hotels to Consider
The
following hotels told us they have adapted rooms:
Gran Melia Fenix.
Five star. We were unable to
ascertain the existence of a roll-in shower.
Hermosilla, 2. Phone 011-34-914-316-700;
fax 011-34-915-754-173. www.solmelia.com.
Playa
Senator Gran Via. Four star.
We were unable to ascertain the existence of a roll-in shower. Renovated in 2002 or 2003. Gran Via, 21.
Phone 011-34-915-314-151; fax 011-34-915-240-799. www.hotelsenatorgranvia.com.
Hotels Without Adapted Rooms
The
following hotels told us they do not have adapted rooms:
Hotel Adler. Five star.
Calle Velazquez 33, Goya 31.
Phone 1-866-376-7831, or 1-305-538-9697 (
Hotel Arosa (Best Western). Four star.
Calle Salud, 21 and Gran Via, 29.
Phone 011-34-915-321-600. www.hotelarosa.com.
Hotel Bauza. Four star. Calle Goya, 79. Phone 011-34-914-357-545. www.hotelbauza.com.
Hotel
Carlos V (Best Western). Three
star. Maestro
Hotel
Opera. Three star. Calle Cuesta de Santa Domingo, 2. Phone 011-34-915-412-800. www.hotelopera.com.
Hotel
Preciados. Four star. Preciados, 37. Phone 011-34-914-544-400. www.preciadoshotel.com.
Hotel
H10 Villa de la Reina. Four
star. Gran Via, 22. Phone 011-34-915-239-101. www.hotelvilladelareina.com.
Tour Guide. We had two lively, fascinating walking tours
with Englishman Stephen Drake-Jones, the chairman/founder of the Wellington
Society of Madrid. (Go to his website to
find out why the Duke of Wellington is important in
Stephen Drake-Jones. Cell phone 011-34-609-143-203. www.wellsoc.org; chairman@wellsoc.org.
Prado Musuem. This world-class, do-not-miss museum is very well organized, both in physical layout and thematically. Access is quite good and the staff was extremely helpful to explain the route, so we had no wasted motion.
The main entrance, the Goya Entrance, is on the north side. The ground floor entrance is level. But past the entrance vestibule there are several stairs leading down to the ground floor galleries, with a small stairlift that was too small and had too low a weight capacity for Howard’s wheelchair. So, in order to access the ground floor galleries, it was necessary to take one of the large elevators near the Goya Entrance up to the first or second floor, go all the way to the other end of the building (near the Murillo Entrance), take an elevator back down to the ground floor and backtrack toward the Goya Entrance. The elevators near the Murillo Entrance are narrow and not deep; Howard was just able to fit in them. This process is not as complicated as it sounds, because the building is not extremely long and has a central hallway and a simple floor plan. All the first and second floor galleries are level. As you are on the second or first floor anyway, it’s advisable to see those galleries (which feature magnificent paintings by Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, Murillo, Zurburan, Dutch masters, and Rubens and other Flemish masters) before going back down to the ground floor. Also, the accessible bathroom on the second floor is larger and more modern than the one on the ground floor.
On the ground floor, toward the Goya Entrance, there are a handful of galleries (mostly of Flemish painting) up several stairs from the ground floor itself and accessed only by another small stairlift that was too small and had too low a weight capacity for Howard’s wheelchair; these were the only galleries Howard was unable to see.