Day Negative 2 - Biking then Not Biking around Madrid - Madrid, Spain

June 18, 2026 - biked 2 km (1.2 mi) - biked 2 km (1.2 mi) total

After assembling our bikes we took the metro to escape the airport then rode the 20 minutes from the airport metro line stop to our hostel. First biking impressions in Madrid were... mixed. Not a big cycling town. We saw maybe five other bicycles the whole way. Mostly food delivery on e-bikes, and then some folks on pay-per-ride "city bikes". The small side streets are lovely but the major streets just have some sharrows in the right lane and you go with traffic. Cars are slow and quite nice but you are surrounded and it's way more stressful than zagging on the side streets, but they don't always go through.

Madrid also has so little bike parking. There were almost no staples or racks anywhere. You might have to walk a kilometer to find staple racks. There are also very few street signs sized to lock to. Also the only place to store our bikes overnight safely was either in our hostel room on the 5th floor or at a parking garage 2 km away where you pay per day. So we decided to keep the bikes in our room for our three days here and just walk or take the metro to places. Biking will begin on Sunday then.

After so much traveling and a nap, we finally got some dinner and took a quick walk around! And then went right back to bed.