Madrid to Barcelona Full Road Trip
Neon Driving Tours
142,436 views
Lets go on a road trip in Spain from Madrid to Barcelona with a brief detour into Zaragoza.
#driving #spain #madrid #barcelona
Contact: neondrivingtours@gmail.com
20 Comments
@DrivinginBrazil 1 year ago
That's really great. A long route, filmed from outside, no dirt in the camera and without a low horizon/eyes line. I respect a good game when I see it.
@Juaquinovich 1 year ago
Qué país tan precioso tenemos. Y la gente hace miles y miles de kilómetros viajando para ver lugares horrendos..... No sabemos lo que tenemos...
@jacqueknitkenobi 1 year ago
The Bull statues along the way, Awesome. Beautiful Cities and countryside. ☮️👍🏾
@solege0042 1 month ago
Amazing video! It´s great to travel on road from Madrid to my city. Thanks for posting!
@elincreiblehombrecreciente6874 1 year ago
La niebla de Zaragoza y Lleida, días enteros de niebla bajo el sol del invierno.
Madrid to Barcelona Full Road Trip
Neon Driving Tours
142,436 views
Lets go on a road trip in Spain from Madrid to Barcelona with a brief detour into Zaragoza.
#driving #spain #madrid #barcelona
Contact: neondrivingtours@gmail.com
- 0:01 -> Leaving the Canalejas parking lot on Calle Alcalá.
- 0:59 -> On the right we can see the Bank of Spain, world-famous because of the TV series Money Heist.
- 1:20 -> The Palacio de Cibeles, the current city hall of Madrid, with the Cibeles Fountain (where Real Madrid fans celebrate their trophies) in the middle of the roundabout.
- 2:50 -> The famous Puerta de Alcalá (Alcalá Gate), built in 1778 by order of Charles III, aka 'the Best Mayor of Madrid'.
- 3:18 -> Calle Alcalá straight ahead, and on the right, the Retiro Park, showing the colors of late autumn.
- 3:51 -> The equestrian statue of General Espartero. Jokes about the horse’s testicles are well known throughout Spain.
- 5:31 -> Torrespaña, the main broadcasting tower of TVE (the Spanish state-owned TV and radio broadcaster).
- 9:27 -> Entering the M-40, the second outer orbital motorway of Madrid (63 km long).
- 10:25 -> On the left, you can see the roof of the Metropolitano Stadium (70K capacity), home of Atlético de Madrid.
- 12:47 -> Pulling aside to join the A2 motorway, which ends in Barcelona.
- 13:40 -> On the left, Madrid-Barajas Airport (61M passengers annually 2024, 18th worldwide, and 3rd in the European Union), as an airplane can be seen landing.
- 24:47 -> Passing by Alcalá de Henares (population 200K), hometown of Miguel de Cervantes.
- 26:00 -> On the left, you can see the training grounds and youth academy of Atlético de Madrid.
- 30:03 -> End of the Madrid region and beginning of Castilla-La Mancha (Guadalajara province).
- 35:12 -> On the left is the Mahou beer factory. It's pronounced \maw, not \mahoo. In fact, the entire A-2 motorway from Madrid to Guadalajara city is known as the Henares Corridor, one of the main industrial and logistics areas in Spain.
- 38:45 -> On top of the hill, we can see the silhouette of the Osborne bull, one of many visible throughout the video. Initially a billboard to advertise Jerez brandy, it was later declared a "cultural and historical icon" by the Spanish Congress to protect it from a law requiring the removal of visible advertising from state highways. Today, it is considered a symbol of Spanish identity. We can see other bulls along the route at 56:33 , 1:08:35 , 1:20:48 , 1:39:09 , 2:04:07 and 3:10:48 .
- 39:15: On the right are the headquarters of the GEO, a tactical unit of the Spanish police (Spanish SWAT). This point also marks the beginning of Guadalajara (91K)—the original city that gave its name to others, including the famous Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico.
- 42:26 -> More or less, the Madrid metropolitan area (8M) extends up to here heading northeast. The traffic here decreases significantly until it picks up again near the outskirts of Zaragoza, where it becomes dense once more. The area in between is known as "Empty Spain" due to its low population density (for European standards), which is even lower than that of the Lapland region.
- 49:36 -> Torija Castle (15th century).
- 1:02:26 -> Rural, heartfelt patriotism in central Spain.
- 1:07:45 -> This county we are passing through is known as La Alcarria. It is well known for its lavender fields (which cannot be seen in purple during this season) and for being the setting of the novel Journey to the Alcarria by Spanish Nobel Prize in Literature winner Camilo José Cela.
- 1:17:06 -> Alcolea mountain pass (1,206 m altitude), where the watersheds of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea divide. Waters flowing toward Madrid drain into the Atlantic via the Tagus River, while those heading toward Barcelona flow into the Mediterranean via the Ebro River. This geographical divide can help explain why the two kingdoms of Aragon (Mediterranean) and Castile (Atlantic) remained separate entities until relatively recently. This division is also why Aragon expanded into Mediterranean lands (such as Sicily, the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, Sardinia, Corsica, and southern Greece), while Castile ventured into the Atlantic and ultimately discovered America in 1492, the same year the crowns of Aragon and Castile were united. So as we can see, geography is the driving force of history as Robert Kaplan told us in The Revenge of Geography.
- 1:18:37 -> For a short section, we enter the Castile and León region (Soria province, the least populated in Spain with 90K inhabitants).
- 1:20:21 -> Spain is the 5th largest wind power producer in the world (although some sources rank it 7th). Here, we can see the turbines of one of the many wind farms found across the country.
- 1:21:03 -> The village of Medinaceli. Since before the Roman Empire, it has been a strategic enclave on the Iberian Peninsula because it is situated in the middle of the valleys of the Ebro, Douro, and Tagus rivers. Every civilization in Iberia had to conquer this town for strategic purposes.
- 1:36:20 -> We have arrived in Aragón (Zaragoza province).
- 1:53:15 -> This is the first time we cross the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed rail, part of Spain's network—the second largest in the world after China. Most of the line operates at a commercial speed of 300 km/h, reducing travel time between Madrid and Barcelona to 2 hours and 30 minutes. We will see the line again later in the video at several points in 2:37:17 , 2:39:07 , 3:25:51 , 4:31:05 , 5:11:21 and 5:24:41 .
- 1:58:40 -> Calatayud (20K). This historical town, which cannot be seen due to the mist, boasts a rich heritage and is famous for its Mudéjar style. Mudéjar art originated in Spain and cannot be found outside Iberia. It is a rare architectural style because it was used in the northern Christian kingdoms of Iberia during the Arab occupation, incorporating influences from Islamic architecture.
- 2:10:27 -> Tunnel and mountain pass of Morata (680 m). From here, we begin descending into the Ebro Valley, which explains the mist on the other side of the tunnel. Traffic will become heavier from this point onward as we approach the Zaragoza metropolitan area (800K).
- 2:19:45 -> The landscape is now very different. We are in the Ebro River valley, where intensive agricultural operations are mixed with industrial uses. The valley is significantly more densely populated and has held historical importance since ancient times. Zaragoza has been a strategic city due to its location in the middle of the valley. It was founded by the Romans as Caesar Augusta in honor of Emperor Augustus in 14 BC, possibly over an Iberian settlement.
- 2:37:47 -> The yellow roof on the right is the Zaragoza Fair. On the left is PLAZA, the largest logistics facility on the European continent (13 million km²). Next to PLAZA are both Zaragoza Airport and the Zaragoza Air Base, which was used by the USAF during the Cold War.
- 2:39:05 -> Entering the Z-40, Zaragoza's outer ring road (31.5 km).
- 2:43:12 -> Crossing the Ebro River for the first time! It ranks second in Iberian Peninsula in length after the Tagus, and second in discharge volume and drainage basin size, after the Douro. The Ebro is the second longest river flowing into the Mediterranean Sea, only after the Nile!
- 2:48:33 -> The Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar (construction began in 1681). Some of the frescoes in the temple were painted by Francisco Goya, who was from Zaragoza himself. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.