I often wonder how wonderful it would have been if there was a time machine and people could travel through time. I would definitely take a step back and go back in history and see how things were in old times. You may not have the chance to visit the past, but you can definitely see the wonders of the past in present time. All you need to do is take a tour of a land that is rich with history, a land that has preserved the old beauty until today. And if you are wondering where you can come across something so magnificent, then Madrid is the place to go. Let your first stop be the Cathedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena. The construction of the building started in the late 1800's and was finished in 1993. The building is a combination of both neoclassical and gothic design. The primary material of construction is granite as well as marble. One interesting feature of this church is that it is oriented north and south, not the usual orientation of a church that is east and west.

We're­ all familiar with maps. They're those pieces of pa­per we pull out of the glove compartment -- those crispy documents that unfold so large our view of the road i­s completely obstructed. They make us wish we had go-go-gadget arms that stretched to their widths and two sets of eyes -- one focused on the road and one on the plotted path. They make us wish the voice of that woman on the GPS system hadn't led us down a dead end street.

Different maps serve different purposes. If you're trying to drive from Point A to Point B, a regular road map is the way to go. But if you've strayed from the road, perhaps on a backpacking trek, you need to see the terrain and the contours of the land. And that means you need to be able to read a topographic map.