Madrid

Madrid  

Madrid Day 1: Acclimation and Rain

  

We made it! Our train from Malaga to Madrid was a breeze. The AVE is a high speed train with comfy seats and meals far superior to airplane food. Yeah yeah that may not say much to some of you but hey for us it was a delicious, already paid for, meal. 

Arriving in Madrid you could feel the humidity of entering a city. We had been so luck in Malaga to be able to escape the heat in the Rataezyk abode. Stepping out of the train station onto the streets of Madrid was a city shock! I have never been a city kid but my time abroad has shown me some real dense, muggy, foreign city life. Before taking on Madrid, and finding our way to the hostel, let’s start with finding the bathroom. Yeah you had to pay..that’s right you had to pay a few euros just to enter the bathroom in the train station….I could hold it.

And we are off! With Brandt as our lead trusty navigator, we traipsed through the city winding our way to find the apartment airBandB. After some intense heat and a bird dropping on my head…yup you heard me right, we made our final ascent up the stairs to 4^th floor apartment of our host Chio. She and her daughter live in a high rise over the city. It was a tight place but we felt very welcomed.

Painted tile markings for every street in Madrid

The first day we spent finding our way around the city. You can feel the history among these streets. Every street is marked with its traditional painted tile marker, and every few corners stands a sculpture of a significant historic figure. While ooing and awing over the battered stone buildings, and cathedral esque architecture a modern familiarity caught our eye. On the corner stood a succulent decorated countertop, adorned with the swankiest espresso machine. It was a touch of chic, West Elm, simplistic modern style among the antique of this city: Luso Coffee Roaster! A Portuguese coffee roaster had just opened his first coffee shop in outside of Portugal. It was his second day of business. While the adorable tasos of café con leche are part of the experience ahhh did a nice ice cold latte taste familiarly refreshing! We learned of his business’ history and his experience with roasting. He even had a Guatemalan blend! We’d love to have said we’d come back every day but honestly we’d aimlessly wandered and stumbled upon it and the likelihood of finding this corner again was slim, so we enjoyed our coffee, said our farewells and kept walking. 

Luso's hip Coffee shop!

That evening was a blur. It began pouring down rain as we were still making our way and the schlep home was a wet one with much map navigating and quick sprinting. We slept well and were ready for day 2 of Madrid exploration.

Madrid: Day 2: Plazas and Shopping

 We were tourists in action today. After unsuccessfully finding Luso’ coffee, we settled on Starbucks where Brandt mastered the Spanish coffee sipping style (a long drag of coffee alternating with one on the cigarette.) With Brandt’s navigational skills we found our way to the main plaza. We stood at Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun) which is kilometer zero in Spain, the center, from which all roads to and from. The gate was facing the east, towards the rising sun, which is where the name came from. 

It was one of  the gates surrounding the city in the 15^th century. This plaza is a tourist hub. We took our touristy photo, bought fruit and salad at the supermarket and enjoyed our lunch by the fountain. Lots of city wandering, shopping and navigating but our day ended with a hip hop crew performance. Three guys outside of the Nike shops put on a 10 minute choreographed Michael Jackson rendition routine. It was a hoot. They were amazing performers and very entertaining. 

Puerta del Sol (km 0 in Spain) 

Day 3: Our day of Palaces and Parks 

Breakfast on this day was my favorite. We perched up at a breakfast spot at a table out in the plaza Mayor. This is a main plaza in the city and a prime spot for people watching. Brandt and I sat for almost 2 hours, sipping on coffee, eating croissants and jam, and just gossiping about those passing by. Yeah yeah, not bad gossiping but people from all over the world flock to this plaza and we had the best time watching the hilarious kids sprint away from their parents and the teenage love affairs in full swing. We felt like an elderly couple, the gossips of the town, just sipping on our coffee and eating our croissants! It was a breakfast I will never forget.

Plaza Mayor 

Our Gossip Spot 

Plaza Mayor

We first walked our way to the Royal Palace of Madrid. While the royal family of Madrid do not actually live there, it is used for state ceremonies and of course tourist events. The structure was incredible, but my highlight was wandering the royal palace garden across the street complete with the filming of a young up and coming Spanish singer’s music video being filmed. Quite entertaining.

The Royal Palace

Jardin outside of the Royal Palace

Next, we made our way to Retiro park. After feeling landlocked in a city for so many days, seeing a bit of water (even though it is a murky looking pond) was refreshing. We wound our way through the trails and decided on renting bikes for an hour to get more out of our time. It was HOT but a great spot to spend the afternoon.

Biking around Retiro Park 

We enjoyed our time in Madrid but I have to say...we were grateful to leave city life and make our way to the calmer, slower pace of life in Valencia (up next.)

More Pictures from our time in Madrid:

Official Real Madrid Shop