Time really does fly! It seems like just a
few weeks ago, we found out we would be coming to Spain...now we're
here! We left BWI for ATL Tuesday at 2:00pm. We had a 2 hour layover in
Atlanta, so we grabbed a bite to eat while we left. We ate at Grind
House, which has some great burgers! The service was also really good.
We got the Dixie Burger which had pimento cheese and fried green
tomatoes on it. YUM! We landed in Madrid Wednesday morning at 8:00
(local time, so the flight wasn't as long as it sounds). It was quite a
long flight though, and it was overnight. I was exhausted since we had
been awake since before 3:00am, so I didn't think sleep would be a
problem. I thought I would watch a movie and have dinner, then sleep for
the rest of the flight. Dinner wasn't bad. Since it was an
international flight, Delta serves alcohol for free. I had 2 glasses of
red wine while I watched The Other Woman...hilarious! When the movie
went off, I settled down to go to sleep (Josh was already asleep by this
time). I tossed and turned for the remainder of the flight. Needless to
say, I was exhausted by the time we landed in Madrid. The best sleep I
got on Tuesday was a 20 minute nap from BWI to ATL. Sleep deprived was
NOT the way I was planning on starting the trip.
When
we landed, we basically just walked off the plane, got our luggage, got
our passports stamped and went to the Metro. No customs forms, no bag
searches...nothing. We had some difficulty purchasing tickets for the
metro since we slacked and didn't get Euros before we left the US and
the automated machine only takes Mastercard. We had US $, Visa & an
Amex. Currency exchange was about a 20 minute walk through the airport -
I was tired and hungry by this point, so that wasn't happening. We
found an office where we could buy a day pass with our Visa, so that's
what we did! I think it was about 8 Euros each, vs 2 Euros each for a
one way ticket. We knew we would be using it a couple more times that
day, so it worked out well. We could have gotten it quite a bit cheaper
if we'd had Euros or a Mastercard. We had to transfer twice then walk a
few blocks to get to our hotel. We got to our hotel around 10:00am, not
expecting to be able to check in, but we wanted to drop our bags off
before we went out for food. We were pleasantly surprised that they let
us check in so early! SO thankful because we definitely needed to
freshen up!
Our room is really nice! We're staying at the
Hotel Atocha,
which is where Josh's conference is held, so it's very convenient for
us. It's not in the city center, but the metro is only a 2 block walk,
so it's not bad at all. Here are a few pictures:
The
bathroom is very open. The toilet is in a separate tinted glass closet
(you can't see in or out of it), the shower is all glass and the sink is
between the shower and toilet. This is looking from the sink, through
the shower, to the bed.
This
is looking from the sitting area, through the shower, to the sink area,
where you can see me. Obviously, there's very little privacy. It's a
good thing I'm sharing the room with my husband! The shower is awesome
though! It has a rain shower, which I now really want in our next
house!
This
is the sink, with the water closet on the left. It's black glass, so at
least you can't see through that part! Overall, the hotel has a very
modern feel. Breakfast is included, so that's a nice plus.
After
we got settled into our room, we went to grab some food since we were
both starving! We ended up going to a tapas place that serves bocadillos
(sandwiches). We got 6 mini sandwiches and fries with cheese and
"bacon", which was actually ham. It was all pretty good.
We
walked around a little and got some cash. We were both pretty tired, so
we went back to our hotel room for a siesta. After a little nap, we
were feeling MUCH better, so we went back into the city. Josh has been
reading Rick Steves' guide for a few months, so he had several places in
mind that he wanted to see. We were a little hungry, so we stopped for
tapas and vino. Lots of tapas restaurants will give you a small tapa if
you just order drinks. Our first stop gave us one that was really good!
We didn't get a picture of it, but it was a little skewer of an olive, a
pepper and some sort of salty fish...come to find out, the salty fish
was an anchovy and they're actually quite delicious!
Our tapas. We got a bocadillo with ham, a bocadillo with mussels and a salmon and queso crostini. It was all pretty tasty.
We
did a little more walking and went to the
Prado. Neither of us are
really huge into art, but it was still amazing to see things SO old.
There were tons of paintings and sculptures from the 1500s and even
older. If you ever find yourself in Madrid, I definitely recommend going, especially since it is free from 6:00-8:00pm.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but this is one of Josh outside.
I had read about
Retiro Park, so we made our way there just after leaving the Prado.
A very pretty cathedral we saw along the way.
Inside Retiro park.
You
could rent boats in this little lake. I thought it would be fun. I told
Josh we could be like Ariel and Eric, except we would be surrounded by a
lot of people and I wouldn't sing. He wasn't up for it. Haha.
Crystal palace!
Inside Crystal Palace.
There's a little lake in front of Crystal Palace with ducks and turtles. I thought this duck looked really cool!
The hubs and I in front of my palace. ;-)
Leaving Retiro Park
I
really liked Retiro Park. It used to belong to the royal family, but it
was opened to the public by Charles III. It's beautiful and HUGE and we
probably only saw half of it. I hope we get to go back before leaving
Madrid!
The Palace Hotel - it's across from Retiro Park. Very pretty and very pricey!
After
leaving Retiro Park, we went to
Plaza Mayor. SO much history here!
Public executions and bullfights used to take place here. It's hard to
believe that when you walk through it today. It's very lively with lots
of tourists and locals, street performers, etc. The first story is full
of restaurants and shops. The upper floors are private apartments. A few
of them were available for rent. They are EXPENSIVE! To buy one, the
price ranges from€400,000 for a small studio to about €2 million for a larger apartment. CRAZY!
For
dinner, we ate at a restaurant just outside Plaza Mayor. The prices
were much better and there's still plenty of people watching. The menu
of the day was €10,75, but we opted to pay extra to sit outside (it's
not uncommon for restaurants to charge a little extra for outdoor
seating, but there are plenty that do not), so we paid €12 each. For
that price, we got a drink (I chose sangria and Josh got a beer...so
far, this has been my favorite sangria so far), a soup or salad (Josh
got a salad with fresh tuna and I got a pumpkin and ham soup...sounds
odd, but it was SO good), an entree (Josh got chicken with patatas -
fries - and I got grilled salmon with a side salad) AND dessert or
coffee (Josh got coffee and I got some really good chocolate ice cream).
We were very happy with the food and the price, especially in such a
touristy area!
Menu
of the day is pretty common here. It typically includes a drink and 3
courses for pretty cheap. Most places I've seen have 3-4 options per
course.
Mercado
de San Miguel - this market has lots of vendors serving wine, sangria,
tapas, pastries, meats, produce...lots of stuff! I think it's really
pretty! We just walked through really quickly. I hope we get a chance to
go back before we leave.
