Hola - From Madrid!

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.