steefandvication-blog

[steefandvication-blog]

Spain 2017: Madrid Day 2

We started our day off with some (amazing!) pastries from La Mallorquina, near Plaza Puerta Del Sol. There wasn’t enough room for us to stand at the bar, so we ate them by the fountain in the square.

We bought our tickets to the Museo del Prado online, so we were able to skip the line and go right in. It had such a large collection of Spanish art, but we really had to focus our visit on a couple of Spanish artists: Diego Velazquez and Francisco de Goya. It was pretty busy in there, particularly near the more well-known pieces, where hoards of guided tours huddled around and blocked our view :( But thus is museum life. We managed to take a quick picture of the main hallway before we were told that no photos were allowed ... oops...

The next stop was the Real Jardin Botanica. Of course, we didn’t really think this through. We were visiting a garden in the middle of winter. But we enjoyed the little gallery and greenhouse areas.

By this time, we had worked up an appetite with all that walking. We stopped by El Brillante for one of their calamari rolls.

I know it looks dry in this photo, but that calamari was the most tender fried calamari I’ve ever had. Just looking at this photo is making me salivate...

Anyways, then we made our way to the Caixa Forum, which had a couple of exhibits going on that we weren’t too interested in. So we made our way over the Palacio Real (the royal palace). We had originally wanted to book a tour of the palace, but it was closed for the week for some sort of special occasion :( But even the view from outside the fence was pretty spectacular. I can only imagine what it looks like on the inside!

We had our last dinner in Madrid at Mercado de San Miguel, which is a market filled with tapas stalls. This is the market of my dreams. I think we went around this place 2 or 3 times to make sure we got a bit of everything we wanted to try.

Croquetas.

Some sort of thing made from fish (??). It was interesting to try, but not sure how much of it I would be able to eat.

Seaweed and crab salad. Side note: the guy who served us said V has beautiful eyes. S was not a fan.

Fresh buffalo cheese with jamon.

Paella. (This one wasn’t as good as the previous night’s, though!)

Sangria :)

We also had a few other things that weren’t as photogenic: spanish potato omelette, olives, etc.

After all that eating, we capped off our night with ... churros con xocolat at Chocolateria San Gines. Best churros ever!!!

[steefandvication-blog]

Spain 2017: Madrid Day 1

For V’s reading week this year, we decided to actually take time off. And the best way to do that is to go on vacation! We picked Barcelona and Madrid for our trip this time around because: a) there was a good deal on flights ($700 round trip!), b) V had been to Barcelona on a family trip back in 2010 and always wanted to go back with S, and c) tapas, churros, and jamon (need we say more?).

So we (unsuccessfully) tried to learn a bit of Spanish, packed our bags, and headed off!

Just arrived in Barcelona, waiting to board the train to Madrid (excuse S’s sleepy eyes)! And of course, our first meal in Spain had to include jamon (cured ham).

After a speedy 2.5 hour train ride to Madrid (we slept the entire way), we finally made it to Madrid!

Our room at the Praktik Metropol was bright and airy, with these amazing windows (the stuff of bedroom dreams!!!). It was a great location too -- within walking distance to restaurants, shopping, and attractions. Plus, it was close to a metro stop, which was really convenient.

The view from the hotel rooftop terrace was pretty nice at sunset too :)

If only we were there when it was warm enough to lie on those loungers in the sunshine...

Instead, we were wearing coats and scarves all day and night. But we really shouldn’t complain; it was about 5-10 degrees in Madrid when we were there, which is pretty average for February, and warmer than it was in Toronto.

So then we started tapa bar hopping. Dinner is eaten pretty late in Spain, which took just about the entire trip to get used to. Restaurants don’t typically start filling up until about 9 pm...! And taking into account our jet lag? Game over. Anyways, we did the best we could. Most nights we ate at about 8:30 pm, which we figured was close enough to “local” dinner time.

First stop: patatas bravas at Bar Las Bravas (the bar that apparently invented the sauce for this famous dish).

Second stop: garlicky goodness -- gambas (shrimp) at La Casa Del Abuelo. The owner there is the happiest man, who basically orders for you, which we didn’t mind. Like many tapas bars, the idea is to stand at the bar and eat your food, so there were no seats at this place. 

Third stop: seafood paella at Taberna La Alhambra. Paella is a specialty in a different part of Spain, so this is probably not the “real deal” but it was pretty good regardless!

Did I mention we were jet lagged? We were really struggling at this point. So here is S, caffeinating at La Rollerie before we watched a flamenco show at Casa Patas. He ordered a “bombon,” which is an espresso with condensed milk. As S would say, it was “mad sweet.”

V on the other hand, mistakenly ordered steamed milk. Yes... just milk. So much for learning Spanish before going on this trip...

Anyways, we managed to stay awake for the flamenco show! It was a neat experience, although we really don’t know enough about this genre of music or dance to know if the performers we saw were any good. All V knows is that she wants to twirl her scarf around violently before putting it on now...