Days 1 & 2: MADRID

Let the vacation posts begin!  Despite only sleeping for about 4 hours, our flight over to Madrid wasn't all that bad.  We flew overnight Sunday night (technically Day 1/Sunday consisted of a whole lot of traveling between 4 different airports but we'll skip that day's details and just call Monday day 1) and arrived at 9:35 am Monday morning, ready to explore the city!

DAY 1

We immediately checked into our hotel, the Ritz Madrid, and had this outside our balcony:

The Monumento del Dos de Mayo (commemorates the War of Independence against the French)

Then headed out for some shopping

and SANGRIA

after lunch we tried to visit all the monuments/fountains & notable locations in the area:

Plaza de Cibeles (fountain with a statue of Roman goddess Cybele)

Plaza de Colon's Statue of Columbus (dedicated to the discoverer of the Americas)

Puerta de Alcala (the former gateway into the city)... The EMA's (European Music Awards) took place the night before we arrived & there were tents set up all over town from the festivities and live concerts, including below this arch, and celebrities still in town when we arrived.

and Madrid's version of Central Park, the Parque del Retiro

I really don't understand why there were ant sculptures everywhere...

beautiful monument of Alfonso XII at the boating lake in the park

That night we had dinner at a place called Zalacain.  I can't claim that all the food in Spain was really delicious (no, they don't have Mexican food in Spain... well, you may be able to find some somewhere, but that's not the "type" of food the Spanish eat).  It was extremely difficult to sort through the menu and find something that actually sounded like it would be decent to eat.  You either had no idea what the item was or everything included livers or kidneys or some other weird animal part on your dish to go and ruin it.  I am not a picky eater AT ALL, though, so I ended up okay at the end of the day, while others in our group ate a whole lot of bread (and oh my goodness they have the best olive oil in Spain to go with your bread... that no carb diet I was on ended as soon as my vacation started!).

DAY 2

We had a tour guide for the day (named Pilar) & started out walking from our hotel, across the street to:

the Museo del Prado

She took us around to select paintings or sculptures, telling us interesting stories and tidbits that we otherwise wouldn't have known... this way no one lost interest (you couldn't take pictures inside)!

This beautiful church was next door

Next we went to what is considered "Old Madrid"

Plaza Mayor (17th century square that used to hold bullfights or executions) this day happened to be a city holiday, so a big celebration and mass was taking place in the square as we walked through it

the circles strung overhead were Christmas decorations/lights that had just been put up the weekend before we got there.  Lights like this were all over the city in preparation for Christmas! 

we saw some funny street performers

and stopped by a local market, Mercado de San Miguel, to learn a little about their cuisine

we ate this ham so many times during our trip & it was delicious (once cut from the leg of course)

Plaza de la Villa (a 15th century historic building was in this square along with the Town Hall)

the Palacio Royal (Royal Palace) was closed to visitors due to the city holiday but it was still gorgeous from the outside

and directly across from it was a Cathedral (Catedral de la Almudena) where all the locals were going to celebrate the holiday (i really wish I remembered what holiday it actually was they were celebrating) & pay their respects

our tour guide took us to one of her favorite local tapas & wine bars for lunch, Entrevinos, & we all agreed at the end of the trip that it was our absolute favorite meal. The entire menu was in Spanish, so we had to trust our new friend Pilar to do all the ordering for us... and she did NOT disappoint!

about 7 bottles of wine and champagne... and almost 3 hours later.... we headed to see Madrid's Bullfighting ring:

Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas

we didn't actually go inside, but stood outside its massiveness and learned all about Spain's famous "sport"

That night we went to a restaurant called Viridiana for dinner and got some sleep to be ready for our next day's adventures.....

STAY TUNED!