Spain was wonderful. I did not love it as much as I loved Greece or Ireland in 2008, but it was still a fantastic trip and vacation. Michelle and I were there for 16 days and went to 5 cities. We saw, did, and ate a lot! I love doing the researching and trip planning. I get too excited about a trip to not start reading about it months ahead of time and I also like to read about everything ahead of time so that I know and am familiar with the things I am seeing once I'm there. I also have a huge fear of missing something I should have seen, so this helps me try to "control" that - ha! We didn't have daily itineraries, but I knew what we needed to see in each city and I made all the reservations/bought any tickets we needed to secure ahead of time.
Even though we were very much on the go the entire time, I still came back feeling so refreshed and relaxed. I really think that was the life I was meant to live :) Since we did SO much, I'm going to have to split this trip into many posts....bear with me!
We started in Madrid. It was probably my very favorite spot we went to in Spain. I think of it as quiet and quaint and to me it has more of a European feel than, say, Barcelona. Madrid is very clean and extremely easy to get around. We never once had to wait for a train! I don't know if it was luck, but every time we got to a train platform, our train would be pulling up. The city is filled with narrow, winding pedestrian only streets that are lined with beautiful buildings that have gorgeous flower-filled window boxes. These little narrow lanes lead to many different plazas/squares that are surrounded by restaurants and filled with people eating at tables outside. I loved it!
We got to Madrid mid-morning on a Sunday...our flight over was delayed so we arrived later than planned and this put a bit of a kink in my day. Our first stop was to be the Rastro Flea market which occurs every Sunday. By the time we dropped our things at the hotel and made our way there, they were closing up. We missed it. I was disappointed because I was expecting to see some very cool things at this European market!! Maybe it's best I didn't go and end up with a bunch of souvenirs on day 1 of the trip to have to lug all over Spain with me. I hate when my plans don't work out, but we kept trucking and filled the day with many other fun things!
We wandered to the Plaza Mayor which is one of the most popular squares in Madrid.
We were there during the San Isidro festival - their biggest one, so it was pretty crazy and crowded with people. We saw a lot of children and even some adults dressed in traditional costume.
We went to the Mercado de San Miguel. I read a lot about this market and their tapas and was excited to see it! It is a gorgeous space with lots of windows.
There were many different vendors, mostly selling tapas but also some beautiful fruit & vegetable stands.
The market was packed with people which made it quite hard to get around and to get to the counters to order tapas. It was very crazy and chaotic!!
We did force our way up to one of the counters and had a bit of trouble ordering, but ended up with some cheese croquettes and fish croquettes. We liked the cheese ones a lot...the fish, not so much.
From the market, we did some more walking and ended up at the Plaza near the Opera Metro station. it is surrounded by pretty buildings and tons of hot pink flowers! Jet lag was starting to hit both of us, so we took some time to lay in the sun.
Our day 1 adventure led us next to the Chueca neighborhood. I read beforehand that the Sunday afternoon tradition in Madrid is to sit in the plazas drinking Vermouth. I wanted to take part! We went to a place called Antigua Casa Angel Siera, which is one of the oldest, most traditional bars in Spain. They also have handmade Vermouth on tap. It is very tiny, but beautiful!!
We took our Vermouth to the tables outside with everyone else. Vermouth is like a spiced wined. It is VERY strong. I liked it okay, but Michelle didn't like it at all. It was very thick and almost syrup like. They served us pickled onions, garlic, olives and other goods to nibble on while we drank.
While we sat at our table outside, a whole slew of ladies dressed in 1980's fashions walked by us. They seemed to be taping some sort of dance video up the street. It was very entertaining to watch them!
After finishing our Vermouth experience, we walked down Calle de Fuencarral which is the main shopping drag in Chueca. It was a pretty pedestrian-only street with great shops...but most were closed at this time.
Next, we stopped by the Prado Museum. It is free on Sundays, so we decided we should take advantage of that. It was very crowded though!! Really, too crowded. We did make our way through one of the main areas of paintings and saw some Velasquez and Goya pieces. The part we were in was mainly full of portraits, which was kind of dull.
At this point, we were starting to get very tired, but also needed food. We walked towards Plaza Santa Ana, which is filled with outdoor cafes that are wonderful for a tapas dinner. We walked around the square looking at menus and selected a restaurant. We were not disappointed. I'm thinking this was my favorite meal in Spain, but since we're only on Day 1, I have a feeling I will say that about 10 more times as I go through and remember everywhere we ate! We definitely ate well on this trip! (But thankfully, we walked more that we ate..I actually lost quite a bit of weight on this trip)!
For our first real meal in Spain, we split garlic potatoes that were amazing!! And we also ordered a platter of Iberian ham & Manchego cheese that was served with bread. It was so, so good!! I became and Iberian ham addict while in Spain (and had plenty of Manchego cheese as well). They serve ham at all 3 meals of the day and there were many days where I had it for 2 meals! Delish!
Day 1 ended up somewhat early for a good night's rest before venturing out on Day 2! To be continued....
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