Day 20, 21, & 22 - Madrid

It's hard to believe this is my last night of this trip. My flight tomorrow is in the evening so I will have the opportunity to do a bit more exploring before having to head to the airport. It's been really nice being with my Dad and Linda. While it's great to have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever, making all the decisions all of the time does get a bit taxing. I've enjoyed going with the flow of their suggestions for sure. However my favorite part so far about having travel companions is the extra food I get to try 😍.

So yesterday after I got in and checked in, we went out for food and a little bit of walking.

Dad hooked me up with a nice room, had initially booked a room in a hostel.

This place for dinner was SMALL and the height of the tables wasn't particularly suited for tall people...

Had to try the local cider, it was very good.

The food here was great. Tuna on peppers.

Ham croquettes, these were basically creamy mashed potatoes. So delicious.

Salted peppers.

Just cheese on bread, cuz why not.

Mushroom with a bit of ham in the middle.

After dinner we did some walking and stopped in this Market that we decided would be good for lunch the next day. Can you imagine how big the whole fish was???!

Old school mail slots. Not a great picture of their size, but these were pretty big.

They had this massive book fair going on in the park, it went on for miles.

The room came with a robe and had a tub! I really need to make sure when I'm ready to move on from my little studio my next place has a tub, baths are fantastic.

So today we did a free walking tour of some of the older parts of Madrid and our tour guide Angel was great. He has a bachelor's in history that he obtained in Scotland, so his English, has a Scottish accent mixed with a Spanish one when it came to the R's, it was actually rather enjoyable to listen to. He's currently in the early phases of becoming a police officer. He has three years of studying and physical tests he has to pass before being admitted to the academy. Then he'll have 9 months of formal training, then a probationary period for a year, then in it for life if he so chooses. What a stark difference...the tour was super informative and I definitely learned a lot, but was so engrossed I didn't really take too many photos.

Quick and delicious breakfast before we headed to the meet up point for the tour.

I loved the story behind this statue, it was for the king of Spain that referred to himself as the king of the planet because at the time, Spain's empire was expansive and between inheritances and territories they really did control something on all the continents. So this guy wanted to have a statue that had never existed before. A statue in "motion" like this, didn't exist prior, and the sculpture failed many times with it eventually buckling and breaking. So he sought the help of Galileo, and together they designed it for all the weight to be in the tail to work as an anchor and counter balance and made the rest of it hollow. Eventually sculptors would use rebar to reinforce elements like this. Additionally, since this was to be a public statue, the King had the artist redo his face at least 5 times before he was satisfied. The sculptor had to keep cutting off the head and redoing it and coming back lol.

Unfortunately this market ended up being over priced and the food wasn't anything impressive, but it was cool to walk around.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a siesta and then to the Prado which is free from 6-8 in the summer. This was very much worth waiting in the long line to get in. Really enjoyed the pieces we saw here and highly recommend a visit. After a long day of walking we were all very ready for dinner, and found this gem of a place with delicious Sangria and every plate of food we ordered was top notch.

They had legs of meat like this ALL over Madrid.

Burrata, sun dried tomatoes, olives, spinach and honey. I will 100% attempt to make this at home.

Fried eggplant and an Alfredo like cheese dip.

SHRIMP!

Flan, it was really good.

I was definitely pooped by the end of this day. I really should have packed buuuut left it for this morning.

So for my last day of exploring we checked out the Cathedral and the crypt. The view of the palace from the cathedral was worth the 6€ honestly, and the crypt was free and absolutely gorgeous.

When we got to the top of the dome, we had a little snack of these cream filled pastries that were so delicious.

I didn't end up taking any photos in the crypt but there was some seriously impressive tile work down there. We also noticed very recent graves and wondered just how expensive it was to be buried there. From here we headed to lunch and I got to have some Paella with seafood and we believe my main dish was swordfish. However Linda's meatballs were the best.

After being stuff from lunch we walked to the botanical gardens, which were also free and just enjoyed the shade. The sun in Madrid is FIERCE.

Welp I'm at the airport now waiting to board, hard to believe I'd ever feel this way, but I'm ready for vacation to be over, I'm ready to be home and get back to my life that while I always knew was a good one, I'm just a little bit more in love with it after this experience. The rest of this week will be hectic but I honestly wouldn't expect anything less from me. First day back at work tomorrow, a happy hour on Thursday for my best friend who is moving 😭, birthday dinner on Friday with grad school friends and a few other close friends followed with dancing, Saturday I'm seeing Dido (it's not often you realize you share an experience with an artist and their songs truly speak to you, but I truly feel this way with her) and I gotta figure out who's joining me, and then Sunday dinner with my folks. I'm glad I can sleep on flights, I'm going to need all the rest I can get.