Madrid! Part 2 of Vacation

On to Part 2 of vacation!

If you need to read different posts:

Click here to read about Paris (Part 1 of our vacation)

Click here to read about Barcelona (Part 3 of our vacation)

December 20
Our first day in Madrid!

We left the terrible overnight train and made our way through the metro system to our hotel. Carly and I decided to buy a 10 trip metro pass to make our travels a little easier. We were impressed with our own cleverness.

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Once again, we got lost walking to our hostel but only for about 20 minutes.  Since we arrived before check in, we went to Dunkin Donuts to pass the time.

AKA Dunkin Coffee AKA Heaven

I got a hot chocolate and completely forgot that Spanish hot chocolate is WAY different from regular hot chocolate.  Its more like bitter, melted chocolate.  Delicious, but different.
And of course the Dunkin Donuts version was about one degree away from solid chocolate in a cup. I couldn't even drink it. It was too thick and nasty and it kept skinning over the top. We did eventually have better hot chocolate which I'll get to later.

After check-in, we had a busy day ahead of us.  We needed to accomplish 2 things:

1. Buy train tickets for a day trip to Toledo on the 22nd

We figured this would be easy enough.  The trains between Madrid and Toledo are similar to Amtrak trains so it was just a matter of getting the tickets from the Atocha Station.

2. Figure out how to get from Madrid to Barcelona on the 24th

I understand if some of you are confused. You may be thinking "Didn't they figure this out before they left?" Well the answer is no. Since Madrid and Barcelona are so close and in the same country, we assumed it would be pretty easy to get train tickets between these cities.

Wrong. So wrong.

Carly and I went to the Atocha Renfe train station and looked up Madrid-Barcelona tickets. It was €116 ($151) per person for a one way ticket.  This was a RIDICULOUS price so we decided that after we would check flights instead to see if we could get better prices.

In the mean time, we bought the Toledo tickets and spoke in Spanish the whole time! I was very proud of myself. Turns out the chapter on train travel from Spanish class finally came in handy.  We ended up getting 2 plane tickets to Barcelona because it was a little bit cheaper and a quarter of the travel time.

By the time we left Atocha, it was dinner time so we got a quick bite to eat and toured the Christmas lights around the city

Hanging in the Plaza Mayor 

In the center of Plaza del Sol, there was a huge electric Christmas tree that you could go inside

The view from inside

December 21
It's free tour day! After going on the Sandeman New Europe Free Tour in Edinburgh, we knew we wanted to see the tours in Paris and Madrid too (We missed the Paris one so this was our last chance this trip haha)!
Our tour guide's name was O.D. and he was born in Israel but lives in Spain now.  He was a great tour guide and we took a bunch of pictures

 

 Plaza Mayor

I forget who this guy is but he's in the Plaza Mayor. Some king I think. 

 The Spanish Robin Hood used to use this restaurant to steal from the rich and give to the...whores. You thought I was going to say poor didn't you? Lol. Candelas supported Spanish prostitutes until he was captured.

Botín. The oldest restaurant in the world! Open since 1725.

 Old border between Madrid and the outer city.

 Monument dedicated to King Alfonso XIII the Unlucky.  An anarchist tried to assassinate him with a bomb on his wedding day on that very spot but ended up killing 25 bystanders instead.  The guy is our tour guide O.D.

 La Almudena Cathedral

 An interpretation of the 'grateful' natives thanking Columbus and the Spaniards for liberating them from their heathen culture and bestowing upon them the joys of Christianity...and death and smallpox. But no worries, the New World natives gave the Spaniards, and thus Europe, syphilis so I guess everyone's even.

 Patched up bullet holes from the time of the Spanish Civil War

 Spain has a changing of the guard? It serves no military purpose but it's pretty cool to watch.

 Churros con chocolate! During our break we visited San Gines, the most famous, and 24-hour chocolateria in Madrid! This hot chocolate was worlds better than the one at DD.

 The symbol of Madrid: El Oso y El Madroño (The Bear and the Strawberry Tree) in the Plaza del Sol

The 0 kilometer point of Spain right in the Plaza del Sol

 Where Miguel Cervantes lived and died in Madrid

Spanish Congress

After the tour we went back to the hostel to nap.  We tried to go to the Prado museum for 6:30 pm so we could get in for free, but it was closed by the time we arrived so we walked back to Plaza Mayor and people watched.  Then, we remembered the oldest restaurant in the world, Botín, was still open! We had to go and become a part of history!

 Plaque on the floor signifying that Botin has been open for at least 100 years.  This plaque can be found near other businesses in Madrid that have been open for a century.

Guinness World Record official certificate declaring Botín the oldest restaurant in the world and also stating that the original 18th century oven is still in use today. Impressive craftsmanship.

So we walked quickly around the corner and were seated in no time.  They gave us English menus even though we didn't ask for them.  I didn't want to spend too much money since we had already eaten dinner so I ordered what I thought was a €6 bowl of chicken soup called 'chicken consommé'. Carly ordered an asparagus egg omelette. We also got a 1/2 pitcher of sangria to share.  When the food arrived, Carly's omelette looked amazing (and tasted amazing since she gave me a bit of it!).  My chicken soup was actually just chicken broth. Yellowy, clear chicken broth.  I decided to eat all the bread we had on our table with the broth to make it at least seem like a meal.  It was damn good broth though.  Damn good.

And the sangria...oh the sangria! A delightful mixture of just the right amount of wine, fruit juices and fruit; not too fruity and not too winey. Just perfect. And no strong wine aftertaste either.  I've never had better sangria in my life and I probably never will again.  Good thing we got the half pitcher because it averaged out to 2.5 glasses between us and since we haven't been drinking much and our diet has changed significantly, we were both feeling it as we left Botín and headed back to our hostel for the night.

Yes, I did take my camera out in the restaurant but I made sure the flash was off so no one knew I was taking a picture lol!

December 22

Toldeo Day Trip!

We arrived in Toledo at around 11 and headed for the cathedral.  I remembered how amazing this cathedral was last time I was in Spain and I was really excited to see it again!

 Beautiful Toledo train station

 One of the entrances to the cathedral.  

Cloisters

Baptismal font. 

 A cardinal's galero (the fancy name for his red hat) hanging from the ceiling. Why?

Because he's buried right beneath, so watch out!

 Crazy altar. Made of gilded wood.

 Amazingly beautiful skylight called El Transparente.  I couldn't get a good picture because flash wasnt allowed :(

 Famous painting by El Greco.  The position of the fingers of Christ in this painting (middle and ring fingers touching) was copied by many artists. 

 Stained glass windows' lights on the cathedral

The organ

After the cathedral, we wove our way through the winding medieval-designed streets until we found the Mario Zamorano sword shop! I had no money so I couldn't buy a sword but Carly got 2 daggers which is awesome.  They're super cool looking too but I didn't get a picture.

Our day in Toledo came to a close and we had to take a cab (our first cab ride thus far!) back to the train station to make it on time. Thankfully, we did and were back in Madrid for some more touring.  We had 2 hours before we were going to try to get into the Prado for free again so we decided to go into Retiro Park. There was a huge lake-type-thing in the middle where people could go paddle boating. I suggested we try and Carly shot it down. Then, I was taking pictures of the ducks in the lake and Carly made fun of me.  We had a fun time in the park.

 Duck pic

 Another duck

 A black swan

 Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace) with some dumb modern art installation inside it.

 Much better!

Monumento del Ángel Caído (Monument to the Fallen Angel aka Devil) 

 Details of the monument.

Details of the monument.

At 6:30 we FINALLY got into the Prado and we saw some awesome paintings by Velasquez, Goya and other prominent artists.  We couldn't take pictures inside the Prado unfortunately.

December 23

We slept in a bit today since we had to wake up early for our Toledo trip. I was feeling GREAT today. NOTHING could tear me down as we ate breakfast and got ready to see the inside of Royal Palace and La Almudena Cathedral.

Being ever cautious, I wanted to check to make sure I had enough money to pay for the next hostel.  I put the money with my passport and began searching for the pink case in which I keep my passport. So I searched.

And searched.

And searched.

10 minutes later I asked Carly if she had seen my passport. We searched together.

And searched.

And searched.

Only to come to the conclusion that I had lost my passport. 

I reacted like this:

(Unrelated: This is my favorite episode of Boy Meets World)

and Carly reacted like this:

And off we went to the US Embassy in Madrid!

I was definitely having a mild anxiety attack but I knew I could get another passport at the embassy so I felt better knowing this problem could be solved quickly.  I was pleasantly surprised that everyone at the embassy was incredibly helpful and genuinely nice.  Honestly.  I've never encountered so many government workers who actually take time to care about the people they're helping.  La Salle needs to get these people to work in the Bursar's office. Just saying.  And the only poster of a US sports team in the entire embassy waiting area was of Howard, Utley and Rollins from the Phillies  so that was a wonderful coincidence!

Getting my new passport was relatively easy (WAY easier than getting a license or state ID I can tell you that!) and we were off to the Royal Palace in less than 3 hours. 

Needless to say, I spent the whole day feeling like the world's biggest tool for losing my passport.

The Royal Palace is one of my favorite places in Madrid

Panoramic skills.

Most of Spain's wealth came from stolen Indian gold. To honor the source of their stolen wealth, the palace includes statues of the Incan and Mayan kings whose civilizations were destroyed by the Spanish.

 Incan King

Mayan King

For some silly reason, photography is not allowed in the Palace anymore, so that's really lame.  We toured the interior for about an hour and then we tried to go into La Almudena Cathedral but it closed early that day and we couldn't. 

Continuing up the street from the Royal Palace, we saw the monument to Miguel Cervantes

 His famous characters, Don Quixote (left) and Sancho Panza

 Opposite side of the monument.

After the Cervantes monument, we saw on the map something called "Templo de Debod." Having no idea what it was, we decided to check it out.

An Egyptian freaking temple. In Madrid. Donated by Egypt. Who knew haha!

After another exhausting day (physically and emotionally) we went back to the hostel and fell asleep by 10:30.

December 24

Having toured the hell out of Madrid, we didn't have anything else to do on Christmas Eve Day so we checked out of the hostel and got to the airport about 3 hours early for our 1 hour flight.

As soon as our plane reached cruising altitude, we were preparing for landing and arrived in Barcelona effortlessly!

To continue reading:

Click here to read about Paris (Part 1 of our vacation)

Click here to read about Barcelona (Part 3 of our vacation)