Madrid: Exploring the Capital of Spain

Brian and I ventured back to Spain this past weekend to see the capital city of Madrid. Once again we had an amazing time in the land of tapas and sangria! More than anything, we enjoyed just walking around the city (and feeling the sunshine on us for the first time in a while!).

After arriving in Madrid on Friday afternoon, we went to a neighborhood tapas bar when we tried our Spanish and ordered an afternoon snack. We honestly weren’t sure what we were going to get and we ended up with an extra dish we didn’t remember ordering, but we had a great time and enjoyed our tapas! Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to take the traditional Spanish siesta. That evening we explored the city more and ended up in a food market hotspot where the locals were to enjoy dinner and drinks. Near the fresh fish stands, we found something we don’t have in Bury St. Edmunds: SUSHI!!! And what was even more fun was that you ordered it tapas-style and could get a piece of sushi from multiple rolls to make your own special selection. After our amazing dinner, we found some sangria to finish off the evening.

On Saturday, we did a bus tour of the historic part of Madrid and continued exploring on our own around the city. We visited the Royal Palace and the National Cathedral – the Cathedral was especially interesting because we are used to seeing very old cathedrals now when we travel but this one was finished in the 1990s, and you could tell that it was “new.” It was very beautiful though. Saturday night, we ate a traditional Spanish tapas dinner – we ended up ordering way too much food, but it was fun to sample a bunch of different dishes! We also enjoyed a pitcher of red sangria, a favorite part of coming to Spain!

On Sunday, we did the bus tour of the modern part of Madrid and then walked around the city some more to take in more of the culture, architecture, and of course the sunshine! Spain has definitely turned out to be one of our favorite destinations – the people are nice, the food and sangria are wonderful, and the cities we have visited have been beautiful and vibrant. See our pictures to see what we mean. Adios for now!