Before my blogging days on fullife, I had many, many adventures that will probably never see the notion of ink on paper (or digital text). One trip that I enjoyed, so much that I’m doing it again, was a weekend in Madrid!
Our first trip was a fly-in fly-out type scenario, we met a friend from Australia (Joe Logan) who is a Madrid maniac – he loves the place, which is where we stayed, at his joint. Fairly much in central Madrid, with most of the main attractions almost within walking distance. We did the obligatory city bus tour for a couple of hours (which is what we do at nearly every new city we visit now). This usually gives a clue to places that may interest us to re-visit, but I have to say, there wasn’t anything for me that stood out as a ‘memorable site’, – sorry Madrid, but rest assured, there is plenty of good times to be made. Below are a few photos of places we saw, which are tourist attractions to varying degrees, if you recognize any of them then feel free to let me know where I was in the below comments!
Madrid Sights – Joe gets his mug in a shot!
The one place that does stand in our memories thanks to Madrid Joe, is Restaurant Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. We arrived late on Saturday night but managed the 11 p.m. sitting. It was brilliant and stands out as a great memory. Candy went with the house specialty, the suckling pig, the dishes were fantastic and with a few wines, we really enjoyed ourselves, particularly when the standing Spanish musicians came through playing a few tunes. A great memory from our first Madrid visit.
Restaurant Botín
– The First Time
Madrid – a Second Visit
A little more ‘travel savvy’ for our second visit to Madrid, the motive is the same, this time we’re catching up with an old volleyball mate from Australia. We’ve pre-booked our Madrid activities with Viator before we leave this time around, a very good thing to do!
The activities booked, a Bike ride, then we’ll do a Cooking Tapas class, with a Flamenco experience to finish up, with a whole bunch of other stuff in between.
Traveling – Weekend in Madrid
Flying out of Stansted Airport we forgot that you only get one small bag for your fluids, this time all our baggage was going on board, it was a tight fit, but we managed to get everything on board. When flying out of Stansted pay for the security fast track if you have the funds, which reduces stress levels. The flight delay was painful but given the number of flights we’ve been taking recently, we shouldn’t complain too much, make sure you have a decent book with you for these times. I’ve been plowing through The Basic Writings of Nietzsche.
We booked an apartment (Lope de Vega 7, 1 dc, Centro, 28014 Madrid, Spain) through booking.com in a really good position in central Madrid, I’d highly recommend it, reasonably priced. The one drawback was a big hole where ne the bed level. Although protected by a foot of glass, I could see someone falling through if they were not careful. All in all, we’re ready to get something to eat, it’s around 11 pm, and we’re confident we’ll be fine as we’re in Europe now! Sure enough, we have a few places to choose from, we select the one which is big and reasonably empty. As we sit to order, the place starts to fill up, as move toward midnight on a Wednesday evening the place is full, the food was excellent and we enjoyed being serviced by the quintessential Spanish waiters, we recommend Cervecería Santa Ana.
The following morning we took on the booked Bike ride. We usually do the city bus tours, as I said we’d already done that in Madrid, I’d looked at the walking tours, but the wife wanted a bike tour, which, given the size of Madrid is perfect. You ride about 15 km and get to sites and areas you don’t on either the bus or walking. We were in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago and did the bus tour there, but I’d suggest Edinburgh could be done by bike or walk. Our tour guide, Isaac, was great. He went into detail on all the sites and was passionate about Madrid and everyone enjoying themselves whilst there, at the end Isaac drew out a map of where we went and highlighted all the ‘special spots’ like great coffee houses you can return to in your own time. I have to admit, I hired electric bikes for Candy and myself, as I’d never used one and wanted to ensure I had some help, absolutely the right decision, it was lots of fun cruising around with minimal effort!
Learn To Make Tapas
That evening we’d booked for Cooking Tapas with our friends Mark and Cathy who were visiting from Australia. If you have a modicum of interest in cooking, I will highly recommend doing this activity. It starts around 5:30 pm, once introductions are taken care of (the class size is 8-10) you get a brief on the 5 tapas dishes you will be making. The first item to made though, is the San Grier. Inevitably a decent-size bowl has been made from the night before which you start helping yourself too. My suggestion is to take it easy early on, as it’s a long night with knives and heat involved.
Our chef Teresa was passionate, entertaining, and made the entire evening enjoyable. We all made our tapas dishes, learned a lot of Spanish culinary history, and finished off enjoying the food prepared by us! The price includes everything and is more than reasonable for a truly fantastic Spanish experience.
Toledo – A Hidden Gem
When booking our apartment in Madrid via booking.com the car rental deal was too good to refuse, something like $30 for the whole time. Without thinking properly, I booked the car rental figuring it would cancel out the cab fares to and from the airport. Silly me, for those with European experience, you will know I’ve bumped into the little problem of parking in a major European city, centrally no less. Since parking and insurance (as driving on the other side of the road can be perilous), costs were going be quadruple the rental. So, we had to make use of the car, hence the reason for this digression in text from Toledo Gem nugget. Friday, we used the car to go to Toledo, roughly an hour’s drive from Madrid.
We’d not heard of Toledo until our friends from Australia told us about the quaint little town the night before, having a feel for the small town, we belated looked for a ‘free walking tour’, which we found starting at 12:30, time was 11 am, we had to scoot. Arriving in the lovely Toledo at 12:25 we parked just down from the main square outside one of the many cathedrals and raced up to meet Carmel and the rest of the tourists doing the walk. Fortunately, Carmen was on her game, checked with a friend, and verified our car was parked in an area where we’d get €250 fine, so we abandoned the walk and reparked the car. Carmel was great, called us and helped us back to the group, and then took just Candy and me around the parts of the walk we missed, without the American tourists!
Toledo Free Walking Tour with Carmen
I’m not going to detail Toledo too much, except just be wary of the dishes you order in budget places, as they’re not always what you think, definitely contact Carmen and go on the walking tour, and if possible, I’d recommend two days there with an overnight stay, you’ll enjoy your time at what was once the capital of Spain.
Restaurant Botín (again)
We had to return, our first evening at Botíns a few years earlier with Joe was truly memorable, we arrived late without a booking that time on a Saturday night and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. This time I decided to book, late of course, with a request for a window seat on the first floor. We were joined by Mark and Cathy and again indulged ourselves with the specialty dishes washed down with plenty of wine, the price tag, around €200 for four of us, was very reasonable, and the cheesecake was sublime. I’m not sure how often they float around, but both times I’ve been there very late the standing Spanish band would play, so go late if you want to be sure. We had a great window seat on the first floor as requested, this time, we were the last to leave!
Restaurant Botín
– The Second Time
Spanish Markets & The Flamingo Show
Teresa, our Tapas chef educated us that Madrid has the second (to Tokyo) best fish markets in the world. Saturday, we walked for hours around Madrid, it is a beautiful city with some lovely historic sites with obviously some of the best museum art in the world. This time we didn’t feel like a museum, but if we were to go, we’d take Isaac’s suggestion and attend the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
Attending a Flamenco show whilst in Madrid, and this particular one, is a ‘no-brainer’. This show drives right into the heart of Spanish culture and tradition. We only purchased the tickets but arrived early enough to get good seats in the front row. It is 60 minutes of thoroughly entertaining music and dance, at times very intense, but a beautiful spectacular.
Traditional Flamenco Show Ticket
Our last bit of Saturday night was spent having a good old drink at the great bar on C. del Leon towards C. del Prado, if you are lucky, you will find it. Give a decent tip and the free pouring bourbon goes a bit further!
In summary, Madrid is a beautiful, vibrant city that everyone should have on their bucket lists. It has everything from the formal Museum artistic to entertaining food and market nightlife, and I’ve not even mentioned what the entertainment nightlife looks like – I’ll leave that for your comments below! My suggestion, go to Madrid!
