Madrid in 1 Day (Long Post)

We felt like we had been snakebitten in Barcelona. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely great things we saw and did and tasted but there were also quite a few bad things. We were hoping that Madrid would be a "reset" for our luck. And it was.

Our goal was to do another patented Rick Steves Walk Around A City (literally my favorite thing to do and Lacey puts up with it lol). Then, we were just going to see where the day would take us.

We started the day by..... you guessed it - PASTRIES! But these were special! We got pastries from a bakery called La Mallorquina which is a pretty famous bakery on the corner of the square Puerta del Sol. These parties were great. I couldn't stop gushing about mine and making weird noises because it was sooooo good. Mine was filled with apples and Lacey's had cream inside. Great start to the day.

As luck would have it, our walk started in Puerta del Sol so we didn't need to subway around everywhere (which was a nice break from Barcelona where we rode the subway alllll the time). Puerta del Sol is sort of the "Times Square" of Madrid if you take out the video boards and take out just about all the cars. This was my FAVORITE part of Madrid and Spain in general. So many of the streets are completely pedestrianized. It's so easy to walk anywhere and there are so few cars. We just loved it.

So we left Puerta del Sol and made our way to Plaza Mayor. This was the most important square in the city before Puerta del Sol was created. It's surrounded on all sides by these incredible buildings that are now apartments. There used to be bullfighting, city announcements, and executions in the square back in the 1600s and 1700s. Now the apartments go for like 2 million euros. There are lots of restaurants and cafes lining all of the sides of the square too.

Our next highlight was a cute little street filled with bars that are open super late. We never stayed out to experience these dungeon bars but they looked cool in the morning light! Right by this bar area is yet another Market. This one is called Mercado de San Miguel. It's a little more high end and organized than the other markets we've been to on this trip (it's newer). It reminded both of us a lot of the Time Out Market in Lisbon but smaller. There was a communal seating place in the middle and then lots of specific food places all around the outside with places to get a drink. We did not eat at this one (surprisingly) but we did walk around it.

Our next stop was a super exciting one and has a little bit of a back story. We watch A LOT of travel youtube videos, especially while we're researching a place we're traveling. We watched a lot of videos by a guy who lives in Spain and does food tours. He did one about getting some secret cookies but we couldn't remember where it was. Well, the directions were in our book! The cookies are made by nuns in a monastery in Madrid. The nuns can't talk with people face to face so they have to use a lazy susan. You ring the outside bell and they let you in. Then you walk through to a secret door. You say what kind of cookie you want then put your money on a spinning thing. The nun takes the money and outs the cookies down and spins them back to you.

Well, we did that and got secret lemon cookies! It was so fun! The only downside was the outside door is very small and I smacked my head on it haha. The cookies were delicious and it was a fun experience.

We walked by the old City Hall and the Madrid Cathedral. The Madrid Cathedral was nice inside (not as nice as Sagrada Familia but not much is). The Royal Palace next door to the cathedral is the biggest palace in Europe with over 2,800 rooms, even bigger than Versailles. There's a park right outside the Royal Palace that was beautiful. The sunshine also felt great. We also walked by the Grand Theater. We didn't really go into any of the attractions because we just enjoyed walking around in the sunshine and frankly didn't want to spend the money on sites that we wouldn't really enjoy.

Our next area to visit was called Gran Via. It's the "5th Ave" area of Madrid with a super busy street and lots and lots of stores on it. Lacey bought a scarf at Primark because we've both been pretty darn cold all trip. We saw 50 degrees before leaving and thought we would love it but uhhhh it's actually still cold.

To recharge our bodies, we stopped and got some snacks/light lunch. I got a bocadillo sandwich with Iberico ham (it's the main cheap lunch option in Spain). Lacey got some wine which came with some light snacks. It was nice to rest up and hang out for a bit.

We explored the left side of the city quite a bit in the morning/early afternoon so we headed over to the right side to see what was going on over there. The street we walked down was really cool with beautiful buildings everywhere you turned. Madrid is an incredibly beautiful city. Our destination was Retiro Park. It's the Central Park of Madrid. There's a nice lake there with rowboats you can rent. There are also street performers/cartoon characters. There was a giant bear that kept looking over at us and we thought it was so funny. One of the highlights of the day for me was getting my picture taken with it. Such a funny memory! We spent a decent amount of time just hanging out by the lake and enjoying the weather.

By this point, we were tired so back to the hostel, we went to rest up. I worked on a blog and Lacey napped. The Prado Museum is the most famous museum in Spain and it's free from 6pm to 8pm. We walked over to see if we could get in for free. The lines were short (thank you offseason). Using the Rick Steves book, we were able to zoom around in about an hour and see all the highlights. The main painters we saw were El Greco and Goya (two famous Spanish painters from the 1600s and 1700s). We headed back to the hostel to make a gameplan for dinner. Remember, dinner in Spain is at 8 or 9 or 10pm.

We spent about an hour trying to figure out where to eat. Lacey found a taco place called Takos Al Pastor that looked cool so we headed over there. The line was long and we didn't want to wait. We stumbled upon a famous bar that makes little fish nuggets. They were so good! It was fun to try to figure out how to order and then find a place to snack on them. The bar was busy and it was good people watching.

We changed our minds about waiting for tacos and did that. We ended up waiting for like 45 mins. I'm a dummy and ordered too much food (I saw others ordering lots of food and lost my brain). The quesadillas were good and tacos were fine but we like the ones in Brooklyn Park better. Plus, felt bad not eating all the food I ordered so I ate too much and didn't really enjoy it. I'm a dummy lol.

On the walk back to our hostel, even though we were absolutely stuffed with food, we stopped and got ice cream. IT WAS BOMB.COM! I even did a little happy ice cream dance.

Madrid was incredible. The walkable pedestrian streets are amazing. There's an energy and a life there that just gets into you. The food we ate today was fantastic overall. This was a super great, long day.