The Adventures of Molly and Tyler: Week 30 November 2-8

We are a little behind on blog posting so we will be playing catch-up with a couple of posts this weekend. Last weekend we went to Madrid for a short visit. Our friend Victoria was in Madrid for two weeks for work, so we trekked down to spend time with her while getting to visit a new city AND country! We flew down on Friday afternoon and were there just in time for Spanish dinner time. We walked to Plaza Mayor and had dinner outside on the square. We enjoyed our first of many Iberian ham and cheese plates.

Palacio de Comunicaciones lit up at night

Puerta de Alcalá

Friends!

On Saturday, we got serious about exploring Madrid. First, we headed to a small cafe for breakfast (Café de la luz). This cafe had a set breakfast menu where you got a coffee, a toast (toppings including goat cheese, tuna, and ham to name a few), a piece of cake (carrot, cheese, or chocolate) and fresh squeezed OJ. It was a delicious and lovely (and healthy... we are pretty sure) way to start the day! From there we went on a scavenger hunt for a giant Darth Vader head. Madrid was hosting a promotion for the new Star Wars movie called "Face the Force", and there were 8 different Star Wars related helmets around the city. The one we felt we HAD to see was Darth Vader (we later ended up seeing a Storm Trooper as well). After some quality time and pictures with Darth, we continued our exploration of Madrid and wandered through the Parque de Montaña. We saw the Temple de Debod, a temple given to Spain from Egypt and the Plaza de España with a famous statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Cake for breakfast. The Spanish do it right.

Palacio Real and Catedral de la Almundena in the distance

We had been wandering with the ultimate aim of reaching the Royal Palace. When we arrived there, the line was relatively short line. We decided we had to go inside and see the opulence on display. It was amazing! We have a few pictures but throughout most of the rooms, no photography was permitted. Even the rooms they used solely as dressing rooms had gold leaf and porcelain walls. After the palace, we headed to the Mercado de San Miguel for lunch. This huge market was full of different stalls where you could buy various snacks and drinks. We tried sangria, ham sandwiches, pizza, cheese, fruit and croquettes. It seems the Mercado is a popular weekend hangout for the locals because it was incredibly crowded! After lunch, we walked more of Madrid and explored the shopping street Gran Vía (also a popular destination on a Saturday) and then headed back to the hotel for a siesta! We had tapas for dinner to round out the busy day.

Royal Palace selfie

This must be the least valuable ceiling fresco in the Palacio Real because they let you take a picture of it

Royal Palace selfie 2.0!

Spaniards getting their market tapas on

Plaza Mayor

On Sunday, we again had a delicious breakfast before heading to the Prado art museum. The museum was full of famous artworks from artists such as Goya, El Greco, Rubens, Velázquez, and Raphael to name a few. For you non-Antwerp residents, Peter Paul Rubens was a famous painter here in the early 1600's. He was born in Antwerp and his house is now a museum here. The Spanish King Philip IV was a big fan of Rubens' work and commissioned many pieces, many of which are displayed today in the Prado. It is kind of funny that we live in his hometown, but we saw more of his artwork in Spain than we have here!
It was a LONG museum visit (if you don't know: museums are not Molly's strong suit). So after LOTS of art and someone getting in trouble for touching something, it was time to go... We went to Los Gatos (more tapas) but it was very crowded so we got sandwiches and snacks and took them with us to Parque de Retiro to eat lunch in the park. This was our second park in as many days, and we were really delighted by the amount of green space in such a large metropolitan city. Retiro's size and scope were very reminiscent to Central Park in New York. It was a beautiful day so we wandered through the park and came upon the Crystal Palace, a building made almost entirely of glass. It was once used as a greenhouse but is now used for art exhibits. After a break at a cafe on the lake in the park and more tapas and cava for dinner, we only had one more stop to complete our adventure in Madrid: we had to try churros and chocolate. We went to a famous churros place that was open 24/7 and ordered the only dish they offer: churros and chocolate. The chocolate is like Spanish hot chocolate, basically a more delicious Hershey's syrup. They were delicious, but our eyes were definitely more ambitious than our stomachs could handle, and we ended up giving our leftovers to a very happy man on the street. We headed home early Monday morning. We had a great time visiting with Victoria and getting to explore the beautiful city of Madrid. We are excited and hopeful for more Spanish adventures in the future!