Madrid: You're So Walkable

It's Day Two in Madrid. We started our day by getting Churros and Chocolate at the Churreria Chocolateria, a 10-minute walk and immediately we were taken to one of the most famous restaurants that serve great churros. One of the best things about these churros was having it with hot chocolate. I'm not talking about the powdered mix kind, but the one that ends up being served quite thick as if the chocolate just melted. Dipped the churros in to the cup of hot chocolate....game over!

We decided to just keep walking. We passed by many of the renowned sites in the city....the Opera House - Teatro Real....so huge, if Evan and Caitlin weren't with us, I'm sure that Nancy and I would be catching a show - something that she and I did when we went Prague and Budapest in 2015.

We then walked over to Royal Palace and the cathedral adjacent to it. That area alone was so vast. We didn't have tickets for this visit but we were able to admire the enormity of the building. One thing about visiting Europe this time around with two young kids during this time of year when it was so hot humid, they required a lot of breaks in between. So we took every opportunity to go to a nearby park with a playground or as an example of what we did with them on this day, we took them to a local library. Most of the books were in Spanish, but that's okay. They were able to look at the pictures, and somehow found relief that we made time to bring them to a library, an activity we enjoy doing when we are back home in California.

Somehow, we found our way circling this side of the city and decided to head on over Mercado Anton Martin. This market is known for having different types of indoor food stalls, and since we've been having Spanish food, we decided to take a break and go with classic pizza.

Are you kidding me?
We kept on walking and our plan was to head over to Retiro Park and Museu del Prado. I knew that Retiro Park would be huge, but I didn't realize that to walk towards the center would require somewhat of uphill climb. It was in the high 90's----humid!!! We melted!!! We made it to the area where you could go and ride a boat.

We then walked down towards Prado Museum. The museum offered free admission from 6-8pm. We made it to the museum just past 6:20pm. To our surprise, there must have been 400 people in line. With it being so hot, we decided it wasn't worth in to stay in line. The kids had a better idea.

Let's swim
We went back to our hotel and thank goodness, there's a swimming pool. The water wasn't heated, but with the weather being in the 90s and humid, the cold water was what we needed. It was good to relax after walking in the heat for 6-7 hours. I think my iPhone indicate that we walked close to 6-7 miles....not bad!

It's 10pm, let's eat
We got hungry but it was already late in the evening. We looked up best restaurants to go to in Madrid and decided to go Taberna El Sur. Man was it perfect! We ordered Paella Mixta, and Salad Dore (salmon, avocado, vinaigrette with salad greens) so simple yet so delicious. The paella did not boast of serving a huge portion, but it was all about the flavor of the paella. The rice was just perfect, and the seafood was so tasty. We ended our meal with Casillo, a cake topped with flan. I shall forever remember Taberna El Sur...tucked in a little corner in the Lavapies area of the city.

Day Three in Madrid
This one will be short and sweet. I woke up feeling quite ill, yet at the same time, there was still an urge to maximize our stay. So I tried to defy sickness. We went out for sushi. We went back to Mercado Anton Martin and had one of the most delicious chirashi bowls I've had in awhile. However, I didn't feel any better. So after lunch, we went back to the hotel for me to get some rest. By 5 pm, although I wasn't feeling all that great, I still got up and took the family to Prado Museum. I wanted us to be there before 6pm (for the free admission). We must've been the 100th in line. We walked around and admired the paintings and just the mere structure of the museum. It was enormous. Yet, in the back of my mind, I couldn't wait to go back to bed. After 1 hour of walking around, we were back in the hotel after 7pm.

I took a couple of medications. I had little bit of a fever and body aches. But I decided to fight this sickness. By 9:30pm, we decided on eating at Malatesta. I had their Taglioni Scoglioli and for dessert we went to Chocolateria San Gines for their Churros y Chocolate.

That was it...that was our Day 3 in Madrid......

Madrid: The Adventures Continue with Marcia Cross

 

A three-hour train ride to Madrid

We had an 8am train ride en route to Madrid. Since we had our luggage with us, instead of taking the metro, we decided to get a cab. I asked the front desk for a 5:45am wake up call and to have a cab ready for us at 6:30am. Everything went as planned. We made it to Barcelona-Sants, the train station where we’d be boarding to Madrid.

Although we could’ve gotten our tickets closer to the date of our departure, I decided to purchase these seats when we were still back in the US. I remember that it took me close two hours in buying the ticket. Every attempt required me to enter all four passenger details (name, address, date of birth email, passport #, issue date, expiration date)….this happened EVERY…SINGLE….ATTEMPT. Where did it keep failing? After I entered my credit card information, it wasn't getting declined. But it kept giving me an error. I emailed and sent a tweet to RENFE (the train company). Fortunately, they replied. The solution? Choose Paypal as the mode of payment….so I did. Whew!

Back to our trip, we found our seats and we were all facing one another with a table in front of us. The three hour ride went smoothly. It was a high-speed train, There must’ve been a dozen stops between Barcelona and Madrid, but most of the stops only lasted no more than 2-3 minutes.

There was no Wi-Fi, but I was able to plug in my electronics, pulled out my MacBook Air and started working on my blog. The kids and Nancy were perfectly relaxed the entire time. All in all, what a convenient way of getting to Madrid. We arrived by 11:10am.

Hotel Indigo Gran Via

We took a cab to Calle Del Silva 6, to our new home in Madrid, Hotel Indigo. This stay was courtesy of IHG (Intercontinental Hotels Group). We are here for 4 days and 3 nights...all for FREE just by using our points earned from signing up with Chase IHG card. Otherwise, it would've been close to $200 per night with taxes and everything.

Our hotel was more like a boutique hotel. It’s not huge, more on the minimalist urban trendy side. One thing I was looking forward to was the swimming pool on the 12th floor. The weather in Madrid…HOT…HUMID….HOT!!! High 90’s. So having a pool was a sure big plus.

Since we've got Platinum status, thanks to the IHG credit card sign-up via Chase, we were allowed to do an early check-in (around noon), and given an upgraded room. Almost every hotel in Europe that I've seen (big or small) had a face plate in right in front with a designation as to the number of stars. This one's a four star hotel, and I could see why. It's extremely clean, smells good, and the location was perfect. It was in the heart of everything. 

I was thinking the moment we drove up to the hotel, that it actually reminded me of NYC. It felt like I was driving on 8th Avenue or 7th Avenue going up to the Broadway Theatre or the Ed Sullivan Theatre. That was the feeling. And then bam.....to my right, showed up a huge marquee....El Rey Leon aka The Lion King. We must be staying in Madrid's theatre district.

Once we got to our room, it was hard not to lounge in bed. But the day was calling for us to go out and explore. Yet, at the same time, I felt a bit funny, as in motion sickness-funny. I felt like I was still in the train. That kind of motion sickness, and that has never happened to me with all of our train rides. I stood straight but I felt like I was swaying. But I defied the sickness and opted to get this Madrid party started. First order of activity, a quick dip in the pool. It was HOT as I mentioned earlier. The pool on the 12th floor had fantastic views of the city. The hotel was also perfectly situated for rooftop sunset views.

El Rastro Street Fair

After swimming, we went to El Rastro. It's Europe's largest street fair, over 3200 stalls. The fair is every Sunday and it ends at 3pm. The section we went had lots of folks selling their local crafts. We walked down that street and then decided it was time to eat. We went to La Barca Del Patio known for their traditional Andalusian fare. We ordered their seafood mixed plate and chicken BBQ skewers. The smell inside the restaurant was quite amazing. There's section where they did the indoor grilling and that was available for all to see. There was also live musicians that entertained the guests. However, as much as I enjoyed our food and the scene, I was really not feeling well. We all decided to head back to the hotel by 3:30pm and I went to bed. Caitlin stayed with me in the room. Nancy and Evan went to take care of their own sickness - they went shopping.

Plaza Mayor

By 6pm, I started to feel better and we went out again for a walk. First it was at Plaza Mayor, a short 10-minute stroll from the hotel. It's a big square filled with shops and restaurants. 

Mercado de San Miguel

We chose not to eat dinner at Plaza Mayor, but we went for a few minutes and found Mercado de San Miguel. My TripAdvisor friends advised not to miss this. Yes it's a market....but a haven for foodies. It was one of the cleanest markets I've been to, bustling with tapas. So yes...a haven for tapas. It was food galore left and right and it didn't seem like there was going to be a wrong place to check out. But I chose a couple of stall, one with traditional seafood tapas, I had their codfish, octopus, and tuna.

Once I got back to our eating area, another couple talked to us. They're now locals but originally came from Florida and the UK. Curtis from Florida suggested Navajas, a shellfish, just like clams but a long shellfish. I'm all about trying something new, so I did.

I went to the stall where Navajas was sold. To my surprise, I thought it would be sold "cold" but once we picked up the 10 Navajas, he placed them in a Tupperware and covered them, and used a microwave and heat it up for a minute and a half. Once it was warmed up, he drizzled the Navajas with extra virgin garlic olive oil, a couple of pinches of salt, and I asked for a little bit of Tabasco. That was it. I went back to our table, and tried it. It was tasty, delicious, juicy.....just like clams....just long clams! Thank you, Curtis and Michelle.

Star sighting backstory - Marcia Cross

Nancy whispered to me, she pointed at the lady wearning a hat and a long black summer dress - "that's" the actress from Desperate Housewives. There's a bit of a backstory to this. This was NOT Nancy's first time seeing Marcia Cross. A couple of years ago, Nancy saw Marcia visit someone at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. Nancy was working and she saw her visit a relative quite a few times. She never had the courage to ask for a photo op. But tonight I told her....go! So she did! When Marcia (yes, we're now on a first name basis) stood up and walked towards one of the stalls, Nancy kindly asked her for a photo. She gladly obliged and we had to tell her about our our Kaiser Permanente story. Without joking, we did watch her TV shows and we mentioned that to her as well. So there, a picture and a selfie with Marcia Cross!

Madrid's Gran Via = New York's 34th Street

That's how I could compare the area where we went to in Madrid. It was lined up with stores and after stores. We walked around and shopped for a few things, and headed back to the hotel to the hotel to end our first day in Madrid.