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!
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......
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