Monday the 14th of October my father drove us to Rotterdam airport for our Madrid/Rome trip, which was quite the different trip for me as there was not going to be a car involved, just planes and public transport and carrying our stuff on our backs. After an uneventful but pleasant flight with Transavia we landed in Madrid and took the metro to the city centre. It must have been the nicest entry to a city that I have ever had, instead of seeing the ugly outer industrial areas and suburbs first and then gradually driving towards the centre, this time the metro dropped us off under an old plaza, bang smack city centre. So when we took the stairs up and came above ground we were right in the middle of a very scenic square with lots of activity around, people eating outside, street performers and beautiful buildings nicely lighted. I instantly liked Madrid!

Finding our apartment was easier than expected as we were only a few meters off the plaza. We had found an apartment on AirBnB and were met by the owner who let us in and showed us around. Everything was there and we had a little balcony with views out over the plaza, brilliant! As it was late already we opted for a quick McD’s dinner and then walked around and came across Puerta del Sol plaza where we watched some extremely skilled rollerblade people do stunts.

Over the next few days we explored Madrid and got ourselves a pass to the ‘big three’, the famous museums of Madrid; Thyssien, Prado and Reina Sofia. The Prado museum was definitely our favourite, all the famous old masters are there and it is also a pleasant building to walk around. Reina Sofia was only good for the Guernica painting from Picasso.

As we were very lucky with the weather, around 23 to 25 degrees and sunny, we spent some time in El Retiro park. It’s very large and some sections feel more like a forest than a park, but then there are also sections that are beautifully landscaped with water features. We had a great time exploring it, with one of the highlights being the Crystal Palace, which was inspired by the English Crystal Palace. Also just nice to sit under a tree with our Kindles, an ice-cream and a Coke!

Julia flexing her large bicep like the statue, but slightly less revealingly dressed

Prado Museum

Bad lunch at Plaza Mayor, however the location made more than up for that (and that is what the restaurants count on in these tourist hotspots!)

Plaza Mayor, Madrid’s main square

El Retiro Park

The Crystal Palace, built in 1887 in the shape of Greek cross

It was nice to be able to speak Spanish again in Madrid. Spain actually feels a bit like South America (or should it be the other way around!?) without the hassles and with MUCH better food. Not one bout of giardia or salmonella and that really makes a difference to how you experience the place! Food wise we were spoiled for choice and one of the best things was Tapapies. We went to Couchsurfing drinks and heard about this festival in the Lavapies area, where they organise a yearly international Tapas festival (Tapas + Lavapies = Tapapies). About 75 restaurants/bars participated, each having one tapa on sale for one euro a piece, or for two euros you could also get a beer with it. So with our festival map in hand we went around the bars to eat and drink! We also had more great food at the San Miguel Market, sort of an artisan market where locals and tourists buy nice meats, cheese, fish etc, but where you can also buy tapas and drinks and there are high tables everywhere to eat from/stand on and socialise.

San Miguel Market

Lavapies: 2 tapas, 2 beers, 4 euros

In the weekend we went to Toledo, one of the popular trips from Madrid, where you can easily get to by the fast and efficient rail system (fast and efficient didn’t include getting tickets though…). When we got to Toledo station we just started walking to town, but soon realised we were the only ones to do so, everyone else took the bus. Part of the reason might have been the unnavigable streets of Toledo, nothing is straight or flat and without a map you constantly get lost, actually, with a map you also constantly get lost. After having searched for our place for a while we stumbled upon what looked like the start/finish of some sort of sporting event. We asked around and it was for a 6km night run through the hilly cobbled streets of Toledo. We decided on the spot that it was a good idea to sign up, not being deterred by the fact that the night before we did a flat 3.5k of running/walking, which didn’t exactly go smooth or at any sort of race pace. So we checked into our hostel and set about to find a carb meal to prepare for the race, buy a large tin of tomatoes to roll out our muscles and take some rest after that.

The race started at 8.30pm and we got there just a little before, thinking we shouldn’t try to be in the front of the starting field so not everyone would have to pass us! The race got under way and it took us about 4 minutes to pass the start line, which we later found out was part of our time. About 1500 people participated and it makes for a busy race on medieval cobble stone streets. It was a lot of fun though, till about the fourth kilometre, from then onwards I was more concerned with not displaying my stomach contents on the coblestones than anything else. Nevertheless I ran the whole distance and finished within 35 minutes, better than I had hoped for. Julia finished shortly after that as well and after a drink we hobbled back to our hostel.

Our second day in Toledo we did a bit of sight seeing, but we were both quite uninspired by it all. It was just so touristy and busy and we struggled to find any place to eat that wasn’t a tourist trap. The next day we were happy to pack our bags to return to Madrid for a couple more days.

Most people took the bus, we walked, got hot and sweaty and lost, but did sign up for a run

Posing at the start/finish of La Nocturna de Toledo

14th Century Puente de San Martin, Toledo. The middle arch spans 40 meters, impressive for these times.

In our last days in Madrid, we did a bit of shopping and a bit more sightseeing and nicest of all, we met up with Malena! Malena is a Couchsurfer who we met in 2008 in Wellington, she then left for Spain. I can’t even begin to explain what nationality she is, as she seems to collect passports, but she feels mostly Uruguayan. We had a nice night eating tapas and having a few drinks and catching up. This was a nice ending to our time in Madrid as the next day we had to get up extremely early to catch our flight to Rome. We both really loved Madrid and for me it was a very nice first encounter with Spain, hopefully more to follow in the future!