Spain was a planned trip. My parents decided for the first time since I moved to London than instead of visiting me during the Christmas period to visit during summer. So, I decided to invite my parents in order to experience Europe in the summer and to fulfil one of their long-lasting dreams, to attend a bullfight at the most important bullring in the world “Las Ventas”.
The planned was for them to book their tickets and soon after book our family trip. I decided that this trip will be longer than any other trip to Spain before, as I wanted to cover Madrid and Aranjuez again. I had visited Spain four other times before and my research for this was done before, therefore, this trip no research was needed. However, for the purpose of this blog I will include some research.
Madrid is the capital of Spain and was founded during the 9th century. The city suffered various transformation but remained a small city until the early part of the 20th century. Since then, the population has reached 6 million.
Spain has been part of the European Union since 1st January 1986 and belongs to the Schengen area, so visa is required for some non-European but check before travelling if it applies to you. The currency for Spain is the Euro, it is recommended to change at the airport just after landing, as who has the time to search for it while on the taxi on the way to your hotel.
As part of my research, I check out all the most seen places of the city and make a list of things to see. I made three types of list, one for the interiors with opening hours, another one for the exteriors, and the last one about local handicraft markets. I also needed to consider that I was travelling with my parents and I have been there four times before.
Therefore, I wanted to experience Madrid in a slower pace and family way. My adventure started on Friday 27th April 2018.
On Day 1, we left London and took a taxi to the airport. We had an uneventful flight to Madrid. After reaching, we took a taxi to hotel, which was on the city centre. However, it took us around 30 minutes to find the correct address and then took 30 minutes for the landlord to arrive, as we were renting an Airbnb for the week. After dropping the bags at the apartment, we started our culinary trip to the Spanish cuisine and afterwards, we had amazing frozen yogurt ice cream with chocolate topping. We retired to sleep, as we had an exciting day to prepare.
On Day 2, after having a great home-made breakfast, we decided to explore the city centre as we were on walking distance. We were staying near Chueca underground station and the city centre is near Sol underground station. I decided that we should cover Madrid via tour bus, as we had never done this before. Therefore, I needed to scout the locations of the bus stops to pick the closest to us. On our route towards the city centre, we scouted places to buy souvenirs. Therefore, the shopping started very early in the trip.
We continued our scouting around the city centre and while taking turns to visit all the shops around it, I sat down and watched people around us. As an avid photographer, I love observing people and what they are doing. This is how I found street performers doing their thing and I was having a very nice time. After an afternoon of street photography, we found another amazing Spanish restaurant for lunch and found more ice cream, as it was a nice sunny spring day. After spending all day shopping and enjoying the sunny day, we returned to our hotel room for a light dinner and rest for the next day.
On Day 3, after having a great home-made breakfast, we took the train to visit my best friend in Aranjuez, which is South of Madrid but still part of the Community of Madrid. The train trip is around 45 minutes from Madrid-Atocha station and is a local train. Arriving to Aranjuez was very excited, as I have not seen my friend for couple of years as life has gotten complicated. The last time I went to Spain, I just went to see him and he picked me up from the airport by car. Therefore, I was enjoying the train ride as my hubby loves the view and he never gets to see it, as we usually have driving trips.
My friend picks up us from the station, however, as we were six, he could not drive us around. Therefore, we walk towards the city centre. Aranjuez has been declared a World Heritage Site as the city was built around the construction of a royal palace during the reign of Philip II of Spain. With this in mind, our walk took us to Royal Palace and its garden. While my parents enter the museum inside the Royal Palace, we caught up with life, and my husband and I took turns to play with my friend’s kid.
After around 2 hours, my parents finished with their museum visit and we were all ready for lunch. My friend took us to a very nice restaurant overlooking the gardens to enjoy another amazing traditional Spanish food. After an amazing day visiting Aranjuez and my best friend, we returned to Madrid by train. Luckily, spring days are very long and we returned when still was daylight in Madrid and after a light dinner, we retired to sleep.
On Day 4, after having another amazing home-made breakfast, we walked towards the city centre and took a two-day tour bus ticket from Puerta del Sol station. On Day 1, the route that we decided to do first was the green route. Our practice is taking a full round trip first to take all the route’s photographs and listen to the complete audio guide. Once the first round is completed and before the next tour starts, we dropped to have a light lunch and to decide what to do next.
We decided that since it was raining, this was the perfect day to cover both routes in order to listen to the audio guide without rush, and then plan which were the best stops for next day to drop and take photographs. Therefore, we took a full round on the blue route and decided to drop in Plaza Mayor for an amazing traditional Spanish restaurant. After dinner, we decided that an evening walk will be a nice way to finish the day.
On Day 5, after having another amazing home-made breakfast, I was enjoying home-made breakfast by my mother every day, this made me feel very spoiled. On our way to the bus stop, we stopped to collect my parents’ tickets for the next day bullfight. After that we were ready to start Day 2 on the tourist bus. We decided to take the blue route again and dropped at Templo de Debod, as it had the best fountain for photographs, and the best views of the royal palace.
After the temple, we dropped at the royal palace and we walked from the Jardines de Sabatini towards the Almudena Cathedral. During the walk, we took amazing photographs and saw the people around enjoying themselves, as it was a great sunny day and perfect for photographs.
After the cathedral, we decided to take the bus and stopped again at the Plaza Major and find a different Spanish restaurant for food and to enjoy a pitcher of sangria. Since this was our last day with bus, we decided to enjoy the sunset there and take the last bus towards the hotel. We had an amazing day, enjoying the sun, the food, the shopping and specially the company. I was having an amazing relaxing day with my entire family.
On Day 6, after another amazing home-made breakfast, my parents left for their trip to the bullfight, therefore, we decided to enjoy a leisure day around the hotel. We decided to walk around and explored. We first enjoy a coffee break with doughnut next to the hotel, then we had Spanish tapas (small plates of snacks) and sangria for lunch.
After lunch, we decided to enjoy the sunset outside while waiting for my parents to returned from their amazing venture. However, as soon as they returned, they said that they already had dinner and since we were starving, we left the hotel in order to find a restaurant for dinner. After a week of Spanish food, we decided to change it a little and we went Greek, as we love this Mediterranean food. After a date night, in the middle of our trip, we returned to rest at our hotel for the night.
On Day 7, we decided that this was going to be our museum day trip. We invited my parents to come with us, but after a day of excitement, they decided to go shopping and we went to the museums. In my opinion the best museum in Madrid is El Prado Museum.
The Prado Museum holds one of the world’s finest collections of the European art from 12th to 20th century. This museum is based on the Spanish Royal collection and it has the single best collection of Spanish art. The reason I visit this museum is because it has my favourite Diego Velazquez’s painting “Las Meninas” and the best part is searching for the painter, as he always draws himself in them.
We arrived to the museum around midday, and gratefully there was no queue so we went straight to the first floor. We started our venture at the Puerta de Goya (Goya Entrance), however, the new policy was to drop the bags and no cameras are allowed, and we left the bag in the cloakroom and got a number. We covered every single exhibition hall of the first floor and in the middle are the best paintings of Velazquez and Las Meninas. The best thing about museums is that they allow you to paint from the master, as you are not allowed cameras inside. This is the only way to keep a souvenir.
I enjoyed the exploration of the museums instead of just going directly to the paintings that I know or I like, and for this it took us around 2 hours to cover the top floor. After that, we went to the ground floor for lunch and shopping. After shopping, we continued exploring the ground floor and finished around 6pm. When we were outside, we discovered a huge queue at the entrance, this is because the museums in Madrid are free in the evening.
Therefore, we decided that next museum to visit was the Reina Sofia Museum as it is free after 7pm. We arrived a little late that and the queue was still too long, therefore we decided to wait like 20 minutes for the queue to reduce. After getting our ticket, we queue for the security check and found out that again we needed to leave the bag, however in this case there was no cloakroom and the lockers required one Euro coin, which we did not have and therefore our museum trip ended shortly. After our failed attempt, we decided to enjoy an al fresco dinner in front of the museum. Finally, after a lovely day enjoying the beauty of Madrid we returned to the hotel.
On Day 8, after having a nice home-made breakfast, we decided to take the train to El Escorial. El Escorial is north of Madrid but still part of the Community of Madrid. The train trip is around 90 minutes from Madrid-Atocha station and is a local train. El Escorial is complex which has a palace, chapel, and a monastery.
After arriving to El Escorial, we found out that the bus was every hour. Therefore, we decided to have some light lunch before. After lunch, we took the bus to the station of the Escorial and then walk to the monastery. The Escorial is an amazing building full of history and artefacts, we walked around and took photographs of the inside. However, there are some areas that are restricted for photograph access, you are only allowed exteriors photographs.
Covering El Escorial took couple of hours and by the time we finished we decided to stop in a local Spanish restaurant and have an amazing lunch. By the time we finished lunch, there were no other bus going towards the train station so we took a taxi. Once at the train station, our train was on time and we had a tiring trip back to the hotel.
On Day 9, after having an amazing trip we decided to have a leisure day, as this was our last full day on Madrid. We decided to experiment and had breakfast outside. After breakfast, my parents decided that they needed to carry out more shopping. While waiting for them, we sat outside enjoying a spring day and catching up with our reading.
After my parents arrived from their shopping extravaganza, we decided to find a new restaurant. My father found a nice Asturian restaurant (from the north west area of Spain) and my father’s favourite Spanish cuisine. Personally, I have no preference I loved them all. After enjoying an amazing food, we stopped in our favourite frozen yogurt shop to indulge in an amazing dessert. After this, we enjoy the sunset and return to the hotel to pack and rest as the following day we were travelling back to London.
On Day 10, we decided to enjoy a home-made breakfast as we needed to be on time for the airport. We left the hotel room and waited outside for the taxi. Our plane trip back to London was uneventful, and finally we took a taxi back to our flat in London.
We had an amazing trip, I was able to prove that every trip even to the same can be different as long as you are willing to try something different every time. However, there is something that will never change and is that I love Spanish food and the best place to taste is at Plaza Mayor near the city centre. Madrid is an amazing city and there are many ways to experience it depending of your own taste.
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