We had a short weekend trip down to Madrid this past weekend (we left early Saturday and returned Sunday late afternoon). We woke up at 3:45 a.m. so we could catch the 4:43 tram to make it to the airport in time for our 6:10 a.m. flight (eek). It was all worth it though, as Madrid was fun. We were surprised at how clean the city was and the architecture was great. Surprisingly our fabulous hotel let us check-in at 9:00 a.m., so we dropped off our bags and went out to find breakfast. We found a cute local cafe by the Opera building and the Palace, the largest in Europe (and apparently part of it is getting turned into a hotel in the near future!?). Right next door is the Catedral de la Almudena, which looks old but was completed in 1993.
Afterwards we hit Plaza Mayor and joined a walking tour to see the Austrian part of the city and learn a little about the history (Spain was ruled by the Habsburg family in the 16-17th centuries, hence the Austrian section of town).
Right next door to Plaza Mayor is the old San Miguel market, a fancy foodie market with stalls selling snacks, full meals and wine. It was really nice and a bit more upscale than we expected.
After the tour we hit the pedestrian shopping zone looking for lunch, but unfortunately we weren't the only ones as all the restaurants were full. We finally found a burrito place near the swanky shopping area, which was good but not what we were looking for. Afterwards we continued to the Salamanca neighborhood to see where the rich and famous hang out. Here Matt continued his shopping spree and scored a cool pair of monk boots, on sale of course!
At 6:00 p.m. the Prado opens its doors to the public for free, so we thought we would do a quick walk-through. But upon getting there we found a line a mile long so we decided to forgo the museum and visit a neighboring church before heading back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.
On Sunday we thought we would go to the modern Reina Sofía Museum (Matt thought it was free in the morning), but we actually found out it was free in the evening so we skipped it. Instead, we headed to Retiro park. The weather was gorgeous today (sun and no wind, yay) and there were lots of runners and walkers in the park.
From the park we walked across town via Gran Via to the Temple of Debod, an actual Egyptian temple that was donated to Spain in the 1960's. It is located on a hill with great views of the city. Huh, don't remember this from our last trip!
From here we visited San Francisco el Grande (a basilica) and then walked through the tapas district La Latina. Then it was back to the hotel and off to the airport. Short but fun.
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