It is possible to see Madrid in a day!

After Pamplona, all a bit run down from the lack of sleep, it was a bit daunting to be showing up in one of the largest cities in Spain: Madrid.  But we found our way from the airport, through the metro, and to our hotel, the centrally located Emperador Hotel.  Upon entering our room, however, were overwhelmed with the smell of pinesol! Usually Travers and I rarely ever complain about a room to the hotel, and we debated on saying anything this time. But the longer we sat in that room, the less I wanted to be in there. The smell was horrible, the wall-paper was peeling, the room was dark and it felt like a miserable place to be. So we drew straws and decided Travers should call the receptionist to see if we could change rooms. He was extremely polite about it, but the woman was not budging, saying that all the rooms were the same, and that none of them had views or were bigger. Well, we weren't calling about the size or the view. We were calling about the smell!  That fired me up, so we grabbed our bags, went downstairs and I marched up to the desk to talk to this woman in person. And I was very polite, but also very stern emphasizing that I could not stand the smell of pinesol and that there needed to be another room for us. After a few hesitations, she finally gave us a new room on a higher floor that really wasn't that much better looking, but the smell was much better, and there was actually a bit of light that entered the room through the window so we didn't feel like we were in a dungeon anymore. Yay!

After finally getting settled, we immediately put our swimsuits on and made our way to the roof deck pool area, which was one of the reasons we decided to stay at the Emperador to begin with. It was a decent sized pool with a lot of lounge chairs in various areas, playing Coldplay over the speakers, and a drink server to bring us some cool refreshments. And after the long night in Pamplona, all we wanted to do at that moment was relax in the sun, so we did just that.

A few hours later, it was time to meet up with my cousin, Melissa and her husband Greg. They happened to be in Madrid for one overlapping day with us, so we decided to meet up with them and have dinner that night before they caught their flight the next morning back to the states. They came over to our hotel and we introduced them to Mike and Shelley, and had some champagne in the lobby while we all caught up.  We then found this restaurant in a guide book that is supposedly the world's oldest restaurant, Restaurant Botin. We strolled through Plaza Mayor, and past lots of shops and people and street performers, and found the restaurant behind the plaza.

The restaurant was in a several stories tall building, and they brought us up to the top floor. The building definitely looked old, with big wooden beams and creaky floors, but the decor was nice and authentic feeling, the service was very friendly and the food was delicious.









Since Melissa and Greg had to get up early the next day, and the four of us were all tired from Pamplona still, after dinner, we called it a night, and said our goodbyes. It was great to see my cousin and catch up as she lives in St. Louis and I rarely got to see her when we lived in SF.

The next morning, after a very restful nights sleep, we decided to see as much of Madrid as possible. Travers mapped out the city and basically became our tour guide for the day. We only got lost a few times (according to Travers we were never lost, just missed a turn here and there), and with a little help from Shelley, we went on a tour of the city, seeing lots of plazas and buildings along the way.

Travers and Shelley mapping our route

Not sure what Mike's doing behind us

We walked for several hours, through tons of plazas that were a bit underwhelming at times, all the while Travers giving us a brief comment or history about what we were seeing. We went through different neighborhoods, and made our way across the city, sweating in the heat. All getting a bit tired, we decided to head towards the high-end shopping district, where there were supposedly some good restaurants and a few nice streets to walk down. We ended up taking a wrong turn, making the walk a bit longer than necessary, so were extremely relieved to eventually find a place to eat: a fun asian fusion restaurant. We had tasty thai and asian dishes and enjoyed the air conditioned restaurant and the relief on our feet by sitting down for an hour while we ate.

After lunch, Shelley and I did some window shopping, and then some actual shopping in the Zara store, while the boys tried not to get too bored. We decided that we were all a bit exhausted, so the boys headed back to the hotel to sun-bathe, while Shelley and I shopped a bit more, then finally calling it quits to join the boys on the roof.

We rested for a couple hours, sun-bathing, sleeping, and swimming, then got ready for our evening. We were headed towards Museo Del Prado, which had free entry between 6p and 8p (thanks to a tip from my cousin!). By the time we got there we only had about 45 minutes to walk through the museum, which was plenty for the boys, and enough for me and Shelley to get our fill as well. As one of the more well-known museums in Spain, we figured we had to go and check it out, at least to just say that we'd been there. As we're not normally big museum goers, this was a big accomplishment.

After the museum, we walked to the nearby Parque del Retiro, which had a large pond in the center where people could rent boats and hang out on the water, while others sat along the pathway that surrounded it. While we didn't get in the pond, we sat on a bench nearby, watching all the people, wondering if anyone was going to fall out of their boat into the water. Unfortunately, no one did.

We made our way for a traditionally late dinner back to a neighborhood that we had gone to earlier in the day, choosing a restaurant that had pizzas and asian fusion and nachos on their menu. It was perfect for our group and it was a more modern restaurant that was the total opposite of what we had the night before. After dinner, we wandered the streets, enjoying the city as much as we could. We found an old bar called La Venencia where they are known more for their sherry than their whiskey. The boys enjoyed both, while Shelley and I got scolded for trying to take a photo! (Shelley still managed to get this one though!)

Still a bit exhausted from our tour earlier in the day, and a bit sluggish from the heat, we opted for some chocolate dipped churros for dessert at the famous San Ginés, then called it a night.  While Madrid is a nice large city, and we saw some great things, I will say it wasn't my favorite of all the places we visited. I will probably go back, but more for a specific event, like a football match (that's soccer to all of you), or a bull fight (which we weren't able to see in Pamplona, but that are very popular in Madrid as well).  The next day we were headed to Sevilla, our 4th city on this 10 day trip, and now one of my favorites. Stay tuned...