A weekend in Madrid

I’m definitely making the most of all this free time I’ve got at the moment and trying to get some travelling done! A few weekends ago I went on a short trip to Madrid. This was pretty last minute, but it’s somewhere I’ve wanted to go for a while as the only place I've been to in Spain is Barcelona.

We got to our hotel at around 2pm, and headed straight out as we only had a couple of days. We stopped for a quick lunch at a small cafe called Valentina where we got sandwiches. We wanted something small, but turns out these sandwiches were more like baguettes. I had a spanish potato omelette one which was sooo good (I love potato with all my heart). 

We then spent the afternoon in Parque El Retiro which was beautiful- full of botanical gardens, palaces and statues. My personal favourite was the palace made of glass, and the only bad bit was the weather. But even then the rain was on and off, a few drizzles with some sun in between. There were also peacocks EVERYWHERE, which I loved. I even managed to see a male peacock raise its feathers and try to attract a female 1m away from me, which felt like a David Attenborough documentary moment. There was also a really nice outdoor cafe where we got fresh smoothies and sat under a parasol until the rain stopped.

   

When researching things to do in Madrid, I read the Prado is an absolute must. It’s a museum with free access between 6-8pm, and free whenever with your student card! It was fascinating, but to be honest I’m not much of an art person so after a couple of hours I was ready to move on to something else. 

In the evening we went to Plaza Mayor, which was so lively. We walked around the shops and markets for ages, until we got hungry. We went to 100 Montaditos (which apparently is in lots of european cities). We were initially attracted by the €1.50 pints, but then realised they did food too. We all got food plus drinks for €10, but I mean, you get what you pay for in terms of quality. We were pretty tired from travelling and walking so we called it a day and walked back to the hotel, of course getting some churros on the way back. Not gonna lie, the chocolate was disappointing. It tasted like hot chocolate rather than melted chocolate.

Our second day started bright and early, with a visit to the Egyptian temple of Debod and a walk down to the Royal Palace and gardens. No Peacocks this time sadly, but a lot of sun for some good pictures. 

We then went to the Real Madrid stadium, and my brother went on the tour. My mum and I weren’t that keen to spend €25 on something we weren’t that interested in, so we had a wander around the business district of Madrid and saw some of the parks and monuments around there. We also went to a shopping centre for a cup of tea which was just appalling- why can you never get good tea abroad??

We also saw an Auschwitz exhibition which looked really moving but we didn't have time to properly explore. Definitely something I want to do next time I go. I did manage to see a wagon from a train which was used to bring people to concentration camps, and even that was an incredibly emotional experience.

For our last dinner of the trip, went to the Cafe De La Reina, and had some amazing tapas and paella! Paella is one of my favourite dishes ever, and seafood is my absolute favourite, so I was sooo happy to be getting a fresh seafood paella with squid, prawns and mussels. And some of the house wine, which was basically the same price as water so would be rude not too, really. We ended with a bit of souvenir shopping (classic) before going back to the hotel to pack.

It was such a nice weekend away! I would definitely recommend it, there's a lot to do (we didn't have time to do all of it) and even a bit of rain didn't stop us from having a great time.