We had 3 days in Madrid, and really enjoyed this city. The first afternoon/night we just walked through the city seeing Peurta del Sol with the famous Tio Pepe sign (both day & night), the Peurta de Alcala (former gateway into the city, again both day and night), enjoyed a sunset beverage on the Hotel Urban's roof terrace (where we stayed - and would highly recommend), before setting out to try and find Chocolateria San Gines, apparently the best place to get the traditional Churros and Chocolate which my Mum had told me about. Took us a while to find it as she'd completely given us the wrong directions, but thanks to some fellow Australian travellers who'd been on a tour and seen it, we eventually found it, and it was very much worth it!
Our second day was a beautiful day, so we did more walking and took in the Palacio Real and the beautiful gardens behind it (which annoyingly only had one entrance/exit), the Monument to Cervantes in the Plaza de Espana, the Reina Sofia Art Gallery to see Picasso's Guernica - this was amazing and the gallery had a brilliant collection of Picasso's, Miro's and Dali's. Ben also had fun with the sunshine taking photos of the beautiful architecture. I imagined that much of the city had been destroyed during the Civil War, so it amazing to see it all so beautifully restored. That night we went to Teatriz Restaurant, which is designed by Philippe Starck. The food was beautiful, but for a packed restaurant it lacked atmosphere, a problem with minimalism.
Our last day started a bit drizzly, but eventually cleared. We went to the Plaza Mayor, where Inquisition Trials were held, the Parque del Retiro (similar to Hyde Park) and then the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which had an amazing collection of artwork. For our last night we went to a more traditional Spanish restaurant called the El Rincon de Esteban. This was a great night out, not so much for the food, but for the atmosphere. We were handed menus, then a few minutes later our waiter was back for our orders, we weren't ready, but he basically told us what to have! We decided to go with the flow, and it worked out well! At the end of the night, about a 3 hour dinner in total, we were given Grappa to drink (so potent that the cork popped out of the bottle itself!) and 2 pens and some olive oil to take home with us!
The next morning it was up early and to the train station for a 5 hour trip to Barcelona. I'm so glad we decided to take the train as there was some beautiful scenery to see on the way.
Our hotel room, Ben in front of 'Fat Tony's' (a character from the Simpsons), one of the many Ham Museums!
Puerta de Alcala by day & night, The Hotel Ritz
Palacio Real, from behind in the Campo del Moro, The Catedral de la Almudena
Statue in the Campo del Moro, Ben in front of the Monument to Cervantes in the Plaza de Espana, Me infront of the bronze bear & strawberry tree in the Puerta del Sol, and one of the many churches.
The Tio Pepe sign at Puerta del Sol, the Plaza Mayor and relaxing on the hotel's roof terrace.
The Chocolateria San Gines, at Teatriz Restaurant and outside Restaurant Estaban, the view from the hotel roof terrace.
The spectacular view from the train.
We arrived in Barcelona where it was an incredible 30 degrees! This would have been great, except for the fact we were both a bit ill (we blamed the Grappa - didn't drink a lot, but it was enough!). But we decided to soldier on and do a walking tour of the architecture of Barcelona, specifically Modernisme in the Eixample area. This includes some amazing buildings (mostly designed as houses for rich people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) by Gaudi, Puig i Cadafalch and others who we'd never heard about before! The most spectacular had to be Gaudi's Casa Mila, which has no straight lines and a roof top that was the fanciest I've ever seen, and the Sagrada Familia, another Gaudi creation.
Our second day was spent walking down the Las Ramblas (if you ever need an chicken, pigeon, hamster, fish or lizard, this is the place to go) and through the port to the beach at Barceloneta. This was a bit of a detour as we were heading to a cable car to take us up to Montjuic, but it was so hot (and the cable car was closed for lunch!!) we seriously considered stripping down and going swimming! Thankfully along the beach there are heaps of bars where we were able to stop for a refreshing ale and some shade! After the refreshment, we were ready to head up the cable car, and we were glad we did as it was a lovely view. Once at Montjuic it was time for more refreshment, this time an icecream, before walking up the hill (I think we were mad in the heat to do this as it's incredibly steep) to the old fort to get some more views over the city. We then took the new cable car down the hill (we did it the wrong way round I know) and a walk back to the hotel. It was definitely time for a shower and a relaxing lie-down before heading out for dinner.
Dinner has to get a mention as it was one of the best places we went to. We'd found it in the guide the hotel gave us, it sounded nice and not pretentious, and it was a lovely experience, so we would recommend Alba Granados to anyone. And if you go, you must have the Ox meat cooked on a red stone. Ben ordered this and at first was a little bit shocked when a massive slab of meat was brought out blue and cut into pieces. The waiter told us to wait and brought out a terracota stone plate that was heated and Ben got to cook his Ox to his own liking!
Our last day we went to the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, a subterranean museum of Roman ruins, these were some of the best ruins I've seen excavated (not quite on the scale of Pompeii and the Roman Forum, but amazing how it's all been excavated underneath existing buildings) and spent the remainder of the day shopping before having to head home. We enjoyed Barcelona, but preferred Madrid. They were two very different cities, but Madrid felt more relaxed and was much easier to get around, but we'll definitely be heading back to both in the future.
Arriving at the train station after the 5 hour trip & a statue in Placa de Catalunya near our hotel
Casa Mila from below....
And on the roof top... lots of phallic symbols!
More amazing buildings on our architecture tour
The Sagrada Familia - stunning, shame about the cranes though
Las Ramblas - an eclectic mix!
Barcelonetta Beach & The Cable Car to Montjuic
The view of Barcelona from the cable car: the harbour, port and beach.
Montjuic - The Fort, a statue and the view over Barcelona
Ben enjoying his Ox Steak at Alba Granados!!
The subterranean Roman ruins, Placa Reial and Restaurant Taxidermista - yes it once was a Taxidermists!
So that was Madrid & Barcelona. We're sorry for the delay in getting this update on the blog, when we were back in London and I had my final week off before starting work, our Sky internet again went on the blink and it took them 5 days to get it fixed! So quite a few more updates to get up on the blog as we've been quite busy over the last month!
Love Ben & Inge xo
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