I had always dreamed of visiting Spain—a country with such a long history, I’m sure there must a lot of see! Finally, we have family trip to Spain during Christmas holidays, and it started from Madrid, the capital of Spain!
We tried to look for the cheapest flight tickets, so we took AEROFLOT AIRLINE (for the 1st time) and transited at Moscow. Moscow was already totally covered with snow. Even just a small walk for transit, the air outside was freezing cold.
We had too many luggages, and when we arrived Madrid, it was already almost midnight, so we took a Taxi to our Apartments (by booking.com) at the center of city. The apartment was not obvious from the outside, very difficult to find. Also, it seems that front door of all the buildings in Spain are locked, requires interphone to communicate to the inside, so if nobody answers you, you’ll have to keep standing outside in the cold…
However, once inside, the building was beautiful and clean, had old hard wood floors and elegant stairs. But again, we were surprised with so complicated lock systems on the door. It took us a long time to figure out how to lock and unlock even with the key!
As you can see, it’s lovely one bedroom apartment, with a sofa bed & balcony in living room, kitchen bathroom and everything. But the dishwasher and washing machine detergents are so different from Japan, and all the buttons were written in Spanish. Again, it took us a while to figure out how to use them…
All in all, this accommodation was the one that I loved the most, during our stays in Spain. It was very spacious and comfortable. Also, it was just 5min walk, one straight road to the main street!
Next morning, I woke up at 3-4am due to jetlag, so I went to a morning run just to the main street.
There was a MacDonald as soon as I hit the main street, it opens 24 hours, and there were some customers even at this early hour! I also passed by windows of many restaurants, which were still closed. There were so many yummy Spanish foods! I couldn’t wait to try them!
The next morning I finally got to see outside of our window/balcony. It was so lovely!
The first day, we already visited one of the famous museums, Reina Sofia. You can find more information in the following site. Indeed, it was eye-opening. In Japan, there is no way you would find a museum with such a large collection of so many famous European artists.
https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en
And then, we took a walk in some local park, and had some typical Spanish dishes as lunch.
At night, the streets became much more beautiful. I felt lucky to have came during Christmas time. The Christmas decorations in Madrid were so different, and so much prettier than Japan! There were different designs of decoration on each streets! We tried the tacos takeout for dinner!
Spain is famous for leather goods, so I bought myself a pair of short boots! The leather is so soft and smooth, the boots are so light, I love them! I think Spanish shoes are similar to Italian shoes.
The great thing about stay in a suite (an apartment) instead of a hotel is that —- I can eat anytime!!
Even woke up at 3am, I could take out the ham & cheese from the fridge, use the toaster to warm up my beloved Croissant… a Croissant sandwich and hot coffee with milk, PERFECT!!
Then, I went for a morning run in the dark again. It was about 0 degC outside, actually not so cold if you continue to run. The winters in Tokyo is about the same temperature. This day I ran much further down the main street, I passed by some gorgeous buildings and a park. All these statues in the park looked so special under the moonlight. It was a unique experience, enjoying all these old buildings and statues alone under the moonlight… You could say it was scary at night, but at the same time, it felt like you were in a different world!!
Again, I passed by a restaurant with so many hams hanging at the window, I wanted to go inside!!
After returning to the apartment, I suggested to my family that, we must eat breakfast at the restaurant with many hams!! So we did, a very rich breakfast. There, I tried the famous Churros with rich Chocolate Sauce for the 1st time!! I fell in love with it, and ate it many more times during my stays in Spain…
In fact, the Royal Palace of Madrid was only a few kilos from where we stayed, so we walked to the palace after breakfast. The palace requires Entrance fee, but the Royal Chapel next to it doesn’t. The Royal Chapel was built in 1748, as part of the Royal Palace. It too was very beautiful inside. For the Palace, we only peeked from outside the gate, because the entrance to the Palace was too lined up. (Later, I regret that I never visited the inside of this palace. It is better to buy tickets online in advance.)
On the way back, we passed by some beautiful garden, and the popular San Miguel Market and Plaza de San Miguel. It was crowded with people, and showcased with so many good-looking foods. Also, the Plaza with full of interesting shops, restaurants, Christmas decorations and open market.
After lunch, we visited another famous museum, Thyssen Museum. This museum also had a huge collection of different varieties of art and artists, and this museum allows taking photos inside, so I took a few of my favorite paintings. I love that all the paintings of old times could me and insight of how the world was, and how the people lived at that time.
(If you check carefully, some of the museums have open days, usually once a week, which is FREE ENTRY. So, if you stay long enough, and come on the open day, you can save yourself a few bucks!!)
https://www.museothyssen.org/en
Yeah!! That night I finally got to eat Paella!!
Paella is the most best well-known Spanish dish. It is basically cooking and mixing rice, seafoods and vegetables all in a huge flat pan on open fire until the water dries up. It is usually seasoned with saffron, turmeric etc. so it usually has a yellow color.
In fact, my love of Paella is one of the reasons why I picked Spain to visit. I love Paella, especially Squid Ink Paella (but my family only let us ordered it once during our stays…) However, I need to mention that the “real” Paella in Spain are often so salty. It was a little bit too much salt and too strong taste for Asians like us.
There are very few Spanish restaurants in Japan, and there were eye-watering expensive! I wanted to eat as many Paella as possible… but my family was tired of Paella after a few times… It was so sad.
The next morning, I woke up before Dawn again. I ran through the same path where I’ve walked during daytime. I wanted to see the Palace again!! And so I did!!
I passed by the unknown garden, and the Plaza de San Miguel . They were all empty now. There were only Moonlight and me in the world. The moon was so round and clear at that time. Everything looked magical under the Moonlight. It was a world that only I could see. It was too beautiful to describe. I think I would never forget what I saw that night. I returned to the Palace. It was cold outside, but I enjoyed watching the Palace piece by piece. It was so old yet the structure was so beautiful. There, I saw the sky gradually changed color. The tip of the Chapel and Palace slowly turned into pink. There was also an unknown but beautiful church, with an interesting maze park. Slowly, night turned into day. The magic was gone! So, I returned to real life and the cozy apartment.
This morning, we had breakfast at an adorable cafe. In fact, the cafe was so pretty and their Churros with rich Chocolate Sauce was THE BEST that I ever ate, I recommend it to anyone! You can find the link below.
https://chocolateriatacitadeplata.es/
And then, we finally visited the famous Prado Museum. I think there is no need to introduce this one, but I attach the link below anyway. A MUST-SEE.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en
We passed by some landmark on the way. It was interesting to see the LEGO in some department store window showing some famous places in Spain!
We tried other Spanish dishes in a restaurant, and we walked around an indoor market. There were too many foods on display. There were many varieties of shops, ham shops, cheese shops, olive shops, cookie shops… As I was the only one who wanted to eat paella again, takeout!! Here you can see the typical big flat fry pan which they use to cook paella. Also, I bought home too many meat pies, breads and cookies, because I wanted to try everything!
The remaining days, we continued to enjoy the holiday mood on the streets, interesting window decorations and attractive foods everywhere…
This was my little adventure!! I wanted to eat Paella so much that, one afternoon I went to look for a famous restaurant alone, and walked in alone. Of course, alone I could only order one Paella! But it tasted so good, and the size was too big!! I was too full at the end. I also remember the cheese and fish roe served with the bread were very good!
While staying at Madrid, we also made a few wonderful Day Trips around. Please also check out the following posts for my Day Trips!!
This is the end of my Madrid trip, but it is not the end of my Spain trip! Please also check out my other posts of Spain!!
P.S.
On the way to go, it was not much trouble, except the (Russian?) foods on board tasted awful. However, on the way back, we missed our connection flight at transit, due to poor/messy management at Moscow airport (they kept all the people on hold, because some “important person” was passing through) we, together with several other flights, many people all missed our connection flight, had to stand at the crowded counters for many hours (in our case, from 8-9pm to 3-4am) to wait for re-arrangements, and had to spend a night sleeping inside the airport… The workers and security people in Moscow airport mostly only spoke Russian. Also, they were not helpful at all (such as, showing directions etc.) Other than the Airline Counter, nobody helped us.
So, if I could warn anybody — NEVER TAKE AEROFLOT AIRLINE, and NEVER TRANSIT AT MOSCOW AIRPORT (unless you are going to Moscow)!
