Sophie and I took a short trip to Europe in January to visit her parents in the south of France. We found a flight deal on Iberia Airlines to Madrid, and then flew to Toulouse. On our return home we spent five days in and around Madrid, which we had never visited before. Our home base was the Sleep’N hotel in the center of Madrid near the Atocha train station. From there it was easy to explore Madrid and take day trips to the nearby cities of Toledo and Segovia.
A train connects Atocha directly to the airport. We were able to use ApplePay on our phones right at the station turnstiles, so no need to figure out how to buy tickets. The train ride from the airport was only $2.83. We took trains, buses and the subway to get around and found it inexpensive and easy to navigate.
We went to a nearby restaurant for an early supper on our first evening in Madrid. We enjoyed local wines with an assortment of regional Spanish cheeses, and also tried Galician tuna pie. It was a very lively place – with what seemed like mostly locals enjoying the evening.
We started our next day in Madrid with a bike tour from Atocha Bikes in the city center to help us get oriented. It was a brisk Sunday in January, but the city was busy and vibrant with locals out for strolls and fresh air. We were impressed with people having drinks and snacks at outdoor cafes despite temps only in the 40s. This did not seem to phase the Spaniards in the least. It was fun being in a city where everyone enjoyed the outdoors so much.
Our tour guide bikes everyday from home to work and stops at the Retiro Park during his commute morning and evening. He has befriended the couple of black swans that live there and we got in on the action when Luna came to say hello and grabbed a snack!
In the afternoon we visited the Thyssen art museum, which was like a walk through western art history. It has great examples from each period including an impressive display of impressionist paintings. I have included some of our favorites below.
1890, Van Gogh
We ended the evening at Cervecería Cervantes, a tapas bar that specialized in octopus and beer.
Our next two days were spent visiting the cities of Toledo and Segovia, which you can read about in separate posts.
On our final day in Madrid, we were blessed with sunny skies and temps in the 60s. We walked across the city center to the Royal Palace where we caught the changing of the guards and toured some of the 2800 rooms of this working palace.
We then explored some of the main squares, taking a picture at the symbolic center of Spain, and sampled some of the famous foods of Madrid including fried calamari sandwiches and almond flavored pastries. We ended with the obligatory churros and hot chocolate at the famous Chocolatería San Ginés. You dip the churros in the thick pudding-like chocolate. I had tasted this before in Barcelona, and have to admit I am still not a fan.
At the end of the day we headed to the Reina Sofia modern art museum which features Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting: Guernica. Guernica was a town the dictator Franco let Hitler test his new air force on in 1937. It was the first city subjected to a saturation-bombing raid. The town was leveled and thousands died. Picasso was in exile in Paris at the time and painted the famous piece to help gain support for Spain’s republican efforts to resist fascism, which ultimately failed after a bloody civil war. The painting resided in NYC’s MoMA until after Franco’s death in 1975. The museum was full of interesting modern art pieces, with lots of examples from Spanish favorites Picasso, Miró, Dalí, and Juan Gris.
Madrid and its surrounding area proved to be an easy and interesting place to visit. While it was probably not as pretty in January as it would have been in summer, we enjoyed walking around without worrying about the heat or crowds. The cities were clean, safe and easy to navigate, and we also found everything to be quite affordable.
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