Our first trip together in 2022! My boss asked me to come to Madrid for a meeting so it seemed like a good excuse for a weekend in Spain. We headed off a few days early to play tourist…

The morning flight from Madrid featured gorgeous scenery.

We were staying at the Eurostars Madrid Tower, which isn’t close to the city but is close to my office. We were very lucky and the weather was absolutely beautiful. From our hotel room, we could see mountains in the far distance.

It was lunchtime, so we headed to the nearby Paprika Cafe. It’s a very small place, but the food is outstanding. I had gnocchi with oxtail and truffle, and we shared a piece of cheesecake for dessert. The guy at the cafe told us that the cheesecake had cream, blue, and parmesan cheese, and it wasn’t super sweet. Delicious though.

The Snook had a homemade pastrami sandwich, and he really enjoyed it.

After a few hours napping and relaxing back at the hotel, we caught the metro into the city. I had booked us into a tour with Walk and Eat Spain, and to our delight, we found we were the only ones on it! So we ended up with our own personal guide, Margit, an American expat who made us feel right at home.

The tour took us to several venues in Malasańa, a pretty happening part of the city. Our first stop was Mozzare Atelier de Quesos y Lacteos, a cheese shop and wine bar. We had several different local cheeses, including a “mystery” cheese that definitely wasn’t Parmigiano (because of course, that name is protected) but bore a, uh, strong resemblance! 😂🧀

It was a beautiful night to wander around Madrid.

Look at this gorgeous fellow.

As we walked through Malasańa, Margit told us about local history and about daily life in Madrid.

Our second stop was local vermutería called Pepe y Josefa. We had vermouth (on tap!) and some lovely garlicky green olives.

We also had tostas – toast with tomato puree and thinly sliced jamón ibérico on top.

Our next stop was Bodegas El Maño, which was heaving. Thankfully because of the tour we had a reserved table in the corner.

We had beers and patatas bravas, which I LOVE. We dunked the hot, crispy potatoes in chili sauce and aioli.

The final stop was Bodegas Rivas, where we had seared red tuna with tomato, ginger, and soy sauce. Oh, and more wine. 🍷

What a fun night! We said goodbye to Margit and headed back to the hotel.

It was another beautiful day the next morning. We had breakfast at the hotel and thankfully weren’t too hungover from the night before.

We caught a cab to the city for our next adventure, a “combo tour” of the Royal Palace of Madrid and the Prado Museum. We headed for the Plaza de Oriente bright and early to find the Monument to Philip IV and meet up with our tour group.

Our first stop was the Royal Palace of Madrid…

Once we went through security, we found ourselves in the Plaza de la Armería. There’s a grand statue of King Charles III of Spain.

We entered the Palace via the Grand Staircase…

At the top you’re greeted by the Coat of Arms of Spain. This Palace isn’t just a tourist destination; it’s the official residence of the Spanish royal family! (These days it’s really only used for state ceremonies though.)

And then you look up, …and WOW. Those ceiling frescoes are by Corrado Giaquinto, and they’re breathtaking.

Selfie time!

There’s really only one room of the tour you’re allowed to take photos in, which is this one. Our tour guide mentioned that it’s been used for a lot of state occasions. The carpet is rolled up so it doesn’t get worn down with all the tourists traipsing through, and it also gives a view of that beautiful marble floor. (Our guide spoke to us via little wireless earpieces, which is what the Snook’s wearing there.)

Real tapestries on the walls! Pretty sure she said they came from famous tapestry weavers in Germany.

That’s the point where we went into the parts of the palace you’re not allowed to photograph. And let me tell you – we’ve visited several castles and palaces over the years, and most of them aren’t nearly as luxurious or, well, palatial as I expected. Either the original furnishings are long gone, or the owners ran out of money to complete more than few rooms of their folly. (*cough* LUDWIG) But this one? This one was stunning. Many of the rooms were decorated in a lavish Rococo style, which the Snook found creepy but I absolutely loved. The banqueting hall was mind-blowing. It took us an hour to get through all the different rooms.

At this point, we had a short break before we began the next stage of the tour. The Snook and I used it by soaking up the sun in the Plaza.

From the Plaza, you’ve got a lovely look down into the Campo del Moro Gardens.

One last shot of the facade of the Palace against a clear blue sky.

At this point, the combo tour takes you on about an hour’s walk across the city. (If you go directly it’s only about 25 minutes, but our guide wanted to show us some highlights.) We started up the Calle Mayor, one of the most important streets in Madrid.

Along the way, we learned about how in 1906 an anarchist tried to assassinate King Alfonso XIII and his new bride Princess Victoria Eugenie as they passed in their wedding carriage. The King and Queen survived, but others did not. Now there’s a memorial in front of the Monastery of San Jerónimo.

This is the Casa de la Villa (old city hall) in the Plaza de la Villa in the Palacio neighbourhood.

Off the Plaza, our tour guide made a special point of taking us to Calle del Codo. This is a very narrow street with a ninety-degree bend in it, which is why the name translates to “Elbow Street.” (You can see the sign with the bent arm on it.)

At last we made it to the Plaza Mayor, a famous major public square in the city. I loved the frescoes on the outside of the Casa de la Panaderia.

We had been told that the Plaza was usually crowded with tourists (and thus a target for pickpockets), but thankfully it wasn’t too bad that day.

We left the Plaza via the Arco de Cuchilleros and walked down the Cava de San Miguel. Our tour guide was very excited to show us Sobrino de Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world in continuous operation!

We wound back around to the Plaza and then headed out the other end at Calle de la Sal (“Salt Street”).

This gorgeous place – the Petit Palace Posada del Peine – is a 400-year-old hotel!

Our next landmark was the Puerta del Sol (“Gate of the Sun”), another famous public square in Madrid.

One of the landmarks in the square is a statue of a bear and a strawberry tree. It represents the coat of arms of Madrid, and our tour guide told us it was good luck to touch the bear. (You can see that his heel and his tail are showing wear from lots of touching by thousands of people!)

This is the Palacio de las Cortes (Palace of the Parliament) where the lower house of the Spanish legislature meets. They had banners up for International Women’s Day when we were there.

Finally we reached our destination – the Prado Museum, housing one of the finest collections of European art in the world.

Our guide led us inside and on a whirlwind tour of the museum highlights. Honestly, you could’ve spent an entire day in there but we’d already been on our feet for 4+ hours so we were flagging. No photos were allowed, but I was mesmerised by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. We both loved Rubens’s The Three Graces and Velázquez’s Las Meninas. I also admired Caravaggio’s David and Goliath (which we’d see later version of, a week later in Vienna). The final room of the tour was all Goya, including his bleak The Dog and Saturn Devouring his Son. (I bought the latter as a fridge magnet. 😳)

The next day I worked from the AWS office while the Snook went off on his own adventure. At one point, I was surprised to spot the tour bus of the Paris Saint-Germain football club outside our hotel! (Sadly, I did not spot Lionel Messi at the hotel breakfast buffet that morning…)

While I was working, Rodd headed into the city again. He was delighted to get to see the towers of the Gate of Europe, which apparently feature prominently in a Spanish-Italian film from the 90’s called The Day of the Beast. (He’s adamant I’m going to have to watch it someday.)

His destination was the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (National Archaeology Museum), and he spent a couple hours exploring its treasures. He said, “They basically have the whole history of human habitation on the Iberian peninsula, from the initial migration out of Africa through to the Moorish period.”

He saw prehistoric art carved on bones, loads of gold treasure from the Celtic period, and quite a lot of Roman marbles. He especially liked this carved and gilded wooden dome ceiling.

After the Museum, he went to check out the nearby Buen Retiro Park. He got a shot of the Monument to Alfonso XII across the pond.

One final shot across the Retiro. Look at those fabulous trees! Thanks for a lovely weekend, Madrid…

We have been incredibly fortunate to get to travel, even during the pandemic. I had a recent work event in Barcelona and so the Snook decided to accompany me. We headed there a few days early so we had time to play tourist.

Neither of us had ever been to Barcelona before. Actually, other than a short work trip the Snook made to Madrid 20 years ago, neither of us had ever really been to Spain! We caught a Saturday afternoon flight from Munich and were there within a couple hours. We checked into our hotel and then went out in search of dinner. It was a lovely night.

It was nice to see palm trees again! We had made a 9pm restaurant booking off a recommendation from my boss Enrique, and we had plenty of time to walk through the city and explore. Our route took us past the gates of the famous Citadel Park.

Our dinner booking was at Passadis del Pep. We honestly had no idea what to expect. Our first challenge was just finding the place – there’s no sign, and you enter through an unobtrusive hallway. We noticed right away that our 9pm reservation – which felt quite late for us – was actually the first sitting of the night, as the place was still pretty empty!

Our waiter was an older guy who thankfully spoke a little English. “We have no menu,” he said. “We cook whatever is fresh and in season. Are you happy to be surprised?” We said we were. The starter was the classic “pa amb tomàquet” (bread with tomato) with some olives and chips.

I knew we were going to be in for a lot of seafood! Next course was a tuna tartare doused in olive oil with some crisp toasts.

The food just kept coming. Next was a pot of all different clams and pippis. This was my first time ever having razor clams! The Snook was in heaven, and we eagerly sopped up the pot liquor with bread.

See? Told you he was happy.

Next we had grilled Padrón peppers with sea salt, and a plate of lightly battered and fried baby shrimps. I was dubious of the Snook’s advice to just eat them, legs and all, but they were so tiny they had crisped up like French fries!

Little grilled squids! Just the right amount of char…

Next up was a local specialty of wild mushrooms with a very rich sauce. (Definitely butter, maybe even some egg yolks?) I liked this, but the Snook wasn’t as much of a fan.

At this point I noticed there was giant Jamón on a special stand behind the Snook. *drool*

These were like a langoustine, I think? With some sweet caramelised onions on top.

Yet more prawns! At this point we were getting pretty full, and there was no sign of the parade of dishes coming to an end. I flagged down our charming waiter to ask him how much more there was to come. “Steak or fish?” he replied. “Steak,” I sighed.

Our final “main” course was a beautifully rare steak along with garlic and rosemary fries. It was delicious, definitely the best steak we’d had since leaving Australia. We were so stuffed though!

But we were feeling great. We drank an entire bottle of a local Catalan wine. That probably helped.

Dessert was thankfully very light – just a couple scoops of lemon sorbet, and then our choice of a couple digestivs. I went for the cream liqueur, while the Snook went for the “Bruja” (which he said reminded him of grappa). What a great start to our Barcelona mini-break!

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