Second Day in Madrid

 We woke up early on our second morning to take a highlights of Madrid tour. The walking tour of the neighborhood was great and then they took us around by bus to see more of Madrid, it was hard to see as well. 

The bus dropped us off near the Prado museum and we took a tour later that afternoon. The museum was very crowded. What really struck me was that so many of the paintings were huge. It kind of diluted the grandeur a bit because at museums at home, you only get so many that would need a whole wall to themselves, but in the Prado so many were life sized. One painting of one of the former kings looked very dark and looked like it needed restoration but our guide explained to us that it was in the palace when it caught fire and the staff through it out the window to save it. 

After the Prado, we met a guide at the Reina Sofia museum. This museum was significantly less crowded and more modern art. It was great to have a guide bring us through cubism and surrealism because for someone who didn’t have a lot of art education, it’s hard to fully figure out what each painting is about. Our guide was amazing and she seemed very happy to have female guests. She took us through a few pieces by a prominent 20th century female artist Ángeles Santos Torroella and how her pieces were commentary on gender social issues of her time. 

After the museum, we took the metro back to our neighborhood and found dinner in a very random restaurant. It was in the basement of a shop that sold purses and other things, the decoration was like a sun room from Palm Beach. I couldn’t tell you what kind of food it was but we really liked what we ordered. 

Early bed time for us to try to catch up on sleep. 

First Day in Madrid

 We arrived at the Madrid airport around 630am local time and after navigating the airport, customs, COVID verification and getting our bags it was around 8am when we got to our driver.

Fortunately our hotel room was available for us to check in immediately to nap. I couldn’t sleep on the plane at all despite my best efforts so I was very grateful. Unfortunately, they were renovating the room next door. We were able to switch rooms though which was a bit of a challenge on an hour of sleep. 

In the afternoon, we took a guided tour of the Royal Palace. Walking into the large courtyard was breath taking. The palace was just room after room of opulence. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in most of the rooms, but the banquet hall was probably the most memorable. The table was set for 140 and to say that everything was aligned perfectly would down play the amount of effort that clearly goes into setting that table. Mr Carson would have been in heaven. They use a string to make sure everything is in a straight line all the way down. Our tour guide say they wear special socks and gloves to move the centerpieces and they’re so heavy it takes two people. 

After a much needed water stop, we visited the Cathedral of Santa Maria. It was very ornate and they let you take pictures in most of the places which was a stark contrast to the Palace across the plaza. 

We wandered the neighborhood for a while and got gelato before meeting up with our food tour. We had such a great time on the food tour and ate and drank so much. In our group there were 4 other Americans (mother & son duos) and 1 woman from Scotland. Our tour guide Pedro was born and raised in Madrid and explained things about the neighborhood and why he picked the restaurants and dishes at each of our four stops. The tour ended up going for over 4 hours. We first had battered cod, which was actually salted cod they had rehydrated and a cod croquette. Mom tasted the dry sherry wine and I had a beer. 

The next stop we had what Pedro called a mini stew. It ended up being kind of deconstructed stew with the ingredients on a plate with a cup of broth and a hunk of bread. (Bread is Spain is crusty like in Italy which we are very excited about). The stew is typically more of a winter dish but it’s so prominent in Madrid food culture (it’s typically made at home) it was included as a stop on the tour. 

We then got a full education in jamón. So many varieties and a lot of things depend on the variety of pig. I don’t typically like chorizo but did really like the one we had on the tour. We also skeptically tried black sausage (blood sausage) and it was really good. 

After jamón and cava, we ended the night with churros and chocolate. The chocolate was very rich but not too sweet. 

It was a great start to the trip! 

Counting down to Spain

 Getting ready to head out to Spain in less than 2 weeks after making our plans in 2019.

I will be blogging here again for everyone to keep track of our adventures. 

Stay tuned! 

Fitbit Log

Here's how much we walked in miles for each week. It was a lot!

First week log

Second week log

Last Day

For our last morning, we took a water bus to the island of Murano. It took about 40 minutes and was totally worth the trip. 

We walked along what seemed like the main stretch for a while and went into A LOT of shops and saw A LOT of glass. We bought a few things. It’s hard to not spend money you don’t have to buy things you can’t carry home. The glass pieces range from absolutely cheesy to high art and the prices go along with it. We met a former glass blower who runs a shop with things made by either his father or other glass blowers if they’re better at a particular item than their family. 

We continued to shop for a while and then stopped for pizza before taking the water bus back to the main section of Venice. From there, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim collection. It was a breath of fresh air to see modern art. She has a pretty sizable collection. It seems like she went into a panic as World War II was heating up and bought a lot of paintings. She also fostered up and coming artists like Jackson Pollack and had 11 pieces by him alone. The building was an unfinished palace that she had purchased and lived in before turning everything into a museum. You can go out the back of one gallery and sit along the Grand Canal. It would not be a sucky place to live. 

After the museum we rested a little then went out in the neighborhood for last minute shopping and dinner. We had dinner at Osteria alla Staffa (where we had lunch a different day). It was soooo good. My shrimp came unpeeled and with the heads on so I felt like I made a huge mess. It was like eating mini lobsters but inside and without hand wipes after. 

We stopped in Piazza San Marco to listen to the music and so Mom could get a Bellini before heading back to our hotel to pack. It was a mild undertaking. 

Heading home 😭 thanks everyone for reading. I’m going to go back and edit my posts and post captions when I’m back on a real computer. Posting via iPad was not the easiest. 

Venice Day 2

For our first full day in Venice, we met with our local host and had a half day tour of Venice. We walked over to Piazza San Marco which is the only real square in Venice. The rest of Venice has little “Campos” which are just smaller little squares. 

We started at Palazzo Ducale with our tour guide. It’s a beautiful building and different than what we saw in Rome & Florence. It was used for government business and also had a jail. There is a big room that almost looks like a grand ballroom. It doesn’t have any columns supporting the ceiling in the middle of the room because they hired ship builders to build the room. It’s essentially an upside ship hull.  We also got to walk through the Bridge of Sighs. 

After the palace, we went to the Cathedral of San Marco. It was stunning but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. The ceilings were covered in gold mosaics. Such a different style from the other churches we have seen. 

After the church, we went to see a glass blowing demonstration and shopped in the store a little. It’s so impressive what they can do with glass. 

After leaving our group, we wandered Venice for the rest of the day and had lunch at this great Osteria. The men who were running the restaurant were jamming out to American 80s music and making really good food.  After lunch, we stopped at this famous bookstore: Acqua Alta (high water). They have taken some of the books damaged in floods and made stairs out of them. 

We wandered around Venice for the rest of the day. We got gelato at Suso: mint & dark chocolate for me, chocolate orange and toffee caramel for Mom. After resting in the hotel for a while, we went out for dinner and then went to see a performance of Vivaldi by musicians in period costumes. 

Venice Day 1

This morning we made our way to the train station after breakfast to catch a train to Venice. In Florence, they have porters take your bags back and forth to the hotel and you walk to the station without dragging a suitcase across a skinny stone sidewalk. When we first arrived it seemed strange, but after watching people struggle all week, I’m glad we had that service. 

We took another bullet train to Venice. It took about 2 hours and was comfortable. When arrived in Venice, we got off the train and gave our bags to porters again. This time, they put our suitcases on a boat and brought them to our hotel. We took a water taxi to our hotel area. We aren’t staying close to the main canal so we had to walk a little also. 

Venice is made up of over 100 islands and has over 400 bridges connecting them. The streets aren’t remotely grid like so it’s very easy to get lost. After checking into the hotel, we found food. I had I gnocchi with shrimp and Mom had pasta. We wandered around for a few hours before meeting our evening food tour. 

The food tour was appetizer themed. We stopped at 4 places and had a glass of wine and a small bite at each place. Everything was delicious. Before our first stop, our guide took us on a gondola to cross the canal. Instead of putting us on an over priced touristy one, we got on one the locals use to cross quickly. All 12 of us crammed on board and stood the whole way (like locals). We had prosecco, sparkling red wine, and everything in between. We are squid cooked in its ink over polenta, and different crostini. Everything was SO good and we all had a lot of fun together. 

After the food tour, we got on a water bus to take the long way around the canal to see more of Venice from the water. It was beautiful. We grabbed dinner in the hotel restaurant and went to bed. It was a long day!