Madrid, the Market & a whole lot in between

5th - 14th Oct

We arrived in Madrid on a glorious morning after an overnight train ride from Lisbon.  Our connecting train to the north coast & San Sebastian wasn't leaving until 4.30pm, so we spent the day relaxing by the lake in the large park near the Prado Museum.  It was a cloudless autumn day, with lots of people rowing boats across the lake & Jamie enjoying another of Spain's finest brews.

San Sebastian is a 5.5 hour train ride north, so we didn't arrive until 10pm.  Jamie had an uncomfortable feeling about the booking he had made at the pensione in SanSeb (it was over the phone), and well, he was right.  When we found the place, there was no answer at the door, even though we tried for 20 minutes.  Growing desperate & realising that we were at the start of a long weekend for the Spaniards, we started door knocking at different pensiones & hotels, but all were "completo", FULL!  I had visions of sleeping at the train station, until the lovely Jose answered the door in his jammies, & because of a double booking he had a room available.  It turned out as a blessing as the room was clean, spacious & cheaper than the original one we had found.  SanSeb also turned out to be a blessing, with their version of tapas (pinxtos) sitting atop every bar waiting for you to make your choice with a glass of cava (bubbles), blanco/rosado/tinto (white/rose/red wine) or cerveca.  No one really gets going until 9pm, so we have adjusted our internal waking/eating/sleeping clocks by 2 hours!

Back in Madrid we hit the ground running & bought a 3-day metro pass, & a 3-day Madrid Culture Card which paid for itself when we realised it allowed us "special access" or queue jumping at the major palaces & museums!!  It was Spain's national day on Tue 12 October, so a lot of people were in town for a long weekend, and we found queues a mile long at all the major sites we visited: Palacio Real (Royal Palace, a true gem), Prado Museum & Centro Arte de Reino Sofia (priceless works of art by, amongst others Picasso, Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, Murillo, Dali), Real Madrid (their soccer stadium & trophy room), the major bullfighting ring, and various other cultural sites.

One of our favourite places though was visited through our stomachs.  The Mercado de San Miguel (San Miguel Market) was a foodie paradise. Each little stall had a specialty, and you could buy a sample or tapas of all the different foods; cheese, croquetas (like little creamy potato dumplings, but soft & fluffy & cheesy OMG), jamon, bruschetta, & there was even a champagne bar selling glasses of fine french champagne BY THE GLASS.  I should devote the next blog entirely to this market, it was that good...

The next stop is Seville, Cadiz & Granada in sunny Andalusia.  Thanks for stopping by. And thanks for posting comments, it's great to hear from you, reader!

The Travelling Foxes
Julie & Jamie
xox