Saturday: Once we arrived to the Lyon
airport, we had to wait a surprisingly long amount of time at the Easyjet
check-in counter before we headed over to catch our flight. Once we were
onboard, there were a bunch of delays due to some engine problems and we ended
up arriving in Madrid about an hour late at 6pm. We got our bags and went to
find the driver to take us to our hotel. We met up with him and realized that
he spoke very little English and my mom’s rudimentary Spanish was inadequate to
really communicate. Luckily he spoke some French and I was able to direct him
to take us to terminal 4 (a few miles away from terminal 1 actually) to go pick
up my dad and brother before heading into the city. We arrived at our hotel:
Jardin de Sabatini and dropped off our bags. We walked a bit through the town
and then happened upon the Mercado San Miguel, which, by this time (close to
10pm) was bustling and we decided that since there wasn’t even room to stand,
let alone to sit, that we would find somewhere else to eat for the first night.
On our way, Daniel and I found this incredible smoothie shop where we had the
most amazing strawberry and watermelon smoothie. After that, we had a nice
dinner at meson tapa tapa of calamari, cuttlefish, paella and a Spanish
tortilla (which is kind of like an omelette but it potatoes). On our way home,
given that it was the night of Easter, we ended up hearing part of this really
cool midnight mass at the Cathedral next to the Palacio Real. 
Sunday: Sunday morning we slept in a
little bit since everyone was a little bit tired and then we headed over to the
El Rastro market. We had heard very mixed reviews about the place from that it
was a terrifying awful place full of pickpockets and crappy goods to that it
was the best flea market in Europe. I happened to think that it was an awesome
market with a really great ambiance and I bought a couple really awesome scarfs
and a cute little sweater. After the market, we were hungry and my dad found
this random lunch place that was located on the sixth floor of some random
apartment building. My mom was freaking out a little bit, because from the
bottom it looked a little bit sketchy and weird, but once we got upstairs, it
was actually a pretty busy place. We shared a big plate of seafood for lunch.
After lunch, we took a really nice relaxing nap in the retiro which is this
incredible 300 acre park in the middle of the city. After that, we headed over
to catch the end of the free evening at the Prado. Unfortunately we got there a
little later than we had wanted and didn’t get that long in the museum before
we were kicked out (exactly at the moment that the museum was supposed to
close, and not a minute later!). Next, we wandered over to Puerta del Sol,
stopping in one of the Musee de Jamon where we tried these little bocadillo
sandwiches for only one euro. We walked around the nice little square and took
in the sites before heading over to Casa Toni for dinner, where we shared
grilled mushrooms, fried eggplant, a mixed salad and the rest of my family had
some pork ribs. As with a lot of the food in spain, it wasn’t bad, but it also
wasn’t particularly great. On our way back home we stopped at a cute little ice
cream shop back on the Puerta del Sol. Walking back we watched a little game of
cat and mouse between the illegal street sellers and the cops that ultimately
resulted in some free sunglasses for some of the bystanders who grabbed the
dropped products as the venders ran away.
Monday: Monday morning we decided to
take a bike tour of the city. Despite the fact that biking is not my favorite
activity (im a wimp what can I say… it just hurts my butt), I actually enjoyed
the ride (even though I ended up hurting my leg in the end…). We biked through
a few parks, past the palace, through Plaza Mayor, Plaza de Espana, Mercado San
Anton, a big pond in the retiro and a bunch more sites. It was a beautiful day
which just made it even more pleasant. After the ride, we were pretty hungry
and tried to go to the Mercado San Anton for lunch. Unfortunately, it wasn’t
like the other market and it wasn’t really a great place for lunch. Instead, we
had some sandwiches at a little place on a little square that we found. After
that, given that we were in Spain, we decided to do like the Spaniards and head
back to take a little siesta (I really could get used to the whole taking a
siesta everyday!). After a nice relaxing rest, we headed over to the Reina
Sofia (modern art) Museum. In this museum is housed the Guernica which was
extremely impressive. I was also very impressed by the amount of planning and
studies that were done prior to starting this piece and how quickly Picasso was
able to complete all of the work. After the museum we went over to Casa Patas.
We first had dinner, which was, unfortunately quite disappointing. I had
salmon, knowing that of course it wouldn’t be as good as salmon from Seattle,
but it was actually pretty awful. Horribly fishy and just not good. Luckily though,
the Flamenco show that we saw there after dinner more than made up for it. The
talent of the dancers was really incredible and we were literally right under
the stage; so close in fact that we were actually sprayed with sweat at one
point. It was really an impressive show and I really enjoyed it!
Tuesday: Tuesday morning we headed
over to see the Palacio Real. Unfortunately Rick Steves (guidebook) failed us
once again and we showed up an hour before the palace opened. We spent some
time in the Cathedral and then got in line so that we could head inside right
when it opened. The palace was truly impressive. In one of our guidebooks they
even called it Europe’s third most impressive palace after Versailles and Schönbrunn
Palace in Vienna ( I’m doing pretty well then given that I have seen all three
of these palaces since February!). We tried to snap even one picture inside of
the incredible décor (especially in the throne room and the rooms made
completely from porcelain), but the guard actually made us delete the one photo
that we tried to take. It was really serious business. After a fabulous and
really interesting audio tour of the palace we headed over to the Mercado San
Miguel to get some lunch. I had a deliciously creamy mozzarella, tomato, pesto
toast and some fabulous seafood paella for lunch. The market was certainly the
best food that we had in Madrid. After lunch, we headed back to take our daily
siesta (which is really necessary given that we ate dinner at about 10 or 10:30
and so went to bed pretty late each night). Once we woke up, we headed back to
spend a little bit more time really appreciating the incredibleness that is the
Prado. After the museum, we decided that we were already a little bit sick of
the mediocre Spanish food that we had been eating and we found this great
little Italian place called Emma and Julia. We had some delicious pesto pasta,
4 cheese pizza and a really fresh salad. It was really great to have some
variety since we felt like we had been eating pretty much the same thing every
meal (worsened by the fact that I don’t eat pork, which eliminates at least 80%
if not more of the menu).
Wednesday: We woke up early Wednesday
morning to head to the train station at Atocha to take a train to Toledo. I
guess given Spain’s history I’m not that shocked, but I was certainly a little
surprised by how intense the security was at the train station. You had to go
through airport style security to get to the area where the trains are and then
you had to give your ticket to a gate agent to get onto the platform of your
train. This was really weird given that theoretically (if you don’t get caught
and fined), you don’t even have to have a ticket to take a train in France… It
was a quick 30 minute train ride to Toledo where we grabbed a cab to head up
the huge hill to the little apartment that we were staying in called
Apartmentos Touristicos Casa de los Mozarbes. After we dropped our stuff off,
we headed down to the Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo. We were outside
the Cathedral looking for the entrance when this Spanish guy approached my
parents and started explaining to them (in Spanish) about the Cathedral. They
called Daniel over to translate and the guy ended up telling us about this
great little place down the road that we should check out. Figuring why not, we
decided to go explore. The guy caught up with us saying that he would show us
where to go since he had to go move his car so that he wouldn’t have to pay.
Once we got to this little monastery Santa Isabella, he took us inside and
showed us the work room. Once he walked right in and started showing us the
jewelry that was being made there, we all realized that he was actually someone
who worked there and was trying to get us in to buy his stuff. We decided to
play along and he showed us this incredible handmade 24K gold jewelry. It was
actually really impressive and interesting to see how this jewelry was made
(especially since we saw it all over Toledo the rest of our time there).
However, he was not all that happy with us once we left and didn’t buy
anything. It was certainly an interesting experience to say the least. 
After
that, we walked back over to check out the Cathedral. It was said to be the
most impressive Cathedral in Spain, and I certainly thought it was pretty great.
The amazing Gold alterpiece and beautifully carved choir chairs were fantastic,
and it was a pretty impressive building to say the least. After walking around
for a while, we headed up to the bell tower. The view of Toledo was beautiful
and the 10 or so bells at the top of the tower were pretty impressive as well.
I also appreciated that they only let small groups up at a time, so that it
wasn’t a problem of people coming up and down the tiny little winding staircase
at the same time. Once we came back down, we were walking around the church and
since I love to joke around, I thought its be funny to tell one of my family
members (keeping some anonymity here…) that there was a legend that if you
licked the church, you would get good luck. This person’s response was where do
you have to lick it? I responded with that I wasn't sure but I assumed anywhere
would do. And before we could even realize or get out camera out, this person
actually licked the church. It was hilarious! After that, we headed over to the
treasury to see the incredible La Gran Ostensoria de Toledo. Made of the finest
silver and gold and bejeweled with gems, it measures over ten feet tall. The
monstrance is famous for being used in the annual feast of Corpus Christi of
Toledo to carry the communion wafer. Once we finished exploring the Cathedral,
we headed down the hill a bit to find a place for lunch. We had a
recommendation for this little place called Naveria where we had absolutely
delicious fish dishes. After that we found this incredible overlook that looked
out onto the river that surrounds Toledo on three sides. Next, we went to the
Sinagoga Transisto which houses the National Jewish Museum of Spain. It was
really cool to see this really old synagogue and to learn more about the important
history of the Jews in Spain prior to their expulsion in 1492. I love getting
to see old synagogues in Europe, given that I spend a lot of my time exploring
old Churches… After that, we headed back to Zocodor square to take the Zocotram
around the city to see the stunning views of the city built into the hillside
and some of the remains around the periphery of the city. I probably took a
couple hundred pictures just trying to capture how awesome the place is. After
that, we wandered around and found this great little restaurant called Taberna
Fabula for dinner. I would say that the food that we had in Toledo was
certainly better than what we had in Madrid!
Thursday: After getting up, we walked
over to the Museo Santa Cruz which used to be a hospital. The museum had some
amazing El Grecco paintings, since he spent the last part of his life in
Toledo, and had a lot of really interesting information about the history of
Toledo. It also had a really cool exhibition showing comparisons of ceramics
from all different regions in Spain. While we were in the museum, we happened
upon a tour that was being given in French and I was able to translate the tour
for my family, which was quite helpful since all the signage in the museum was
in Spanish. After the museum visit we found a little Mediterranean place to
have some lunch. After lunch we found this unbelieveable Italian gelato place
on the main commercial street. I had some pistachio gelato that was just to die
for! Once we finished our ice cream, we grabbed our stuff and headed down to
the Europcar office just below the old part of the city. Once we got there (at
about 3:40pm), we realized that the office was closed for siesta. Our taxi
driver told us that he didn’t think that the place opened until 5pm. Luckily,
they came back from siesta at 4pm and we were able to get our car without
waiting all the long. Once we got our car, we drove just under two hours to
Segovia, another great little town. However, once we got there, we couldn’t
figure out how to get our car into the part of the city that we were staying
in. We ended up hauling our stuff through the streets only to find out that we
had to go get our car to valet park with our hotel. Driving through the little
tiny streets was terrifying and I am seriously in awe of my dad and his ability
to drive a manual car through tiny uphill streets! After taking a short rest in
our room at Hotel Infanta Isabel (right on Plaza Mayor!!) we walked down to the
incredibly preserved Roman Aqueduct to see it by night. After that, we found
this great little restaurant called El Bernardino for dinner. I had a delicious
bowl of shrimp soup followed by an incredibly most piece of roasted chicken,
finished off with a lovely vanilla cream for dessert. It was a really great
find and I was just stoked to find some food that didn’t have pig in it
(Segovia is known for their Roast suckling pork, which my mom initially thought
that she wanted to try, but chickened out once she saw that they literally
brought the whole entire pig to the table (head and feet and all)). 
Friday: In the morning, we got up and
found a little bakery next door to have a little breakfast. We ended up heading
back to our room another two times to put on more clothing because it was so
incredibly cold. I had brought all my winter stuff with me to send home with my
family and we actually ended up all wearing all of my hats and gloves and
scarfs. It’s crazy just how cold it was in Southern Europe in the middle of
April!! After that, we walked over to the Alcazar. It is this awesome little
old royal residence that later served as a prison, followed by military
archives and now serves as a museum. There was a major fire there that ruined a
lot of the place, but it has been restored and it quite impressive. We found
another French tour group which was very helpful again for us. During the fire,
the students chose to save the rare and important books in the library of the
building that was a science academy at that point in history and in order to do
so, they threw them all out the window. Also, they were able to even save one
painting by cutting it into quarters and chucking it as well out the window.
Once
we finished our tour of the Alcazar and the military museum that it housed, we
headed over to the Cathedral on Plaza mayor. The cathedral was quite impressive
and after that, we headed over to this famous place called Duque for lunch. We
had a great cheese plate (proof that there is really good cheese in Spain)
Followed by these enormous white beans from La Granja that are made in this
delicious tasting soup. Traditionally it is served with sausage, but I had a
delicious bowl with leaks and bacalao fish. After lunch, we walked back down to
see the aqueduct by day. We found the cute little market and ended up spending
way too much money on baked goods, cakes and little candies (that were all
quite delicious). We walked all the way to the end of the aqueduct. The
aqueduct itself was pretty impressive, but it is also amazing how well it has
been preserved given that it dates back to the Roman period! After that, we
headed back to our room for a little siesta. Since we had eaten a pretty big
lunch, pretty late in the afternoon, we decided to stay in and watch love
actually and just have some fruits and nuts for dinner (followed of course by
the lovely cake that we had bought at the market earlier in the day). 
Saturday: We woke up Saturday morning,
packed up our stuff and headed to this little city not too far away called La
Granja that has this great palace that is known to have gardens that rival
those in Versaille. Unfortunately for us, the weather on Saturday was
miserable. When we were in La granja (holed out in our car) it was raining so
hard that it was hard to even see out of the windows, so we decided to skip the
palace and head over to another town called El Escorial. There we saw the Royal
Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial which is a historical residence of the king
of Spain, built by Phillip II. A lot of the place was very stark because it was
built as part the counter reform, just on the cusp of the Renaissance. However,
the tombs and the monastery are incredibly ornate. This is where most of the Kings
and Queens and princes and princesses of Spain have been buried since it was
built in the 1500’s. The place was just enormous with over 70 stops on the
audio guided tour. Inside this old residence houses one of the most impressive
art collections in all of Spain. It was room after room of incredible
masterpieces including pieces for El Grecco and other masters. We were really
impressed and really happy that we ended up stopping there. Once we left, it
had stopped hailing and there were beautiful blue skies (the weather changed
every 15 or so minutes and varied from beautiful weather to miserable hail and
rain storms) so we headed over to a little pizza place for lunch. Given our
luck, by the time we finished eating it was down pouring and we ran back to the
car. After that, we drove over to Urbanizacion Los Arroyes to Casa Nina Mana
where we stayed in two rooms in this adorable little house owned by Raphael
Martin Ortega. Once we got there we all enjoyed a nice glass of tea while we
talked to Raphel about his life in Spain. We had a nice relaxing afternoon all
hanging out together and then Raphael cooked us a delicious dinner. We had a
vegetable, bean and chicken soup, followed by rice, a delicious beef stew and
salad, finished with strawberries soaked in honey and lemon. After dinner we
hung out a bit more, packed our stuff up and went to sleep.
Sunday: We woke up bright and early,
had a great breakfast that Raphael prepared for us and left to go to the
airport. My family had a flight back to the states at 11:55am and had to return
the car, so we had to leave by about 8:30am even though my flight didn’t take
off until 1:10pm. So after they dropped me off and we said our goodbyes ( L )
I spent some time in the airport doing some homework and having a little lunch.
It was a quick and easy flight back to Lyon where I grabbed my bag and headed
back home.
I had a really really fabulous spring
break. It was SOOO great to see my family and I absolutely loved Spain (well,
the food doesn’t compare to France, but everything else was pretty great!).
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