Introduction
I'll fully admit that I hadn't given much thought to Spain since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and despite my love for history and geography I didn't know a ton about it. Roughly a year ago my lovely wife, Tracy, mentioned Spain was a place she'd always wanted to visit. With that, we (primarily she) began doing research on the country and where we might like to go. MANY YouTube videos later and her exhaustive research completed, we settled on an agenda of Madrid, Toledo, and Palma (a city on the island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain). Many more YouTube videos and with a little help from our AI friend, ChatGPT, we had an itinerary locked in.
I’ve started writing this from the international terminal of Madrid airport and I'm so pleased to report that Spain has completely blown me away. I'm going to use this space to talk about our journey, some of what we experienced, the gear we brought with us, and a final conclusion. As I’m doing so I’m realizing this will likely need to be split into multiple parts for the sake of everyone's attention span and my own sanity.
Helloooooo Spain-
We're fortunate in that there's now a direct flight from Portland to London on British Airways which makes the trip a lot easier. Our initial flight out was one of the worst I've ever experienced as the seats were sooooooo snug and having the extra legroom associated with an exit row was practically negated. I was pretty sore and run down by the time we arrived at Heathrow because I'd also purchased a travel face mask on Amazon that was supposed to strap to the headrest so your head didn't dip whilst sleeping. I had difficulty getting it to work….rendering it completely useless and me tired. Take comfort in knowing I got it to work properly on the flight home. After a short layover in a crowded LHR we were bound for Spain.
Madrid airport is pretty modern and operates like nearly every other airport. Our extensive YouTube research had told us that catching the Metro (subway) from the airport by purchasing a renewable 5 day Metro card was the best way to travel. I can report that we Americans are, again, so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to easy to use, safe, and affordable public transportation. We spent €28 each for 5 days…our cab ride one way later in the trip was €30. Another thing we learned last year in Europe was to use the Citymapper app as it's spectacular at using your smartphone as a navigation device for walking and public transportation. The app had us grab a train beneath the airport and one train transfer later we arrived at the Plaza de Espana stop where our hotel, Riu Plaza Espana, was less than 200 yards from the Metro.
Touchdown-Madrid
After checking in we NEEDED some food so we sought out tapas at a nearby restaurant called TapaSpaña We ordered some ham, roasted peppers, some other stuff, and a Mahou (pronounced ma-hoe) beer. Side note, I now love Spanish beers.
The next morning we set out on foot to explore the area around the hotel and try our first “Menu de Dia” (menu of the day) which is how many Spanish restaurants operate by offering a large lunch for a fixed price. The food on the menu varies daily. You choose an appetizer, main course, dessert, etc. and many include a small beer or wine. Our first stop was the Temple Debod which is a monument that was donated from Egypt as a gift after the completion of the Aswan Dam and was painstakingly moved from Egypt to Spain and reassembled. After Debod, we ventured into a large park named Rosaleda del Parque del Oeste (West Park Rose Garden in English). We enjoyed the park, took lots of photos, plugged our noses in the public restroom, and said hi to all the dogs. After the park we hoofed it to lunch at La Charca Taberna where we found that Sunday (at least at this place) there was no Menu de Dia. Oops. We had some AMAZING gazpacho, Tracy had squid in it's own ink (which she loved) and I had a steak as they were out of the pork if memory serves. We had some incredible Albarino wine and I have become a compulsive carboholic in the way of Spanish bread.
The highlight of Sunday has to be Athletico Madrid. We've always talked about going to a football (soccer) match in Europe if the opportunity ever presented itself and as luck would have it Athleti (nickname for the team) was in town during our trip. Tracy got tickets (after having some issues with the first site she tried) for a match against UD Almería. Around 6 we hopped back on the Metro bound for Estadia Metropolitano which was easy to find because of Citymapper (and the hundreds of fans decked out in Athletico livery). As we approached the entrance we each bought a scarf as a souvenir. What's different about La Liga (think NFL) is that there's no alcohol served during games…you can, however, tailgate or hit one of the many local vendors selling food and beverage outside the stadium. I had to hit Taco Bell after the game to say that I bought a beer at Taco Bell in Europe. Our seats were INCREDIBLE and the local fans were so friendly…plus Athleti won the game. Finally, that evening we walked up the Gran Via (Madrid’s version of theChamps-Élysées in Paris or Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills) to try for some long exposure photos of the Schweppes Sign and were a bit disappointed to see that most of the buildings weren't lit up. That was a difference we noted in Spain vs France. That concluded our first full day in Spain and after heading back to the hotel we were ready for some rest.
