Travel With Phie

Day 20

Once we arrived to Madrid, we headed to our magnificent guests house to store our baggage before going into the city. Once we put our stuff down we had some chips and of course a coke. It was delicious and exactly what we needed to get the day rolling. So, after our snacks we headed right into the heart of the city to find some lunch. However, just like Paris I could not tell you where we were most of the day, we simply followed our amazing tour guides (our mini host family) around the city.

For me this was an amazing way to see everything in Madrid without any stress of getting lost or having to figure out what to see. But anyway, back to finding lunch. It was a Saturday, so our a lot of places were busy, so we had to try a few before finding one. We ended up at a cute little restaurant and got to eat sitting on couches. We ordered little tapas to share with the table, which included some Spanish classics – croquettes, ham, and a couple others I can’t remember, but all were amazing.

After lunch we headed to see the sights of the city, however, as I stated before I have no clue how we got to any of them. We simply followed our little ‘tour’ it was amazing. We were able to see and experience so much with our little time in the city. These things included:

• Plaza Major
• Mercado de San Miguel
• Fun street performers
• The royal palace
• An AMAZING view of the city
• Got some unreal gelato
• Plaza de la amería
• Some beautiful churches
• Plaza del de mayo
• Plaza de la independencia
• Beautiful gardens
• And that was just to name a few of things we saw before dinner

Then we found a cute little square to eat dinner, but again it was a Saturday, so everywhere was packed. We ended up just grabbing some drinks and then heading to a small cute alley to officially grab dinner. We got some more typical amazing Spanish tapas for dinner to share. It was a very fun and enjoyable day.

After dinner, we headed to see a little more of the city before heading back to our hosts place to go to bed. It was a spectacular day and we loved seeing the city of Madrid, but were excited to spend the next day in the country side.

Day 21

Carly woke up early at 4am and headed to the airport to go back home and to work :(We were sad to see her go, but had a blast while she was here on our adventure.

Since we went into and explore the entire city yesterday, we decided to stay around the countryside today. We woke up and had breakfast which was amazing. Toast with tomatoes, olive oil and salt (of course) with fresh squeezed orange juice. It was delectable!

After eating and hanging out for a bit, we went and visited a beautiful castle in the countryside. The views were amazing and the history was super cool to hear about. Martina’s dad was like our very own tour guide it was amazing!

After, we came back and had an amazing home cooked lunch. We had fresh Gorgonzola & truffle pasta with salad and a cheese board. After eating we also dove into some ice cream and strawberries. A meal I will never forget it was unbelievable.

During siesta, we finished booking trains for the rest of our trip. Then we simply just laid outside and took in the views and the amazing weather. It was very relaxing and productive.

After siesta we went to the mountains and did a 4.5 mile hike. Again, the views were amazing and it was a great change of pace to hike for the day instead of exploring a city. The way up was wonderful and the way down was a little scary, but unreal. Would not have changed it for the world. After our hike we headed home for dinner.

However, in order to cool down from our hike we decide to take a quick dip in the pool to cool off. It was chilly, but also felt amazing after being in the sun all day long.

For dinner we had croquettes, bread, pizza, and gazpacho, which is chilled tomato soup, a Spanish classic. It was delicious. During dinner we watch a little fútbol and hangout. After dinner we got ready for bed and headed to sleep.

Overall, one of the best weekends of the trip. We loved getting to experience the city life as well as the countryside of Madrid.

Day 22

Travel day! Today we are headed from Madrid to Barcelona for one night. We woke up and said goodbye to our amazing hosts and had some breakfast before heading off to yeh train station. Our train was 3 hours, so we spent most of the afternoon on the train taking in beautiful landscapes of the country side of Spain. We arrived in Barcelona at 2:30 and headed to our Airbnb to get all checked in.