While planning my trip to Budapest, I found that there were no direct flights from San Diego or Los Angeles into Hungary This meant that I was going to take a layover somewhere, probably in Europe. I knew that if that was the case, I would want to spend a couple days in whatever country I was going to have the layover in, because I have never been to Europe anyway!

I looked into London and Frankfurt, but Madrid, Spain ended up being the city.

Day One

After arriving in Madrid, I checked into Hostal Marlasca in central Madrid. I had booked a private room, which was cozy and had floor-to-ceiling balcony doors, which swung open to a tiny balcony overlooking the alley below. Changing into a fresh set of clothes, I headed out to explore the area with no particular place to go. I didn’t realize how close I was to Puerta del Sol until I stumbled onto it after making two immediate left turns from the hostel!

Puerta del Sol is a public square and the location of Madrid’s kilometer zero. That is, if you went to Google Maps and searched for Madrid, the location the pin appears is in Puerta del Sol. I didn’t think there was anything in particular to do there, so I continued in my wanderings, until I discovered Plaza Mayor with a little help from my GPS.

Have you ever watched a movie in which a character turns a corner and what she sees when she turns the corner lights up her face? That was me when I turned the corner and saw the red-bricked apartments through the archway leading to Plaza Mayor.

Plaza Mayor is a picturesque plaza surrounded by residential apartment buildings above various restaurants serving food to tables out along the sides of the plaza. It was even cooler than it looked on Pinterest.

I needed more time to soak this place in, so I sat down at one of the tables and ordered some jamon and manchego (cured ham and cheese made of sheep’s milk) with a side of sangria and just people watched for a little bit.

I walked down to the train station to see if I could get a ticket to Barcelona the following day, wanting to capitalize the only full-day I was going to have in Spain. Unfortunately, there was no availability to Barcelona and Seville.

I was tired as I was when I got back around the hostal and didn’t want to wait around for dinner. So I walked around until I found a chocolate store serving churros con chocolate.

The hot chocolate served with the plain churros (no sugar or cinnamon) was thicker than what we traditionally know here in the US. Not quite as thick as pudding, but definitely thicker than cocoa. I was pleasantly surprised that the snack wasn’t as sweet as I expected.

Day Two

I started with breakfast and another Spanish dish I had wanted to try; tortilla espanola. It’s basically a quiche, made with eggs and filled with potatoes, onions and bell peppers. What surprised me most, was that the dish served cold, or at room temperature.

With Barcelona out of the picture, I planned to head down to the Royal Palace to watch the changing of the guards. As I left the restaurant, I started noticing a higher police presence, blocked roads and some military personnel in the streets. A parade! Was there a parade for the changing of the guards?! I booked it.

Everything I had read online stated that the changing of the guards happened in front of the Santa Maria Cathedral. But after sitting there for about 45-minutes, I started to realize I was in the wrong place… Well dang. That sucks.

I decided to buy a ticket to go inside the Royal Palace. The King of Spain doesn’t live here, but he uses it for state ceremonies and special occasions.

It. Was. Beautiful!

Photography was prohibited inside. I would have loved to share the colors of the room; navy and gold and burgundy. It was just so grand! After fighting the crowds of tourists on their audio tours, I made my way to the less populated royal amory.

It. Was. Awesome!

The personal arms of kings Charles V and Phillip II filled the entire room. And when I say “personal arms” I mean suits of armor like a knight would wear. I was most fascinated by the armor the horses were dressed with. There were mannequin men and horses covered in the armor, and I spent some time in the room just imagining what they would have looked like in action.

I worked up a bit of an appetite by the time I was done touring the palace. I knew I wanted to eat at Sobrino de Botin (the oldest restaurant in the world, according to Guiness), so I walked back to Playa Mayor and went into Sobrino de Botin for lunch.

The restaurant was opened in 1725, making it the oldest restaurant in the world. It was crowded, in terms of the number of tables and chairs in the vicinity of each other. But not so much that I felt too close to parties around me.

I had veal and potatoes for lunch and paired it with a glass of rose (because when in Spain…?). Deciding to indulge with dessert, I ordered the flan. I’m glad I did because it was the best flan I ever had.

I decided to head back to the hostel to take a siesta myself. I opened the balcony door and let the air kind of just breeze into the room as I kicked off my shoes and dozed off.

When I woke up, I headed across the other direction toward the Parque de El Retiro on the east side of town, where the Crystal Palace was located.

The park is lush and green and must be a popular destination for locals and tourists. Many people were walking their dogs, taking siestas on the grass, playing their guitars… The Crystal Palace is a building largely made of glass and iron framework that was once used as a greenhouse. It now holds art exhibits… when it’s open… which I found, it was not. Face palm. Still, the structure was pretty neat to look at. Especially with the families sitting on the stairs in front feeding ducks in the pond.

I looked into the best places to eat paella in Madrid, and only one was in walking distance. I made my way to La Barraca to cross paella off of my food bucket list.

Paella is a rice and seafood dish and I was excited to try it because I love rice and I love seafood. La Barraca was pretty fancy. When I asked for a table, the host asked if I had reservations. They seated me right away. The paella unfortunately didn’t impress me. Not to say that the restaurant didn’t serve good paella (I have nothing to compare it to). But I was expecting more flavor out of the dish. But the service was good and price reasonable.

Day Three

My final day in Madrid, I paid the hostal two euro to let me lock up my luggage for a few hours. That way, I wouldn’t have to lug it around all day.

Because I had done everything in Madrid that I wanted, I hopped on a sight-seeing hop-on-hop-off tour bus to kill some time. The first loop took us through historical Madrid and took about an hour. I hopped off to switch to the other bus, but stopped for a quick bite first. Flat bread. Nothing fancy.

The second bus made a loop through modern Madrid, which included the stadium where Real Madrid futbol club plays.

After taking both bus loops through Madrid, I went back to the hostal to pick up my bags, hailed a taxi and headed to the airport to wait for my flight to Budapest!