Madrid

It is a beautiful day in Madrid. The sun is shining the temperature is in the 50s and it’s a bit breezy. Madrid feels familiar since it is my second time here. We slept for twelve glorious hours last night. About 10 this morning we set out for some breakfast. We went to a family run cafe that we remembered from last year. I recognized the woman behind the counter who I imagined was the owner.  We had coffee and a pastry. The routine is that as you are leaving you tell them what you had and they tell you the price. Duke joked with the woman about his pronunciation of the word for my pastry, un caracol, which means snail. 

All the museums are closed on Mondays so we made our own walking tour exploring the streets. I love all the ham stores with hams hanging from the ceiling. 

El Corte Inglés is a giant department store that reminds me of Harrods or Macys. I had never been in one so we explored their main store near our hotel. The toy floor had all sorts of fun things. 

If you want a €700 pram they had a very nice one. 

I had never seen an Adidas warm up dress before. 

Later on our way to the Plaza Mayor we found a yarn store. That’s a knitted blanket behind Duke and samples of all the yarn you could buy. It was a very small  store but there was a line of people waiting to tell the clerk what they wanted and  to pay. 

After walking through the Plaza Mayor we stopped for churros and chocolate. Chocolatería San Ginés was at the top of my list of places we had to return to on this trip. They have served chocolate and churros since 1894. It was as good as I remembered.

I loved all the specialty stores we discovered as we continued our explorations, especially the doll store and the ballet store. 

We sat on a park bench and admired the Palacio Real. 

Before returning to the hotel we stopped at a book store to buy a road atlas to use when we get our rental car tomorrow. I had heard that since our election George Orwell’s book 1984 is  on the New York Times best seller list again. Interestingly enough it is a best seller here too! It is number 8.

For dinner we had tapas at a couple of places we went to last year, La Fragua de Volcano and Cerveceria Alemana. 

Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke. View all posts by marionvermazen