Madrid and Our Final Days in Spain



We arrived in Madrid Tuesday night from our road trip. We originally couldn't find where we needed to return the car in Madrid, so we had a brilliant idea and thought we would drive to our apartment, park, check in and bring our bags to our new place. One thing we didn't think of, that meant driving in old town. Stressful to say the least. Finally, after figuring it all out and dropping off the car, we stumbled upon, wait for it, a gluten free tapas bar, Taberna la Concha!!! WITH bread AND beer! That made up for the past few hours. Another awesome note, our apartment is right down the street from the famous Plaza Mayor and about a 10 - 15 min walk to most things in the city.
The view from our terrace
After we walked back to the apartment and D started making me some tea, which somehow tripped the power breaker (#6,937 thing to go wrong today) so the owner told me the circuit breaker was on the 2nd floor. I went down to find it, only to find that everything is labeled in Spanish, naturally, and everything looked ok, soooooo I start flipping switches. Nothing happens. Then the voices in the apartment next to the breaker start sounding confused and get louder ... so I run. Then I remember that in Europe, they call the ground floor 0, so really our breaker was on the third floor and I was just randomly shutting off some people's power... whoops!

Wednesday we explored the city, walked through the palace, took a glorious nap, and then met D's colleague for drinks at the Mercado de San Miguel, a historic and monumental market, and later dinner just down the road.

Plaza Mayor
Catedral de la Almudena and the Moorish wall
Catedral de la Almudena
The Royal Palace of Madrid
Some awesome frescos
Mercado de San Miguel
Some of the best Ibérico Jamón I've had in Spain
Thursday, our last day here, we had to deal with some serious airline funny business (thanks for striking Lufthansa). Nevertheless, not even this could dampen my spirits because we found a completely gluten free bakery, Celicioso. They even had proper coffee AND sandwiches. Cloud 9. After our GF coffee and cake, we grabbed our to-go sandwiches and headed off the to the El Retiro Park to walk around and find a nice place to enjoy our lunch.






crystal palace

To end our time in Spain, on our last night we decided to go to a Flamenco show accompanied by some wildly talented traditional singers and a guitarist, all of which was fantastic. I think in a past life I was a Flamenco dancer and that is why I walk with such flat feet. Lastly, we found a great place for dinner, Da Nicola, that had the best doughy gluten free pizza I've ever had. Madrid has this GF thing down.





Today, California! ... hopefully. 

Things we have learned
  • Always remember, when in Europe, the ground floor is 0. Subtract 1 to make it US.
  • Airline strikes really suck 
Location: Madrid, Madrid, Spain

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