Adios Spain

We are now in London spending our last few days of the trip with our great friends Brandon and Will. We had a great time in Madrid, the weather again was incredible (not so much in London), the end of August is definitely the time to go to Spain

Here are pics from our last day Barcelona

Will standing in the middle of Las Ramblas


Pinotxo Bar in the Mercat de la Boqueria. My parents recommended this little gem, the tapas are incredible and the whole experience is a blast. Its a must if you go to Barcelona.


Spending our last afternoon relaxing by the pool!



We had another amazing dinner at a small tapas restaurant, Tapas 24. This picture is from our seat at the bar looking Into the kitchen. Favorites for us: the bikini sandwich, it's a ham and provolone with black truffles, the burger, patatas bravas, and this chocolate mouse with olive oil and sea salt dessert.

Madrid recap, Day 1



Plaza Sol



El Mercado San Miguel. It's the coolest place. You walk in and there are lots of little stands everywhere with everything from paella, to prosciutto sandwiches, to fresh shucker oysters. And best pasty, there are little wine stands everywhere so you can grad your class of wine and some food and have s perfect little lunch.





The Madrid Cathedral. It is right next door to the Palacio Real.


Will checking out the Cathedral


Palace Real


All of the ceilings in the Palace were painted with different murals.


Will inside the Palace grounds with the Madrid Cathedral behind him


The view from the Palace over Old Madrid

That night we grabbed drinks and dinner with the couple we had met in the wine country in Chile. They live in Madrid and we had a great time seeing a more local/less touristy (or as Will says, no big red double decker busses) neighborhood.

Day 2 recap:

We decided we needed to check out a museum, Madrid has some incredible one. Since neither of us are big on very traditional art we decided not to go to the Museo Prado and instead check out the Reina Sophia Museum, which has all modern art. The museum was beautiful and home to a lot of Picassos and Dalis. It was great!

We spent a lot of time just walking around, the architecture in Madrid is Incredible, the buildings are all beautiful. There are also tons of plazas and parks everywhere and the city is incredibly clean. It's great! We loved Retiro Park, similar to a central park, plaza opera, plaza sol, and this very cool Egyptian temple, temple el debod.

That night we decided to head to a bullfight and then to keep up with Spanish tradition we went flamenco show. The Plaza de Toros is beautiful but It must have been amateur night at the bullfight because these bullfighters seemed a little scared of the whole thing. There was one great guy!






The Flamenco show at the Coral de la Moreria was amazing, I have never seen dancers click their feet that fast. Thinks River Dance without the tap shoes. We got lucky and were seated at a table in front. The whole experience was great.