Madrid

 

We made a quick two-day stop in Madrid on our way to Portugal. We took the high speed train from Valencia and packed in just a few of the highlights during our short time there- many of them centered around food!

Hayes was especially excited to try shrimp with garlic, and we were all looking forward to trying a bocadillo de calamares. Since churros are said to have originated in Madrid, we also felt like we had to try them there. They actually might have been our favorite churros so far! And we visited a food market near Plaza Mayor, where we basically turned dinner into a taste test of anything that looked delicious.

In between all the eating, we spent time walking around the Palacio Real and made our way up to the Temple of Debod, which was a really neat place to explore. It's an ancient Egyptian temple that was gift from Egypt to Spain. It was taken apart stone by stone, shipped to Madrid and rebuilt on a hill above the city. It was so fun to see something so unexpected in the middle of Madrid, and the views over the city from that area were beautiful.

We found some giant slides to race down at a fun park tucked near the river. And we also really loved wandering through Parque del Retiro. It was such a beautiful place to explore and let the boys run around.

Our time in Madrid was short, but it was such a fun stop between Valencia and Portugal!