No biggie… just a random castle out the train window. Can’t get that at home 😝
So day 1 in a new city always consists of lots of walking and history if I can get my hands on it! So today I was able to join another walking tour to learn about the cities history and get a feel for the area!
Before the tour, I expired a bit and grabbed lunch on Cava Baja, a well known street for tapas restaurants.
Tomato and mozzarella Shrimp on toast
Plaza Mayor (which we come back to at the end of the tour). I was looking forward to the Christmas market(s) but this is the main one and the booths are 70% nativity scenes and 30% things you’d find at the dollar store lol, never seen so many whoopee cushions in my life 😂
Mercado de San Fernando : stopped in for a drink before the tour. Super cute food market! I may need to go back for lunch.
Tinto de verano : “summer wine” : is Madrid’s specialty drink. It’s just a mixture of a sweet red wine and 7Up!
Now on to the tour! We start off in Puerta del Sol. A popular square in Madrid, people gather here on New Years Eve, with the tradition of eating 12 grapes in sync with the 12 rings on the clocktower at midnight. This is said to bring you luck in the new year!
Aka the Mayor Once upon a time, this was thought to be the real center of Madrid and of Spain. Obviously, with more modern technology, this is about 40 some km off but people still come to take pictures. It’s said if you take a picture with 1 foot in the circle, you will return to Madrid, and if you take it with 2 feet in the circle, you will one day live in Madrid! (I have yet to make up my mind! Don’t want to jinx it😝) As Americans have the tooth fairy, Spanish have Ratón Pérez who’s is a mouse that collect your teeth and brings you money. This is here he lives😁😁San Ginés Bookshop : one of the oldest book stores in Spain dating back to at least 1650.Teatro Real : Isabel II Statue : this is the Opera house that was built and reconstructed on and off from 1818-1997. The inside is supposed to have many different designs show casing the old vs modern when it was being built. This shows the old walls of the city. The inner wall was originally build by the Muslims who founded Matrice (translating from Arabic as “source of water” because the city has a lot of water underground and from the mountains) around 852 AD. The outer wall was later built by the Christians from the north during 11th and 12th centuries. Royal Palace of Madrid : has 3418 rooms in it and nobody lives there anymore. And the statue of Felipe IV (a bad king according to my guide, didn’t really do anything) but the cool thing is the astronomer and knew to me… artist Galileo Galilei built that statue for Felipe. Cathedral de Santa MariaCathedral on the left and Palace on the right Fun tour with just the girls! There is some historical significance to a bear leaning on a strawberry tree, even after reading up on it again, it doesn’t totally make sense to me. HOWEVER, apparently these “strawberries” of a madroño tree could get you drunk if you eat enough of them. They just so happen to be ripe this time of year and are made into a liquor, which we got to sample!Comes served in a collate lines wafer cup. It’s about 20% and very sweet! Playa Mayor again! I learned that this is/was the main square of the city. This is where the first bull riding happened, as well as many many public executions. (the last of which was in 1975!!!! Crazy)
After the tour, I needed to head back to the hotel to charge my phone and figure out where I was going to eat. Something about me…. I can’t just walk into a random place. I have to check the reviews online and make sure it’s gonna be worth it! Especially when traveling, when you’re so limited with the number of meals you have…. lol so I had to make sure I could find a good place. with that said… I found a spot nearby that was said to be a local gem and very friendly… so off I went!
And they were right!!! Tiny little place where I sat at the bar. There were only 5-6 people there, all locals… plus me😁 I sat down and immediately the bartender and the guy next to me started chatting g it up! Daniel and Emmanuel, both from the North of Spain. Talking about how Madrid is the best and this restaurant is the best and it’s real food and real people! They showed me on the map other places I need to visit in Spain. There was a tv in there playing music videos of old rock Spanish songs and they are all singing along! They asked me about American politics🫣 and all the stuff. I told the bartender, Emmanuel, “I’ll eat whatever you want to feed me, give me the all the best stuff you got!”
That resulted in a tortilla de potato with peppers, chorizo potatoes, and friend calamari/sardines, and even after I paid… he gave me a shot of Crema de Orujo. Similar to Baileys, it was delicious! And he says “here! This is from my home in the North”.
Emmanuel gave me a treat to feed the dog … If I heard correctly, I believe the dogs name is Merced. Which means merch in Spanish. but that just made my heart happy as I miss my boy. Shout out Louie 😘😂
Anyways… lovely day in Madrid and really appreciate the friendliness of the locals so far. Looking forward to tomorrow!
Shelby's Travels 
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