Did I Just Cheat on Italy? Part Two

Being that we were flying into Spain for free and because we were going off-season and managed to pick up a Madrid apartment on Air B and B for an insanely low price, we decided to make this trip short, sweet and focused on fact finding; kind of like meeting for coffee on your first date.  We were looking to preserve vacation time for a longer trip later in the year, so we left on the Thursday night flight of a Monday holiday weekend, flew overnight to Madrid and had a Friday through Tuesday trip that cost us only two vacation days.

Flying on an overnight flight deposits you in the country of your choice at some point in the morning (depending on where you fly to and from).  This was a process that we were familiar with from making the overnight flight from JFK to Fiumicino in Rome.  We knew that we had to do our best to sleep on the plane. A lifelong fidget, I have never been very good at this, but I usually land at my destination filled with so much adreneline, that I can hit the ground running and make it to mid-afternoon before I crash hard and need a nap. 

When we de-planed and headed through Barajas airport in Madrid, the first billboard that I saw was this, which tickled me and somehow made me feel instantly at home.  I am a sucker for a sense of humor.

We had short-listed certain foods and attractions for our five day trip and the first thing that was on our mind were churros. Let me start by saying, there are better churros and worse churros, but to me, there is no such thing as bad churros.  Our first stop was to a chain type churro shop on the way to our apartment and with luggage in hand, we rolled our bags in and got our first churro of the trip.  Maybe because we were hungry or maybe because they were actually good, we really enjoyed them.  We knew that there might be better ones in our future as we had plans to hit San Gines for their exceptionally rich and rightfully famous hot chocolate later in the trip, but we needed to break the seal on our Madrid vacation immediately.

The first churro is good, even if it's not the best churro.

We did not hold it against our first churro shop that they sell a "Pikachurro"

Being that it was January, there was not as much outdoor dining and cafe seating as there normally would be, but I give the shop owners credit for their creative approach to offering a warm place to sit outside for their hardier patrons.  Space heaters and furry blankets were a common sight.

After breakfast, we checked into our Air B&B and set out for the first sight on our agenda:  The Mercado de San Miguel.  We arrived at this beautiful glass jewel box of a market at 11:00 am and found it busy and full of people that had no qualms about having wine and vermut prior to lunch hour; we fell in line. I can easily say that this was love at first sight.  This was to be the first of three visits that we would make to the market while in Madrid. We were captivated by this place for the variety of food and drink that was available and for the sights, sounds and smells that filled the air. 

Whipped Burrata. Need I say more?

So many of the tapas that are available in the market are savory, umami-bombs that pair amazingly well with wine and vermut.

Stunning produce.

This looked like art to me.

Vermut at 11:00 am? Don't mind if I do.

On tap, as it should be.

San Miguel Market at night

When we were doing research for our Spain trip, my husband was bingeing on travel videos and I had walked through the room while he was watching one and saw the statue of "El oso y el madroño", which is a bear eating strawberries.  Seeing it quickly out of the corner of my eye, I yelled back to him, "what is that? A cat eating broccoli?".  That is what we referred to this famous statue in Puerta Del Sol as for the entire trip.  Try and get that image out of your head. You're welcome.

The "cat eating broccoli" statue that is actually a bear eating strawberries.

Since we were doing a quick trip, we felt that at least one guided tour would be beneficial, so we booked a Tapas and History Crawl with Devour Tours, which was fantastic.  I would highly recommend this tour company for their expertise and professionalism. We ate and drank across four bars until we thought we were going to burst. The tour was filled with great information and even better food.

We also learned on our trip that Madrid has casinos.  The most unassuming, quiet and elegant casinos that I have ever been in. So quiet and unassuming that they were almost not fun, but that is not what we went for.  What we went for was food, drink, art, architecture and churros.  We got all of that and more, packing in a ton of fun in a five day trip.  

Stunning.

One of several Patatas Bravas.  This one was from "Las Bravas".

Gran Via in all it's splendor.

La Hora de Vermut, which is technically between lunch and dinner but actually all day, every day.

My first lambchop since I was about seven. Amazing.

Someone or perhaps some thousands of people have been rubbing his behind ( I see your hiney, so bright and shiny....).

We came home from this five day trip to Madrid completely satisfied and ready to go back.  Will it supplant Italy as our number one go-to?  No, but hopefully, it will serve as an add-on to a trip to Italy as country hopping is easy and inexpensive within Europe, thanks to carriers like Easy Jet.  Next time, Granada and Seville.  But first, I have to make sure that Rome isn't mad at me. I plan on some make-up pasta and a nice Brunello.

P.S. The churros and hot chocolate at San Gines were everything.  This alone was worth the trip.