Category: Madrid

Madrid

Madrid Visits: Chapter One

Dreamer’s brother and his lovely wife (plus our nephew, in utero) were our first visitors in Madrid last October. We hit up a lot of the usual sites, like the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol. Our visitors wanted to see something related to Spain’s bullfighting culture, but since the season had ended, they had to make do with watching a bull run in the small town of Horche, not too far from Madrid in Castilla-La Mancha. As this was bulls in the street, we weren’t quite sure of the trajectory, or if we were inside the area or not.

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Madrid / Tourism

Segovia: Princess castle, aqueduct, and baby pig

Madrid is well-positioned for interesting day trips: just hop on a train and an hour or so later you can immerse yourself in history. In early August, we headed to Segovia, north of the capital in the province of Castile and León, where some of the history dates back to Roman times. The city is famous for its well-preserved aqueduct, which dominates the center. The aqueduct is a part of normal everyday life for Segovianos, with some roads even passing through it. The city’s mascot – meant to echo this famous aqueduct – was just a bit creepy, though… Speaking of

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Madrid

Moving to Madrid

Although we loved living in the Valencian Community, we decided to try living in a major international capital for our second year in Spain. The difficult part was waiting to find out where Dreamer would be working within the Community of Madrid – we didn’t want to rent a place until we knew. We still didn’t have any idea where she would be placed when the time came to take her mom to the Madrid airport in mid June. It was an opportunity to scout the city, as well as a preview of Madrid’s steamy summer. A couple of frosty

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Central Spain / Madrid / Tourism

Toledo: Strange, beautiful mix of cultures

As American spring break approached, Dreamer’s Dad and his wife, Deb, who are teachers, took advantage of this time off to come see us. We planned to meet them at the airport in Madrid and have a fun weekend in Toledo before returning to Valencia to see the start of Las Fallas, our region’s biggest holiday (more about that in coming posts!). We began this journey as many before it: with a commuter train into Valencia. Despite the tardy train, everything worked out fine. We made our high-speed train connection with some time to spare, which is good, because our train car was waaaaaay

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Holidays / Madrid / Tourism

Oh no, we Madrid’nt

With New Year’s Eve coming up, our next stop with Mom and Jim was an easy choice: the Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s answer to Times Square in New York. We were able to secure a last-minute airbnb just steps away from the action, so it was go time. We arrived on the 30th, so there was even some time for sightseeing. We headed to the Reina Sofia museum the night we got in from Cuenca, after finding out admission was free after 6pm. Lots of classic art there by the likes of Goya and El Greco. We also got to

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Favorites / Food / Getting Acquainted / Madrid / Restaurants

Madrid in Our Rearview Mirror

We drove to our home region of Castellón, a province in Valencian Community, on Wednesday. But I tend to process my experiences chronologically, so before I write about our adventures here, I want to wrap up our Madrid chapter. While Madrid is a fast-paced world capital, our best moments in the big city were those in which we were able to slow down. My favorite experience in Madrid was our Sunday night dinner with Doer’s exchange family, with whom he stayed 16 years ago. They invited us to their home in a Madrid suburb and prepared traditional Spanish food, including various

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