Five Days in Madrid

After checking in to our accommodations and taking a quick nap, we headed out into Madrid. I kept day one pretty flexible as I knew we would be suffering from a bit of jet lag. We did some shopping on Gran Via and Calle de Fuencarral, and were able to check out local stores and the second-largest Primark. Primark isn’t normally something I would put on my itineraries, but it was worth going — the store itself is beautiful and covers a whopping five floors. After some shopping, we headed to Mercado de San Ildefonso to grab a quick bite and then headed back to our room for a siesta. And yes, we did work a siesta into our itinerary every day — when in Spain!

For dinner, I researched and put together a list of great tapas bars in Madrid so that we could do our own small tapas tour. On night one, we stopped at Las Bravas for patatas bravas, La Casa de Abuelo for squid and jamón ibérico, La Fragua de Vulcano for croquettes and shishito peppers and lastly we stopped at Ecolo Gelato. All of the food was great and we enjoyed checking out so many local establishments and getting a taste for Spanish tapas!

After sleeping in and getting over our jet lag, we headed out to find a local café for brunch and ended up stumbling open Barehua. Barehua was cute and had great coffee, avocado toast and pastries for a light meal. I love planning itineraries, but sometimes finding quiet places with great food is a nice way to experience a new city!

After brunch, we headed to the most recommended museum in Madrid, El Museo de Prado. The building is beautiful and it’s impressive how much art The Prado houses. El Museo de Prado has mainly religious art work and we did breeze through the museum quite quickly, spending about 90 minutes there. While the type of art found in The Prado may not be our normal cup of tea, we did find the scope of the museum breathtaking and would recommend visiting.

After leaving The Prado, we walked next door and visited El Jardín Botanico which was such a fun stop. El Jardín Botanico had beautiful flowers, trees and even a vegetable garden, and it was nice to walk around in the sunshine! Even though we went in the winter when the garden was not at its most vibrant, we could only imagine the beauty it would present in the peak of Spring or Summer!

We worked up quite the appetite after walking around The Prado and El Jardín Botanico, and decided to head north to the Salamanca neighborhood for some tapas and shopping. We were so hungry that we stopped at the first tapas bar, which has patatas bravas, and boy were we happy we did! The restaurant we found, Patio de Leones, ended up being the best patatas bravas we had on the trip! The potatoes were slightly crispy and the spicy sauce and aioli were great compliments. This tapas bar is high up on our recommendations list for future Madrid itineraries. The bar has great outdoor seating on a busy corner, which makes it perfect for people-watching and enjoying some wine and tapas. After our patatas bravas excursion, we continued walking along Calle de Serrano for some high-end window shopping. We stopped in Dior, Louis Vuitton, Longchamp and Yves Saint Laurent to check out the hand bag selections, as well as Joyería RABAT to check out their watch selection. Jon collects watches and we’ve been on the hunt for a Tudor 1926, a model that he’s been wanting to try on for some time.

We then headed back to our room for our siesta and to get ready for dinner. We were both really excited for dinner at a restaurant called Fayer, which is an Argentine/Israeli restaurant. We love Israeli food (Zahav and Laserwolf are two of our favorite restaurants in Philadelphia and you can catch us picking up pastries and Jerusalem bagels at K’Far most weekends), so we had high hopes for this meal, and Fayer did not disappoint. Everything was delicious, from the pastrami sandwich to the baklava. That’s right, we had a pastrami sandwich in Spain, and it was one of the highlights of the trip. Fayer is a MUST visit when in Madrid!

On the third day of our trip, we took a day trip to Toledo and we are so happy we did! Rail Europe made it easy to book round-trip tickets and after a quick 36 minute train ride, we found ourselves in the historic and awe-inspiring Toledo. As we soon found out, it’s a beautiful city with fascinating medieval architecture that somehow remains in tact hundreds of years later.

The first thing we did when we arrived was head to Mirador del Valle to see the incredible views of the city. This was a very quick pit stop to take a few pictures and then we headed into the city to explore. We started our tour of Toledo in one of the main squares, Plaza de Zocodover. The Plaza was full of cafés and the streets surrounding the Plaza made it easy to visit local shops. We slowly made our way over to the Jewish Quarter of the city and once there we visited Sinagoga de Santa Maria La Blanca, Sinagoga del Tránsito and Museo del Greco. It was truly a spectacle to see such wonderfully preserved religious historical buildings. So much so that Jon would jokingly say, “Holy Toledo!“ throughout the day, a phrase that I now have a much better appreciation for. Rounding out our day trip, we saw great art at Museo del Greco, and then stopped for an espresso at a local outdoor café before getting back on the train to Madrid.

After a much needed siesta, we headed out in search of more tapas. The first two places on our list were unfortunately too crowded (it was the weekend, after all), but we walked around until we found a great place called Revoltosa. We ended up loving the food so much that we stayed all night and only left to find the famous churros and hot chocolate at Chocolatería Valor. Our experience that night cemented the idea that even if your first few choices are packed to the brim, you can easily find a delicious gem in Madrid!

Our fourth day in Madrid turned out to be quite rainy, so it was great that we had all our indoor activities planned. We started the day grabbing brunch at La Bicicleta Café Malasaña. The coffee was amazing and the different avocado toast options were fantastic. Jon had a mushroom avocado toast and I had avocado toast with jamón ibérico! Just be sure not to seat yourself — we witnessed so many people seat themselves and not get service because the servers didn’t realize they were there!

After brunch we headed to the Museo Arqueológico Nacional to check out a variety of historic artifacts spanning thousands of years. The museum has everything from ancient coins to mummies, and the best part is, the museum is free on Saturdays!

After the museum, we took the metro over to the Palacio neighborhood and visited Mercado de San Miguel, which was one of my most anticipated activities. There were so many food stalls and vendors that we couldn’t decide where to eat first! We tried as much food as we could and ended up grabbing some pastries and macarons to take back to the AirBnB for a pre-siesta snack. Mercado de San Miguel needs to be on every Madrid itinerary as there is something there for everyone! Our biggest recommendation is to plan to go on a weekday if possible. We were able to try everything we wanted, but the market was very crowded with it being a weekend.

For dinner, we headed to a restaurant that came highly recommended to us, Casa Benigna. This family-owned restaurant specializes in paella, boasting five different types. We tried two and left full but so satisfied. Pro-tip: the sangria is delicious and pairs perfectly with all of the paella options!

Day five was jam-packed for us as it was our last day in Madrid and we wanted to fit in as much as we could. We started the day with an impressive tour of Palacio Real de Madrid. The palace is stunning and we were able to see rooms like the throne room, preserved bedrooms of previous kings and the weapons room. Each room has a different “flavor” to it, from the color scheme to the furniture, to the mind-boggling artwork painted on the ceiling. This is another must-do activity while in Madrid.

After visiting the Palacio, we walked over to Plaza Mayor to check out Bar La Campaña and their famous bocadillos. We each tried a bocadillo de calamares, and while you might be surprised to hear that Calamari on a roll was delicious, it very much was!

We walked off the bocadillos afterwards and headed over to El Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. This was a museum that no one had recommended to us, but I stumbled across it in my research and I’m so glad I booked us tickets. This was the art museum that we were hoping for. The museum holds paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas and many other European artists. This is the kind of art that Jon and I love. Van Gogh is my favorite artist, and I could sit in front of one of his paintings for hours. We spent a lot of time in this museum making sure we didn’t miss a single painting. This is the museum we highly recommend visiting while in Madrid.

When we left the museum, we wanted to grab a coffee before heading back for our siesta. We wandered down a few side streets and eventually stumbled upon a café called La Mejor Tarta de Chocolate Del Mundo - or The best Chocolate Tart in the World. The name of the café is not a lie. We each had coffee and split a piece of the chocolate tart, and we loved it. It was easily our favorite dessert during our entire trip. Another hidden gem we found by accident!

Later, with our final siesta of the trip completed, we headed out on our final tapas tour. We headed first to Casa Labra for jamón ibérico and croquettes, and then to Fatigas Del Querer for patatas bravas - and yes, we did have patatas bravas five days in a row. It was worth it. Before we ended our trip, we headed to Chocolatería Valor one more time for churros and then called it a night.