Our first day in Madrid!

We were up bright and early today to head to Madrid.  Our ride showed up at 6am, at this time in the morning it only took about 40 minutes to get to the Malaga train station.

Our train departed at 730 . We have a nice ride through the Spanish countryside, and a little nap time.
We arrived in Madrid at about 1045 am and hopped in a cab to our hotel.

We are staying at our first Starwood property ! The beautiful Westin Palace Madrid.  It is in a great location and is really nice.  They did not have a room ready when we arrived so we checked  our bags and off we went  to explore.  First stop was a little snack!

 

Believe it or not , and I know most of you will not, I did not do a lot of research or planning for
Madrid.  I did have some information on some sights, Madrid in 2 days, etc.


We walked to Puerto del Sol. Which is a square where kilometer 0 is, the exact center of Madrid. There is a plaque that everyone takes a photo next to.  There are lots of shops and street performers. We continued walking to Plaza Mayor and saw they were setting up for a show. We would return for the show later.

We went into the Mercado market which was amazing! All kinds of little tapas style food from different vendor that you walk around and buy and enjoy ,Even drinks ! This would also get a 2nd visit later.

We continued to roam around and ended up at the basilica and the palace.  We did go into the basilica but decided not to go into the palace so we took a few photos and headed back to plaza Mayor.  We decided to be tourists, which we are and sit in the square for a drink.

We ,I mean I did a little shopping on the way back to the hotel.  Got a few really cute things in Desigual.  Saw a light coat I liked but they did not have my size but she checked another store and one close by had it ! So off on the hunt we went.  We did find the store and they had the jacket and yes I did buy it! It is soooo cute!

On the way back to the hotel we stopped  at a Tapas bar for some snacks.  It was a very cool tapas bar where you order a beer and you get little snacks to go along with it.  You throw your paper on the floor,  place is crazy busy and really cheap!

Now it was definitely siesta time .

The show we wanted to see at Plaza Mayor started at 1000 so we decided we would head out about 8pm, have some dinner and then go to the show.

For dinner we went back to the Mercado market .  We found a spot to stand got a glass of wine and then took turn to head off and bting snacks back! We had oysters, mini burgers, mini crab burger , ravioli, some meat, caviar  with cheese. I think that was everything , it was great!

We headed over to Plaza Mayor for the show.  Since it is Plaza mayor 's 400 th Birthday they are doing all kinds of special shows.  This one was a film of clips showing the history of the square as well as clips form movies that have been filmed in the square .  The film was accompanied by a full orchestra.  It lasted about an hour and was very cool.

Then off to bed for another day of exploring!

Good night!