Madrid…Wonderful to finally be in Spain, and to be joined by my (Jim’s) mom!

We arrived in Madrid on a rather cold, rainy day and, after getting hopelessly lost in the airport, we finally made our way to the uber stand. It was a nice drive (with more traffic than expected) into the central part of the city, to a neighborhood nearish the office district and government buildings. The AirBNB was newly renovated, with two bedrooms as my mom was arriving the next day. Jos found a cool, little tapas restaurant around the corner and we ordered too much food and a tasty bottle of wine. We struck up a conversation with the nice woman who we think owned the place, and we enjoyed the meal so much that we ended up coming back a few more times.

We had a good night's rest, then headed out the next morning to meet my mom at the airport. She had a delayed layover, and so ended up arriving a few hours late and very jetlagged. 

Even though my mom is now in her 70s, she did a great job making the trip over by herself… and she was nice enough to bring my computer and a few things we ordered that we couldn’t find in Europe. Thanks, Mom!!! We got her settled in, then headed back to the tapas restaurant for a late afternoon meal. That evening, we visited the Reina Sofia modern art museum not far from our AirBNB. Mom found it quite interesting and a little out of her comfort zone. 

The next day after coffee, we spent all day touring the city on the hop-on hop-off bus. It meandered through several areas of Madrid. This tour, unlike others, was not the best. Madrid is just too big! We hopped off at Almudena Cathedral, which had beautiful mosaics and colorful art. We then walked by the Royal Palace… viewed through the gate. Next stop was Chocolateria San Gines, which is very famous for their “hot chocolate”, but really it is dipping chocolate for fried donut sticks. It was very thick and the three of us should have, and could have, shared just one. It was a little disappointing, and overly sweet, to be honest. But it was good to see a lot of Madrid in just one day. My mom was thrilled to see the church and taste the chocolate, as she had read about both in a tour book. We ended the day by eating at a very nice Italian restaurant near the museum we had visited the day before. Mom started to fall in love with “virgin” mojitos. No kidding! My mom doesn’t drink alcohol, but loved the idea of having a fun, mint cocktail.

We all agreed the highlight of our Madrid area visit was our daytrip to Toledo. Toledo is an ancient, historic city about an hour's train ride from the station near our AirBNB. The city of Toledo has been inhabited for thousands of years, and was controlled by the Spanish Moors and others over time. It was at one point the capital of Spain. At some point, the city fell into disrepair before getting re-inhabited and rehabilitated. It was a beautiful city behind a walled fortress, on a hilltop looking over much of the area. It had beautiful, cobblestone streets, ancient buildings, and an unbelievably ornate church, the Toledo Cathedral.

We first took the shortest hop-on hop-off bus ride ever. I think it lasted 30 minutes and cost almost as much as the all-day tour in Madrid. I will say, the sights from the tour were stunning. You could see the whole walled city and the surrounding deep gorges that helped protect this city. Later, we took a short walking tour with a young woman who leaned her good English by watching Netflix. As a side note, my mom is a huge fan of Starbucks, and she was so excited when I found and pointed out one to her in Toledo. I’m laughing even now remembering how excited she was when we found a Starbucks…. this went on throughout our visit to Spain. Mom loved the Starbucks…. she stopped and had a coffee at almost everyone. Really, she was excited to see anything that reminded her of the US.

Our last stop in Toledo was to visit the very over-the-top ornate church, Toledo Cathedral. This was an ancient church that dated back to 13th Century. It had amazing art and sculptures, but everything was very ornate. There were so many things to look at, you could have spent a full day there. I remember how cold and dark it was throughout most of the church, with the exception of one area, which had a painted dome with skylights. They had a whole choir area where two woodwork artists of the day created these elaborate wooden chairs. Also, there was gold everywhere. Google this church, it is something.

We got back late, had a quick bite of dinner, and got to bed, because the next day we were taking the train to Valencia. Vamos!