Euro Recap–Espana

Let me tell you after a week experiencing typical UK weather, stepping off the plane in Madrid to 90 degree weather was heavenly!

Kyle and Gabby were overjoyed to finally start speaking Spanish. Although both are fluent (hello, it’s Gabby’s first language!), it did not come with it’s mixups. First night we ventured only 2 blocks from our hotel to find some authentic Spanish cuisine. It was great! Until we learned the hard way the difference between chupitos and chopitos. We ordered chopitos, or tiny friend squid. What was served to us was chupitos, this flask with the 4 shot glasses on our table. We at first thought it was some olive oil (they grow olives in Spain ya know!) to dip our squid in. After about 5 minutes of waiting for our chopitos, it became apparent something was wrong. We laughed and laughed after we flagged our waiter and  explained the mix up in the one little vowel in the word. We told him we didn’t drink alcohol and he understood. Although we had to pay for the chupitos, we got a plate of chopitos on the house!

 

First thing the next morning we found the Madrid temple. It was all closed up, MTC and all but we found and open gate and made ourselves at home!

I don’t know what Kyle’s doing, but it cracks me up every time I see this photo.

Kyle traded patches with the Madrid Municipal police. They were the nicest guys and gave us all kinds of pins and Spanish PD memorabilia.

I’m now on a campaign to change UHP official duty uniform to carry their Glocks in thigh holsters. They look pretty bad, eh?

Next up on our bucket list? Churros de Chocolate. We asked some locals to recommend us a good churro parlor. We were sent here and it did not disappoint! You order whatever chocolate/tea/coffee, etc. and they serve it to you in a little teacup with a huge plate of hot churros.

Just dip, bite, repeat. Over and over until the plate of churros are gone and you have to be rolled out.

The Spanish cathedrals are my favorite in the world I’ve seen. Just look how bright and exciting they are inside!

I’ve been told that Spain is the only country in the world that has a President, Prime Minister, and King. I haven’t done much research on this, so don’t really know if it’s true, but this is the royal palace, where the King of Spain lives.

I love architecture and Madrid was architecturally super interesting to me! These were some of my favorites.

Parks and gardens are found all over the city. We were all impressed with how immaculately kept the gardens and metros were.

Later on this day we wound back up in the same part of the city our churro parlor was. This charming joint was next door the churro place. Here we ordered authentic tapas (a variety of toppings placed on a slice of Spanish toast) and palletos (Spanish rice and meat all cooked in a skillet). One of our tapas was pretty nasty. Ryan asked in broken Spanish if it came from goat anus. The waitress laughed and laughed and said it was, indeed goat cheese. That must’ve won her over because next thing we know, she brings out 4 shot glasses with 2 kinds of alcohol (one for the men to make them fuerte, and the other for the ladies, dulce). Me and Gabby’s drink was actually pretty tempting. Have you ever had horchata? If you ever go to Mexico or to a Mexican market or restaurant, get some! It is a rice water drink sprinkled with cinnamon and it is sooo yummy! Our drink was horchata infused with who knows what kind of alcohol. But we felt a little bad as we explained to the waitress we don’t drink alcohol but thanks for the compliment anyway.

Our hotel was pretty posh. Gabby found us a smokin’ deal on a 5 star hotel and it didn’t disappoint!

Next morning we spent a few hours exploring this park.

See what I mean about perfectly manicured gardens? These trees were something else!

We took a bullet train south of Madrid through farmland and olive groves to the ancient city of Toledo.

We felt right at home, like we were in Mexico.

The city is situated on top of a small mountain where you have an almost 180 degree view of everything below!

The Tagus river flows through it and several bridges featuring ancient Roman aqueducts connect the 2 sides of the city.

Here, I’m trying not to look lost…

Toledo is also where the famous Spanish swords and knives are made. There were tons of shops all over featuring these.

We spent the whole day in Toledo and made it back to Madrid just in time to hop on the metro and cruise to a flamenco show in a sketchy part of town.

This was the highlight of Spain for us. Flamenco was intense! We were right on the front row where the dancers would make eye contact with you and declare things like, “You’re not my lover!”

Unfortunately Kyle only got one photo of the opening act before the phone ran out of juice. But the images I’ll leave you with some images courtesy of Google.