We had a few things planned for our last day in Madrid, but mostly it was for relaxing and finishing up some souvenir shopping.  We ate a delicious last breakfast in Madrid near the Puerta Del Sol area.  There were a lot of military planes flying overhead, but were hard to see from where we sat in between buildings.  A few airplanes were visible, including an airplane refueling mid-air.  The Real Madrid store was close by and we were able to pick up a few gifts for some crazy Real Madrid fans in our family.  We then stopped at the El Cortes Ingles department store for the post office and a bathroom.  El Cortes Ingles is a huge department store that seemed to have everything.  Just the floor we were on was like a department store, combined with an REI, combined with a toy store all in one.  And it had a post office on the 7^th floor.  That’s where I was headed to mail some post cards back home.  After marching around the floor for a while, I finally found the bathrooms, which of course, even though it was a huge department store, only had two stalls.  The establishments in Madrid all seem to be environmentally conscious, especially on saving energy.  Similar to in El Prado, the lights in the bathroom turned off on me, and there wasn’t even a switch in the stall like El Prado, so I had to use my phone flashlight to see my way out.

One of our scheduled activities for the day was a tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid.  We arrived around noon to see the changing of the guard prior to our tour.  However, we were surprised by a large parade with horses, a military band, chariots, and much more that lasted for over an hour, first through the street and then into the courtyard of the palace.  Unbeknownst to us, there is a special changing of the guard at noon the first Wednesday of each month, and we were lucky enough to experience it.

The Palace was gigantic and opulent.  We used the self-guided audio tour, which was well done, guiding us from room to room and pointing out the interesting aspects of each.  I, of course, got in trouble for trying to take a picture one room.  In my defense, there was a no photos sign in one area the beginning, and it was not obvious to me that the one sign indicated no photos for the entirety of the palace tour.  We visited the Royal Armory, viewing lots of ornate body armor including for dogs and kids.  I can just imagine the protest if we were to hang all that chainmail on Maddie or Sam.

Nearing 3pm, it was lunch time.  We found ourselves a delicious lunch de la semana, which turned out to be one of the best meals of our trip.  Three courses for about $17.  Ryan and I both started with avocado stuff with salmon.  And this wasn’t a little bit of avocado.  It was a full extra large avocado half.  Main course for me was a sea bass, while Ryan had stewed beef, which tasted almost exactly like the beef stew we make at home.  Dessert was a brownie cheesecake and pineapple, where they pretty much chop a pineapple and half and stick it on a plate.  And of course it wouldn’t be a meal in Madrid without some beer and wine.

Appetizer finished before we remembered to take a photo

Following our Madrid tour guide’s recommendation, we headed to the nondescript wooden door with little signage to await the opening of the secret nun cookie business.  It was a very interesting process.  We stood outside the door until it opened, probably about the 4^th in a line of maybe 10.  The door is unlocked, we go down a relatively narrow hallway to a dark alcove, where there is a large turnstile built into the wall.  Cookies can only be bought in weights of a kilo or half kilo.  There’s a list of the cookie flavors, but not all are made every day.  We get to our turn.  Someone (presumably a nun) says hello from the other side of the wall, and we said back half kilo of this type and half kilo of another type.  She then said that there was none of the second type that day, so we quickly decided on a different flavor.  All of this conversation in Spanish.  The cookies get put on the turnstile and spun around to us.  We put the money on the turnstile and spin it around to them, then it gets spun back to us with change.  What an experience!  We wound up getting some lemon shortbread cookies and powdered sugar cookies.  Both were delicious.  Even if they weren’t, it was more about the experience anyway.  Only later while packing up cookies to bring with us to Port Aransas a few days later did I notice that the monastery was named Monestario de Corpus Christi.

 Back to the AirBnb to get most of our packing done and take a short rest before our final adventures in Madrid, a Flamenco show and some tapas.  The show was great, down in a little basement, all seats very close to the stage, lots of fun, amazing how quickly the dancers move their feet.  I also had the opportunity to try the sweet vermouth which is common in Madrid, which was pretty good.  There was a little girl there with her parents in front of us watching the show, and I was yet again amazed at how late everyone, including kids, is awake in Madrid on school nights.

Afterwards, we headed to Mercado San Miguel for our last chance at amazing tapas, followed by our last churros y chocolate before flying home the next day.

Mercado San Miguel

Our last churros con chocolate

AirBnb – Visible from San Gines

I don’t remember much about the trip home.  Getting through the Madrid airport took a lot longer than anticipated, lots of security to fly back to the US it seemed, and we made it to the gate just in time to grab some quick food and get on line to board.  The flight home was easy, and we were actually able to get standby on an earlier flight from Dallas to Austin, so we arrived home a little after 8pm.  Maddie was asleep, but Sam was there to greet us, though unclear if he was actually happy to have us home.

In case we hadn’t walked enough the day before, Tuesday was when we were finally able to get train tickets to Toledo, and basically walk the city for the day.  The start of the train ride there was a very interesting.  It reminded me a bit of Penn Station in NY.  Everyone mills around until the departure track gets posted on a board, at which point everyone rushes to the track.  We were standing around, waiting and waiting, no track for our train yet, and we notice that the earlier train to Toledo was still up on the board.  Maybe about 15 mins late, a track gets posted, the same track for both our train and the earlier train.  We stand in line to get our tickets scanned and head out to the train to find our seats.  We had purchased reserved seats.  It was not obvious which car was which, so we were walking along the train looking, and one of the train station workers basically tells us just to hurry up and get on the train and find any seat.  They had put all the people from both our train and the earlier one on a single train, it was pretty much find any seat you could.  Once boarded, we then waited another 20 mins before the train left.  The conductors didn’t speak much English, and the best that we could understand was there was something wrong with the track that was being fixed.  Either way, once the train departed, the ride was a fast 30 mins and uneventful.

The Toledo train station was gorgeous.  It was rebuilt in 1919, to match the architecture of the city.  While relatively new for Spanish history, it reminded me of some of the ‘old’ train stations in the United States.

Toledo has a historic old city surrounded by rivers on three sides.  It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known throughout history as a prosperous city and controlled at different times by Jews, Muslims, and Christians.  There was a lot we wanted to see in one day.  To get from the train station to the old city, we crossed the Puente de Alcantara, a historic bridge with amazing views of the Alcazar Fortress.  Of course, we had to stop for some breakfast before the long day ahead.  Similar to Madrid, small cafes are every other shop, so we popped into one that looked good.  Want to guess what I had for breakfast?  Avocado toast with smoked salmon, goat cheese, and sprouts.  I don’t remember what Ryan had, probably some toast with jamon.

Toledo, as we quickly learned, is an incredibly hilly city, with lots of up and down, and very narrow streets shared by cars and pedestrians, even narrower than the streets we were getting used to in Madrid.  Texas sized trucks, maybe even SUVs, would never make it down those roads.

First stop was the Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, a mosque built in 999.  At the entrance, one could see an old Roman road and the sewer system below it.  Rather than point towards Mecca, this mosque faces towards Cordoba because at that time it would built to face the caliphate of Cordoba.  The apse was added to the Mosque in the 1100s when Christians conquered the city.

Old Roman road

View from the grounds of  Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz

Cat enjoying the weather and the view

Next we walked to the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, where I was very excited to find a public restroom in decent shape.  Public restrooms have been very hard to come by in Madrid. Each food establishment has a restroom, with usually one, maybe two stalls, regardless on the size of the place.  But otherwise, it is very challenging to find a bathroom that is in decent working order and doesn’t have a huge line, because there are very few stalls.  One would think with all the wine that gets consumed, people would need to use the bathroom more.

‘New’ construction we passed on the walk. We found it fascinating how buildings are rebuilt using the same very old structures

I don’t remember a lot about the monastery itself.  We met a nice gentleman who talked at us for a while.  He was originally from Bulgaria, lived in West Orange, NJ, had a son who just moved to Austin, and a daughter who lived in Maryland.  He was also recently retired from a career in computer hardware.  Very nice man, but definitely a bit TMI, as we also learned that he was divorced and partially estranged from his daughter.

Decorative carved ceilings

More decorative carved ceilings

The Jewish Quarter was next on the walking tour, visiting the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca and Synagogue of El Transito.  Santa Maria la Blanca is considered the oldest synagogue in Europe still standing.  The inside was plain and bare.  There was no information about the building available in English, and not even a whole lot available in Spanish, so everything we know about it is from Wikipedia.  The Synagogue of El Transito, including a Sephardic museum, was much more interesting and informative.   Not surprisingly, both synagogues were converted to churches sometime in the late 1300/early 1400 timeframe.  There wasn’t much obvious that differentiated the Jewish Quarter from the rest of the city, though I did find it interesting all the Hebrew letter markings on the street.  I haven’t looked them up yet, they almost look like markings for infrastructure like water or sewer.

Floor at Santa Maria la Blanca

Santa Maria la Blanca

Synagogue of El Transito

Synagogue of El Transito

Shout out to Austin Verde!

The El Greco museum was one of our favorite parts of Toledo.  It was incredibly well done, with a lot of interesting information in English.  A lot of religious works.  We learned that El Greco had an entire studio and developed an easy way to replicate his work, which he taught to many of his apprentices.

Nice view from the park across from El Greco Museum

Can you spot the differences?  Which one is original?

Our tour guide in Madrid told us that Toledo was known for marzipan made by nuns, so of course we had to try it.  Sweets made by nuns is a theme in Spain.  We stopped at the Santa Tome shop to sample and purchase marzipan to bring home.  As far as I can remember, I had never had marzipan before, but now I know that I like it.

Running short on time, we made a beeline to our last two stops.  The Catedral Primada de Toledo was maybe the most impressive and opulent cathedral we have ever visited.  It’s a gothic cathedral, massive in size, with intricate silver and gold-plated designs, sculptures, and carvings.  We wandered around the many chapels, admiring the stained glass windows.  We walked through the Cloisters and out to the garden before moving on.

Are they supposed to smile?

Last stop was the Alcazar Fortress.  We barely got there before closing, and actually got in for free.  We quickly learned that the Fortress itself was temporarily closed, but were able to see the excavation area of the history museum and a few military vehicles outside.

Up some more steps on our way to Alcazar Fortress

Down some hills, over a bridge, and up some hills got us back to the train station with plenty of time to spare.  Ryan was unimpressed with the trains, saying they didn’t compare to the high speed trains in Japan.  I learned that I could bring my sword on the train, as long as it was for souvenir purposes, bought within the past 72 hours, and wrapped appropriately.  This time, boarding was easy, finding our seats wasn’t a problem, but still no wifi (when booking tickets, free wifi was touted).

Ryan doubtful of me getting water from an old fountain

Which sword should I bring home?

Unimpressive train

From the train, we took a Metro ride and a short walk to the Mercado San Anton.  I am like a kid in a candy shop with markets, and this was no different.  We were there right around normal dinner time for us (6pm-ish), and the market was absolutely empty.  Downstairs were huge stalls to purchase various meats, cheeses, and olives.  Upstairs was a bar and multiple tapas stalls.  We settled on tapas of toasted bread with various types of smoked fish.  It was delicious!

After two tiring days, we went back to our AirBnb for an early night.

While initially researching hikes, I had identified a few ‘Intermediate’ 3-4 hour hikes that sounded really nice.  Ryan found one that he thought looked good, one of the La Pedriza trails, and we could take a bus to the town where it starts, so we decided on that.  Next time I will confirm what exactly Ryan has in mind.  8 hours of a strenuous hike was in no way what I had in mind or was expecting.  I definitely didn’t bring enough water or food.  I guess technically it was more like 7 hours of hiking, because the first 30 mins were just walking straight up hill through the town to get to the start of the trail.  The hike was gorgeous and we were practically the only ones on the trail (when we could find the trail – see photos below of some of our ‘route’).  I’m relatively adventurous, but there were parts towards the top where I felt like I should have ropes to go up and down rocks that steep.  And we didn’t even make it to the top.  There’s a section called ‘The Chimney’ where hikers need to almost climb up a crevasse.  You need to leave your backpack at the bottom, cause it’s too narrow to do with a backpack.  Ryan got part way up to a big rock in the middle and didn’t see a great way to get around it, so we decided to call it quits at that point and head back down.  Ryan laughed when we stopped at the first store we saw and I gulped down a coconut water in about 1 min.  Enjoy some of the pics from the day below.

Our destination – The dome – Not to be reached on this excursion

Many of the rock formations looked like something.

Animal head – Reminds me of planet of the apes

Can’t remember what this one looked like :-)

Squirrel!!

Gorilla!

We saw a number of mountain goats (Spanish Ibex) throughout our hike, and a lizard.

Our friend

Another friend?

More friends grazing

Wildlife

Ryan at the ‘Chimney’.

The ‘chimney’ – I decided to wait at the bottom

Amazing views (and lots of giant rocks) throughout the hike.

Wildlife

Squirrel!!

Our friend

Gorilla!

The ‘chimney’ – I decided to wait at the bottom

Manzanares el Real Castle

Only a little lost

The full route