Madrid & Toledo, Spain

Full account on trip to Madrid & Toledo, Spain

This is gonna be a huge post because it is essentially a 12 days trip (including 27 hours of flight to-and-back)

Will try to put up some pictures otherwise it gets very wordy...When I am not too lazy :X

The currency mentioned from hereon shall be in Euros unless otherwise stated.

Here the brief version of our trip.

-Touched down at Barcelona via plane, and will then transit to Madrid via Renfe Train.

-Madrid about 3.5 days. Including a day trip to Toledo,

-Seville about 2 days

-Granada about 2 days

-Barcelona about 3.5 days, our final stop.

10/11  - Day 1 - Singapore's Night Time

And the day of boarding our plane out of Singapore, I packed everything nice and quick. Then..I forgot my IPad. Sheesh. I actually can't do anything smart without writing myself a note that says "bring this, bring that". So mummy had to actually cab to airport and pass it to me :X so uber sorry for making her rush out. Lol :X

We were on plane for about 14 hours (including the 1 hour for landing at Milan, in which we just stayed on the plane and wait for it to get recharged or something. 

And I have to say, SQ fed us nice and fat. Lol, we had like 3 meals (1 lunch, 1 dinner, 1 breakfast, about 2 snacks in between). And of course, once after lunch everyone was running for the toilet. The 13 hours of flight seriously was killing my butt and my legs (didn't stretch enough). X__X I would really love to get a first class ticket...

And its kinda funny that the plane emptied the moment we stop at Milan. Only a few were going onwards to Spain.

11/11 - Day 2 - Morning

We reached Barcelona around 8am+ and sis was starting to munch snacks. Fetched our luggage and looked around the airport for SIM card retailer. We found Lebara, which offered us quite good prepaid plans and at least within our budget. But funny, the guy just sold us the plan that has 2GB of data while we wanted only 1 GB. Anyways we bought 2 sim card so that we could contact each other. Think it was about $15 each.

- Includes 2 GB data

- Voice call / SMS within Spain and some other countries as well (Singapore included!)

We then moved on to an aerobus shuttle that bring us to the renfe train station. Had to wait for quite a few hours before we board our train @ 12pm towards Madrid.

Note, somehow the personnels only opened up the gates to the train about 15mins before boarding. And they are dead on time with the train departing. You only get a less than a minute if no one helps to flag it down when you were only slightly late (based on our day trip to Toledo experience)

> 3 hours train ride to Madrid.

Finally when we reached Madrid, that is when our first mini-nightmare started. 

1. They don't endorse escalator in 2 direction in the city's metro station. Ie. You only get a one-direction escalator.

2. If you need to change between 2 lines of the metro, they bring you to loop here and there, up and down many different flight of stairs. This is super confusing and bring you much stress with carrying/dragging your luggage.

Imagine us 2 girls, mind you we brought 2 big luggage, dragging that luggage everywhere. Lool.

We either, struggle to bring the luggage up the stairs, or struggle to drag it down the stairs with all the "bing-bang". 

Ok, finally we managed to tow out the luggage next is finding the street. Lucky enough we actually got ourselves an easy-to-locate AirBnb apartment although when we first reached it was just slightly confusing to find since the street itself skipped a few numbers before we found it.

We arrived later than as promised to the owner, and had to him because we couldn't find the place. and opps, it was actually lunch hour (reached around 3.50pm) and I think I kinda made him rushed his lunch and rush back here. :X.

*stomach grumbling*

Pietro, (the owner) was very warm and nice, and gave us a 30 mins guide to the apartment on using the facilities. Then the best part, he draw up a map and gave us an introduction to Madrid main areas, and made some recommendations.

The main areas were simply divided into 4 area as shared by Pietro:

-Top Left: Malasana - said to be the best shopping area where you buy clothes by kilos (!?)

-Top Right: Gran Via/Chueca, main area. And Chueca is a gay street.

-Bottom Right: A place with a lot of museum

-Bottom Left: A place with a lot of sculpture.

Soon after we wash up (ate cup noodles) and then we were off to our first sightseeing:

- Fountain of Cibeles

- Palacio de Cibeles 

(sadly we didn't enter, since we were behind time)

- Retiro Park

At then while at Retiro Park, the sun was setting fast and I couldn't complete half the itinerary which would be a huge waste because No Sun = No Scenery. :(.

Had to make a quick change and decided to revisit Retiro Park the next morning.

Carrying on with the night time, we sped up a few items, from Retiro Park, we exit, and charge through the following:

- Prados Park 

Oh well, at nighttime didn't see much just some really nicely lighted sculptures)

- Fountain of Neptuno

We accidentally saw this as it wasn't on our planned itinerary. But nevertheless, this is super pretty at night!

- Puerta del Sol

This is one of the main squares in Madrid and theres quite a lot going on at night. Some demonstration, lots of people, and quite a lot of food and shops around.

Here we stopped by La Malloquina, a bakery which is super super busy. You really have to squeeze in front of the pastries display to get some one to notice you and help you do your order. Just a heads up, the pastries here in Spain are quite quite sweet.

La Mallorquina pastries for breakfast the next day!

Stopped by a turron shop as well - which my sis said it is selling one of the well-known turrons brand - Vicens. I was scratching my head and linking up turrons as rock-hard nougats. Me no like hard candies, so I watch my sis picking up some of these candies here and there. Anyways I did learn that there were softer version in the latter cities.

- Plaza Mayor

One of the main squares as well. Hmm well, less busier than I thought it would be. But the red buildings should totally rock in the daylight. Anyways, we started looking around for food and finally found Emma Cocina, our first ever Tapas stop!

Tapas is small dish in Spain that usually people order to go with their drinks (eg. beer or anything alcoholic). It is not a specific dish, it is all different types/kind of dishes. Usually you see bread/potato kinda dishes, with a few other toppings, some may be pork, iberico and many other more.
In some cities like Granada (I am not sure if other cities still uphold this culture), if you order a drink they would serve you free tapas for it. If you were lucky, you might get to choose your tapas! Soz, this culture of "tapas-hopping" is usually heard or read online (I read...), that the locals usually go to different bars and order a drink around a standing table, drink and eat and chit-chat. Its an inexpensive way to fill your stomach up. Sounds like an awesome lifestyle?

Since it was our first order in Spain, and we couldn't understand completely which-and-what food. Mind you, no pictures on the menu itself haha.- so lol, we just ordered anything that sounds good. 

After which, walked all the way up to Gran Via street and then walked by to our apartment. Teehee, we spotted quite a lot of our regular shopping stops: Zara, Stradivarius, etc etc. Some of the local big high-street fashion which we regretfully didn't manage to stop by throughout our stay in Madrid:

- Primark

- Lefties

12/11 - Day 3

Supposedly to be a short day since we readjust and covered much of our itinerary on Day 2.

- Retiro Park

Revisited this place to take better photos and the morning breeze and yummy sunlight felt soooo good. :D

Basically I took a recommended route of the internet and we just walked our way through it:

- Puerta de Alcala.

Very nice gate in the middle of the road haha. Trying to take a good photo without those vehicles is gonna be a challenge. 

 - Estanque Lake

A huge lake where King Alfonso XII monument were at the very far end of the lake. You can rent a canoe if you were interested

- Palacio de Cristal

This was the place that got us to revise our plans, because at night, there is nothing magical to see! This is a gem for your eyes in the morning! Its is a glass pavilion and it is very beautiful to see in the morning.

We trekked a bit around the trees and surrounding it and it made the areas look very magical. Like in a fairy tale.

Along the way, we ran into a young lady from korea, whom we helped to take a photo for her. It would seem that koreans are very daring with a solo-trip. o.o

- La Rosaleda

A very pretty garden, definitely for the ladies who loves roses.

- Fallen Angel Status (Lucifer)

Soon after we followed the way out and to the metro to make for our next stop:

- Plaza Espana

Yet another park that is full of monuments.

A tip here, if you need a toilet break, and there is no toilet in sight, run for any nearby museums!

- Templo de Debod

Egypt ruins and it actually looks really really exotic. xD "whatswiththewordexotic". One of my favourite visit in Madrid.

Theres an interesting location around the ruins, where you can see the back of the royal palace (if I remember correctly) from that location, and its quite a beautiful scenery

- Market of San Miguel 

We walked down along the Royal Palace and Catedral de Almudena to reach this market where we shall have our lunch stop. Lol along the way if you see any one dressed funny and beckons you to take a photo with him...you better not unless you want to part with some cash. 

He only told us, 5 euros after we each took a photo, and funny, when I couldn't find change for 10 euros, he then say, 5 each (me and sis) so 10 euros is right. Pfft...

Anyways, back to Market. This is a super fun and busy place. Anyways we found ourselves a few tapas (yet again), and a cup of wine each. The food were yummy!

- Chocolate San Gines

We went to have this churros at this well known restaurant that opens for 24 hours (not many in Spain does that). And the crews were funny when I ordered this "Irish Coffee"

He: "This one got whisky in it"

Me: "Ok sure"

He: "Oooo good!" -thumbs up- xD 

Sis had the chocolate with churros. And mind you, the chocolate drink they serve in Spain were seriously THICK! THICK CHOCOLATE! Dabbed those churros in the chocolates! Nom! Sip my coffee!

- Catedral de Almudena

Walked back to the Catedral for our next stop. We didn't get the audio guides since we were already a bit way too far inside to remember we should get it. Anyways, we did some exploring and wandering about the Cathedral. I particularly like to watch the stained glass windows. Very beautiful.

- Royal Palace

Then we were here in the Royal Palace, Huge, grandiose. Especially the ceiling which were full of artworks.

We particularly lingered in the main courtyard and had to taken tons of photos there. We met some really nice tourists who would offered to help us take photos too :D

Lol one thing to highlight about this Singaporean traits that I didn't know exist in me...we always queue everything we see. Lol. We were hanging outside the gate into the palace having fun with selfies and finally decided to go inside. Saw the longest queue out there and thought we were too late and decided to join in, without checking out the signs that were wayyyyyy too in front. Then the security, obviously we look like non-europeans, approached us and ask "Where you from?"

- "That queue was for free-entry into the palace for europeans citizens" Waha. lol

- El Cortes Ingles

Didn't know how we ended up so late to finally left the Royal Palace that we just hopped into El Cortes Ingles, had a small dinner (the lunch that day was suppppper full). El Cortes Ingles is a gigantic departmental store in Spain. It is everywhere. We couldn't find a seat anywhere near the balcony - that was a popular view point to see the whole of Madrid from the 9th floor. :/

So we just took some random seats and rest out legs. Had some tapas again. lol. By then we were already very very exhausted, and all the smokey smell was tickling my throat badly. x_x I was sicked from flu that didn't manage to heal itself despite a very expensive TCM visit.

After the small dinner we headed back to our apartment. In which we stopped by Zara where sis picked up her leather bag, and Vesuvio, where we picked up our pizza.

- Vesuvio

Trust me when I say, "They only give a small size". "The pricing is for a slice". 

So we ordered 2 "slices".

We got 2 whole pizzas.

Lol, the servings are big here haha. And I didn't get the heads up even when we saw the chef by the window kneading the dough and making the pizza base. Lolol xD. And the pizzas were awesome (we had it for supper and breakfast lolol)

13/11 - Day 4 - Day Trip to Toledo!

This day, we head to Toledo. Toledo is a very...medieval city! You can find all sorts of swords sold here, and I was seriously tempted to get a miniature back...

We were slightly late for our Renfe train and had to run. The lady at the train help us to wave down the train which was about to move, opened the gate, and told us to "Run!"

30 mins later, we reached Toledo, where the confusion begins. I planned for us to take a walk to the medieval city so we could walk through the Puente de Alcantara. Lol, we got lost for like 30mins, until we saw a local and

Me: "Habla ingles?"

She: "No"

Then there on begin a bit of spanish conversation with a bit of gesturing to point out where is this medieval Toledo central city which I can't see!! Hahaha. But phew, we made it to her directions, half-understanding teehee.

The weather here was colder than Madrid, maybe more of because it was at a higher grounds too. We can totally see the carbon dioxide we breathed out.

- Puente de Alcantara

Saw the beauuuuutiful bridge. And we walked it!

Climb the torturous amount of stairs...I read on TripAdvisor to take the rightmost stairs where the magical escalator will appear and bring us to the Plaza Zocodover... Meh...I think it was the left stairs. We ended climbing all the way up. X_X

But anyways, the scenery up the climb was beautiful regardless of the tough climb. Haha.

- Plaza Zocodover

Slow swing into the main Plaza Zocodover. And we found Santo Tome, which was right across the street, well-known for their almond pastries, the Mazapan! 

- Santo Tome

A bit onto marzapan, and I read up all I could about these sweets. The best recommended ones are in Toledo, and Santo Tome is the recommended place to get it. We bought a few, which sells by the weight itself, and yup, it is still very sweet. Just don't take a big chomp into it.

And seriously, I think these sweets cured my sore throat which wouldn't go away for 2 weeks. Neither the antibiotic nor TCM completely kill the virus. After that day with a few marzapans, and maybe plus a few cups of honey with propolis bought in one of the mart in Madrid, my cough went poof.

Another plus point, these marzapans got my moms approval. It is serious hard to get her to say "This is good" for any type of pastries because she was a baker herself. And to get her approval - seriously this is a must! By the way, for marzapans, I recommend taking small bites to slowly savour it. Don't go into a rush and pop it in which will give you too much of a sweet tooth and you probably can't taste the awesomeness in it.

- Toledo's Catedral

We then make our way to the Toledo's Catedral. The audio guide here was free. :D

We followed the map on the provided leaflet to complete the tour in the catedral, and found ourselves short on 2-3 spots. We couldn't get in. The guard wouldn't let us in too, saying those were for people who want to pray in there only. But we saw other tourists in there too...

One of the tourist saw me asking the guard decided to let me on the secret into those spots.

- Exit the Catedral, and take a big detour to the back of the Catedral, which will have a door. Thats where to the entry to the spots were. Much thankful to the information, but in the end we decided to skip it. 

- Ludena

Exiting the Cathedral, we headed for lunch at Bar Ludena. 

They have a set meal of the day @ $14.50, for 2 course, a bread, a drink, and a dessert. Seriously a good deal right? We went for it, a set for each person.

And it was huge. Huge huge meal.

The 2 courses, were huge plates by themselves. 2 sets means a total of 4 big plates. And lol, it seriously look like it was for 4 person rofl. Besides that, there was the bread and bun. Then the drink, oh man...my sis order a wine. It came in a bottle. Loool~! Oki a small bottle that looks like 300ml. Lool.

Then finally the dessert. Because we were so full, we decided to only have one dessert. Lol. And the dessert was the most heavenly item I had ate in Spain. Some vanilla melted cream topped with a soften money-cookie. XD. Omgg....why you came out so late... :(

Ok, this bar was seriously worth it. Just becareful of the huge huge plates. Lol.

After the huge lunch, we started walking to the Toledo Alcazar. It was a long walk and along the way, my sis spotted a shoe shop and said to go in. I had been looking for shoes since the Day 1 in Spain. 

It was funny because when we walked inside the shop, there was no shoes displayed. Just a lot of people trying shoes. So we walked out, look at the display, snapped some photos, and went in and showed the photo to the owner(?). Haha.

While waiting for the shoe sizes, a korean family, mother and son, chatted with us. Hee, they were very nice and lol my sis suddenly forgot all her korean language xD. The son spoke English with us, and it was a really nice exchange. :)

I ddin't leave empty handed. 2 Pairs of shoes! The moment the owner said, "these were leathers", chop chop! But anyways they didn't come with the tags of leather. So...up to me to believe in.

-Toledo Alcazar

The Alcazar didn't house much things in it, and there was nothing much to see except for the Army Museum where you can see a long of military items eg canons and so on. This visit should only take less than an hour except for the time spent at the courtyard/terrace camwhoring. There was simply no one there to photobomb you. At times, we only see a maximum of 10 person within the Alcazar. 

A disappointing visit, but I read online that this museum was only a few years old...

- Mirador del Valle

This was the best view point in Toledo to see the whole landscape of Toledo. We took bus 71, and lol, funny enough - while the bus shows the stops, I think it skipped a stop thinking nobody wanna go there and we panicked, hit the bus button and got off at the wrong stop. o.o; And the bus stop looks super stranded haha.

Scratch that head and think about what to do. 

We followed the path up to the Parador of Toledo, a hotel which was said to show a good view point of Toledo as well. And we found it. Luckily we didn't have to order a drink just to get in to the viewpoint. 

Lol just a heads up, bus 71 frequency is every 1 hour. So once you get off a stop, the next bus comes in at 1 hour later. So we went back to the lonely looking bus stop and waited for about 30 mins. Hopped on the bus that came and zoom back down, and found the real Mirador del Valle. This viewpoint had a better view with lesser trees to occupy your photograph. Then we zoom back onto the next stop:

- Puente de San Martin

Yet another bridge into Toledo. It was around evening time, about 6pm + when we were there. The sun was setting real quick.

A funny thing we noted on the short ledges around the bridges, they had padlocks. And some padlocks got the phrase like "A <3 B" Haha. This this was like a mini version of the Paris bridge???

Wanting to stop by one of the churches which held the masterpiece of El Greco, we headed on to the Iglesia de Santo Tome - which was closed. :( Damn...

We walked about took some photos of the nearby, dropped in a leather shop and bought a wallet for mommy. We had the idea of walking back to Plaza Zocodover - which is possible, but very scary since it was totally dark. 

And note, Toledo's road isn't exactly super nice to walk with all the rocky and stoney path. And many times we wandered into the wrong sides which made us climb and climb. So lucky, we decided to head back to Puente de San Martin bus stop to wait for the bus.

- Puerta de Bisagra

Sadly, we had to missed this since we thought there were not enough time left. We can only see it while zooming by on the bus :/.

- Jacintha & Maria Chocolate

This shop was very near Plaza Zocodover, just head there and check out some chocolates to be bought home. I found Marzapan liquour lolol xD. Had to bring them back teehee :D

- Finally, board a bus back to train station, and take a Renfe train home.

It was from the trip to Toledo, that my left kneecap started to hurt a lot. Just a word of cautious, wear really really really good shoes, with super solid soles, and prepare some knee guards, yoko-yoko, medical balm for muscle/leg pain, salonpas, when going to Europe. 

14/11 - Day 5 - Half Shopping then onwards to Seville!

I changed our plans to visit Malasana instead of shopping, owing to the recommendation by Pietro. However, not sure about the hours of the Saturday, so many shops remained closed even around 10 am. x.x Guess different lifestyles eh?

So we just walk randomly pop into any any stores that were opened. Had a small coffee and cookie break, hopped into a pharmacy to get a knee guard, muscle gel pack, and some muscle pain sticker (like salonpas, but they don't got that brand there!!). 

Finally we zoom into Gran Via, the main shopping streets, and hit the reliable giant brands ie. Zara, SpringField. Didn't had time to go Lefties (this one was huge here and had a queue!!!) and Primark. :/ Sadly we didn't manage to get into Primark in the remaining of our stay in Spain. We did get into a smaller Lefties in Seville though...

So, then, we packed our luggage and then continue our journey to Seville. 

But before that, had to dragged our luggage up and down some stairs. Lol~ x.x