Five days in Madrid

Arrived in Madrid. We stayed in a very central part of the city in a hotel set up by my study abroad program, near much of the main downtown areas. Madrid is such a wonderful city with an extremely rich cultural history and a ton to see. Its huge, so you could easily spend a week here, but you could also see a lot in a few short days.

We visited much of Madrid's gorgeous museums. Namely. the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia (where Picasso's famous Guernica is showcased) and the Prado Nacional Museo. Tickets are reasonably priced and you can buy them there or online. From the museums, we headed to Retiro Park, one of Madrids biggest and most famous. We walked through the beautiful scenery and stopped by the big pond with a baguette and bottle of wine and lazed on the grass. You can also rent paddle boats to take on the pond.

For the evening, we went to Madrid's famous El Kapital - a huge club with 5 stories and different types of music on each story. They have a dress code for men, and its a little pricey, but a crazy experience for any night-lifers! Other clubs we went to include Opium and Velvet ( a latin cocktail lounge). Madrid has countless bars, clubs, and lounges suited for whatever your vibe is.

We took a day trip to the small city of Toledo in the Spanish countryside about 2 hours from Madrid. It is an extremely old city with a rich history. It sits on top of a hill above the Tagus river. Its one of the only cities in Spain that has a Jewish Synogogue, a Roman Catholic Cathedral, and Christian Church. We visited them all! The Cathedral of Toledo, Santo Tome Churche, and The Synogogue of Saint Mary the White are all gorgeous and within walking distance in the small city. It was very easy to see all of them in half a day. In between visiting the cathedrals, we of course stopped for tapas, great wine, and a short siesta or shopping break on any of the old cobblestoned streets there.
For lunch, we went to Taberni Buenavista for some local Spanish tapas and cuisine.

We also took a day trip to Segovia and visited the extremely ancient Roman Aquaduct that is still intact throughout the city. Segovia is another small, ancient city about 1.5 hours from Madrid with some ruins, a few cathedrals, and cobblestoned streets to spend your time eating and drinking on. We did both of these cities in one day, but if you wanted to choose one or break it up - thats completely doable!

We had a relaxed morning, cafe and tapas hopping with good shopping until early afternoon. We then made our way to The Royal Palace of Madrid, where you can get tours or just visit the outside if you'd like. Its gorgeous and set atop of a large vista. The Royal family still lives there and its beautiful to see!

In the evening we had a lovely dinner at one of the thousands of restaraunts you can find in Madrid and drank lots of Sangria!

Leave Madrid for home or another Spanish city!

Other things to enjoy:
Go to a flamenco show! Its one of Spain's most uniquely cultural things to see. There's tons of cathedrals, museums, and palaces to find other than the ones listed up here.
Try the local cuisine! Some of it looks or sounds weird, but its delicious and fun.