El fin

Well dear readers, we are back in the hotel for the night. And so concludes our last and final day in Madrid, and of the trip. How is it that Paris feels like ages ago??? It certainly has been a full, and fulfilling 2 weeks.

I'm glad we were able to hit as many cities as we did, (6!). Paris....well it's Paris. Always has been and will be my #1. I'm lucky that Kyle agreed to go there again even though it was his 3rd and my 4th time. It was the smallest room we had on the trip, and the most expensive, but man, that Eiffel tower view is worth it!

Florence packed a punch for the one night we stayed there. Our 1st of 5 nights in Italy, it was both our 2nd time there, and we loved it just as much as the 1st.

Montepulciano...everyone should make this a stop if ever in Italy! Such a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of a big city, this quaint and charming town with its equally lovely neighbors had the best food for us-- how could it not when the owners themselves were your servers and grandma was cooking in the kitchen? We felt like we were staying at some distant Italian relatives house with the gorgeous b&b we stayed in. And the views of those rolling Tuscan hills just never got old.

Rome, the city that we went to simply because we had to fly out of it to go to Spain. Poor thing never stood a chance of being one of our favorites of the trip. We'd each been once before. But it was fine all the same. I guess it was just hard going from the countryside of Tuscany which felt like we had it all to ourselves, to the millions of people all over Rome.

This Spain visit was my first time, and Kyle's 1st time since he lived there for 6 months. Me and Spain had been in a little tiff because, well, she took my boyfriend for 6 months. I actually was indifferent about the Spain leg of the trip. But between visiting Oli and falling in love with the wonderful town of Caceres, to loving Madrid as well, I heart Spain-- A LOT.

Here are some pictures from our last day in Madrid. We went to a Chagall exhibit ( no pics allowed, but very cool paintings-google it!) , the Reina Sophia museum (no pics allowed) holds a very well known Picasso painting, Guernica (anyone remember that from Humanities class?) , and we walked through what felt like the "central park" of Madrid, which was gorgeous. Oh, and we ate a lot ;)

Thanks so much for following along and looking forward to seeing you soon !

Chagall exhibit

I sneaked this pic, and got scolded for it!

Lunch outside , it was 70 deg!

Iberico ham sandwich. This ham is fan freaking tastic. They feed the pigs acorns, which apparently makes for good ham!

Buen Retiro park

Our favorite tapas and ice cream street

Ice cream break. Me : hazelnut(of course!) and choc chip. Kyle: chocolate with cookies and apple cinnamon ( watch out hazelnut, cause this flavor was pretty awesome) .

Kyle cheese tasting at an outdoor market

People watching at the always bustling Plaza Mayor.

 

Dinner at a paella place

The streets get packed at night!

 

First full day in Madrid

Another great day in Spain. We started off with some cafe con leche and breakfast pastries(we've pretty much been having croissants filled with chocolate everyday for breakfast). Then it was off to the Prado. Wow, that's a big museum! We spent a few hours there, and could have spent several more. But it was lunch time! We headed out for some tapas. A few small sandwiches, some olives, pickles (yum) along with some unexpected anchovies (whoops), and something we ordered completely blind... And it was a miss. Still not sure what it was.

What is that bell shaped thing?

 

No matter! After lunch, we headed off for a quick stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were quite lovely but due to it being March and all, maybe not yet at its prime.

We worked up an appetite with the stroll (not really, just looking for a justification for what's next) so we went to a famous Madrid churros shop. There being two of us, we ordered two churros con chocolate. The chocolate was great-nice and thick and delicious. The churros were quite tasty as well... Only since we had two orders, we received 12 of them! The table next to us, also a two-some, were a bit smarter, and had two cups of chocolate and split a single order of six churros. Next time.

 

Reenergized, we headed off to Spain's Royal Palace. Very beautiful. Unfortunately, they don't allow photos of any kind (same with the Prado for that matter), but here are a couple of exterior shots...

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon siesta prior to dinner. Dinner was a mini- tapas crawl (of course!) followed by an awesome flamenco show.

Gazpacho

A popular tapa--fried peppers

Patatas bravas

Shrimp, mushrooms, and scrambled eggs. Sounds gross but it was great.

Flamenco

 

 

Sadly we only have one day left. Stay tuned for some more Madrid tomorrow, faithful readers!

Tapas pics

Tortilla on bread

Tapas on display

Smoked salmon and ham/mozzarella on bread

My favorite stop on the crawl: Pâté with jame, iberico ham, and tuna

And finally....ice cream! I've been getting hazelnut this entire trip. It's my absolute favorite. Kyle changes it up, he had chocolate this time.

 

Last day in Caceres

We had breakfast with Oli and Alberto jr. at a Churreria, a place that sells churros. They were delicious and oh so greasy and heavy! Afterwards we went for a walk with Oli around the old town. Oli is hilarious, and so spunky. She was zipping up and around those hilly streets while we were trying to keep up, every now and then pausing to tell us some funny story, which Kyle would translate for me.

We spent the rest of the morning at her place before she took us to the train station. Kyle helped Oli with her computer, while I talked to Alberto Sr. (he can speak French so that's how we communicated). Oli and Alberto are so sweet together, they talk about how happy and how much in love they are.

Churros.

 

 

 

It was so sad to leave Cacares, I hope someday we get to go back.

We got to Madrid at 730ish and headed out for a tapas bar crawl! Our guide book had listed 4 different places, and the 5th and final one was an ice cream stop, the best in Madrid according to the book. It was so much fun and delicious! It's pretty cool, you just go up to the bar, point to what you want and eat it along the bar. We did the crawl where the clientele was described to be hip and young, so we figured we'd just blend right in :)

Well, the Madrid tapas pictures seem to not want to upload right now so I'll have to try again in the morning....

 

 

Caceres

We had such a great day in Caceres. We spent the morning walking around the old town, which is the part that is enclosed by the medieval walls. We climbed the bell tower, and walked certain streets that Kyle wanted to walk down. It really is a beautiful city, small and tourist-free, just like the Tuscan hill towns were. It's nice that we're getting a mix of the big, bustling European cities along with these towns.

We went to Oli's for lunch, where we were greeted by Kyle's Spanish "brother" (who was only 16 when Kyle lived there) and Oli's husband, both of whom are named Alberto. The senior Alberto was telling me how he loves American movies, and he thinks Meryl Streep is the best actress.

Oli had made traditional spanish tortilla and we had a lovely lunch. Afterwards, the younger Alberto walked us around Caceres a bit then drove us to a mountain just outside the city which had some really great views. We're having breakfast with Oli tomorrow before heading to Madrid.

 

View from our hotel of the main city square.

 

Bell tower.

The square.

Tortilla.

Spanish family.

Kyle and Oli.

Kyle and Alberto. Can you tell which one is European? :)

 

View from the mountain. (Alberto hopes to run the NYC marathon and trains by running up the mountain. We told him he should do the Chicago one instead...)

 

 

 

The bar that Kyle and the other exchange students would always hang out at, La Traviata.