The final stop of our 3-week-long vacation in the Iberian Peninsula was Madrid, Spain. What a beautiful place! However, the city was not kind to us when we first arrived. Keep reading to find out more…

The flight from Lisbon to Madrid was just a little over an hour long. Gotta love easy travel through the European Union, but that meant no stamp for Spain in my passport (that same thing happened when I traveled from England to Scotland a number of years ago). By the time the five of us navigated through the crowded Madrid airport, we were the last ones to the baggage claim area. There were only three left on the rotating baggage carousel: two of which were mine and my son’s. My mother’s suitcase was nowhere to be seen. My husband put his Spanish to good use and spoke with the lost baggage people. We filed a claim with them and left the airport to see about getting an Uber or taxi to our hotel. We chose a taxi this time.

We walked into the hotel lobby and just as we were asked for our passports, the taxi drove off. With our passports in it. Not good! Only my mother still had hers. The hotel concierge told us it happened all the time, which made us feel marginally better. They had the US Embassy’s phone number at the ready, as well as the information of the Madrid police station. They even tried calling the taxi company, but since it was a Saturday, their lost and found would be closed until Monday. The US Embassy was closed until then, too, so it was off to the police station to file the missing passports report. I had both physical and digital copies of everything with me, but it was still an intimidating situation in which we found ourselves. Long story short, the taxi driver turned in the passports a couple of hours later and we went back to the police station to claim them. Thank God!

With the passports safely back in our possession, our amazing trip resumed! The 108 photos I took in Madrid have been painstakingly narrowed down to these. I hope you like them, as well as their stories.

Due to Spain’s proximity to Portugal, we had decided way back in January to include Madrid in our travel plans, and I started researching good places for eats and fun places to see. I was happy that there were lots of points of interest in Madrid and absolutely thrilled to discover that the oldest restaurant in the world (certified by Guinness World Records in 1987) was there, too. Founded in 1725, Botin Restaurant has been in business for nearly 300 years!

The whole restaurant has four levels, and I believe we were sat at a table on the top floor. The servers were all wearing crisp, white, waiter’s jackets, and impressively carrying enormous trays loaded with plates of food up and down the stairs. I don’t remember the meal I ordered being all that noteworthy, but the sangria sure was! Spain is considered the birth place of sangria.

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My family and I made good use of the 2-day tickets we booked for the Hop On, Hop Off bus around Madrid. As we listened to the recorded audio guide from our open-air seats at the top of the bus, we learned a lot about Madrid’s history, architecture, and culture. As for the photo in the middle, you have to read the top line of words in a Spanish accent and then it all makes sense. Genius marketing in Spain! If you don’t understand, then let me know in the comments; I’ll reply with more info. The last photo shows a wonderful surprise we discovered while using the metro: a little library right there in one of the stations. It’s about the size of a closet, but really clean, decently stocked, and such a great idea!

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From left to right: San Ginés chocolate shop (where we had some yummy Spanish churros), Plaza Mayor, San Miguel Mercado (which is really similar to the Time Out Market in Lisbon), and the National Museum of Natural Sciences (where my son was enthralled by the dinosaur fossils).

We also saw or went to a number of other places: El Rastro (a really cool and hip flea market), the National Library, the Madrid Duck Store (so many rubber duckies!), the Fountain of Neptune, a huge sculpture named “Julia,” and the Cibeles Fountain. To keep this post from getting too much longer, I’m not going to include photos of them.

You may be wondering what happened to my mom’s suitcase. The one that wasn’t there at the baggage claim area when we arrived, remember? Thankfully, the airport dropped it off at our hotel two days after we had arrived. There was no explanation or anything. Has this ever happened to any of you?

As always, thanks for stopping by. ❤