Back to Madrid, May 2017

Seville-Madrid by train. We like to take a later morning trains to avoid waking Ashley up really early and still have time for breakfast, packing up last things, and car return. This time we had to return our car in Seville. We left Granada by 8 in the morning to have enough time for the nearly 3 hours drive. Car rental was conveniently located just around the corner from the train station. 

We uneventfully made it to Seville by car and then to Mardid’s Atocha station by train. Atocha train station in Madrid is worth visiting even if not using the train services.
We reconnected with Alex, Vitaliy’s brother, who flew with us from USA but traveled through some different countries. We ate lunch in a super busy food court of El Corte Ingles. It was on one of the top floors of the building and the view was worth it. There were many restaurants to choose from and we even got to seat by the window despite the weekend crowd.
Plaza Espana was one of our favorites from the last Madrid visit. The weather was great on this May day. From plaza Espana we enjoyed our walk by the Royal Palace of Madrid and to plaza Mayor where Ashley met the Mickey Mouse :). See below. Six months later and she still asks me to tell her about meeting the Mickey in Madrid. Love our little girl. San Miguel market is one of the most popular food markets in Madrid and is located just few steps away from the plaza Mayor.  The next day we had a great morning walk in the park next to the University of Madrid. It was our meeting spot with the local girls who we met trough Alex, Vitaliy’s brother.  It was great meeting and spending time with the Ukrainian-Spanish girls. They showed us some places that are  normally not discovered by tourists and answered all the questions we had left about the Spanish culture.
Playground stop 🙂 I  We walked by the hostal we stayed at during our first trip to Madrid back in 2011.

Our last Airbnb rental was very kid friendly. Ashley was entertained by the new toys and mama had no trouble packing the luggage. Vitaliy and Alex ended the day with the Real Madrid game while I did some shopping and had a great tea time with one of the girls we met earlier in the day. 
God is great all the time!!! So grateful for the unforgettable memories we made, new places we got to visit, the people we have met, and, of course, for His protection not only in the far lands we get to go to but here home as we live our every day lives.

I now should be finished documenting about our trip to Spain back in May. It has now been more than a week since we safely returned from the amazing two weeks trip to Italy. I am excited to share about our Italy experiences on here as well. More to come on that.

Happy travels to you!

Yelena 🙂