First days in Madrid

Back to our first days in Madrid.

I feel very blessed to be able to travel and I always wish I had a huge plane or a cruise ship so I could take everyone I know with me. To be more realistic, I find writing here gives me a great opportunity to share my blessings.

I had been posting some pictures on my Facebook page during our trip in May. Pictures are great story tellers. Here, I’m hoping to tell even a better story by combining pictures with words.

We had our hands full with 3 luggage bags and a stroller.

Not sure what the purpose of this piece of art was meant to be but it kept Ashley very busy for a long time while we waited for our next flight in Dallas airport.

Enjoying “planes take off show” at the Dallas airport 🙂

We made it to Madrid in late afternoon and took a taxi to the apartment. It was just under 20 minutes drive and the best choice of transportation after a long flight with a toddler. Ashley was asleep the minute the taxi was on the road :). I wasn’t up for anything else that evening but Vitaliy still took the chance to watch the Real Madrid play against the other Madrid team in the restaurant just below our apartment. With both Madrid teams playing, it felt like the the whole city was on the watch and it was easy to find a stadium-like atmosphere in most of the dinning places around the town.

Our first apartment view had a true Spanish feel. It was located just few minutes away from Atocha train station and very close to Retiro park.

We started our first early morning in Madrid by taking a walk trough the Retiro park. We were all awake bright and early due to the time change so the town and the park were still very peaceful and just perfect for another memorable walk.

It was still pretty chilly at 6am so Ashley enjoyed cuddling in the stroller and we stopped by at McDonald’s on the way to get some hot coffee for ourselves.

We had a great chance to talk about our last experience here. 

On our way to Puerto Del Sol we run into a playground where Ashley had a blast. Being such early birds, we had the whole park to ourselves.

This cozy cafe had lots of options for a yummy and inexpensive breakfast.

Puerto Del Sol square marks the center of Madrid and Spain.

Plaza Mayor was still pretty empty on the Wednesday morning. It is one of my favorite spots in the city.

15 minutes walk from plaza Mayor and we were picking up our bags at the apartment and headed to the Atocha train station. We bought our tickets a few months in advance. If you wish to see more about the planning of this trip, please visit my What to do and see in Spain post.

All happy and heading to Seville from the Atocha train station.

I plan to tell more about our 2 1/2 days in Seville in my next post.

Hope you get to do something you and your family enjoys during the beautiful summer days? I would love to hear in the comments below. Thank you for sharing!