Once upon a time....

1/19 - Landed in Madrid.. we were super tired when we landed, so we ended up taking a 4 hour nap and woke up refreshed in the evening. We were staying at the Westin Palace Hotel which worked out great in every way! It is centrally located to everything and is a very nice hotel. Anyway, we walked in the Arts district (the hotel is in the Arts district) and met up with Alap's family friend in the evening. She took us out for tapas to a place that also put on a Flamenco show. We were told that the food scene in Madrid is that you have tapas in one local restaurant, then you walk around for a bit and then go to another restaurant for more tapas, and so on. So we tried tapas at 3 different restaurants in that one night :P We were all vegetarians but you should have their cured ham. It's a very famous dish/snack there. One place you should visit is there local market called Mercado de San Miguel (http://www.spottedbylocals.com/madrid/mercado-de-san-miguel/) We did not opt for this option but if you go to Plaza Mayor (downtown square) during the day, then you can stop by their visitor center and take their guided tours by foot or tours by bus. I think the tours by foot were free. We had Alap's friend show us around since she also knew a ton about the city. You should also check out Puerta del Sol which is considered the heart of the country and where they have their iconic Bear and Tree statue. 1/20 - We took the train to Toledo and spent most of the day there. There is a neat El Greco museum and Alcazar there. 1/21 - We took a tour of the Royal Palace, the Royal gardens and saw the Egyptian temple from the 2nd B.C.. Also walked around and did some shopping. You will notice several El Cortes Ingles stores.. they're HUGE stores that have all sorts of American and European brand stuff. They have EVERYTHING from groceries to clothes to furniture, if you happen to need anything while you're there. 1/22 - We went to the Prado museum for first half of the day. We rushed through a lot of it. You should definitely check out the Prado Museum -- it has quite a few amazing paintings from different ages. We flew out to Barcelona the night of 22nd.