Wow, Spain! 🇪🇸 What a country—beautiful and a little wild all at once. The history is rich, the sights are incredible, and the energy is unforgettable. I wouldn’t say it’s my absolute favorite, but it definitely left a big impression on me!
We flew out on Monday morning. The flight wasn't bad at all!
We landed Tuesday morning . . . and we hit the ground RUNNING!
We barely had time to run to the bathroom and grab a drink before we started a walking tour of Madrid.
The alleys in Europe are so fun!
Europe has so many cool buildings! This building is in a square in Madrid called Plaza de Santa Ana.
This beautiful building is the Banco de Bilbao.
This massive building is the Casino de Madrid. It was born as a social club in 1836.
The architecture was gorgeous!
This building is the Church of the Calatravas (a Catholic Church in Madrid). It is called the Iglesia de la Concepción Real de Calatrava Madrid. The inside was beautiful - lots of gold and intricate details, but it felt disrespectful to take pictures.
This is the Palacio de Cibeles, or the city hall in the Plaza de Cibeles. It serves as the headquarters of the Madrid City Council and as a cultural center.
After our city tour, we grabbed a taxi with our friends and went to the Madrid LDS Temple.
Part of our reason for going was obviously to see the temple, but we were also hoping to snag some of the new garments at the distribution center.
The Temple was very pretty. Very simple.
The lady at the distribution center was definitely not the nicest temple worker we've ever met. She was quite disgusted with us for even asking about buying the new garments. She said they were out, but even if they had them, we had to buy them in Utah. It was a little disarming to have her react so strongly.
However, the temple worker was so kind that he invited us to do a session even without our church clothes. He said they would gladly just rent their clothing to us. We were too tired and short on time, but it was such a kind offer.
I always love the statues at the temple!
After the temple, we found a little place to eat. In Spain, they eat a light breakfast around 7-9, a second breakfast around 11 am, a large lunch from 2-3:30 pm, an afternoon snack between 5-7pm and dinner is from 9-11pm.
We had empanadas at a little Argentine restaurant. The greasiest food I have eaten in years, but it was nice to have an actual meal after all of our traveling.
Once the taxi took us back to the hotel, Rod and I couldn't stay awake any longer. The jet lag hit HARD. We went to our room and CRASHED.
We showered and went to our welcome dinner with Auto-Owners and our friends. The food was not delicious, so we decided to take a walk around town and find some yummy dessert!
This is the Palacio de las Cortes. It was fun to see it all lit up at night! There were a lot of news people doing broadcasts here all day and at night. Apparently, there are a lot of strikes in Spain, so I guess this was a good place to talk about it. We saw a protest earlier in the day by a huge group of prison guards. It was peaceful and there was plenty of police presence, but it was explained that this is common.
Our friends really wanted to find these little pastries. They are called Pastel de Nata. We found them at a little pastry shop called Manteigaria. It is a little egg custard tart with a flaky, buttery puff pastry crust and a creamy, sweet custard filling. It was yummy, but we bought three and couldn't eat them all, so we shared with some homeless men who were beyond excited for the treat!
Spain is famous for jamón, or ham, which comes from Iberian pigs. They are fed a diet of acorns which gives the ham a rich, nutty flavor. All of the ham is cured and cut into very thin slices. These delis and museums were EVERYWHERE and ham was part of just about every meal. No, I didn't eat it.
The pastries were yummy, but our friends still wanted to try other desserts, so we went into a plaza and found this churro shop. Churros and chocolate are also very popular in Spain. The chocolate was so rich, but delicious!
Again, Rod and I couldn't finish, so we shared with the sweetest little homeless woman. She was also very excited for the treat!
And even though cows are a part of my past, they are still a part of me, so I had to take a picture.
We are exhausted and ready to hit the ground running for Day 2!
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