We have taken Madrid by storm! What a day it has been! We woke up early and noshed on our complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then promptly headed out into the city.
We decided to take a loop around the entire downtown of Madrid hitting the Royal Palace, Palace Cathedral, Aveniva del Manzanares River, and ending at our favorite park, Parque del Buen Retiro. This was a feat, let me tell you. This was not a small loop, but an extremely large loop, almost 53 miles long. Well that maybe an exaggerating but it was long. Since it was Sunday everyone was out and about walking, rollerblading, and biking. There were so many good places to be outside in the sun and perfectly manicured parks and green spaces, Madrid was a joy to walk in. The river had a park/bike trails running along both sides which gave us a chance to sit down and relax here and there. I even found a swing that was attached to the bottom if the freeway. Scary stuff!
On our loop we ran into a Sunday flee market. What a treat! It was huge. There were thousands of people up and down ten streets selling extension cords to fine pottery. If you need it you could find it.
On the way back we stopped for a bite at the park. We ran into a little cafe but could not read the menu, thank goodness the waiter wanted to help us. He didn't speak English so we resorted to... Animal noises! To explain ham he snorted to symbolize this meal had piggy in it. I quickly snorted back with a shake of my finger that pig was a no go. Dino chimed in a moo hoping for some beef. There was no moo in return. In the end we sat down and waited for our plates anxiously. We received a mixed salad and potato frittatas! Pretty delicious for our hungry bellies. (Dad: It wasn't as good as yours... Let's be honest!).
We then went back to the hotel to regroup and watch some U.S. Open Tennis, go Fed! Soon we headed to find Manchester United playing on a television for us to watch. Where did we end up you ask? T.G.I. Friday's of course, on a Sunday mind you! I'll let Dino finish the rest...
Thanks Steph, I guess I'll take it from here :). T.G.I. Friday's was right next to our hotel so I decided to sneak a peak inside to see if they were going to be playing the Man Utd game. An American restaurant right??? That is right but most of the employees don't speak English :/...a bit weird, but back to the main point, they found the game for us and we sat down for food and drinks to enjoy the game with.
Man Utd was giving me a bit of a heart attack the whole game. They were down 2-1 from the start of the second half and with the game almost ending I just wanted to get out of the restaurant to pout outside. But wait...there is no giving up with this club. We manage to score two goals in stoppage time to win the game 3-2! Steph and I were the only ones in the restaurant and all eyes were on me as I was jumping up and down like the kid I am. Apparently the bartenders were having a training class which I'm sure I disrupted a couple of times :).
After that adrenaline rush, Steph and I had to rush ourselves to the nearest metro to head to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium! We managed to find tickets to the Real Madrid home game with the help of our friendly receptionist! Real Madrid isn't any team, it is one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world. Although not my favorite, we had to go and check out the home game. The Bernabeu Stadium fits 100,000 spectators. Insane right? We had great seats but it was hard to find them with 100 different gates you had to go through. It turned out to be a great game with Madrid winning 3-0. They only part we didn't like was all the smoking. We were surrounded by smokers and would take turns gasping for some clean air : p. Nonetheless, we had a blast.
When the game finished, we had to fight past the 100+ thousand fans to reach our metro. It took us only 20 minutes to get home and we had to take showers right away to wash all the smoke smell off of us. The day turned out great and we look forward to our trip to Dublin tomorrow.
Love and Miss,
Dino + Steph
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