We had a trip planned to Spain for our 30th wedding anniversary. In May 2020. Yeah, that didn’t happen. So this year, we decided to celebrate our 35th there instead. We added a few days to the original plan, added an additional city, and just after my flamenco adventures were wrapped up, off we went. It was a great trip, full of art, food, parks, food, vermut, history, wine, cats, food, incredible architecture, food….

First up, some pictures from Madrid. I quite liked Madrid, even if much of it seems to be uphill (this will be a theme for Spain). We stayed near the Atocha train station and quite near a metro line (like, right over the metro line, which did mean earplugs were required). The neighborhood was funky and relaxed, we discovered two quite lovely restaurants (Juan Raro and La Fisna Wine Bar), and we could walk to all the main places we wanted to go. These included the ‘big three’ museums (Reina Sofia, Prado, and Thyssen-Bornemisza) and Retiro Park. The metro and the local bus system got us out San Lorenzo de El Escorial (the monastery turned royal palace) and provided us a good view of the countryside on the way.

Madrid was particularly rich in interesting signs and graffiti, which always makes me happy. On the last day, we also discovered ‘public cats’, which was to also be a theme of the trip.

(Oh, and most of my books are on sale on Amazon.com US until the end of June. Just in case.)