Pa & Madrid

Madrid, Spain 

After seeing the best and worst of France, we were happy to head back to Madrid to meet up with Robin's parents. We had planned an epic visit that would actually take us for a kick dip back in France before meeting Robin's sister and her girlfriend in Barcelona. Sure, France - Spain - France - Spain seems like an inefficient travel route, but when you're planning your trip while you're already on it, these things happen.

Madrid was a bit more than a hop, skip and a jump from our home in Gonfaron. It was actually a train to Marseille, overnight bus to Barcelona, and plane to Madrid. We like to keep our travel portfolio diversified.

We arrived in Madrid a few days before Robin's parents did to get things set up. We rented a delightful 2 bedroom apartment in the Delicias neighborhood of Madrid, close to the museums and Retiro Park. Having a place to ourselves again was liberating, and we stocked up on groceries and explored the neighborhood via run. 


We circled around Retiro Park, which was more lively now than when we visited in September. And we bonded with the man at the fish market, who tried to speak English with us (despite the fact that when another customer asked if he knew English, he responded "oui"). We were talked into buying a good looking fresh fish that we couldn't translate. While David cooked it that night, Robin googled the word and realized just in time for dinner that we would be eating mako shark, a Greenpeace red listed animal.

David and Bob stared at this for the better part
of 10 minutes before they realized it was a mannequin.

The next day, Robin's parents arrived in Madrid. We had planned a very tentative schedule of light sightseeing for the weekend because we figured they'd be jet lagged, but they were surprisingly energetic. The night they arrived, we managed to see the modern art museum, Reina Sofia, on its free day, and grab a late dinner and live flamenco show.

In fact, they had so much energy that we didn't ride the Metro at all. We walked through the Rastro, Madrid's famous flea market, to the stamp market in Plaza Mayor, to the Cathedral and Palacio Real, and hit our second free museum, the Prado. With our apartment, we were also able to enjoy Spanish food at home, with olives, manchego and chorizo before home cooked meals.

Our weekend in Madrid flew by, and before we knew it we were right back at the airport on our way to Bordeaux to revisit France.