When Meadows found out he was assigned to the Europe project for the end of the year, it was seriously a dream come true. Europe at Christmastime? YES PLEASE! We spent a quick work week in London, then six weeks based in Madrid, and our final week back in London.
Even though it was not at the beginning of our Madrid stint, I’ll start by wrapping up my parents’ trip. As you can recall, the four of us wrapped up a great weekend in Seville and flew to Madrid Sunday night.
Monday, November 14th was my mom’s birthday!!! Meadows had to work, but my parents and I enjoyed a day of exploring and celebrating. To kick off our day, we proceeded to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Tourists can only access the palace when the King is not in Madrid, so we were lucky that he wasn’t in town! Though the currently Royal Family does not use the palace as their residence, the venue still hosts state functions.
The marble staircase when you enter overflows with grandeur! My photos hardly capture the opulence of the marble staircase, the larger than life fresco overhead, the statue of Charles III in a Roman toga and more.
While the grand staircase marked the beginning of our tour, it also indicated the end of our photo opps. The palace has a zero tolerance policy for photography, so we stored our phones and cameras. (One little girl and her grandmother continued to take photos on their iPad, and it drove my mom mad! Not cool, grandma…)
One of the most stunning rooms in the palace was the banquet hall. Featuring the longest dining table, countless chandeliers, gilded molding all around, frescoes overhead and artwork galore, this room screams royalty.
The entire palace houses more artwork and artifacts than I can describe. It’s certainly worth a visit while you’re in Madrid.
We made a few more stops before taking a break for lunch at our beautiful hotel, The Westin Palace Madrid. Meadows and I stayed there for six weeks… and yes, we ate breakfast in the beautiful rotunda every morning. No complaints 🙂 Naturally, we thought this was the perfect place for a birthday lunch!
I loved the location of our hotel because we were so close to the Prado Museum and Retiro Park. We opted to walk off our lunch and then visit the museum.
Retiro is one of the prettiest parks I’ve ever seen. It’s gigantic and perfectly landscaped. Meadows and I visited on many occasions, so here some photos from our many different visits.
Ben recommended we visit the Crystal Palace, which is a fascinating glass building inside the park. The Spanish built the structure to show off the many plants acquired from its then colony, the Philippines.
While we were there, the building was empty and only showcased a “sound exhibit.” I had never heard of such a thing, so I collected a brochure and learned what was happening. We heard the sounds of ice cracking (or maybe a boat hitting ice?) – I thought it was odd, but an interesting concept nonetheless.
We concluded my mom’s birthday of Madrid tourism by studying the art of the Prado Museum. As is true of many large museums, you could spend days at the Prado; rather, we opted for the “masterpieces tour.” The museum gave us a checklist of their most important and famous works, and we spent the next four hours learning about the different periods of art, the artists and why each was so important. If you plan to visit, this is a nice way to enjoy the museum without feeling overwhelmed or monopolized by one stop.
I could drone on about all the incredible paintings we saw and how crazy it was to study them in person after years of looking at them in textbooks, but… I won’t. Instead, I’ll show you my two favorite masterpieces:
El Greco’s Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest
Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas
In the evening, we went out for a wonderful birthday dinner. We tried a new restaurant within walking distance from the hotel, and they made my mom’s evening so fun! They sang a birthday song (a version we’ve never heard before!) and brought dessert, and we toasted the night away.
Just for good measure, we revisited the rotunda for an after dinner birthday drink!
And just like that, my parents’ visit was over. I got up the next morning and saw them off to the airport. If having them in town hadn’t been so much fun, then I wouldn’t have been so upset. Thankfully, we knew we’d see them at Christmas!
Over the course of six weeks, Dows and I had plenty of time to explore and take advantage of the gorgeous city around us.
One night, we heard a marching band right outside our window. I should mention that the Westin sits almost directly across the street from Congress.
Anyway, on this particular evening, there was a parade going on – starting at midnight!
The next morning, I was unable to exit the hotel. With the king in town, the security and crowds of his procession trapped me. Thankfully, I had a perfect view of the continuing parade and his arrival at Congress from my hotel room window!
We also were in Madrid for Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in the Paris post, Meadows had to work on Thanksgiving Day. It’s certainly harder to be away from home on holidays with special traditions like Thanksgiving. In an effort to maintain some semblance of normalcy, I managed to drag him away from work for a 9pm dinner reservation at a restaurant serving American Thanksgiving dinner!
We were entirely overdressed for the occasion. I insisted we get dolled up in Cowgill tradition, but the restaurant was more of a Carpenter casual dress locale. The food was pretty good, considering we were in Madrid eating an American-style meal! We felt a little homesick, but mostly thankful for each other and the opportunity to travel the world.
We asked to take our photo back at the hotel …where we weren’t so overdressed!
Last but not least, Madrid offered us some of our favorite food in the world! I am not exaggerating when I say that Meadows ate jamon Iberico (Iberian ham) at least five times a week. We loved the tapas lifestyle and Spanish wine (Cava, Rioja, Ribera del Duero and more!); although we didn’t love eating super late at night… And we had a fun team to hang out with for six weeks!
In case you plan on visiting, here are some of our favorite spots:
- Chocolatería San Ginés – this place is famous for their churros. On a cool night, we’d dip these bad boys in a cup of hot chocolate and devour them.
- Mercado de San Miguel – this indoor market houses rows and rows of delicious food stands. We loved getting wine and dessert here, and the paella was awesome!
- Lateral – this was a recommendation from my brother, Bo. Sadly, we didn’t make it to one of the restaurant locations (there are a few around town) until our final week in Madrid. It was one of my favorite meals though.
I cannot end this blog without addressing the amazing Christmas culture in Madrid. Everywhere we went, the city had colorful lights and trees on display! Just walking to dinner became such a treat; we would take a different route to discover new Christmas decorations.
I love the Christmas Coca-Cola ad behind the tree 🙂
Six weeks flew by, and we said goodbye to the Westin Palace and Madrid.
Since I’m not doing another London blog, I’ll share a couple of my favorite pics from our week back in London after Madrid. First of all, London’s Christmas décor managed to top Madrid’s…
Plus, being back in London meant more fun times with Lindsey, Sean and the baby. Linds planned the best girls’ day out and even an early birthday dinner for Meadows!
We wrapped up the round (and one year in the international program) with an unforgettable team dinner. Cheers to a great group and a fabulous night!
