Holy Toledo! (and Madrid)

We started our celebration of six months in Germany off with a bang! Our friends Brit and David (who lived in Düsseldorf before us and who helped our dreams of living abroad come true) arrived in Düsseldorf on May 1. We spent the next nine days celebrating with them in both Düsseldorf and Madrid. We checked off a few more items on our “Düsseldorf To Do” list including a visit to the Aquazoo and Nord Park, trying new restaurants and watching a football (aka soccer) game on the Rhine. We enjoyed lazy mornings sipping coffee, listening to the birds outside and engaging in fun conversation before filling the day walking around the city, meeting up with friends for coffee and dinner and checking on the baby ducklings and cygnets in the park (one of the black swans has been sitting on a nest for 5 weeks now… the babies are due to arrive any day!).

On May 6, the four of us hopped on a plane and made our way to Madrid, Spain where we checked into our Airbnb and set off to find some tapas for lunch. It turns out we took a wrong turn, a right instead of a left, landing us in an interesting neighborhood and at a restaurant that, in spite of the good, reviews was not much to write home about… was it ham or turkey we ate? We’re still not sure… Luckily the meals could only get better! After lunch, we strolled through the town square and made our way to Chocolatería San Ginés where we indulged in the famous chocolate con churros, a tradition that’s been enjoyed at this little gem since 1894. With our sweet tooths satisfied, we continued our trek through the city admiring the Royal Palace, the beautiful Cathedral de la Almudena with incredible ceilings and the unique Cripta de la Catedral de la Almudena. We walked to one of the local parks but quickly realized google maps doesn’t help you find the entrance to a park, it simply finds the park… needless to say we found the park and peeked through the fence to see what was inside before continuing on our way. We stopped for a late afternoon sangria in the town square and enjoyed some fantastic people watching while observing the unique characters that are only in big city square (chubby Spiderman, creepy Mickey Mouse and not-so-Winnie the Pooh...) before ending the day with a late dinner of tapas.

We started our second day off by walking to El Retiro Park where we found a beautiful rose garden in full bloom (Tulips 2.0). The garden was bursting with colored roses ranging from the traditional red roses to bright orange roses and even purple roses. It smelled amazing! As we continued through the park, we stopped at the Palicio de Cristal, a beautiful glass house with sculptures inside, and took a break by the lake to watch the row boats. We continued our walk and found a tasty restaurant nearby for lunch.

Next on the list, was a walk to the Gran Via where we oohed and aahed over the unique architecture of the buildings around us. We stopped by the Casino Gran Via where the boys placed their bets and tried their best to double their winnings before continuing on our way. We found the Mercado De San Miguel, a great little food market where we enjoyed our first empanadas of the trip followed by more sangria and people watching in the town square. Continuing on our city tour, we made our way to the Prado Museum, broadening our knowledge on centuries-old art created by Raphael, El Greco, Velázquez, Goya and several more.

 

On Wednesday, we decided to head to Toledo, Spain for the day. We hopped on a bus and started the short trip to the “city of three cultures”. Toledo has a great medieval feel with large walls and bridges surrounding the city and monuments from Arab, Jewish and Christian inhabitants inside the city walls. We arrived around noon and quickly learned that the restaurants in the city don’t open until one for lunch, so we settled down in a quaint coffee shop with glass floors where you could ogle over the roman ruins that lay beneath the restaurant. At one o’clock, we made our way to Tabernita Tapas Bar and enjoyed amazing tapas (by far the best of the trip) giving us the energy to begin our adventures walking through the city. Toledo is full of tiny alleys and small alcoves making it a bit of a challenge to find your way through the town but it all adds to the adventure. As we wandered around, we soon realized that the predicted small rain storm was not going to be very small after all… Holy Toledo it can rain! At this point we decided to cut our wandering short and instead head to Museo del Queso Manchego for a lovely wine and cheese tasting… Yum! We tasted 3 months, 7 months and 1+ year Manchego cheese and engaged in pretentious conversation over the different flavors and pairings of the cheese and wine. With a break in the rain, we decided to continue our adventure around the city, try some marzipan fruit and later take cover from more rain under the awning at one of the restaurants. There, we decided to grab a drink and wait out the rain, however, we soon realized we might be safe from the rain, but the possibility of small white bombs was a definite hazard as several sparrows swooped through the air around us searching for crumbs… we think we escaped unharmed!

We made one final stop at the Alcantara Bridge outside of Toledo before heading back to the bus. The view from the bridge looked like an illustration in a fairy tale. It’s hard to believe these bridges and walls are thousands of years old, built to protect the city from intruders… how different life was then versus now.

We finished the evening indulging in tacos and tapas, reminiscing about our time together and enjoying our last stroll around Madrid before calling it a night.

What a way to celebrate half a year in Europe! For the most part, we feel settled into this new lifestyle, but there are definitely times when it still feels like a dream. We’ve figured out the day to day living and enjoy filling our free time meeting up with friends, grabbing a drink, meal or simply playing games, or just wandering through the city (there’s always something happening! A small carnival, random party tents, canopies set up with information and of course beer and brats at every event). We love our evening strolls to the Rhine where we grab a drink from the Trinkhalle and sit on the wall like a local enjoying the late setting sun and the view. We can’t wait for summer to arrive bringing sunnier days and more freedom to explore enjoy Europe at its finest!