{adventures abroad} spain: day six - off to madrid!

when the cab came for us at 5am, it was still dark outside. we ate breakfast at the airport and watched the sun come up as we waited for our plane. the flight was short - when we arrived in madrid an hour or so later we hopped on the metro and took it to the puerta del sol stop, which put us in the heart of madrid's central square. our first moments in this city were pretty overwhelming: the square was bustling with people and construction, it was noisy and disorienting, and we were running on three hours of sleep. we got our bearings fairly quickly, though, and started walking down calle mayor in the direction of our hotel.

naturally, we couldn't check in yet, so we left our bags at the front desk and went exploring. the day was sunny and warm. we headed away from puerta del sol, towards the royal palace. we admired it from the outside, though, because (a) we were just too tired and (b) it was packed with locals that day (wednesdays are free for locals).

on the way back, we stopped at a supermarket for a few little snacks. our room was ready for us when we got back to our strange little space ship of a hotel. we opened the windows, admired our fantastic view of the city, and had ourselves a lovely siesta.

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after siesta, we headed over towards the prado. we got to the museum at 6:00 (admission is free from 6-8pm), and hit the highlights - goya, velazquez, rubens, titian... of course, las meninas stole the show, and it was everything i'd imagined it would be!

we left the museum as it was closing and roamed around a bit until we found a lovely little tapas place where we enjoyed a lovely little dinner and a lovely little drink. from there we took our time finding our way back to calle mayor, wandering along tiny side streets and just looking at every last beautiful detail of the city.

our hotel was right across the street from plaza mayor, so instead of going straight to our room, we stepped into the magical 17th-century square. it was getting dark outside, that perfect time of day when the sky is still just barely lit up by the last little bit of the day's sun. throngs of musicians and entertainers and tourists and locals gave the cobblestoned plaza a certain care-free energy. we sat and soaked up the romantic atmosphere for a bit before heading up to our hotel room for some much-needed sleep.