Madrid - Day 2

We made coffee in bed, then got ready for our day out in the city. We decided to go for churros at one of the chocolaterías that Madrid is famous for, San Ginés. There are several outlets around the same square.

They were delicious and very filling.

We had booked a free walking tour starting in the Plaza Mayor at 11am. We were a little early so we went into the Tourist Information Office to get a map and ask about the bus to Segovia for later in the week.

We still had time before the tour to visit the famous food market, the Mercado de San Miguel. This sells all sorts of food from ham to seafood, pastries, sandwiches etc.

We then met our tour guide from Sandemans back in the square. His name was John, although he was Spanish. The walk took about 2 hours and was pretty interesting, though possibly a little bit heavy on Spanish history rather than the attractions of Madrid. Worth doing though, it only costs whatever tip you want to give.

This is the oldest restaurant in the world!

This is Madrid Cathedral. The guide was quite derogatory about it, since it's such a mix of architectures since the builders ran out of money at various times.

We finished the tour overlooking the huge Royal Palace.

We'd pre-booked entry into the palace, but we had some time to have lunch first. We went to a café and had a beer with some free olives, and a couple of snacks with it.

We then went back down to the palace. The view from the esplanade was good, we were quite surprised to see snow-topped hills in the near distance.

In the palace itself, only a relatively small proportion of the more than 3,400 rooms are open to the public. They are all extremely ornately decorated. The amount of money spent on the palace must have been huge.

The table in the dining room can accommodate up to 100 diners.

There's a chapel within the palace too.

We left the palace and went to visit the cathedral across the square. It's quite tasteful inside.

After leaving the cathedral we walked to the El Corte Ingles department store, which our guidebook said had good views of the city from the seventh floor café. It turned out this was only the case if you were lucky enough to sit at one of the few tables next to a window, so was a bit of a waste of time.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the Taverna Los Angeles and had a Vermouth, which is a popular drink in the city. It was nice, and we got a bread and ham tapas with it.

After a rest in the apartment we went out and walked to Calle de la Cava Baja, a street that's famous for having many traditional tapas bars.

In Taverna La Concha we had a beer and then a Vermouth, but didn't have anything to eat as the tapas were all chargeable and we weren't ready for a full meal yet.

We carried on down the street but the bar we were aiming for was closed. We went back up and had a sit down meal at Taverna Salamanca. We had chicken strips, mushrooms, fried aubergine with honey and goats cheese. It was all very good.

After dinner we went for a drink down the street at Cava Baja, then on the way home another Vermouth at Taverna Los Angeles.