Madrid, March 2018

First blog post of 2018! My journey takes me to Madrid for a few days. I got the 6:30am BA flight from Heathrow to Madrid and got to my hotel Iberostar Las Letras at around 11am. I would recommend this hotel, the room was very spacious, high ceilings and large windows. It's also on Gran Via which is one of the main streets in Madrid so in a great location also. The only criticism I have is that the lobby is tiny. I was able to check in which I was pleasantly surprised by. 

I had a quick change, got a map from reception and headed out for some lunch. I walked 5 minutes to Puerta Del Sol which is a kind if plaza were several streets feed into. There are several shops in this area such as Apple, Zara, El Corte Ingles, Sephora and Pull & Bear. There are also hoards of people milling around this tourist area. There are a lot of beggars, people dressed up as Disney characters, little stalls selling souvenirs and the Puerta Del Sol metro station. 

A further 5-7 minute walk and you arrive at Plaza Mayor which is a huge square with several restaurants with mainly outside seating. I took a seat and begun practising my Spanish by ordering in Spanish. I got a Sangria and Iberico ham sandwich which was delicious. The sun started to come out so I cracked out the sunglasses as I sipped on my Sangria. 

I then headed back to my hotel and took a siesta as I'd been up since 3:45am so I was wavering. In the late afternoon I woke up and headed to the supermarket to get some supplies aka wine then headed out to dinner a while later. I went to Tapa Tapa on Calle de la Montera around the corner from the hotel. They do you've guessed it, tapas! Pretty good tapas too, there's several options from chorizo to papas bravas to simply Iberico ham. There are also larger plates on offer in case you didn't want tapas at Tapa Tapa. 

Overall first day in Madrid was fun, weather was also nice. 12 degrees but also sunny which helped. 

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