A Week in Madrid

David

Nov 4, 2023 — 4 min read

Saturday evening of the 14th of October we travelled to Madrid. We had bought the tickets back in July and got a good deal, despite the high prices during the peak travel week that was last week in Denmark (week 45 is a school break).

I rented a 7-seater (even though we are only four) which we picked up at the airport. It was a brand new Volkswagen Caddy. We wanted to be able to drive with our family in Madrid hence the extra seats. The car was costly but it was worth it and gave us much flexibility.

Segovia

I wanted to try the famous Segovia suckling pig so bad.

We arranged with friends I met through my sister who lives there to come meet and eat with us there.

Segovia is about 1.5h away from Madrid. We had made a reservation at the La Codorniz restaurant. We were 8 adults and 5 kids. We had the pig, a typical Segovian soup which I loved (I could have just had the soup) and the kids had pasta, and pork.

The pig was a bit of a let down.

It was a good experience but I would not have it again.

We then took at stroll around the old town and went to the aqueduct. It was really a sight.

It was going to start raining and the kids were bored so we decided to skip the Alcazar and start heading to the airport to drop off my cousin who had to fly to Malaga that evening.

A day with old friends

On Monday we headed off to visit friends we had made in Egypt. My friend Juan cooked an outstanding paella for us and it was simply delicious as usual. We spent the whole day cooking, drinking lightly, snacking and sharing good old and new stories.

With my beloved Juan and his amazing paella

Paella with family and friends. What could top it off?

A "failed" trip to Portugal

On Tuesday we were supposed to go to Porto, Portugal. We had bought cheap tickets (35EUR) the week before but decided against after seeing the weather was stormy (winds of up to 120km/h). It ended up being the best decision because our return flight -originally scheduled at 22:00- didn't depart until Wednesday morning.

Instead, we took the kids to have some indoors fun at a jumping/climbing place. Because it was a school week, they had the entire place to themselves. They were absolutely hammered after 1 hour.

We "the adults" had late lunch/early dinner at around 16:30. We went to a typical Andalucian restaurant in Torrejon de Ardoz called El Rincon de Rafa, and all I can say is OMG. The food was outstanding, plus they had good service. My wife and my sister had beef steaks, I had lamb chops. We shared some octopus and potatoes as a starter.

The rest of the week was either us catching up with friends, doing some light shopping, sightseeing, and exploring different areas in and around Madrid.