travel

48 Hours in Madrid, Spain

March 6, 2018
madrid

48 Hours in Madrid

One of the reasons we moved to London was that it enabled us to travel to nearby european cities on weekends instead of taking a massive european holiday. We have been truly inspired by the Travel Man, Richard Ayoade. Richard hosts a TV show that take him and a guest to a city travelable from London for 48 hours. He maximises some of the world’s most popular destinations in a bite size time frame by fitting as much of the city into 48 hours i.e. a weekend. We love his catch phrase – “We’re here but should we have come!” and have been pronouncing it everytime we land in a city just like he does in his show.

Vega Madrid

We visited the Vega Madrid based on the Happycow Reviews. It is a vegan restaurant with a casual atmosphere that serves organic and handcrafted food and wine. We were quite lucky to be seated without a reservation as we noticed they started turning away a lot of customers without reservations.

We ordered a starter and two mains “steak” and tikka masala. It wasn’t an outstanding meal as we had expected, but it did leave us satisfied and glad there was a restaurant that catered to our requirements.

 

Seitan steak

Tikka Masala

 

Exploring the Museum district

Most of the city is walkable within a 30 minute radius. So we mostly walked to all these destinations.

Prado Musuem: So when it hit the last 2 hours of opening, tickets are half price. However, the line was so long it wrapped around the build and then some more! I would suggest to secure your ticket in advance to avoid disappointment if you are a musuem lover.

Church behind the musuem

 

Madrid Buen Retiro Park  

What a grand park. We stayed just next to this park and it was massive! Hosting beautiful black swans, countless ducks and broccoli looking trees.

 

Exploring the City of Madrid

 

Market of San Miguel

Foodhall – a one stop shop for all your Madrid goodies.

Olives? Yes please! The ones that we tried were so salty – cringe…

This market was selling mostly food items, from tapas, chips, olives, desserts to nuts.

Finally – “We’re here but should we have come?”

Madrid definitely had a slower pace than London. It was a nice and chilled city but we it will be a one time visit for us.

The good:

  • The weather was warm and I could take my big coat off.
  • Laid back and relaxed culture
  • Fast and frequent trains

The bad:

  • Shady characters in the city centre – think of people selling imitation handbags, watches and souvenirs
  • More expensive compared to other european cities
  • Vegan food options were quite limited

You Might Also Like

No Comments

Leave a Reply