We lived in Barcelona for more than 6 years and have been traveling for even longer than that now (7 years to the day!) but we never made it to Madrid. Once we almost did but then that volcano in Iceland did its thing and shut down all the air traffic in Europe, remember that? Fun times…

Anyway, so we finally made it and it was lovely. Cold, especially after the balmy temperatures of the Canarias, but otherwise even better than I had imagined.

Of course we visited the Prado and saw the palace but we also walked along some new developments along the river and played on so many playgrounds there that even SmallPaw had enough of swings and slides at the end of the day.
The walk started in the old slaughterhouse, now converted to a cultural space with theaters and galleries.

Then we criss-crossed lots of bridges over the river to catch all the different playgrounds.

Then we stopped for some lunch in Toledo at the excellent Cerveceria Trebol before continuing on our drive towards Granada.

And now we’ve finally made it to Granada to see the Alhambra. Then on to Sevilla and the Algarve before ending up in Lisbon. So many new places already this year that neither one of us have ever been to! But we’re only getting started. This might turn into our craziest year yet. 🙂