"Life experienced in Madrid and trip to Seville."
We flew 1 hour 20 minutes from Barcelona straight to Spain’s central capital, Madrid. Since Madrid is a special place to my husband, and also the special person, his long lost friend, Juan, who picked us up and first greeted us at the airport. I was so glad to finally meet him after hearing about him for so many years. He’s so nice and generous with a big smile. Anyway, he took us to the nice old classic apartment on Calle Serrano with 24 hour protection by the guards at the U.S. embassy right across the street.
Speaking of Calle Serrano, it’s the Rodeo Drive of Madrid. Well, it’s not exactly like the Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, but you can find every high end brand name on Calle Serrano. We were so lucky to live in the best spot in town. I am very fortunate and blessed by this wonderful opportunity offered to me even though August is the hottest month in Spain but we were very happy with our time together there. My husband started to show me the Madrid sights such as Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace of Madrid, Almudena Cathedral, Plaza de Cibeles, Plaza Santa Ana (his favorite plaza and became my favorite as well), Retiro Park, and so many places including his favorite wine store that we could literally stay all day in called Lavinia. Lavinia has an epic selection of well-chosen Spanish and other wines. They have a room in the back area, which you have to get special permission to enter that has one of the “best collections of rare Riojas and Riberas” I have seen. Lavinia also serves a tremendous lunch/dinner paired with a bottle of wine you pick or that's recommended by them. If anyone of you are a wine lover, do come here if you want to splurge on something special. They also have wine and whiskey tasting events as well. We loved Lavinia.
The city itself is ideal for taking a stroll. I loved the fountains and the statues that are everywhere. I adored the sidewalk cafes so much, my most favorite area to stop for espresso or sangria is on Castellana. Speaking of sangria, the cafe named Cappuccino (at the end of the Calle Serrano street) has the best sangria I have ever had in Spain and you can enjoy the full view of Puerta del Alcala. I continued walking to other Madrid landmarks, Gran via - the most famous street in Madrid with the icon Metropolis building located at the entry of the Gran Via through Puerto Del Sol. And the shopping spree was surely on in Madrid….
We were surrounded by many outstanding and old classic restaurants (our favorite restaurant is in our neighborhood area and is named Ten Con Ten Restaurant & Bar! Jeez the food is beyond fantastic, well prepared, tremendous services, and of course couldn’t be beat with the wine selections. My husband took me to dinner at the world's oldest restaurant, Botin. I mean this place is literally on the Guinness book world record. It was started in the year 1725 and is still active!!!!! We sat at the dining table where he made the reservation in the original brick cave basement area and got to visit the original wine cave. The wine bottles are cover with dust and mold but it was cool to see stuff from the 18th century! It was also nice to meet the owner of Botin and he gave us lovely souvenirs from the restaurant to wrap-up the wonderful night.
Every weekend we took a trip to explore the countryside of Spain. Are any of you fans of the Game of Throne series? this city might be interesting or familiar to some of you watching the TV series. Much was filmed here. Seville (Sevilla in Spanish) is located in the South of Spain and it is famous worldwide for culture, traditions and artistic heritage. Seville is easily connected to Madrid by the Spanish high speed train called the AVE. We took the AVE train 2 hours from Madrid to Seville. The city itself is the birthplace of Flamenco and the city where the most amazing Easter processions take place. Seville’s rich history has left the city filled with innumerable monuments like the massive Gothic cathedral, the third largest in the world and the Christopher Columbus’s tomb, the wonderful Alcazar castle complex built during the Moorish Almohad dynasty and it is the filming location for the tv series Game of Thrones (mainly for season 5), the Gerald tower, catch a glimpse of the Star Wars movie series filming locations for Episode I and II at the Plaza de Espana - the Renaissance Revival architecture, and its 18th-century Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza bullring.
We arrived and stayed at the Hotel Amadeus, in the heart of Seville at the district of Santa Cruz next to the Alcazar, Gerald and the Cathedral). The hotel originated in the 18th century and is based with a theme of classical music. The accommodations felt very homey to us.
We explored Seville for 2 days and then headed back to Madrid with the excitement that our best friends were soon coming to visit us from America!
I will continue my journey including the world heritage cities in Spain such as Toledo and Segovia as part of the Journey in Madrid Part II, which I’ll post up soon ;)
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