DAY 1- We flew out of JFK at 9pm on Friday night and arrived in Madrid, Spain the next day around 10am (they are 6 hours ahead). So as you can imagine, we were all exhausted, but the quickest way to adjust to jet lag is to adjust to the time change and just keep going! Before I go on, I just have to put it in wiring that the boys were total angels on the plane and slept most of the 7.5 hour flight out...woot woot!!! Anyway, we got our luggage, navigated our way through the gigantic airport (seriously, it takes about 45 minutes to get to the luggage carousels once you get off of the plane). We took a taxi to our hotel, The Petit Palace Hotel Lealtad Plaza.
I have to say this hotel was perfect! The location was a block away from the gorgeous El Retiro Park (Madrid's version of Central Park), it was also just a couple blocks away from all of the main sights, plus the price was right, the room was ENORMOUS (I mean we're talking Europe here...always known for small hotel rooms), and the hotel breakfast was phenomenal! Anyway, we dropped off our bags and headed right out to start walking around and exploring the city. We did Rick Steve's suggested walking tour, which included seeing the famous sites like the Royal Palace, the Prado Museum, and the Basilica de San Francisco. We didn't stop into any of the museums because we were so drained and it would have been hard with the kiddos. We did, however, stop into the Basilica, and we also went to the Cava Baja area to chow down at a few tapas restaurants, we checked out Mercado de San Miguel, walked around Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, and let the kids run around and explore. They loved it!
We really just used the day to get acquainted with the city and to stay awake as long as we could before we went back to the hotel to finally crash! From day 1, we were in love with this beautiful city!
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