“Babymoons” have recently become more and more popular. For those who don’t know what a babymoon is, it’s a vacation for mom & dad before the baby arrives, sort of like a “last hurrah” if you will. I’ll take any excuse to book a trip, so I booked a trip to Spain for 10 days this past March.
We flew out of New York on a Thursday night and arrived in Madrid Friday late morning with Iberia Airlines. First off I DO NOT recommend flying with Iberia. Although our flight was super cheap ($400 round trip nonstop from NYC), the seats were extremely uncomfortable, customer service is the worst, and you have to pay for bags (which is normal now a days) but also to PICK A SEAT. Oh, and I wasn’t allowed to pay to upgrade to another class. 30 week prego me was not happy.
Anyways, we only had 30 hours to see as much of Madrid as possible before heading off to Barcelona. Challenge accepted.
Let the timer begin.
We landed around 10am in Madrid and it was super easy to hitch a ride to our Airbnb. There are taxis all over the city, and Uber was available to use as well. We picked an Airbnb within walking distance from the train station we would use to get to Barcelona the next day. Our Airbnb was about $73/night and the host was very friendly. It was a clean small one-bedroom apartment with a little sofa and kitchen. Perfect for a one-night stay. Book this Airbnb here.
Because our flight was so bad and we couldn’t sleep, we had to take a power nap before exploring the city. It wasn’t until around 3pm that we headed out for our adventure. Walking outside was such a breath of fresh air. The weather was great, kids were out playing, people were walking their dogs and friends were gathering outside of the local bar having a beer. Everyone seemed like they were just enjoying life. That’s one thing I hate about America. There really isn’t a work-life balance. Comparing myself to family back in Brazil, I feel like they enjoy life way more than I do even though we work the same hours. Us Americans are so focused on working and making as much money as possible so we can pay our bills and save, but are we really living life?
Having just woken up from our nap, we were starving. Unfortunately, most places were done serving lunch and weren’t serving dinner yet. We had to settle for some “tapas”. Tapas is an appetizer or snack and this is what Spain’s known for. We found a cute place called Habanera that was open for tapas, so we stopped and grabbed a bite before seeing the city.
We got a cheese board and a prosciutto platter. Both delicious and enough to hold us over until dinner.
One thing I definitely wanted to go see was the Market while in Madrid, other than that we didn’t really have an itinerary for our one day stay. After eating, we just walked around until we eventually got to the market.
The streets of Spain are nothing like the streets of New York. For one, a lot of them are of cobblestone and are narrow, making it feel like I was walking through a maze. They also weren’t as dirty- littering is very frowned upon in Spain. I also noticed A LOT of people use motorcycles to get around the city and I saw more woman riding them than here in America. Majority of the apartments had little balconies where people will show off their beautifully cared for plants or are sitting at a tiny table drinking their coffee. Besides their boujee plants (who knew plants could be boujee), so many people had the Spain flag hanging from their balcony as well. Spaniards really do take pride in their country. The sidewalks in Madrid also had bollards which is amazing and reduces accidents with pedestrians.
I’ve seen these buildings all over Pinterest when searching Madrid, so of course I had to take a picture. The Metropolis building is in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Madrid. You see everything from public transportation, to kids skateboarding, to dog walkers, to street performers. From this street we took an Uber to Mercado De San Miguel.
Before this trip, I made a Pinterest board for Madrid and a lot of the pins I came across were of this Market. This Market had EVERYTHING. It was a non-pregnant woman’s dream. I say non-pregnant because there were so many beer & wine vendors, a bunch of dried cured meats, and all the soft cheeses you can think of. From what my boyfriend says, everything was delicious.
I read a lot about safety in Spain and saw a lot of people say pick pocketers are very popular here and also street scammers. These scammers are known to offer you something as a “gift” like a bracelet or a flower, then once you accept it they’ll charge you for it and say they don’t take returns and that you need to pay them for ir. I know, when I first read it I LOL’d, but it’s true. This is really a thing. I got offered a rose and I saw a tourist accept a bracelet and have to dig through his pockets to find cash.
Besides a bunch of food/drinks that a pregnant woman cannot consume and scammers, this market also had a bunch of tapas and desserts. Instead of having a sit down dinner, we walked around and got to try a little bit of everything. Kind of reminded me of walking through Costco and trying all the samples, except you had to pay for it.
After leaving the market, we walked around the city a little more. There’s a cafe known to have the best churros called Chocolateria San Gines. Definitely a must try and we also stopped at La Catedral for a quick drink. This place has an awesome interior and serves bread with prosciutto when you order a drink (I mean those two things alone has me sold) but downfall is that the service isn’t so great. Still recommend stopping by for a reasonably priced beer, free prosciutto and to snap a pic before calling a night.
Next morning we had a little time before catching our train, so we decided to find a good breakfast spot. We found Pum Pum Cafe. When we arrived around 9:45am, the wait was very short for a table. When we left, the wait line was down the street. It’s a very small cafe but the food was incredible and the service was great. Portions are on the smaller side because us Americans are used to eating so much (lol) but nonetheless, still amazing and definitely worth any wait.
The cafe was in walking distance from our Airbnb, so we made our way back while stopping and taking pictures of everything that had graffiti on it because we’ve never seen graffiti before (joking obviously being in the Metro NY area there’s graffiti everywhere).
Right outside of the train station and at the end of the street our Airbnb was on, theres a little bar called La Ochava with outdoor seating you can grab a drink while you’re waiting for your train. Also perfect spot for people watching.
And lastly, the train station. Grand Central WHO? Wasn’t sure if I was at the zoo or at Madrid Atocha station. Probably would’ve skipped having a drink at La Ochava and just picked a spot at the station. This place was filled with shops, bars and even turtles. We picked up an adapter at this station to use for the rest of our trip. *Friendly reminder that if you’re from America you will need an adapter here in Spain* Our Airbnb was nice enough to let us use theirs but we needed one for the hotel in Barcelona. The station was clean and very organized when it comes to ticketing. Similar to an airport, they had secutiry you needed to go through before boarding your train and also ID. Buying tickets online was super easy but you can also purchase last minute in person tickets if there’s room on the trains. Train ride to Barcelona was a little under 3 hours.
In such a short amount of time in this city, we fell in love with Madrid. In fact, I think i might like it more than Barcelona and would even consider moving out here. Only regret I have was not staying for a few more days in Madrid because there is still so much more to this city than what we experienced.