New Year's in Spain — a beautiful life

GRANADA

We kicked off the trip by doing a 4.5 hr road trip from Madrid to Granada to visit the beautiful La Alhambra! We left at 6am and didn’t get back until close to 8pm. Although it was a long day in the car, it was worth it to be able to see the adorable town of Granada (although it was quick) and explore the beautiful citadel, Generalife, and La Alhambra itself. I loved learning about how the sultan’s lived there, and picturing what life would have been like there back in the day. After our tour, we drove back to Madrid and went in circles around Atocha train station trying to find the car rental drop off spot — although it nearly ended our marriage, we were able to find it eventually (lol) and we were SO HAPPY to be free from the car and walk back to our hotel that evening!

MADRID

We spent the rest of the week exploring Madrid by foot and truly living our best Spanish lives. It was so relaxing, although crowded and cold! We went to Museo Del Prado, walked around El Retiro Park, visited Bernabeu Stadium, saw the oldest restaurant in the world, wandered around Salamanca (my favorite area — I found a spot with the best vegan pumpkin soup!), explored the Royal Palace, ate acai every day, did some window shopping on Gran Via, and mostly just read, slept, and relaxed. We walked ~9 miles on average each day, which is my ideal way to spend time in a beautiful city like Madrid.

TOLEDO

We also took the bullet train one early morning from Madrid to Toledo for a half-day adventure. It was quite literally freezing there, but it didn’t stop us from doing a 5 mile loop around the outskirts of the walled medieval city so we could visit the Mirador del Valle and San Martin’s Bridge over the Tagus River. It was jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but slightly too cold to fully process it all! Once we got into the cute town itself, we walked around a bit, toured the famous church, tried some of their famous marzipan, and hung out at a random Starbucks trying to get warm! It was a fun little adventure and a cool town, and I would love to visit again when the weather is warm!