Due to the insanity of direct flights to Spain, I booked the flight out via Munich which then involved a five hour layover before the flight to Madrid. There was the option for a 1hr layover, but with my recent luck on flights leaving Newark, I didn't want to risk it. In the end, it was the sunniest, most beautiful day in New York in weeks, and the flight arrived in Munich thirty minutes early. I can't ever win when choosing layovers. But because of the long layover, I was due to land in Madrid at 5:20pm - which after some research made it nonsensical to get to Toledo that night vs enjoying an evening and night in Madrid before leaving for Toledo in the morning (it is about a 35-minute train).
Not like I am complaining about being arm-twisted to spend a night in Madrid. Somehow, I haven';t done that in sixteen years since my 2010 trip to Madrid on my Spring Break (before visiting my sister in London and then with family in Greece). That was a notable trip, because it was the first time I wrote about travel in this blog. Hell, that was the first time ever traveling on my own. It was a seminal four days in Madrid - where I made the decision never to stay in a shared room hostel ever again (even on my RTW trip which was mostly hostels, always paid a bit extra for my own room). It was the start of something amazing - also I loved Madrid. The first time I did my ranking of Favorite International Cities was in 2013 and I had Madrid ranked #1. It stayed that way for a while until I gave in and just went with my heart and said I like Cape Town more. After a night in Madrid - I still do, but I remembered just why I loved the city in the first place.
First a quick couple paragraphs about the flight. I was really curious how the flight would go as this was the first time I flew across an ocean in economy since my 2024 trip to Hungary, Finland and Estonia, where I flew Lufthansa from Newark to Frankfurt. Now, that is more a function of me not really going to Europe aside from a work trip earlier this year where work paid for business. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by Lufthansa's service and plane quality - a big imrpovement from when I flew them. The seat itself reclined way more than I am used to for Economy, their pillow was soft as hell. The seatback screen was huge (for economy), and the food was geniunely good. Now, it wasn't a lot, but their Japanese Curry Chicken tasted like it was supposed to, and overall Lufthansa was a nice experience. The only tough part wasn't even their fault - there was turbulence after they served food but before they could collect peoples trays, which left the lights on for a redeye flight for an extra 30 minutes. Anyway, the flight was good, but I only slept probably parts of four hours.
I did manage to sleep well in the Munich Lufthansa lounge, which was like most Lufthansa Senator lounges in that it is just OK in every way. I went to both the non-Schengen lounge (to sleep and get breakfast, before going through immigration) and the Schengen one, and they were roughyl the same. In fact, I am pretty sure they were physically on top of each other.
For the second flight, I actually got upgraded on the longer than I expected flight from Munich to Madrid (2h15m). I believe it was because they had oversold economy, but they didn't tell me this. Now, as some know, inter-Europe business means you are in a normal economy seat but they block the middle seat. So the seat itself is nothign special. What was special was they served a really nice full lunch - including a lovely beet-cured salmon starter and one of the better short-rib dishes I have had on a plane. Lufthansa! Who knew!
Anyway, now let's get to the real event. Madrid itself is huge, but the center of the city is smaller than you think. I got an AirBNB literally in the shadows of the Reina Sofia museum (nominally the South West corner of the main city center) and msot things I went to were nominally walking distance. The first thing I went to was the Reina Sofia - speedrunning the historic museum in the one hour I had before my dinner at EMi (a two-star Michelin spot that is less expensive than the other 2/3-star joints in Madrid). The Reina Sofia is most famous for housing Guernica - Pablo Picasso's truly beathtaking, large portrait of a city and country at war. Of course, the room that housed Guernica was packed, and the museum itself was quite crowded (again, Spain - very busy with tourists in Summer...), but was lovely. I did find the Contemporary Art floor a tad too modern for my liking, but the two floors below it that encircle a courtyard were both lovely - from Guernica (still imposing and lovely, despite the crowds) to the various Dali's and Rivera's and so much more. For what is the second most famous / important art museum in Madrid, the Reina Sofia is a great spot.
From there, I took an uber of to EMi - which sits in the North East corner of the city center. I could have walked it in one hour. I mean, I was never going to, but you can conceivably do so. EMi was brilliant - a young chef who has worked all over, from Atomix in NY (most recently) to Azurmendi (where I am closing the trip) to many others, and has taken ingredients from his native Galicia (North East Spain) and set it to largely Korean inspired preaprations for a truly wonderful menu. As with most trips, I will do a post at the end detailing the four tasting menus I will be eating at.
The meal lasted from 8:30 to 11:00 (normal dinner times, by Spain standards) and the city was coming alive. The night was my oyster and to start I took an uber back to the real city center, to Plaza Callao and first soaked in the sights and people and verve for a bit. Madrid really comes alive in a way I haven't seen in Europe outside of maybe Istanbul. Sure, as a ton of the signage showed, there was still some lingering revelry from their World Cup win five days earlier, but Madrid was alive.
I had a plan to visit two cocktail spots and maybe a craft beer spot before ending my night at one of the few EDM clubs that wasnt yet closed for the summer (seriously, a ton are basically shut from Mid-July to end of August). In the end, I only went to one cocktail spot - The Alchemist, and my second choice club, but loved them both.
The Alchemist is a block off of Callao, and is a really classic upmarket cocktail spot, though priced reasonably. The two bartenders were excellent, the drinks were really well crafted, from their own preparations (including a really nice acid / sweet take on a martini) to their spinified version of classics. In the end, I stayed there partially because it was lovely, but also because it was walking distance from the Cadavra Club, which was my planned EDM spot for the night as it was having its end of the summer / closing night. That turned out to be a curse, as it was probably more crowded than usual because of that fact, so despite me pre-buying a ticket there was a line that seemed to be moving at glacial pace. So I cut my losses and ubered over to El Sotano, another EDM spot that is more mainstream but was still quite good. The drinks were cheap, the place was well ventilated, the two DJs I heard parts of were both good, and it was overall a lovely way to end the night, me calling it at 3:30 (with a planned 11am train to Toledo) when it closes at 6 - where I probably woudl ahve lasted another 30-45 minutes had I not been dead tired.
Overall, while I didn't really see Madrid in any real sense, it was just a treat to get a fairly last minute planned ten hours strolling around what remains my second favorite city. Truly, it was literally ten days ago when I realized I would only get to Toledo by like 9pm, that I made the decision to stay in Madrid the first night, and I am so happy I did.
Spain really is just the best, and to me Madrid, with its blending of all parts of Spanish culture, sits above other places as the top city to visit. I've been to Barcelona; I admit it is excellent - Madrid is just better, especially if like me, you don't really care about beaches. You can say cities in Andalusia (Granada, Sevilla, Malaga) are nicer for a short visit, and nothing beats the food in teh Basque region, but if all you want to do is understand what makes Spain great - there is no better place to see this than Madrid.
