My trip to Spain, great budget Euro destination.

I traveled to Spain last week to meet up with my mother who is looking to relocate there. We traveled to Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona.

The fight before seats and upgrades were around $500 round trip. But I upgraded to exit row and bought priority boarding in the fight out to bring the price for airfare closer to $700. This was the biggest expense.

(Exit rows on a 787 are nice!)




A cheap hack would be to fly to Philly. Chicago, Newark or Atlanta on your own then take Iberia or similar to Spain. I booked American so I could get the deal on the BA direct flight to New Orleans home.

(Atocha station, site of Spains 3/11 terrorist attack has a nice jungle in the station)



The weather was lovely. In the 60s and no rain while we were there.


I got some good advice here and for those who mentioned Toledo.... I loved Toledo. I think I will retire there. It was just an amazing experience. Felt like living in a Rennfest except modern. Hard to explain. Great food everywhere and nothing more than a ten minute walk away. Having to duck in a door way when a car passes can get old though.


Anyway. Here's the trip.

Day 1 landed in Madrid at 8:30am from Philly. They served dinner on the flight and yogurt in the morning. Plus I had a cheese steak in Philly as I've never had Geno's and I saw one in the airport. The passport control went faster than a standard security line. Just a picture and a stamp and go.

I met up after security and we decided to go to Atocha station and lock our bags up and then go explore the Sofia Reina museum. But first we decided to get coffee. Coffee came with breakfast. It was 11am at this point and we had reservations at 1pm for Lunch at Restaurant Botin(oldest in the world).
Coffee with Jamon and Manchengo cheese tostas


The museum was great. But the reservations really made us rush and not really enjoy it. Amazing o see so much Dali and Picasso and other surreal art.







We made it to the restaurant and it all looked great. Sadly the food had NO flavor. Luckily I travel with hot sauce and that helped. But the mistake of booking this the first day was apparent. I was stuffed and my body was telling me it was 4am not 1pm.









I would not lock in a early reservation on day one of a trip again. It really messed with enjoying the first few hours.
Plus it just wasn't good. It was also the only meal we ate over €100 as they decided they didn't want to try Disfrutar after I made reservations. (Seriously is #5 in world right now and only $140 pp good for a **)

Botin was worth touring. Maybe a drink but suckling pig is described better than it taste, stick to Jamon.
(Plaza mayor, Madrid)




After we walked the main square area and the palace before taking a cab to get our bags and take the train to Toledo.
It was a 20 minute walk or a €7 cab ride. We took the latter. The roads are steep like San Francisco yet very skinny







(Notice the bollard, crosswalks are secured by bollards here)


We were dropped off by the cathedral and our airbnb was behind it.

Our apartment was a two bedroom, two bath with a large kitchen and living room. It was similar in size and design to a nice French quarter apartment. It had a courtyard but all the other apartments looked down into it. The walls go back to 1378. The building was built into its current use in the 1860s and renovated last in 2016.
It was called the "King David Suite" I highly recommend it. Had the first floor and a private courtyard for a great price.














The apartment was next to the callejon de Diablo. The devils alley.





(Windows on the left are for the apartment. Buildings are too tight for views)

more info on the apartment, booking info and pictures.