If you read my article last week, you know I spent the first leg of my spring break in Barcelona, Spain. The rest of my week was spent in Mallorca and Madrid.
Mallorca is a little island off the coast of Spain. It’s absolutely gorgeous there. We flew into the capital city, Palma, after spending the night in the Barcelona airport. We were exhausted, so we got to our apartment and passed out for a while. When we finally woke up, we just wandered around the city center and got food. The cathedral is absolutely beautiful and impossible to miss. We went to the Arab Baths, which were gorgeous and really peaceful. That night, we went to see a movie in English, Maps to the Stars (personally, I was not a huge fan).
The next day, we rented bikes and rode about 25 miles around the coast of the island. We stopped to lounge on the beach and get lunch and drinks, and it was incredible. The water is so blue and everything is so beautiful. It was the perfect way to spend a day. On our last day, we lounged on the beach most of the day. It was so relaxing. We went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch, and I was thrilled to finally have mac and cheese again! We had an early flight to Madrid the next morning, so we went to bed pretty early.
We got to Madrid and again napped in our apartment for a while because of our early flight. We found a Dunkin Donuts near our apartment, and as a Bostonian I was thrilled about that. We spent most of the day at the Museo del Prado, which is absolutely huge and incredible. There’s so much amazing art that you just can’t see it all at once. We wandered around Retiro Park afterwards, which is right near the Prado. The next day, we went to the Royal Palace of Madrid, which is incredible. You get to go all inside the palace and into the Royal Armory, which is absolutely incredible. There was a special exhibition with all kinds of portraits of royal families throughout the years, and it was so cool to see how things have changed throughout history.
We went to an open-air marketplace and got tapas for lunch, and then wandered around a few plazas and gardens. We went to Parque de la Montaña, where we went into the Temple of Debod, which is an ancient Egyptian temple that the Egyptian government gifted to the Spanish and rebuilt in Madrid. It was so cool to see actual ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. We went to a super famous chocolateria for chocolate con churros, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The next day, we went to the stadium where Real Madrid plays. It’s so huge; I can only imagine how crazy that area must be on a game day. I was hoping to catch a peek of Cristiano Ronaldo, but unfortunately, the team was on a road trip. We wandered around a bit, and then went to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were amazingly beautiful. I could have spent all day there. We came home completely exhausted, but I’m so glad I got to spend such a beautiful week in Spain!
This weekend I’m going to Assisi (the home of St. Francis!) with AUR. I’m excited to see yet another part of Italy. Check back next week for the story!