Weekend's In Madrid

So for the rest of that weekend and the following weekend were spent in Madrid so I will touch on some of those highlights.

The RANCH

Okay so John and I had been in Madrid for a few weeks now and with our dinners being pretty hit or miss, we really wanted to try and find a good burger somewhere. Sarah and Theresa had told us they had spotted one called "The Ranch". John and I thought we were golden because it sounded pretty American. So we headed over there hoping that some english would be spoken there. Nope. All Spanish. John and I struggled to get our food ordered and we weren't really able to communicate how we wanted our meat cooked... so we ended up with some pretty red burgers. It had bbq sauce so I was able to eat with not many problems. John tried a beer that really wasn't that good. So overall kind of a bust, but the first burger in Madrid had been eaten.

Royal Palace

So after are average meal, I wanted to go explore and see if I could find the Royal Palace that we had talked about in my Art History of Madrid class. The whole place was just WOW. When you enter the palace, you first walk on to this enormous plaza. Felt as big as a football field. Then it had this cool look out that you could see a lot of Madrid from so that was pretty neat as well. Then we went in the palace and it was just extravagance everywhere. Not an inch of floor, wall, or ceiling that was not decked out in decoration and glamour. It was crazy imagining living there. My favorite rooms were probably the dining room and the thrown room. The dining room had this super long table that reminded me of the movie Richie Rich where you would basically need a phone to talk from end to end. The thrown room was just cool thinking about royal Kings and Queens sitting there. Also, fun fact. The main staircase in the palace has extra wide steps. This was so that horses could walk up the palace and deliver the King and his guests to their rooms. Isn't that crazy?

Lookout from the Plaza

One of the view pictures I was allowed to take inside the Palace

Sunset at the park

Life in Madrid is pretty chill so why not spend the late afternoon reading in the park and watch the sunset? That's exactly what I did. I grabbed my book and headed to the park and just kicked back. It was pretty freaking great. And then later Sarah and Theresa joined and we all watched the sunset over Madrid. Pretty freaking sweet. Nothing beats a solid sunset.

Fast Forward to the next weekend

Prado day/Day with Theresa

#selfiewiththeprado

So for our Art History of Madrid Class we had an assignment where we had to go to the Prado museum and pick our favorite Gothic art and write a 2 page paper on it. So Theresa and I made our way to the Prado museum. Theresa had already been there once with Sarah, but it was my first time. I really like the Prado museum. I think it has a really cool range of paintings and art. Also, having taken my class it was fun to see pictures that I actually knew something about. Much better then going and just staring at a bunch of paintings that you know nothing about. Theresa and I picked out our favorite Gothic art pieces and then  we roamed the museum for a bit longer checking out master pieces from all eras. I wanted to stay longer and just enjoy, but we decided to head out. We then made our way to find some food. I felt pretty funny. We sat outside at a pretty classy restaurant in Sol and ordered the classy Sangria. And then we proceeded to order nachos, chicken wings, and potatoes with this spicy sauce haha. Quite the fancy meal for two fancy people. We kept spoiling ourselves by heading to Starbucks afterwards and just chatted for a couple more hours. Before we knew it, it was getting close to dinner time so we decided we should probably head home. It was just a nice relaxed day enjoying art, conversation, and quality time with a special friend.

















Sierra Hiking Club Trip

SLU Madrid has a hiking club that goes on trips every couple of weeks so I thought it would be fun to get to go on a hike. John came a long as well as we headed to Pico de la Miel which is about 40 minutes south of Madrid. My other friend Nicole went on the trip to so I had a good time talking and catching up with her as we scaled up the rock. I have learned here that hikes are more than just walking. They are more rock climbs. This hike had a pretty serious incline and lot of the time felt like we were just climbing up rocks. After a lot of heavy breathing and some aching feet, we finally got to the top for some incredible views and some prime photo ops. There were some sweet rocks that you could climb when you were at the top for an extra sweet view. It was beautiful. That's what life is all about. Being outside. Beautiful views. Amazing friends. Doesn't get much better. The only downside of this trip was that as I was trying to have lunch at the highest point, I lost my pepperoni over the side of the rock :( sad day haha. Other than that tho the trip was absolutely fantastic. Was so wiped out afterwards tho. Definitely got a quality nap after that trip.

So many great views

We made it to the top!

Such an incredible view!

Chicago Bears

So these two weekends were actually really great  for the bears. Were able to pick up two victories. One vs the 49ers and the other vs the Jets. The even better thing about these games was that they were at 2:30 in the morning. Gotta love it. Was not about to miss them though. Bears fan for life baby. #Beardown


International Church of Madrid

So I was talking with my friend Merette about how I was looking for a church to go to and she thought about how she had some family friends in the Madrid area and it turned out that they worked at this church. Crazy small world. So I was like sweet! So I ventured off on my own to find this church. I found it with no problem and everyone there was super nice and great. Finally got some quality worship and got to sing. Singing is one of my favorite parts of church. I got to meet Merette friends and talk with them for a bit and it was super cool to connect like that.


So yeah those were some mid September weekend highlights. Next up is the trip to Malaga!!

Peace

Erik