Matt is a Guiness World Record Holder

Will update this post with more details once the paperwork is finalized and official:

This is out of order, but wanted to make sure it got posted so we never lost the video evidence!

Madrid: Lots of Pictures, I'm kinda obsessed with Spain! : August 3-5, 2014

On Sunday, August 3rd, the moms and I took a side trip to Madrid.  Elevator selfie, to mark the start of the day:

We took a quick flight after to Madrid, stayed at another Marriott affiliated hotel.  The view from our room:

Our hotel from the outside, pretty cool mural

Then we set out to get some Spanish food, basically the reason I wanted to come back to Spain! (Emily and I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain in 2007, but we never made it to Madrid during our stay that time)

Coke in a bottle, pickles and olives...I'm in heaven!

THIS was my favorite food in Sevilla, Totilla de Patatas.  Its basically eggs and potatoes and SO delicious!  Ugh, I'm craving it now just thinking about it again!

heading out to explore the city: walking along the Real Jardin Botanical Gardens

outside the Prado National Art Museum

Plaza de Cibeles

To the right of the picture above

Houston is so European, we have bikes for rent like this downtown :)

Continuing on our walk down Paseo de Recoletos: the National Library of Spain, closed as this time of day.  It seems to stay lighter/brighter later in Spain than in Houston!

Had to make a stop at Hard Rock Madrid, so mom could get some souvenirs

on Martha's must do list was to scope out any casinos, so we spent a little time here.  We unfortunately didn't win big.

cab ride home, driving back past the Palacio de Cibeles

Had to end the night with some helado (Magnum bars were a fav last time we were here, so I knew they'd be a hit again)

The next day we planned to tour the Royal Palace of Madrid.  These are gardens across the street.  Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

Went over to the palace to see what time they opened and we were a little early, 

so we popped around the corner and got breakfast at a little cafe until opening.

Views from the palace:

In the courtyard of the palace, the church is over to the left and the palace itself wraps around the rest

Another view of the church from inside the palace.

palace selfie

Inside the cathedral

After our palace tour we continued our tour of Madrid and walked toward Plaza Mayor.  Some of our sites along the way:

Stopped at the McDonald's "ATM" to get a drink!

We stumbled upon Mercado de San Miquel, which is Spanish food heaven!  So many food booths and it all looked delicious!

We stopped for lunch: baguette sandwhich and paella (in the middle), not sure what the moms got (on either side), I was too into my food :)

Made it to Plaza Mayor:

Took a red bus tour of Madrid as well and say more sites, though I didn't pull too many of pictures here cause there are lots :)

On the way back to our hotel we ended up BACK at Mercado de San Miguel, to try more of their delicious food: Had to get another tortilla de patatas before leaving the country, and the paella was so good earlier, I had to get it again.  Also got some yummy sangria!

More food :)  can never have enough when you're on vacation!

getting some treats to go!

We had to catch our overnight train, so we headed back to our hotel, grabbed our stuff and took a taxi to the train station.  We drove past the Atocha Train Station,

the Madrid KPMG office,

and the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium!

After a little waiting, we made it to our train.  There was a bit of a hiccup when we learned that the three of us were not in the same train cabin, but luckily we were able to trade rooms with another pair that was together, and we ended up in the same cabin.

Welcome to train travel:

I had to bring some snacks, want to eat Spanish food as long as possible!

We passed through quite a few small towns on our way to Lisbon.  We went to sleep in Spain and woke up back in Portugal!  Not the most comfortable way to travel, but it worked!

Another train travel lesson, if your stop is not the last, be ready to get off as soon as you arrive at your station.  Luckily there were TWO Lisbon stations, and the second was the last on the line, so thankfully, when we missed the first one, we were able to get off at the end of the line!

Up next, family adventures in Lisbon!