Andalusia honeymooning: two days in Madrid

Erin Hassett
May 16
8 min read

September 14th was the day Uriel and I were married, and, to risk the cliche, it really was everything I could have hoped for. The sun was shining (the hurricane shifted pathways––not sorry, Michigan), temperatures were warm but not hot, and we danced late into the night in my parent's backyard, surrounded by grapevines and Lake Erie.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to whisk away to our honeymoon immediately. It was the fall semester, and I was in the thick of teaching and research, as was Uri. Balancing our work constraints with ideal honeymoon locations and activities had us weighing multiple options.

Many people asked if we were going to do a bike tour, which we heavily debated. However, we knew we wouldn't be able to restfully and romantically have a long ride, and what we truly wanted was to get immersed in city culture, cafes, art, and music. Also, after much logistical consideration, the bikes were becoming a hindrance when planning trains and city hopping.

Finally, we enthusiastically settled on Spain. Uri and I had been to Spain before and adored it, though I had never been to Andalusia. He also speaks Spanish fluently and has family who lives there, which gave us more comfort as tourists. But importantly, Spain has the perfect mix of cultural events, walkable cities, ease of navigability, and air of romance that we sought out.

So, in March, we finally escaped the wet, wintry mix of Upstate New York to, hopefully, drier and warmer climates. The week leading up to departure, the weather forecasts in Madrid and southern Spain were teeming with symbols of gray clouds and rainfall. So much that flash flood warnings for Valencia had us in nerves. Knock on wood, it looked like the break in rain was going to occur right as we arrived. Maybe?

Travel Prep

We knew that we would predominately be walking and that we wouldn't be able to check in to our Airbnbs until the afternoon. Likewise, we chose to not have a rental car the whole time, opting for trains and public transport to be more environmentally friendly (despite the flight to Europe, I know). With this in mind, we had travel backpacks instead of rolling luggage so that we could walk aimlessly with ease. This limited space reduced what we could bring, but we tended to travel light anyway (and actually still brought too much!)

We purchased most travel items in advance:

Train rides from each city (using the Renfe website)
2 Enterprise rental cars (for two day trips)
Airbnbs in each city: Madrid, Cuenca, Valencia, Granada, Malaga, Seville
Tickets to the Alhambra palace in Granada
Tickets to hike the Caminito del Rey outside of Malaga

We reserved buying in-town bus tickets at the moment as needed.

Madrid Day 1

Strava Map 1 and Map 2 (9 miles)

From Syracuse to Amsterdam was a flawless trip––red eye, yes, but logistically flawless. Then the anxiety: we had 50 mins from the plane landing in Amsterdam to the connecting flight departing for Madrid. We had to exit our international flight (we were seated in the back), go through immigration, and then make it to our gate which closed 15 mins to departure. Never had I narrowly missed a flight such as this one––from our JFK gate, we sprinted past 80 (!) additional gates (I tripped and fell along the way), and we were the final passengers to board the now empty gate at final boarding call. Sweaty. Shin splints.

Calming down and cooling off, I was seated next to two Dutch men on our flight to Madrid (to their dismay, they were hoping for the empty seat). We chatted in rough English about our trips––they were on their way to service plane wings. Upon hearing about the honeymoon, the one man alerted the hostess, speaking in Dutch, and she later gifted us a small bottle of champagne and snacks with a Congratulations card! Even though his English wasn't perfect, I couldn't help but notice that he was listening to American music from the 60s and 70s.

Touchdown in Madrid around 10 A.M. Since the airport was far from downtown, we took the easily accessible metro/subway to the city center Plaza de España, which cost 6.50 euro apiece (and requiring a metro card purchased from the kiosks in the station).

As we exited the metro, a woman in the station began to play her violin to the Elvis song Can’t Help Falling in Love. For our first dance at our wedding, we danced to this song, so it felt like a sign! Our first dance song was actually a surprise song mash-up, also consisting of Rick Astley's Never Going to Give you Up (which played at the first coffee shop in Madrid that we went to), and Tom Jones' It's not Unusual (which my Dutch seat-mate was listening to). It all felt unusually coincidental...and incredibly awesome.

It should be stated that I was a zombie. I slept 0 hours on the flight (watching Lord of the Rings didn't help, but go ahead and judge). Uri managed to get a few more hours than that despite the French teenager gossip behind his head. So, we desperately sought out a coffee shop.

A quaint and sleepy cafe, it had exactly what we yearned: freshly pressed orange juice, lattes, and pastries. I let Uri do all the speaking in Spanish as I worked through my language shyness.

We walked around much of the west side of downtown Madrid, rather quickly through the plazas. Our backpacks were great for getting around the city without dragging loud luggage (the brick and cobbled streets would have been an ear-sore); however, our backs were starting to feel it after a few hours. The lack of waist or chest straps meant the weight was shoulder-baring, and we were ready to dump the packs at the Airbnb. Another pro about not having rolling luggage: there was a lot of dog poop on the city side walks. We dodged these land mines for the next two weeks, and I only stepped in it twice. Had we had rolling suitcases, it would have been a shitty mess, very literally.

At 2 PM, we promptly checked into our Airbnb to drop the bags off. The place was located close to the city center, right adjacent to the National Art Museum Reina Sofia (we could see it outside our window across the street). Even though it was very tiny, it had everything we needed.

Happily 20 lbs lighter after ditching the bags, we spent most of the day winding through the streets and enjoying the spontaneous wall murals and sculptures. On the whole, the city was very walkable, and it was easy to meander and connect to other locations.

Early in the day, we hiked up to The Temple de Debod, which was seated on a hilltop and surrounded by blossoming trees. The temple was built in the 2nd century BC in Egypt and then donated to Spain in 1968. It was a gift since Spain assisted in a campaign specifically for preserving Egyptian temples. Here, there were some lovely overlooks of the city and manicured garden spaces.

We then passed by the Almudena Cathedral which is the largest crypt in Spain, with many notable royalty buried there. Though we didn't pay to go inside at the time, we admired its grandiose aesthetic, which was right across from the Royal Palace of Madrid.

In the early evening, we walked to the Plaza Major (featured photo) which is the oldest part of Madrid, built in the late 1500s and reconstructed on three separate occasions because of fires. A statue of King Phillip III is in the plaza center, and the buildings and balconies surrounding it are beautifully colored with multiple entrance archways. We enjoyed sitting here and people watching.

Overall, we walked around 9 miles this day which was considerable since we were operating on minimal to zero sleep. With little guilt, we ended the day early and went home to our sweet little brick room to cook dinner. Our philosophy for eating out was to only do so for very specific cuisines that we didn't want to miss (like paella in Valencia)—we were still grad student/post-doc after all. Mostly, we wanted to spend our money at cafes and on pastries and gelatos. So, to balance that out, we had a home cooked dinner of rice and chicken, courtesy of Lidl, our go-to grocery store.

Pro-tip: on Mondays, the Reina Sofia Art Museum is free from 7 to 9 PM; however, we underestimated how packed the lines would be to get inside. So, reserve a space and get there early! In the night-time downpour, we abandoned these last minute artsy plans to raincheck them for another trip.

Madrid Day 2

Strava map (16 miles)

Knowing that today was our final day to explore Madrid, we opted for a more brisk start. We downed some store bought chocolate croissants & OJ and were out the door by 8:30 AM. Naturally, we first sought out a café called Pañería, which was adorable, brightly lit, and had the most gorgeous pastries. Café con leche was my go-to coffee (latte, basically) which consistently tasted delicious.

Despite the constant drizzle, we spent the morning in Retiro Park, lazily and sleepily shuffling the walkways. This park is massive, and it has so many interwoven trails and pathways to get lost in. The rain seemingly warded off many folks, and we were often the only ones in eye shot. Comparatively, when Uri was here in the summer, the green spaces were packed with recreators. So, it was rather charming to have a cozy, rainy, private walk while we stayed dry under our umbrellas. One of my favorite parts of Madrid was a small, southeast corner of Retiro Park: a uniquely landscaped and architectured garden space that reminded me of Alice in Wonderland. Peacocks pecked about, and it felt magical and surreal.

Quick stop at the public library to sit down in a dry space––Uri caught some Zzzzzs for about 15 mins before we recaffeinated at Sood. This cafe was the first and only time in Spain where we saw the dreaded swivel iPad that revolutionized the tipping industry in the U.S., and we were asked for a tip. We gave one out of habit, but when an older man behind us also ordered a coffee, the barista bypassed the tipping option for him. Was it because we were noticeably tourists or because we were younger?

Gelato break! The pause for sugar came at a convenient time as we waited for heavy rains to pass.

Slowly en route back to home, we navigated through the Gran Via which was stunningly surprising. When we heard it was the touristic shopping area, we expected new storefronts and shopping chains; however, the buildings were overwhelmingly grand and had older style architecture. We particularly loved the buildings on street corners that had rounded edges, and with the moody sky and passing gray clouds and sunlight, their presence was even more photogenically powerful. The narrow streets were exciting to weave through without purpose to window shop, not knowing what would be around each corner. We did purposefully seek out the cat walkway engraving. Is there any greater unifying global phenomenon than a cat wanting to be in a box?

With the long day out in the city, we popped back home for a quick power nap and dinner before heading back towards the Gran Via for a flamenco concert. Teatro Flamenco Madrid seemed like an ideal place to experience flamenco for the first time (for me). It was an intimate setting with small tables and theater, allowing us to have a great vantage point no matter where we were seated, though we were luckily placed closer to the front. There were two women and two male dancers and a guitarist, and their singing was highly and impressively emotional and pining. Uri had seen flamenco in a larger auditorium setting previously which he preferred to this one, but we both enjoyed the experience!