Our Spain Trip (long overdue!)

Note: This post has been in my drafts for over a year. I'm an awful blogger. Mainly posting so we remember what we did. 

Paul and I went to Spain at the end of May 2011. It was an amazing trip. We flew into Madrid with a layover in Paris. When we landed in Paris, we could actually see the Eiffel Tower way out in the distance from the plane window. We landed in Madrid at about 4pm and headed to our hotel. We didn't need to wait for baggage because we only brought...

 backpacks. Yup. School size backpacks. 10 days and we fit everything in there. It was kind of amazing! So, we landed in Madrid and headed to our hotel. We dropped off our backpacks and left to get food and explore the area.
Random side note: we had forgotten a converter so we went in search of one and happened upon a store where the people only spoke Chinese

The weather was incredible the entire time we were there. It was about 80°F everyday and stayed light outside until almost 10pm.

On Tuesday, we went to ALL the tourist places. We literally walked from one end of the city, back to the other and then back again. 

Plaza Mayor

Templo de Debod

Templo de Debod (isn't it cool??)

The most AMAZING things we ate (and we ate them at least once a day....maybe twice!) These little meringue cupcakes were delicious...a little crunchy on the outside, but chewy and marshmallowy on the inside. 

Yum!

Our Wednesday adventure included flying to Mallorca, an island off the east coast of Spain. The plane flight was quick and the tickets were CHEAP! 

Our "Full English Breakfast"

"Full English Breakfast" is probably not what I imagine when thinking about breakfast, but Paul wanted to try it (i think b/c "Full English Breakfast" was mentioned in a song he likes!). I probably wouldn't go back for seconds!

And this was lunch.../dinner/snack/dessert. The lines were long and everyone was eating HUGE German sausage/hot dog thing. Mallorca is a popular resort island for Germans even though it is a Spanish island. Most things in Mallorca are in German and Spanish.

And since this post has been in my drafts for over a year, it is now going to be mostly pictures...

We went to a nature preserve which sounded really cool, but the only animal we saw was this little turtle.

We rented a car and drove to Alcúdia on Mallorca and explored the old town area. The old town area is really well preserved with houses dating back to the 13th century and an old medieval wall surrounding it.

Spent a little time in Palma, the main city in Mallorca.

Palma Cathedral

Up at Bellver Castle

Bellver Castle

The video below is the view from Bellver Castle. The city of Palma is huge. 

The little car we rented on Mallorca

The hostel we stayed at in Mallorca. Only 2 blocks from the beach and $20 a night with our own bathroom. 

Classic beach picture in Mallorca

Back to Madrid. 

Delicious sandwiches in Madrid. The line was out the door and everywhere you looked outside people were eating these sandwiches. So good!

Another Meringue. LOVE

The coolest market. It had a bunch of little shops inside that specialized in certain things. An olive shop, a meat shop, fruit shop, potato chip shop. We spent a lot of time in here!

From the olive shop

The meat shop. Those little cones of meat were about $45 each.

Museo del Jamon with great bocadillos

Sol Station was completely taken over by Occupy-like people.

We went to a bar one night to listen to som really good Jazz. 

Shopping by Sol station in Madrid. 

Leaving. We were sad to go home!

I love Spain and can't wait to go back. Maybe I'll convince Paul to move there someday.