HoseA and Melly Mel @hoseamellymel - Tumblr Blog

Wow our plane looks all up in the club!!! #seattle #canada #thegonzalezjoinedus Away we go!!!

Day 5 - Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena. #HoseA

Day 5 - We were not able to take many pictures inside Palacio Real but took a few where we could. The picture of the family was the previous King of Spain and his wife, 2 daughters and son. The son is the current king. The rest of the pictures were outside in the courtyard of Palacio Real, of the jardines and the Catedral. The last picture is outside of the catedral and facing Palacio Real’s courtyard. #HoseA

Day 5 - Madrid - Museo Palacio Real was next with Aurora. Across the main entrance to the Palacio Real is the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena. We are only allowed to take pictures inside a stair/main entrance area. The Palacio Real is now used only when state oficial events take place and the royal family live ~3 km outside of the city. #HoseA

Day 5 - Madrid - Aurora took us on a loop back around to Puerta del Sol where we stood what once was considered the center of Spain. Though we were told the king was ~10km off. We came back around to the Chocoloteria San Gines behind the San Gines church and towards the Teatro Real. Aurora dropped us off at a cafe for our drink included in the tour and she took off to meet part of the group for the next portion of the tour. #HoseA

Spanish Food We've Eaten

I was going to mention what Melissa ate and actually enjoyed. I figured though I can list some of the foods we’ve eaten including what Melissa surprisingly liked.

Pintxo with tuna salad on bread - like a tapa Pintxo with prochetta on bread Pintxo with chorizo on bread. The chorizo is different than Mexican chorizo. It is dried and cured in a casing like salami. Pintxo with Goat Cheese Pintxo with Scorpion fish. I didn’t eat it after seeing Melissa’s reaction after the first bite. In Madrid we both ate a “club” sandwich with chicken. The chicken was dark meat and the bacon was ham that was slightly seered. There was also a ½ cup of mayonnaise in it.

Below is a list of tapas we ate during our night tours:

Cheese Salted nuts Bread Cazuelita de Callos y Garbanzos - Little pot of stew with garbanzo beans. Basically, menudo….but this was made with veal tripe and etc….it was a lot lighter than beef tripe. I had several spoon full’s and so did Melissa. At the end, it was still not our cup of tea. @El Lacon Lentejas estofadas - lentil soup. This was very good and I finished it off. We went back the next night with our other group but they didn’t have it…we were let down. @El Lacon Piementos de Padron - These were bite sized peppers from a region called Padron. They were grilled and tossed in olive oil with sea salt. Very good but 1/3 of the group are usually hot. We decided to order some on our last dinner in Spain. We counted ~8 that were hot out of ~30. @El Lacon Croquetas de Jamon y Boletus - corn meal cakes with ham and some other goodness. @El Lacon Morcilla de Sotopalacios - Blood sausage with rice. Melly liked this over the next tapa and so did I. It was good, made me think I should have tasted the blood sausage from Ireland. @El Lacon Pork cooked with mushroom and peppers - I gagged after the first bite. Something about boiled pork flavor. @El Lacon Jamon y queso @Museo de Jamon Octopus cooked with spicy flavors. This tapa plate we shared with the large group at our last stop on our first night at Madrid. I am not a fan of octopus but this was good. @Cerveveria Cervantes (CC) Garlic shrimp @CC Mushroom on toast @CC Blue and goat cheese mixed - very good @Casa Gonzalez (CG) Chorizada - Like the pintxo we had in Barcelona @CG Shark bites - This was very very good. The shark was juicy and the breading was light. Our 2nd stop on our 2nd tapas tour was at El Lacon again. @El Lacon Revuelto de Pescado - All seafood thrown into a cup. @El Lacon Arroz frito trees delicias - White rice with ham and something else. @El Lacon Chorizo Riojana - Slices of chorizo like eating salami slices @El Lacon Eggplant slightly battered @El Lacon Piementos de Padron @El Lacon Garlic Shrimp with bread @La Casa del Abuelo Gaspacho - The tour guide told us Mexican’s usually compare this to eating/drinking hot sauce. It did taste like red hot sauce but with little to no peppers. Basically a told tomato soup with “too much” cumin, per Melissa. @La Torre del Oro (LTO) Pickled olives We had more stuff to tapas @LTO but we were a little drunk to write them down…. Our 5th stop was @Los Galayos - Ismael ordered desserts. One dessert was like cheesecake, a chocolate trouffles and a cinnamon thick crepe. In Toledo we had a lunch menu which included an appetizer (primeros) and an entree (segundos) and a dessert. It included water or wine. My primeros was migas with chorizo and Melissa ordered the house paella. Our segundos was chicken (marsala style) with patatas (potatoes). #HoseA

Day 5 - Madrid - Next on the tour was, Plaza Mayor. The building with the paintings in the middle of the windows is the Real Casa del Pan or Panaderia Real. Included in the picture is Aurora, she was a cool lady. Felipe II is on the horse, though it can be Felipe III or Felipe IV. Not sure as we spoked of a lot of Felipe's. Aurora took us to the Museo del Jamon where she explained the art of cutting, eating and different types of jamon (ham). This was a smaller location as we went to a larger one with James for the Madrid Tapas Night Walking Tour the night before. There is even a type of ham/pig that is the Kobe of pig. The Spanish don't mess around with their ham. The sausage was great as well and we even tasted....... #HoseA

Day 5 - Madrid - We continue the tour with Aurora. As we walked on Calle Mayor, we passed a madroño tree with the fruit not being ripe. Story goes that this is where the name for Madrid came from. There is also a statue of a bear eating the fruit of the Madroño tree at Puerta del Sol. We took a quick tour in the Mercardo de San Miguel and headed down along the Plaza Mayor and saw the oldest restaurant in the world, Restaurante Botin. There was also an old barber shop. #HoseA

Let's eat Churros and chocolate with our last euros...

Jose Medina (4th time)

Day 5 - Madrid - Both metro’s in Barcelona and Madrid have been easy to navigate. They both have a deal where you can buy 10 trips on 1 card and be used with multiple people. So we started the day getting on the Metro at Puerta del Sol. It is a great plaza and busy and popular enough to have a huge Apple store on one end. We met up our tour guide for the Madrid walking tour and started along the Palacio Real along the Jardines de Sabatini Palacio Real. Aurora was great and as #MellyMel mentioned, it was only us 3 for the next 2 hours. After talking along the Palacio Real she took us up the Teatro Real. The drawing of the man above the Plaza de Ramales is the famous painter Diego Velasquez. We then headed to Plaza de la Villa. #HoseA

Day 4 - Madrid - We finished our stroll through Parque Del Retiro with some ice cream. We headed down to the Prado Museum to meet our tour guide. The guy was great and took us to some great pieces. The museum reminded me of the Louvre and apparently only 10% of the pieces the museum has is displayed....cray cray. We walked back to our hotel pass the Fuente de Neptuno and Palacio del Congreso. #HoseA

Final Day … Dia 7 day trip to Toledo Today we decided would be our day to wander. We hoped the train and went to Toledo. The town was way bigger than we thought… We found a bus that would take us around town and get us situated. No more hills and stairs please!!!! We visited a very cool Spanish army museum, followed by a walk around town taking in the sites. In Spain, wine in many cases is less expensive than water!!! Needless to say we have enjoyed wine with many meals, like lunch today 😊. Any easy train ride back to the city for a low key evening. Back to the mercado for a goodbye glass of cava and one of our favorite tapas, pimientos de padron. Coming to America tomorrow!!!! #MellyMel

Day 4 - Madrid - We arrived early and Melissa took us to Parque del Retiro. #HoseA

Day 3 - Montserrat Monastery

I found the below YouTube videos to give you an idea of driving up Monserrat and going up the cable car. http://youtu.be/rHrtBZl6BlM http://youtu.be/zfpPwSg1dv8 #HoseA

Day 6- day tour to Avila and Segovia.. "Porque haces esos estupideses" why do you do such dumb ass things. So we typically do not take big group tours, but today was an exception to get out to see these places. All kinds of people go, some people just want to take pics, some people wander off, some people talk the entire time. Then you have those really odd ones. Like the ones who are trying to pull medieval swords off of walls!! Now why, what are you gonna do if you get that down. Or trying to shut castle doors.. Why?? Then what your locked in.. Cool. 😐 . Anyway. We visited Avila which still has medieval walls in tact. Next went over to the St. Teresa de Jesus church for reflection and prayer. Fun fact, St. Teresa was the first woman to be named a doctor of the Catholic Church. Back on the bus to Segovia. This is where I pause and tell you again how being in a huge tour is really lame. The guide talking loudly the entire time on the bus in a microphone ugh! However arriving to Segovia was awesome. After free time for lunch (thank goodness) we had time to see the huge aquaducts that run through town, what a sight. Back to our group for a cathedral peek followed by a Alcazar tour. Beautiful castle with amazing city views. A nap on the bus ride back to the city and we were off to the Mercado de San Miguel for dinner. This place is so neat, you can wander around to different stands and get food and drinks and hung around enjoying the sights. Dinner with drinks 14euro!!! HoseA HAD to have Churros and Chocolate again so we stopped and snagged a seat on the patio. In case your counting, this is the third churro run 😋. Off to Toledo mañana! #MellyMel #AyeEstupideses #wineagainsure #herecomesthwtouristbus

Day 3 - Montserrat Monestary - Our last pics as we headed back to the group with Eva, the tour guide. We took a different route on the other side of Montserrat back to Barcelona. This drive was not as bad though we were still on the right side of the road next to the drop. This route was more flat vs. going downhill. Surprisingly we were going a little up hill on some turns. The road took us to a highway a lot quicker. #HoseA

Day 3 - Montserrat Monestary - We exited the area for the Virgin behind the basilica and took us to a "modern" sculpture. We were then able to leave a prayer candle and go into the basilica. I didn't notice that the basilica looked up to the Virgin and there was ton's of people looking at us pray...owell. #HoseA

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