Tag Archives: Europe 2022

Europe 2022 – Madrid Day 3

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Last day in Madrid, and we definitely checked out a good amount.

Started of with lunch at a crepe place called Prep La Crepe. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/28/prep-la-crepe/

After, we headed north to the El Viso area where the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is. The stadium is the home of the soccer “club” Real (which means royalty). Apparently they are a pretty good team (although there is not one single good player in the team. Also, apparently “team”‘in soccer is called “club”). When we went to the stadium, it is still under construction, so entrance fees were discounted. It should be done in 1.5 years (and it sort of looks like an Apple Watch from the top).

After the stadium, we took the metro back to our Airbnb to drop off things really quickly (gotta say it is pretty clean. Has the cleanliness of Toronto subway, but looks more like the Tube trains in London… even the sign has the same colors).

then headed to the Royal Palace of Madrid. This palace is apparently the largest functional palace in Europe. Has over 3000 rooms, and 1.4 million square feet. We learned that the previous monarch abdicated in 2014 because of fraud charges (he is now in the UAE), and someone names Felipe took over. We found the outside and inside of the palace pretty impressive. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures of most of the rooms, but some highlights include a room made out of porcelain, the “crown” room that had Juan Carlos’ signed abdication, and ceiling painting that seemed to hang out of the crown moldings. The dining room was also impressive (seats 50 people).

After the palace, quickly stopped by the Almudena Cathedral. It was fairly large, but looked pretty modern (stain glass windows had modern fonts).

After the cathedral we walked back to our AirBnb. Along the way we did make some stops. First was for an affogoto. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/28/freddo-freddo/

We then made a quick stop at Plaza Mayor, which is basically a very large square full of eateries (mainly tapas with jaman). Then we stopped by the taco bel near our place, and tried out the fried with cheese and ground beef. Very similar to the US.

Before dinner, took a test at the AirBnb, and I learned how to lay Play 9. It’s a really fun game.

For dinner, we went to a place one of my direct reports recommended (he grew up in Madrid). Went to a place called Casa Mingo. Details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/28/casa-mingo/

We then walked back. We were at a part of Gran via street that had really upper class buildings. One that stood out is a hotel called RIU. Reminded me of a Fairmont. One thing they had, but was closed when we got there is a rooftop bar. Next time.

We ended the night playing Play 9.

Europe 2022 – Madrid Day 2

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Started off the second day going to grab coffee around the Sol area. Details found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/27/syra-coffee/

Then grabbed a light lunch around the the same area. Details found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/26/restaurante-gloria-bendita-madrid/

Since we ate lunch outside, we noticed there were bird scooters across the street from us. Totally took advantage of that and headed towards a nearby park called Parque del Retiro. The scooters were a great way to get around and see the area (basically you go on the roads with them, but can still act like a pedestrian if you need to).

The park was a bit like Golden Gate park, but smaller. First place we stopped by was the Palacio de Cristal. Not a very functional a place (it’s clear all throughout, and only had one piece of artwork). After, went to a water park area called Embarcadero de El Retiro, which has a famous horse monument, Monumento a Alfonso XII. There was also a workout section of the park that had tennis courts, and various outdoor workout equipment.

In one section of the park there were wild life sized animals (humans inside) and a pikachu! Was not expecting that.

After the park, stopped by a church that was at the north entrance of the park called the Church of San Manuel and San Benito (not really a tourist church, but it was there), and Bang and Olufsen (played with a 24000 euro TV set up. It had an LG G2 oled attached to it, with simulated Atmos speakers. Cool kart about it is that it could move up and down).

Afterwards, we headed north to the Elviso area to grab dinner at a Paella place called Restaurante Casa Benigna. Can find those details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/27/restaurante-casa-benigna/

After dinner, we just headed back to our AirBnb, but in style using bird scooters.

Europe 2022 – Madrid Day 1

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Arrived in Madrid from JFK at 9am (took 6.5 hours). What’s great at arriving at 9am is that it’s 12am in SF, so could either check into an Airbnb or get a day hotel and sleep for 3 hours to help adjust.

The airport is 20 minutes from Madrid city center (Sol – Gran Via), which most consider the city center).

So checked in around 10:30am. Airbnb was renovated, so seemed pretty modern.

Probably didn’t start making moves until 6pm though. First did a grocery pit stop at a local mart called Dia (seems like a chain). Got some jaman (aka ham), power ade, and most importantly water.

After, we explored the Sol / Gran Via area out. Stopped by a Tim Horton’s (connected to a Popeyes lol) to grab a latte with French vanilla syrup.

After walked into. Huawei store (first one I’ve been to), which is the flagship store in Spain. Gotta way, they’re smart watches look really nice, but the OS on their phone is super under performance (scrolling perf is bad. OS looks a lot like a meld between iOS and Android).

After, we went to a rooftop bar called Gymage. Can find the details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/26/gymage-terrace/

We stayed at the rooftop bar until sunset, after which we were ready to get some food. We still stayed in the Sol area, where there was a bunch of shops like Zara, an Apple Store, and street performers (also, the main access point to the city, Puerto de Sol, which has a horse status and building we walked by).

We ended up going to this really good (and cheap) tapas place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/07/26/matador/

After, we walked around to see if we could find a club that played house music. We found a lot of clubs, but none that played EDM (there were a lot of Latin type music clubs). There were lots of people of all ages trying to promote various random places. After asking around, finally found one called “Fucking Monday”, which was conveniently 2 blocks from our Airbnb.

Some interesting things about the club is that there were definitely 14 year olds there (now the show Elite from Netflix makes sense). But music was good. The main room was top 40 EDM (which they called commercial music). The smaller “boiler room” was called (EDM, which was mainly big room house (think fisher / Oliver Heldens).

Ended off the night going to McDonalds (we wanted the Taco Bel to be open, but it wasn’t open at 5am unfortunately). One thing this McDonald’s had was wedges with bacon and cheese (first McDonalds to have that.