Fall Break Trip - Toledo and Segovia

The last day of trip was actually spent as a daytrip to visit the cities of Toledo and Segovia. We had a beautiful day to enjoy these two cities.

This is a great spot to see Toledo; I love the way it sits nestled into the river bend.

Mia by a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, taken as we walked up into the city. This was something of a joke because this is one of the few books that Mia has read in school that she absolutely hated. She couldn't wait to get it finished!

Toledo is known for two items, and one of them is marzipan. Our guide bought us each a little sample from this bakery; it was a great treat!

Toledo is also known for its steel. It has produced steel swords for the army for centuries. Mia has been saving up her money for many months, and she couldn't wait to buy a real sword from here. We researched different stores and landed on Fabrica Zamorano as an authentic producer. Mia took her time finding just the right one before ordering. They told us they would start production on it likely in late December/early January, and then it would be completed likely in March and shipped to her. It'll be worth the wait!

Toledo has lots of interesting architecture in it too, so we enjoyed seeing that as our guide told us all about the history of this cool city.

After a few hours here we drove to the city of Segovia. We had to have a picture in front of the famous Roman aqueduct. This is quite an impressive structure.

We stopped for lunch and had to try the famous Segovia dessert called Ponche Segoviano. It's a light sponge cake with layers of syrup and egg cream topped with marzipan and decorated with its classic crisscross pattern. It was pretty tasty.

We enjoyed walking through this beautiful town as well.

We were excited to have entrance tickets to Ferdinand and Isabele's castle. The outside looks like it may have inspired a Disney castle.

It definitely has a more medieval feel inside of it than a more traditional palace which for some reason surprised me. It was really cool to tour this.

As we headed out of town we stopped at a little park which looks up at the castle. Doesn't it look beautiful?

After a full day of touring we headed back into Madrid. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant which was close to the hotel, and it was super good (we'd enjoyed enough tapas at this point). Then it was time to pack up so we could head to the airport the next morning. This was a wonderful family trip where we made memory upon memory. I'm so thankful for this time with my favorite people!

Fall Break Trip - Madrid

We had a few hour train ride from Barcelona to Madrid. I love traveling by train. You get to see so much beauty along the way, and it's such an easy mode of transportation.

We were happy to check in to the beautiful El Felix hotel once we arrived. Look at this beautiful blue glass in the lobby!

They actually had Ryan and me in an incorrect room, so they upgraded us to a club level room which we appreciated.

We were given access to a restaurant and snack bar area since we were on the club level. 

The girls were not on the club level, so they didn't have this same access. We decided not to tell them about us sneaking up there to enjoy snacks until the very end of stay there. They couldn't believe it, and I think they thought we were making it up. So, after our last dinner of the trip, we headed back up to take this selfie for them. Ha!

We spent some time walking around Madrid once we arrived just so the girls could get a feel for the city. We spent some time walking around Plaza Mayor. It was a great day to be outside.

I was very excited to get back to La Mallorquina to have their delicious chocolate pastry which I've missed since our last trip here a few years ago; it's called the napolitano de chocolate. It's one of my favorites!

We enjoyed stopping in and out of shops, but the candy store was lots of fun. There were all sorts of cool treats in here.

We walked through a market too; I hope to come back and eat here some day. There were wine bars, olive bars, cheese bars, and meat bars where there are just cups of charcuterie meats for sale. I imagine this place would offer all sorts of wonderful foods to try.

Ryan was able to get us a dinner reservation at Botin, the world's oldest restaurant. They are known for their suckling pig, and when you walk in, you go right past the original kitchen where they still make this dish today (in addition to their new kitchen). This is a really cool restaurant to dine in.

The next morning we took a tour of the Palace. I'm always fascinated by palaces!

There were so many beautiful rooms to admire. Everywhere you looked seemed to have something interesting and often decadent in it.

They had three Stratovarius instruments on display (cello, violin, and viola)!

The coronation room!

We got to enjoy a flamenco show at Cardamomo. It was so cool! The costumes were beautiful, and all the performers (musicians and dancers) were wonderful. This was a really fun evening.

We all loved our time in Madrid!