Day 27: Madrid

My mom is here!!!! How fun to see her here in Spain. I had our day planned out so when she got here we got a chai latte, ate our yogurts and hit the road.

Our first goal was to see the "Crystal Palace." We walked 45 minutes and finally found it. We were so confused because we thought we had remembered it being by a little lake and in a bigger park and also with a taller dome on top.... I did a quick google search and quickly realized that Madrid has not one, but 2 Crystal palaces... how dumb. So we explored the other Crystal palace which was actually a beautiful green house full of tropical plants. By the time we went into each quadrant we were already hungry again. instead of walked the 45 minutes back to the city center, we got an Uber. No regrets here. Once back in the center I showed mom the San Miguel Market and all of the overwhelming tapas possibilities. We didn't end up buying anything at the market because it was so extremely busy. We moved on and found a tapas bar for lunch.

For those that don't know, tapas are a traditional Spanish meal that are small plates that you order to pass and share. Depending on what you get and where you are you could share anywhere between 2 to 10 tapas. We read some reviews of the place we were at and decided on 2, the wild boar rolls and cod with a shrimp. The waitress also recommended a goat cheese dip.

The one pictured above was the goat cheese dip with tomato jam. It was my favorite! I was surprised as I'm usually not a huge fan. We both also enjoyed sangria.

After lunch we started walking again to check out the Cathedrals in the area. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Almudena was very beautiful and impressive. Definitely a different type of art than I'm used to seeing however. Going from Italian renaissance genius' to a more contemporary style caught me off guard a little.

After exploring city center for a bit we made another long walk to the real crystal palace and the surrounding park. It was so beautiful! The park is huge and everyone was out enjoying the sun. We even got to watch a gondola race in the pond. The large glass building we were expecting was so beautiful. We found a place in the grass to relax. Mom took a nap and I booked our flight for tomorrow morning and our Airbnb for tomorrow evening.... after so much planning I'm pretty shocked that we waited so long to secure those very important details. It's funny to us and feels like the official start of the Camino. God will provide.

As we started the walk home we decided to stop for a quick wine and mom got her first experience of a free snack just for ordering a €1 drink. Spain is a beautiful place. We continued on to the Airbnb to try to sort out all of our Camino gear and packing lists. After what seemed like hours of sorting and packing we decided to take a break for more tapas. The day really flew by. We had paella and shredded beef with potatoes for supper. Mom drank a beer and I had a cocktail. We just got into bed after finishing our packing. It's 11:30pm and we get to wake up tomorrow morning at 4:30 for our taxi to the airport! Pray that we get the rest we need to start the trip well!

I'm so excited that my mom is here and I'm so ready for this final stretch of my trip. I ask for prayers for an openness of heart as we start. Also, if you have any prayer requests at all, let us know! We want to pray for you!