Madrid 2023

To be completely honest, Madrid hadn't been on our must-see list. I know, don't hate me and I know every European city has it's own vibe, but we've been to Barcelona (loved!) and Madrid was on the list, but so are so many other cities! The end goal for this trip was Portugal.

Yet, since I wanted to make this trip happen using points for flights, I started getting creative in my searches when I couldn't find flights from Denver to Lisbon for the point price I was willing to pay. Thus, Madrid came on my radar as a major city we haven't been to and that is relatively close and easy to get to Lisbon.

We flew Lufthansa from Denver through Frankfurt to get to Madrid. I thought I'd found the perfect flight, a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt, enough to give us a cushion of time for delays as well as initial customs. Of course, our flight from FRA-MAD ended up getting pushed back, so we had a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt instead. Not ideal IMO (I'd planned on us using the sleeping pods at FRA that I'd found online, but in reality they would have required us to go through two more security lines and we decided it wasn't worth it). But hey! We survived!

We arrived at Madrid airport around 8:00p local time Monday, 5/22. Knowing that we were going to be arriving this late and jetlagged, I had prearranged a private transfer from the airport to our airbnb through our airbnb. While I'm glad we didn't have to think, only to look for someone holding a sign with our name, we TOTALLY got ripped off. The ride cost us $60eu and an Uber would have been $30 or less. Oh well.

We booked this airbnb about 2 months ahead of time. We chose it based on location, private outdoor patio, air conditioning, and honestly the elevator as a positive too - again knowing it was 5 floors up and we were travelling with two young kids.  The airbnb was fine... but I don't know that either of us would recommend it? The layout is a bit funky. Both kids were a bit scared to share a room away from ours as we originally planned, so I ended up sleeping with Parker upstairs with the low slanted ceiling and Ben/Grayson on the main floor. The first night, the main floor bedroom smelled overwhelming of airfreshner and the next night we realized that was probably to cover up a mildew small. Anyways, on to the city!

How We Spent 3 Nights/2.5 Days in Madrid

Night 1

That first night it was late and we were all starving by the time we checked into the airbnb. We were right off of Plaza De Sol, so a well populated location. The downside of not having researched too much was that we had no idea where we wanted to eat and it was 10p, so places were closing. We ended up eating at Tapa Cafe Madrid, which as you can guess from the google reviews, was so-so. 

Day 2

The next day we all slept in until 11am. I had debated booking a tuktuk tour for us, but ultimately decided against it, not knowing how we'd all be feeling. We decided to go with the back-up plan: Madrid City Tour hop on/off bus. Once we were all awake and ready to go, we opted for a coffee shop breakfast. Feliz Coffee was perfect for the job. Once fueled, we continued walking to Museo Nacional del Prado to buy tickets (which we could have done online) and hop on the bus.

San Jeronimo el Real

We've never done a hop on/off bus before, but I have to say, it actually worked out quiet well! Kids under 6 are free. A one day pass was $25eu and two-day was $30eu, so we opted for two-days. We rode around the city for several stops, until inevitably someone wanted water and someone needed to go to the bathroom. We got off at Plaza de Espana and hopped in a Faborit for a drink and bathroom (which also had some delicious light-meal food. The kids got smoothies). We wandered over to the plaza and found the most amazing playground by happenchance, Parque infantil Plaza Espana. I would say this is a must visit if you have kids toddler age or older. My kids were beyond excited for a playground (and this was the favorite of our entire trip).

From there we wandered more, looking at the Real Palace (from the outside), finding gelato, and then hopping into Taproom Madrid to avoid some rain. We were all feeling pretty good at this point that we decided to go to an "early" flamenco show. 

I had researched flamenco show options ahead of time. Knowing Madrid is a late night city, I had bookmarked a show I found via Airbnb experiences that started at 6:00p. I also got lucky that I had found the same show via Viator. Airbnb wanted to charge for the kids, whereas Viator listed kids under 6 were free. On top of that, Viator sent me a $25 off $50 booking. So in the end, we all 4 went to Essential Flamenco for $50, including a drink for everyone.

The show was an hour long, which was close to too long for the kids, but it held their attention. I'm glad we went (and also glad we didn't do a full-on production with dinner and show)! From there we walked over to Las Bravas, a spot I had bookmarked in my research, for dinner. But it was completely closed. Instead we ended up at Bandida Tapas. We got there at 7p and the restaurant was fairly empty, but the time we left it was full.  It didn't seem the most welcoming of kids; but the food was good and we managed just fine! We stopped at mas que cervezas on the way home, which is an excellent beer and wine shop.

Day 3

With no major plans for the day, we started with a walk to a coffee shop for breakfast to see what the day had in store. Alchemy Coffee was incredibly quaint, but also delicious (my best iced latte of the trip). The clerk was so friendly; he chatted with the kids and made them little chocolate milks on the house - plus gave them a cookie to share when we left. From there we walked up to Plaza Mayor to look around and over to Mercado de San Miguel.

It was a beautiful building, but inside was a bit intense and chaotic for us. Ben doesn't do well in crowds in America, let alone a foreign country with a different language and wrangling two kids. We weren't all that hungry, but there was no where to sit either. We grabbed a few pastries and found a spot outside to eat.

We continued to walk around the city and explore, but decided we should get to Takos for lunch. Ben's friend had visited Madrid in recent years and Takos was the only food recommendation he offered. He was right. There was a line when we got there (waiting for it to open) and a line when we left. They have delicious street tacos if you're in the mood!

After lunch, since we had the bus passes, we decided to hop on the bus again to Retiro Park. This was another highlight of Madrid for our family. We explored some of the gardens and statues, got a drink by the pond, and then waited inline to rent a paddleboat. It was a picturesque afternoon!  We got back on the bus, found some empanadas (not really memorable), and walked to Oso Brew Co (to be honest their beer Ben bought in cans the night before was better than what they had on tap!)

We went to Brew Wild Pizza Bar for dinner. This was a spot Ben had found in his beer research and they had the coolest/yummiest "volcano pizza"; almost like a calzone, that they sent on fire. I would recommend giving it a try to break up all of the croquettes!

Day 4

Departure day already! We had enough time before our check out to grab breakfast. We walked over to a different part of town we hadn't been to and got a real sit down breakfast at Nomad Cafe. It was as delicious as it was adorable. I would definitely recommend!

Remember how I said above that we got ripped over paying $60eu for our transfer from the airport to our airbnb? Yea, we ordered an Uber to pick us up and take us to Madrid airport.... it cost $19. Sigh.

On to Lisbon!

Europe 2023: Madrid, Lisbon, and Algarve

 I don't have a great history of blogging consistently anymore... but there are some things that are worth documenting, and our recent trip to Europe is one. We returned from a 15-day stay in Europe a few days ago with the kids (newly 4 and 5.75) and I'm attempting to capture while items are fresh in my mind. As you probably recognize by now, I'm a wordy talker and writer, so I'm trying my best to keep this succinct.

Trip Itinerary

• Sunday 5/21: Depart from Denver (we flew Lufthansa, booked on points through United), and flew through Frankfurt to get to Madrid)
• Monday 5/22 - Thursday 5/23: Madrid (3 nights)
• Thursday 5/23: Fly 1.5 hours to Lisbon
• Thursday 5/23 - Monday 5/29: Lisbon (4 nights)
• Monday 5/29: Pick up rental car at Lisbon Airport and drive 3 hours south to the Algarve region of southern Portugal
• Monday 5/29 - Saturday 6/3: Carvoiero (5 nights)
• Saturday, 6/3: Fly 3 hours to Munich
• Saturday 6/3: Stay in Munich (1 night)
• Sunday 6/4: Fly back to Denver

We booked the trip this way for a few reasons. The biggest driver was that we wanted to go to Portugal for the majority of the trip, but we wanted to fly using Chase Ultimate Rewards points (see old post here and happy to talk points with anyone, anytime!). Denver has somewhat limited options of where to fly into for Europe. I looked at "positioning" flights, ie. flying to a large US hub airport and then directly to our destination, but even then, I didn't find many "good" options for the points I was willing to spend to get to Lisbon. Thus, when I found decent flights to Madrid from Denver (with a Frankfurt layover), and knew that we could easily (and cheaply) get from Madrid to Lisbon; it seemed like a worthwhile option.

I also knew from my research that I wanted us to end our trip at the beach. I figured we would enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city for a few days and then enjoy the downtime of the beach following. This was the perfect approach for us.

We could have stayed one more night in Carvoeiro; but I figured flying back to Denver on a 10 hour direct flight from Munich was going to be long enough and I didn't want to add another flight to that day (which would have also been an early AM flight), instead we opted to fly Faro to Munich the day ahead of time and use credit card points for one night hotel. While we wish we would have had more time to explore Munich, this approach of a quick stopover worked well for us.

Because I have no shame and get excited about travelling on points, our international flights would have cost us $8,200 cash. Instead we paid 262,400 points + $629 cash (for taxes and fees). Wohoo!

While several aspects of this trip were heavily planned, the general daily itinerary was not. Our kids are used to shuffling around and keeping busy at home/in the mountains, but I wasn't sure how much any of us would be up for or what would keep their interest. I'm going to break each city up into it's own post to share what we ended up doing while there. Check for links below (once created)

Madrid

Lisbon

Algarve

Munich

View from breakfast of our Lisbon airbnb street

In Love with Italy

We talked about going to Oktoberfest this year, but Ben had a company retreat (to Mexico, poor guy) pop up that was the same time frame. If you recall, we went to Ireland with a Travelzoo trip, so I always keep my eyes peeled on deals.  There had been a lot of Groupons for Italy popping up. Italy has been on my bucketlist f.o.r.e.v.er! But none of the trips I was finding were the time frame we wanted or the cities we wanted.

One day while browsing Travelzoo, I came across Trip Masters. I was skeptical about their low priced packages and flexibility, but after doing some research, I found them to be a legit company. Trip Masters is unlike the other package sites I've seen. Trip Masters allows you to select your flights, city orders and duration, select your hotels and transportation in between.

After messing around a few days, I finally narrowed down the perfect trip itinerary for our allotted time frame:

• Rome: 3 days
• Cinque Terre: 2 days
• Florence: 1 day
• Venice: 2 days

After booking the trip, I realized I had Ben's name wrong from his passport and also decided that the hotel we'd booked for Cinque Terre area was not ideal (we were to stay in the "suburbs", if you will). Trip Master's customer service is outstanding! They're available by chat which is so convenient, that I was able to easily update the name information.  They also allowed me to cancel our Cinque Terre hotel and gave a refund so that we were able to book our own separate accommodations in one of the Cinque Terre Villages. 

Pricing wise, the trip was more reasonable than I ever thought possible.  For our flights, 8 nights hotel (original booking) and 3 trains between cities, we paid only $200 more per person than the cost of our flight outright. Amazing! I highly recommend Trip Masters and will certainly use them in the future!

Ireland PSA!

This is the exact trip we booked for Ireland (cities, hotels and duration) except that the Dublin hotel has changed from Ballsbridge Hotel to City West Hotel (which is unfortunately not in the heart of Dublin) is available now for $999 through Sceptre Tours.

Highly recommended! :O)

Ireland - Day 7

Our last day in Dublin and our last day in Ireland was pretty low-key. 

I liked Dublin, but at the same time it didn't seem like there was all that much to do.  In many regards, it just felt like another big city.  Plus, it had a hard act to follow after the beginning of our trip and all of the beautiful sites we saw. I point this out because personally, I think two days was sufficient there (don't get me wrong, I'm glad we went).  You could spend three days there tops, although I would recommend longer if your plan was to be stationed there but do day trips to other portions of Ireland.  Going to just Dublin and saying you've experienced Ireland would not be a true statement in my book.  But then again, that's what we did for Amsterdam/Netherlands, Paris/France and Barcelona/Spain.  So, to each his/her own.

Our first goal for our last day was to get a traditional Irish breakfast, so we set out with the mission.  We walked from our hotel to St. Stephen Green for a scenic stroll.  It's a big grass-, tree-, pond-filled park in the middle of the city, much like a Central Park.

 

 

A few blocks from St Stephen's Green was a spot we'd seen the previous day that had a sign for $7eu Irish breakfast. It turned out that it was a hostel, Avalon House, which made sense for the cheaper prices.  It was pretty empty when we entered (an adorable coffee shop type set-up) but jam packed by the time we left.

A traditional Irish breakfast consists of: sausage, bacon (which is more like ham), "pudding" (which is oatmeal mixed with sausage and formed into patties), eggs, beans, tomatoes, and toast. Since I'm a slightly picky eater, I tweaked my meal just a bit.

 



The food was good.  If you're looking for a quick, easy, cheap, and good meal, I'd recommend visiting this hostel.  Their sandwiches and quiche looked equally appetizing.

 

From breakfast we walked to Dublin Castle for a tour.  It was established in 1204ad and formerly had a stone wall and moat around it.  Those citizens willing to pay taxes could live inside the stone wall and receive protection.  These are the original walls and secret moat stairwell.

 

 



Inside the castle itself, we were shown a few rooms, which were impressive in their decor.  However, overall, we weren't too impressed with the castle itself, of the paid admission fee of $6eu.  It is part of the Office of Public Works buildings, so it has free admission on the first Wednesday of the month.  It may be worthwhile to visit then, but otherwise, I wouldn't recommend spending the time (~1hr) or money here.

 

We exited the castle to the south, which took us to a field.  This field was originally a black pool, which is where Dublin got it's name.

 

 



We basked in the warm sun for a while before heading into the Chester Beatty Library (which is on the west side of the field).  It had a Chinese art exhibit set up, but this wasn't really my cup of tea.  However, other members of our group found it quite interesting (and it's nice that it's free).

 



Once finished here, we made an impromtu decision to try to catch a 1:00pm tour at Jameson Distillery.  As we entered the facility the group was just being ushered into a viewing room for the start of the presentation.  We could have saved 10% by buying our tickets online (they had wifi), but because we were rushed/late, we paid the $13eu/person at the counter and joined the group.

 



  

Visiting Jameson was nothing like Guinness.  Much smaller (and shorter) tour with a guide the whole time.  We watched a video on the history of the company and then were guided through different stations to learn the distillation process. 



  



During the tour, they asked for volunteers.  Be sure to raise your hand! Those selected got to do a whiskey taste test at the end of the tour.  Ben was on of the chosen few (except he later chickened out for whatever reason).

 



Following the tour, we were given our option of Jameson straight or with a mixer.  I tried ginger ale and Jameson, which was okay...but I found out I really like Jame-O and cranberry juice! It's a great combo.

 



 

After we'd had enough Jameson, we walked over to Grafton Street, which is the shopping Mecca of Dublin.  It's a pedestrian street lined with all of the stores you'd want to go in (H&M, Louis Vuitton, American Apparel) and then stores you probably haven't heard of, but would want to go in, like Brown Thomas Department Store.

 

For whatever reason, I neglected to take any pictures, probably because I was a.) too excited to go to Louie or b.), starving.  We stopped in for a quick bite at GBK, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, which is a burger chain throughout Dublin.  After that, I headed to LV, which is attached to Brown Thomas.  I ended up NOT being a purse though, because I'd the one I'd wanted (Totally GM, a tote with zipper and outside pockets) wasn't unavailable in the print I wanted (dark checked damier ebene).  Rather than spend an obscene amount of money on a purse on a whim (I only like to spend obscene amounts of money on a purse when it's premeditated); I passed. 

 

In fact, the only thing I bought on Grafton Street was from Marks and Spencers (department store) grocery section, and that was some gummy Collin the caterpillars candy for my sister, who'd grown to love them while living in England.

 

After the let down of Grafton Street, we strolled up to Trinity College where the Book of Kells (contains four Gospels of the New Testament dating to 800) is kept.  We decided not to pay to see it, but grazed through campus.

  

 





Following our brief visit, we went to George's Dock, north of the river, to check out an Oktoberfest.  We didn't stay long, as it felt too weird being in a different country celebrating a fest for a third country.  But we did get to see a different side of Dublin (very modern) which was nice.

 

 

  



We walked along the river before deciding to head to Temple Bar area for dinner.  We ended up at Trinity Bar where I had yet another Beef and Guinness Pie. We also convinced Ben to get Bangers and Mash (sausage and mashed potatoes), which he really enjoyed (if only he'd tried it sooner, he would have had another option than his daily fish and chips).

 



After dinner, we bounced around a few bars until decided to go to Bull and Castle's upstairs beer hall, where we proceeded to have fabulous dessert and beer before ending our time in Dublin.

 

 

 

  

 

And what better way to finish a trip to Ireland, than with shots of Jameson?

 



The next morning we checked out, returned out rental car and hopped on an 8 hour flight back to Chicago!

 

Ireland - Day 1

Ireland - Day 2
Ireland - Day 3

Ireland - Day 4

Ireland - Day 5

Ireland - Day 6



Ireland - Day 6

 

Dublin
We woke up early in Limerick with the hopes to get on the road to Dublin at a decent time.  We grabbed some breakfast at our hotel, Absolute Hotel, and got on the road.  I'd agreed to drive from Limerick to Dublin because it was easy driving on the main interstate (instead of the narrow roads we'd been encountering).

The drive from Limerick to Dublin is about 120 miles along M7.  It was easy, until we got to the outskirts of Dublin, then we hit traffic (it was about 10am).  Not only did we hit traffic, but I had to pee, badly.  It took us about 45 minutes of stop and go traffic to finally arrive at Ballsbridge Hotel (we drove 9 miles in 45 minutes) on the southwest side of town.

The hotel was by far the worst hotel of our trip.  We were greeted in a gorgeous atrium type space and even while walking to our room we peaked in rooms along the way which looked white, crisp, and modern.  Nope, our room was no such thing.  We were apparently in the old, unrennovated portion of the hotel. We had a tube TV and antique looking furniture.  We're guessing this is due to the voucher/package deal we head.  Lucky for us, we were barely in our room,  It was tolerable enough to sleep and shower in.

After dropping off our belongings, we hopped at cab to St Stephens square, which is the park near the "center" of the city.  It cost about 10eu to get there (which we realized we could have easily walked). We didn't have much of a plan set up, so we started off by walking to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

St Patricks was originally a wooden church which was later replaced by a cathedral in 1220.  It's significance is that this is where Saint Patrick baptized converts when visiting Dublin. It's the largest church in Ireland. You can tour the inside for $5.50eu, but because we were hungry, we passed.

 



We walked north (towards the river) on Patrick Street/Clanbrassil Street Upper to stop and admire Christ Church Cathedral. It's the second medieval cathedral in Dublin (St Patricks being the first) and was originally founded around 1028. It's interesting to note, per our guidebook, that neither of the two major churches are Catholic.

 



One more thing to mention about Christ Church is that their choir sings four times a week.  I really wanted to go to this at 6pm on Wednesday night but our schedule didn't align. This would be so cool to check out and it's free! More info here; we also learned about it from our guidebooks.

We walked west on High Street and followed it to Thomas Street to Jame's Street. We stopped along the way into a convenient store where I picked up what was similar to a chicken curry hot pocket for lunch. Yum!

 

Based on our Dublin map, given to us by the hotel, we didn't think walking from Christ Church to Kilmainham Gaol (a prison) was going to be that far (however, Google mapping it later we realized it was about 1.75 miles/2.8km). By the time we arrived, we were all a bit weary. We were cheered up to learn that our admission (usually $6eu/adult) was free. ALL Ireland Heritage sites (operated by Office of Public Works) are FREE on the first Wednesday of the month! Woohoo! (Although I want to note that the $6eu admission for Kilmainham would be WELL worth it).

Kilmainham Gaol (KG) is a former prison which was primarily used by the British in 1800s and early 1900s to house Irish rebels.  Truly having known very little about Ireland's history (except for assuming there was a civil war because there's "Ireland" and "Northern Ireland"); the tour of KG was very informative and interesting. This was by far, my favorite site visited in Dublin and a must-see on my list.



 

The picture below has extreme significance in Ireland's history. This is where James Connolly, an "Irish rebel"  was killed tied in a chair after falling over while standing awaiting execution because he was so weak; this caused a uproar and realization of how the Irish needed to break away from Britain. 



 







After spending about an hour or so on the tour, we walked back to Guinness Storehouse, which was guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser.  Tickets at the gate are $16.50eu/adult. Tickets online are discounted 10% ($14.85/adult) and there was wifi when we entered, so we bought the tickets via my iphone on the spot and walked up to the ticket counter to get them without any issues (and skipping a small line).

 





As we'd heard, the Storehouse doesn't allow you to see any production, but it is well set up and more or a less a museum of Guinness, which also walks you through the brewing process and Guinness' history.

  

What we could see of production facilities out window



Admission to the storehouse includes 1 free pint of Guinness; this can be used to  "Pour the Perfect Pint" on one level, or it can be used to get a Guinness up top at the Gravity Bar, which is known for it's views of Dublin.  Gravity Bar does NOT except cash, so if you want to pour your pint AND get a beer at Gravity Bar, you're screwed.





Unless you talk to the young ticket collector.  He advised us to do the Perfect Pint, then go to the bar/restaurant and pay for a Guinness there (they take credit cards) and sneak it upstairs to Gravity Bar.  Which is exactly what the boys did (us girls didn't want two Guinness having walked so much and eating a lite lunch).

Learning the perfect pint.

  

 Time to top 'er off (push away from you) 

  





The guys perfected their pints and then we headed up to Gravity Bar for the view.



 

It was Tuesday afternoon around 3:30pm and it was crowded.  It took a bit of a wait, but we were able to find a table of four chairs to sit down and relax with a Guinness in hand and a view.

 

 



After spending some time admiring the view, we trekked back to Christ Church area where Ben's keen beer eye came into play.  He noticed a sign for a happy hour with some craft beers.  We decided it was late enough to get dinner, so we entered Bull and Castle. YUM! Delicious food and a great craft beer selection.


Beef and Guinness Pie



It was amazing!

From dinner, we wandered over to Temple Bar (which is the name of a neighborhood and also a bar in the neighborhood). We crossed Ha'Penny pedestrian bridge (which used to have a half penny toll nd funnily enough, something Ben had insisted we find) before deciding to stop in the Temple Bar.

 

 

As excepted, it was crowded on a Wednesday night (around 9pm maybe?).  However, we all enjoyed it much more than we thought we would.  For one, they had Brew Dog beer (which I still haven't gotten around to posting about, but it's a UK Brewer that Ben and I visited one of their brewpubs when in London).  After snagging two bar stools for us girls in front of the live music (which they have every night), and having a coffee and Baileys, I probably could have sat there for hours.  The bar has several different rooms (and bartops), so it's a pretty big place.

(I bought their cd!)



After a while, we decided to give another bar a chance so we went to Porterhouse, which Ben had researched and found as a brewery.  Once again, the place was HUGE.  It had several floors and was busy.  We had to wait one round of drinks before finding a corner table on the second level, which was near the band (which unfortunately didn't play Irish music but was still good).  We went through several rounds of beer flights here as they were pretty cheap (and good).

 



 

We left Pourhouse looking for another spot and after stopping in a few crowded places and deciding they were "too American" based on the music being played. We ended up heading back to Temple Bar for another round before we stopped in a late night spot for some chicken sharwma (kind of like a gyro) before hopping a cab back to the hotel to call it a night

 

Ireland - Day 1

Ireland - Day 2

Ireland - Day 3

Ireland - Day 4

Ireland - Day 5

Ireland - Day 7