Madrid
13 June 2026
We went to Madrid for Bad Bunny, we stayed for the ham.
Día 1
- Museo del Prado
- Plaza Mayor
- Flamenco > Bad Bunny
Our entire Europe trip was planned around our stop in Madrid. Why? Because Indi and two of her sisters decided they needed to see Bad Bunny live. Madrid ended up being the tour date and location that worked best. They graciously let me tag along.
So, we packed our bags for Europe and took the long flight from Oregon to Spain.
The four of us met up late June 13th in an Airbnb near Plaza Mayor. The next morning, Indi was the last to get up, at around 9:00 am. After she was ready, we walked to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. We all ate light – bread and eggs mostly. Also, some churros with chocolate. A homeless guy asked us for money, and then food, and then cussed us out menacingly when we said no. It took him a long time to leave. It wasn’t a great start and it wasn’t even the worst to befall us in Madrid…
Museo del Prado
We walked 20 minutes from our Airbnb to the Museo del Prado and bought the three-museum pass. The museum was huge. It felt like we didn’t even see half of what was there.
I liked a portrait of a fat girl-child, a portrait about painting a portrait, and a painting of a man receiving a jet of milk from the breast of a Virgin Mary statue. There was also a memento mori type painting with a skull, gold, and a depiction of something (maybe hell?) in the top right. I’m no artist, so I’m afraid that description of my experience is the best you’re getting.
PSYCH! Story time: One of my other favorites was a triptych by Bosco (Bosch). It was a Garden of Eden-type scene, but full of crazy stuff. The longer you look at it, the stranger things you see. It was having a hypnotic effect on me. I slowly moved my head forward, staring blankly at the chaotic scene.
SLAM. Next to me, a kid who’d been staring at the painting passed out and dropped to the ground face-first. His forehead landed directly on the corner of the wooden base of the triptych and opened a gash. People rushed to help, Indi among them. Everyone else was ushered out of the room while Indi stayed with a few others. A medic arrived as we were leaving. We walked around some more and met up when Indi was done. Crazy!
We saw Goya’s work before we left, including Saturn Devouring His Son.
For lunch we walked 27 minutes to a market. When we arrived, we didn’t love the options and decided to go somewhere else. We walked what felt like a long way, and I had an emergency bathroom break in a McDonald’s. Near misses of this variety have become worringly commonplace on my travels.
We finally found a lunch spot down a side street, picked because we were too tired to walk any further. I was pretty nauseous and ate only a little, some peppers and jamón ibérico, which I enjoyed.
Plaza Mayor
Our Airbnb was very close to the Plaza Mayor, so I had the pleasure of walking through it several times. I have seen Spanish colonial architecture all over South America and the Caribbean. It was cool and familiar to see where it originated.
When we got back to the Airbnb, the girls got ready to go to the Bad Bunny concert. I am cheap and decided not to go because of the price.
So, I laid on the bed, comatose while they busied themselves. Soon after they left, I promptly fell asleep. I woke up three hours later to learn that the girls had been turned away at the stadium doors. It turned out that they’d bought fake tickets through a reselling site. Naturally, they were all devastated.
It took them a while to get back because the venue was not close by. For almost the entire three hours that I was asleep, they were trying to get into the concert or in transit. “You can’t win them all.” – Ignacio Libre
Flamenco
When they got back, Indi bought tickets to a flamenco performance at Tablao Flamenco 1911. It was raining pretty hard, so we jogged most of the way there. We had to wait a bit in the bar area before we were seated. The space was intimate, and the seats were very uncomfortable.
We got tapas to share that were super expensive: jamón ibérico, little baguette-like crackers, cheese, and some kind of salami. I love jamón ibérico, it eneded up being my favorite thing I ate in Spain.
There were two guitarists, a drummer, two singers, and three dancers. I thought one of the dancers was pretty bad, but the other two were good. Overall, I am glad we went despite my lukewarm review. We walked back and got home around midnight.
Día 2
- Royal Palace of Madrid
- Monumento Cervantes
- Temple of Debod
- Santa Maria Cathedral
- Thysen-Bornemisza National Museum
I think the girls went into hibernation to recover from the previous night’s concert fiasco. I got ready for the day, and when no one showed signs of stirring, I left by myself. I walked through the Plaza Mayor and was hit on by a young guy that may or may not have been homeless; it wasn’t 100% clear. I still took it as a win and had a little pep in my step on the way to the palace.
Royal Palace of Madrid
The walk to the Royal Palace of Madrid was cool and pleasant. At 9:00 am, there were surprisingly few people about. I took a few photos walking around the grounds before moving on.
Monumento Cervantes
A short walk away, I found the Monumento Cervantes. I’ve never read Don Quixote in the original Spanish or the English translation, but I’m a poser, so I took photos and hung out at the monument for a while.
Incredibly, my quixotic attempt at cosplaying as a bilingual intellectual worked! A couple approached me as I contemplated the Spanish knight. The man asked if he could take a photo of me. Specifically, my feet. I was wearing the new Nike Vomero Premiums. He told me they looked great, and I said they felt great. For those watching the scoreboard at home, that’s two scores before 10:00 am.
Temple of Debod
The Temple of Debod has a crazy backstory that I won’t attempt to explain here. Go to Wikipedia for the story. The reflecting pool was drained, but it was still pretty cool to see. Very random!
Indi called me to ask if I could meet up with her for breakfast. I told her that I had an appointment with a charming homeless man, but that I could fit her into my schedule a little later. I met up with the girls at a market where we all got different food. Some of what we ordered was juice, paella, morcilla, and fruit.
I love morcilla!
Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena
We walked back to the Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena and went inside. I sat on one of the pews to take it in for a while. The murals on the ceiling were colorful and abstract. I haven’t seen a cathedral like that before. I really enjoyed the artistic vision of the creator(s).
Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum
We got gelato (I got pistachio) and then went to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. We all took photos of some of our pieces, here were my favorites:
Afterward, Indi and I went to an Argentine restaurant and shared a steak and veggies. I went back to the Airbnb to sleep while the girls watched part of a soccer game at a bar. When I woke up, we went to a restaurant for tapas and shared some food, then went to a place for churros and chocolate.
We said goodbye. Indi’s sisters were going to Paris the next day, and Indi and I to Barcelona.
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