Epic Honeymoon - Day 26 - El Escorial

Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

After our chat with Nacho, we made some hasty plans to, the next day, visit one of the UNESCO listed sites situated a short journey from Madrid. The town of El Escorial is about 45 minutes by train, and is mostly famous for the large monastery, San Lorenzo of El Escorial. Arriving at the station, we walked through the Casita del Principe gardens, passing by the house of the same name, before trudging up the long, tiring slope towards the monastery.

Epic Honeymoon - Day 25 - Madrid

Parque de El Retiro, Madrid

Our breakfast visit to San Gines went ahead as planned, and we took in some lovely calories to get our day started. For about €8, we got two coffees and a serve of 6 churros with hot chocolate, so the prices are quite reasonable, also. The churros were delicious – less sweet than what gets served up in Australia. Definitely stop by when you visit Madrid, but come early or be patient – seating is limited!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 24 - Madrid

El Rastro Flea Market

The next morning, we took the metro from the happy-to-be-gay station of Chueca, disembarking at Puerta de Toledo. This was our only opportunity to check out El Rastro Flea Market, as it’s only held on Sundays. What followed was a tiring trudge through thousands of people also checking out the market. To be honest, it wasn’t really all that enjoyable. The stalls sell basically everything under the sun, but not for the bargain prices you might expect. My suggestion would be to come here early, before it’s too crowded, just so you can say you have been, but don’t get too excited about it!

Epic Honeymoon - Day 23 - Madrid

Wandering the streets of inner-northern Madrid.

Moving along from our stay in Lisbon, there wasn’t much further west to go (sorry, USA – maybe next holiday). So we boarded a plane to head east into Spain. With two stops lined up over the following week or so, we started with the capital and metaphorical centre of Spain: Madrid.