Madrid

The first stop on our summer travel list was, Madrid, Spain. We spent 3 and 1/2 days in Madrid and had a great time! The first day we wondered around the city and found the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana (The National Library of Spain), Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Museo del Prado, Los Jeronimos, and Parque del Retiro. In the evening we went to a hole in the wall pub to watch Germany vs France in the Euro Cup. We had some drinks and a few tapas. We explored the old town of Madrid (Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor) which was so beautiful! The streets seem to have no order and would twist and turn in every direction. It reminded us a lot of Venice minus the canals! The next day we went to see the Royal Palace of Madrid.... We also saw Templo De Debod which are temples that were given to Spain as a gift from the Egyptians as a sign of gratitude for their help saving the Abu Simbel temples.  The temples are located on the top of a hill with a wonderful view of the city and the sunset. After watching the sunset, we stopped for a few more tapas☺️ yumm. Our final day in Madrid we spent it like the locals by having a picnic and hanging out in the park. Parque del Retiro is very similar to Central Park in New York minus the walls of skyscrapers surrounding the park, but it still was a huge amount of land right in the middle of the city. It was the perfect end to a wonderful trip in Madrid!

National Library

Los Jeronimos

Parque del Retiro

Puerto del Sol

Plaza Mayor

Royal Palace

Templo de Debod

Portugal (Caiscas and Lisbon)

Our next stop after Madrid was supposed to be Barcelona. We both were sad that we decided to cut out Portugal all together and finally I said that I really still wanted to see Portugal. So we started to do a little more research and decided what the heck lets just go! So we book everything the day of and left! We took a night bus (which was absolutely awful) to Lisbon and then took a train to a small fishing town about 30 minutes outside of Lisbon. Tom had already been there three years ago to visit a friend so he was very excited to show me around. I instantly fell in love with this small town and it quickly moved to the top of one of my favorite places I have ever been! We spent three full days in Caiscas, PT. We went to different beaches along the coast, ate AMAZING India food, (Twice, yes we went to the same restaurant twice! You know your food was good when you are still thinking about it the next day!) We also rented bikes and rode along the coast up to Guincho, which is known for a beautiful beach and good surfing. We were so sad to say goodbye to this beautiful little town. The fun tile architecture and beautiful cobblestone streets will forever be on our hearts!

Trip to Guincho

Caiscas, Portugal

The tunnel to heaven :)

Ghandi's Palace (Best Indian food ever)

Up next, Lisbon! We only had about half a day in Lisbon so we were only able to see the most important things. The town had similar architecture to Casicas and Prague we thought.  This is one city that we would love the opportunity to go back to and explore again.