After Lisbon, our next stop was Madrid where we stayed for 4 nights. Our flight was delayed a little bit so we didn’t get to Madrid until at around 2 PM. From Madrid airport, we took the taxis to our apartment – Aspasios Atocha Apartments. Taxi from the airport to the city center is fixed (flat-rate) at €33 so it was very reasonable. I completed the check-in paperwork days before the trip and received an email on arrival day with instructions to get into the apartment as well as connection to the wifi. I got a code to access the main entrance door and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. However, our apartment was not ready yet so the code didn’t work to enter. I connected to the wifi and was able to use wifi calling to call the apartment office, they said they’ll let me know once it’s ready…around an hour. There are lockers in the basement floors to store the luggage for guests to use but you’ll need €1 coin to lock it. We decided to wait outside the apartment since we don’t want to take our luggage up and down. I asked Jason and my uncle to go to a nearby supermarket to get drinks and breakfast items in the meantime. After half an hour, I tried the code and it worked hahaha! Strangely, there was no one in the apartment (I was expecting the cleaning staff) so it has been ready.

The apartment is a loft style with two floors, 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms. It was modern, clean, plenty of natural light, and an outdoor deck (it was too hot to really hang out there!). The only complaint that I would have about this apartment was it only has a washing machine but no dryer! Our Lisbon apartment had both so it wasn’t too convenient to dry our clothes.

After we settled down, we walked to Tapa Tapa – Santa Ana for our dinner reservation at 6 PM. OMG the heat outside was unbarely even at 6 PM, it felt like 100 degrees!

Jason and I had been to Spain multiple times and our last time in Madrid was back on 2013….12 years ago!!! The most memorable food was tapas so I was researching on the best tapa restaurants closeby. Tapa Tapa has mutliple branches in Madrid and Santa Ana was around 13 min walk away. We ordered many dishes to try out and knowing that the portion is small to have a bite each.

The steak was too rare for the Chinese elderly xD and the meat texture was too hard. But they liked the fried peppers!

The fried little fishes were crunchy and good:

The shrimps were okay, my kids love eggs and that was the reason I ordered this dish.

The nachos were great:

Lots of potatoes dishes:

The mango with raw tuna was pretty good according to Jason:

This one looked like grilled cheese lol

The fried baby squids were very good:

Flatbreads were nothing special:

Crab salad toast was good:

BBQ ribs were just average, the meat doesn’t fall off

My aunt and uncle liked the fried peppers so much that we ordered a dish for them haha.

The empanadas were pretty good:

We ordered the fried eggs, potatoes with acorn-fed Iberian ham so they can try out Spain’s famous Iberian ham. They liked it as it wasn’t salty.

We ordered a second round with some repeats and the total came to be $191.60. Small plates can add up quick! They had a good impression of tapa (I described it as Spain’s dim sum). Even after dinner, it was still very hot so we didn’t go sightseeing or anything and went back to our apartment.

The next morning, we did a day trip to Zaragoza (I was looking for easy day trips that we have never been to). We took the 7:27 AM train from Madrid Puerta De Atocha to Zaragoza Delicias arrived at 8:51 AM. I booked the roundtrip train tickets online via Klook.com in advance to take advantage of the early booking discount, it was $48 per adult roundtrip. Once we got out of the train station, I we took the bus to Puente de Piedra (Stone Bridge), the walk from the bus stop to the bridge was only a few minutes. Buses in Zaragoza only take cash and fortunately, I always carry some cash with me just in case. The ride was €1.40 each.

The bridge wasn’t anything spectacular but the view from it of the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar was!

The sun was directly in front of u as you can see from my kids’ facial expression LOL!

After a few photos, we walked to the cathedral-basilica. The general area is free to visit then there are dedicated areas for worshippers and to other areas including the towers are charged. Unlike back in the days where Jason and I climbed every single tower to get the best views for photos, with two kids and elderly, we had to pass on that. The interior of the beautiful and huge cathedral-basilica:

The paintings on the rounded ceiling were amazing!

My kids liked this statue outside the cathedral:

From the cathedral, we walked into the old town, the view of the cathedral here is beautiful as well.

Zaragoza’s old town is more like a shopping street and quite small:

There are cute shops and restaurants like this one…since 1885!!!

With no other interesting sight to see, we walked to Aljafería Palace to visit the Moorish-style castle. Jason and I had been to many Moorish-style castles such as the famous Royal Alcázar of Seville and Alhambra Granada and this one was a huge disappointment! The courtyard was extremely small:

The interior has a few rooms that housed historical artifacts of its building:

Then the rest of the rooms are paintings from local artistics:

My daughter liked this portrait painting, she liked her dress haha!

The ceiling patterns were pretty:

And that was about it!!!

For lunch, I was planning to go to Karakura Ramen Bar close to the palace but found out that it was permanently closed from a local urg!!! There wasn’t much options in this part of the town so we walked back to the palace to the cafe across the street: Cafetería El Palacio. Their food was like tourist trap quality but at least the price wasn’t tourist trap – total $95.13:

After lunch, we took the bus back to the train station, we were there an hour early so we just waited in the station. Once we got back to Madrid, it twas almost time for our dinner at 6 PM at Taberna Mas Al Sur. I picked this tapa restaurant for its closeness to our apartment and great ratings. Guess what, it was the worst meal of our trip, even worst than the cafeteria quality lunch we had!!! Their prices were more expensive than Tapa Tapa, I had no idea how they got all those high ratings!!! The salad was passable:

The “best” dish was the grilled baby squids but very little quantity for its price…

The stir-fried noodle was so hard that it was not fully cooked and lacked any taste!

The shrimp rice…urg only one shrimp. The rice and its sauce tasted weird!

I ordered the chicken curry with white rice so the kids can have the rice but it was super dry and hard that my kids couldn’t eat it!!! The curry lacked any taste and the chicken was extremely dry!

The empanadas were too salty…

I totally forgot what was this….

The unsatifisfying meal cost $120.84! We didn’t finish half the food and I said let’s go to the Vietnamese restaurant nearby to fill our tummy! We walked pass a big supermarket and my uncle suggested to buy grocery to cook instead. My uncle made us yummy grilled scallops:

Clams!

And noodle with chicken and soup. We were so full!

Overall, I wasn’t impressed with Zaragoza besides its beautiful cathedral-basilica. Their Aljafería Palace was underwhelming and their old town was small and commercialized. I don’t recommend Zaragoza as a day trip, there are better and cheaper day trips!