A Day in Madrid

Story & Photography by Elisa Vandergriff

WHERE TO STAY - LA LATINA

La Latina is a gorgeous neighborhood in central Madrid brimming with historic buildings and dazzling murals. We arrived in Madrid in the evening and had an entire array of bustling restaurants and tapas bars to choose from, all highly rated on trip advisor. We enjoyed wandering the streets around our Airbnb would have loved to stay in the neighborhood longer. We left Madrid early in the morning, but La Latina was an easy Uber ride away from the airport and we had no problem getting to and fro.

WHERE TO EAT - LAVERONICA

Our one big plan for the day was walking from our Airbnb to Retiro Park and about halfway through our trek, we stumbled across Laveronica. Once we took a peek inside, there was absolutely no way we could just pass it by. It’s bright and bizarre interior was that of a place you’d only learn about through an influencer’s photos, but here it was in front of us, waiting to be filled up with lunch hour patrons. The dishes we ordered there were simple - a seasonal pumpkin soup, a tomato salad, a raspberry sorbet - but each made to perfection with the freshest ingredients. It was one of my most delightful dining experiences and one I wish I could relive often!

Every international trip starts with a place ticket. For this trip the destination was France, but the ticket to Madrid was $450 (that’s round trip). Delighted by the idea of spending time in the Iberian Peninsula and saving roughly $1,000 by not flying directly into France, we booked our tickets and planned our little tour of southern Europe. Even though Madrid offered us the cheapest flight option, it wasn’t extremely high on our list of priorities, being overshadowed by it’s alluring neighbors Barcelona and Lisbon. However, we decided we wanted to dedicate at least one day to exploring Spain’s capital city - we were going to be there anyway, right? This one day in Madrid ended up being one of the days I think about most from that trip. Although we only got to taste a small slice of the city, we were served the most marvelous experience.

WHERE TO GO - RETIRO PARK

I had one goal and one goal only to accomplish in Madrid and that was to see the Crystal Palace. I had seen photos of this incredible glass conservatory years before and promised that if I ever found myself in Madrid, this would be the place I would go. We made our journey across the city and entered Retiro Park, the massive sprawling park fixed in the middle of Madrid. The magnificent structure and, even though we couldn’t go inside at the time, I spent an hour photographing every angle through the refracting glass. Since my one goal had been accomplished, we decided to wander the park at our leisure, our only plan being to

was even more breathtaking than I had imagined make it back to the Airbnb before dark. The park offered a tranquil fragment of life in Madrid. We watched young mothers strolling with their babies, elders occupying park benches for pigeon feeding, and families rowing around the boating pond together in front of the tremendous monument before wandering back to our Airbnb at sunset.

Even if we had stayed more days in Madrid, it’s possible we might’ve just spent every day repeating the activities of this one. It was the final day of our trip so the day’s relaxed pace and rewarding result was exactly what we needed. I would have to call this my recipe for one perfect day in Madrid.