Madrid: Sun & Segways

So our annual trip to Gran Canaria this year was broken up by a quick stop in Madrid on the way. Unbelievably, this was my first trip to Spain in my life, so that means there’s another place I can scratch off on my travel map.

We arrived on Friday, a couple of hours late because our flight was delayed. The pilot told us once we’d boarded this was down to the plane having a few ‘issues’ throughout the day.

I quickly added that sentence to my top ten list of things you don’t want to hear from a pilot before take off, right behind ‘Oh, the wings fallen off again!’, and ‘What does this button do?’.

Due to our late arrival, we were a bit rushed to get out of the airport and back to the hotel, because we had a wine and tapas tour to get to in the evening.

The tapas tour was very interesting. Normally when you think of tapas, you think of it as a meal, but our tour guide explained that it should be thought of as a verb – you don’t eat tapas, you go and ‘do’ tapas.

We went around a small collection of tiny Spanish bars and restaurants tasting croquettes, anchovies, and meatballs, and drinking plenty of regional wine.

The tour also gave us an opportunity to find our bearings, as none of us had ever been to Madrid before.

Segways around Madrid

The next day we had another tour, which allowed us to get acquainted with the city a little more. This one wasn’t food orientated, and in my view it was a lot more exciting.

Spain, and many other European countries haven’t made Segways illegal in public places, apart from England (which I see now as an appalling bummer). As a result, Madrid has an abundance of Segway tours, that whiz you around the city. It’s a very exciting tour, as you all get your own Segway, and you all travel along together looking at the sights

The 90 minute tour took us around all of the well known landmarks; the palace, the Plaza de Mayo, and Temple of Debod. The tour guide was very interesting, and took a photo of us at each stop;

Apparently, the term for a group of Segways is called a ‘glide’.
Source

Churros!

There’s also one thing you must try whilst your in Madrid; the Churros. Strips of fried sweet dough, that you dip in warm, melted chocolate – pretty much a one way ticket to type 2 diabetes, but my god they’re good. We were recommended a place by our tour guide on the Segway tour. They served the chocolate in coffee cups, which meant it was then easy and acceptable to drink the chocolate once you’d finished the Churros.