Recently, I discovered the beauty of the exploring feature of Google Flights. On this site, you can enter all sorts of different search parameters. One of those is the option to say, “I want to go from Lubbock to anywhere for a week sometime in February,” and just browse a map of the world with price tags on different cities. I was just fishing around there back in January of 2024, and saw that I could get a round trip ticket to Madrid for $440. That seemed like a great deal, and I had never been to Continental Europe let alone Spain. American Airlines is the major carrier operating out of Lubbock, and they offer an option for you to freeze your price for 24 hours. Google Flights indicated that the fare was likely to go up the next day, so I went ahead and booked it with my 24 hour “get out of jail free” card in-hand. I asked around to see if anyone else in the family wanted to go, and no one did. Sure enough, the price went up the next day. I had my price frozen, though, so I took the good deal and started researching things to do around Madrid.

There are quite a few 15-30 minute videos on Youtube that travelers have made highlighting things they visited on their trips. Most of those folks are young kids, or people on a budget, or people in a hurry. They usually do things a little different than I would, but it’s a good place to get some ideas. I also have a friend from grad school who was a specialist in Spain and had been there for research, so that was anther source of information. I didn’t have a strict itinerary of places I wanted to go. I had more of a prioritized list of things I wanted to see. None of them were like Machu Picchu where you have to have a ticket with a hard date that must be purchased months ahead of time. Quite a few things there are closed on Monday, though. So other than making sure to save certain sites for Monday that would be open that day, and working around weather for outdoor venues, I was pretty flexible.

I got to Madrid early on Thursday morning after an overnight flight, but I couldn’t check into my room until 3pm, so I hopped on the subway from the airport and found a locker downtown to store my bags. I just walked around exploring downtown until 3. There were several things to see around there. I went to the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor. Those are big Spanish squares where major public events happened in days gone by. People just hang out in them now, and they are surrounded by shops and restaurants. I had my first tapas, enjoyed the city’s baroque architecture, and even saw an Egyptian temple. Most of those are things that don’t take all that long to do, so I could cram a lot into the same day.

Friday, I took the high speed train out to El Escorial. Much of the art and architecture at El Escorial predates the baroque era motif that dominates Madrid, as this was a creation of the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty. El Escorial makes a very nice day trip from Madrid. I was back to town by mid-afternoon, and since I was by myself, I did not want to waste a minute of my trip. I found a Naval Museum back in Madrid that none of the travel bloggers had mentioned. It had many amazing artifacts, tools, maps, and other naval equipment predating Columbus all the way up to modern times. Other than not having any actual ships, it was a very well done museum that beat my expectations.

On Saturday, I took a day trip to Toledo via bus. Toledo is a very medieval looking city. There were too many things to do in Toledo for a single day, but I got the highlights. Some people try to do Segovia and Toledo the same day, but that would be a complete death march, especially considering many things are only open 10-6. Toledo was the old Castilian capital of Spain. It boasts an alcazar (castle), a massive cathedral, and an old Jewish quarter, ancient walls and gates, and even buildings that clearly had been mosques and synagogues which were later repurposed into churches. All over the city, you can see layers of architecture and building evidence from the Roman, Visigoth, Muslim, and Castilian eras. The main cathedral was so big, I got lost in it. It was a great, full day though I did run out of time before seeing everything there was to see in Toledo.

On Sunday, I went to church as is my usual practice. One of the few things on the trip that required a scheduled entry ticket was my tour of the Royal Palace of Madrid, a far more touristy castle in the baroque and rococo style of the Bourbon kings of Spain. After I got done with that, I participated in my most expensive excursion of the trip: a Real Madrid soccer match.

On Monday, I had planned to go to the three major art museums in Madrid. I’m not a huge art guy, but the Prado is supposed to be pretty much like the Louvre, and the other two are more modern art focused with large collections of Spanish artists like Picasso and Dali. I thought I would just go to all of those for 2-3 hours apiece, or until I couldn’t stand it any longer, whichever came first. I went to the Prado first, and ended up spending 9 hours looking at all of it. I clearly underestimated the time required to appreciate the masterpieces in a museum like the Prado. Then again, I had never been in an museum like the Prado.

I dedicated Tuesday to sites that match my personal interests. I love aviation, and I was an officer in the United States Air Force. I love military aviation, so I visited a Spanish Air Force museum. I have always been a coin collector. My main travel souvenirs tend to be currency from the countries I visit, rather than magnets, post cards, hats, or T-shirts. As such, I was excited to learn that Madrid had a mint that had been turned into a money museum. Both of these museums were excellent and exceeded expectations.

To avoid snow, I waited until Wednesday to go to Segovia, which has a giant Roman aqueduct, the alcazar that was Walt Disney’s inspiration for the Snow White castle, and its own huge Gothic cathedral. I had learned that nearby Avila has the only fully intact medieval city wall, most of which can be walked. I got to Segovia later than I would have liked, but I did make it in time to tour their alcazar, which dates to the 11th century. The Segovia cathedral was closed by the time I got out, but they couldn’t close the aqueduct. It’s 100 feet high and half a mile long! So I walked the whole length of it, and learned as much as I could about it. I then hopped a late train back to Madrid for my last night in Spain.

I got up early and walked around the neighborhood I had been staying in once more on Thursday morning. It is called Barrio de las Letras (the literary quarter), since that is where Cervantes wrote Don Quixote and also where the playwright Lope de Vega did his work. I found both of their houses, then headed back to collect my things. I made my way to the commuter train and went back to the airport for my 11 ½ hour flight to DFW, followed by the little connector back to Lubbock!

Although I did not see all of the art museums in Madrid, and I missed a few of the sites I would have liked to seen in Toledo and Segovia, it was a great trip. If I had it to do over, I might stay out in one of the smaller towns and rent a car. Smaller towns are more my style, and I am not a huge fan of public transportation, even if I can figure out how to navigate it. The night life is crazy in downtown Madrid, but that is kind of lost on me. My favorite food during the trip was Andalusian (the Southern region of Spain, held longest by the Moors), with the paella close behind. I had a bocadillo with the much ballyhooed Iberian ham in it. It was OK. I also had a few wines. I didn’t really like them, but I am not really honed in on what you’re supposed to appreciate in wines. I had a good Sangria. I tracked my walking by GPS, and on any given day, I walked between 9 and 14 miles! I learned that I really don’t need to pack all that much for a week long trip, and that if you don’t rent a car, figuring out what to do with your bags is a bit of a problem. I would enjoy going back, but I think if I go back to Spain, I would either go to the Basque country or to Andalusia.

Please follow the links to see more photos and details of each days adventures, as well as pages specific to food, accommodations, and transportation.