My dream trip to Spain, Day one

My mom and I both celebrate our birthdays at the end of May and for our birthdays this year we decided to finally take our dream trip to Spain.  We left Phoenix on May 19th and returned home on May 31st.  It was such an amazing trip and I want to write it all down on here so that I can remember it forever.

So we left for Madrid on Wednesday morning bright and early and flew through Washington, DC on our way to Madrid.  We arrived in Spain Thursday at around 8am.  We waited around at the airport for about an hour before our hotel shuttle took us to our hotel.  We stayed at the Best Western Atlantico right in the center of Madrid and it was located right on the main street, Gran Via.  The hotel room was pretty small but we expected that but the service and staff were exceptional.  Our room had a small balcony and it was nice to be able to stand out there and watch all the action on the streets of Madrid.  If I make it back there someday I would love to stay there again.

The view to the right as you look off our balcony.

The bed in our room.  This was pretty much the whole room.

This is the other part of our tiny room.  Please excuse the mess, we were settling in.

The first thing we did after we got to our room was set out to find Retiro Park.  This park is incredibly beautiful and very large.  There were so many things to see there and so much going on.  You could tell that this is where the people of Madrid went to relax.  I imagine this is what Central Park in NYC is like.

A beautiful fountain in the park.  There were so many beautiful fountains in the park and all around the city.

The boating lake in the park.  You could rent row boats if you wanted and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Inside the Crystal Palace.  It was basically a huge greenhouse and the view of the lake was really beautiful from inside.

We were lucky enough to plan our trip during the Champions Festival in Madrid.  The park was packed with Italian and German soccer fans.  There was all kinds of soccer stuff going on.  Italy won the game on Saturday.

There was a beautiful rose garden in the park.  Mom posed in front of these gorgeous red roses.

That was pretty much all we did on the first day.  We walked around a little bit more and tried not to get lost.  We really used our maps a lot.  Both mom and I are directionally challenged but we managed.  I'll come back tomorrow with day two of our trip.