Adjusting to Life in Spain: My First Visitors to Madrid!

Click here to read the previous post, Adjusting to Life in Spain: How Am I Improving My Spanish?

They say that the best way to learn something is to teach it. So when I recently had my very first visitors come stay with me in my new country, I got to put my newly acquired knowledge of Madrid to the test.

Two weeks ago my mom and brother traveled to Spain to spend time with the one family member who just won’t stay put (they also visited me when I lived in sunny and avocado-rich California). Neither had ever been to Spain before, so I had a lot of (self-generated) pressure to make their first impression count!

So here is a quick <waits for laughter to subside> sum-up of how I tried to show Mom and Bro a good time for their first visit to Madrid.

Day 1: Underground Tunnels

Their first comment when I met them at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport was, “Wow, customs here is nothing like when we go to the U.S.” In other words, here you don’t feel like they assume you’re smuggling drugs into the country.

During the taxi ride back to my place, we entered a tunnel from the freeway. It must have been just after we transferred (switched? drove? what do you call going from one freeway to another???) from the A-2 to the M-30. I wasn’t paying full attention since I was in the front seat twisted around to talk to Mom and Bro in the backseat.

Big whoop, I can hear you saying. So you drove through a tunnel.

But this wasn’t just any tunnel. It went on and on and on. And ON. (Knock, knock. Who’s there? AND ON.) Until finally Bro said, “Where the hell are we?” I asked the driver (en español, natch), and he told me that it was the Manzanares Tunnel, so called because it’s under the Río Manzanares (Manzanares River) that semi-circles the central part of Madrid.

I’ve been to and from the Madrid airport half a dozen times in the last year, and I’ve never seen/driven through this tunnel! The driver said it was 8 km (5 miles), but when I looked it up later, I saw that there was a little more to it.

M-30 Río Tunnel

The M-30 autopista (freeway) is the main “ring road” that circles the central parts of Madrid (less than the entire city but more than el centro or downtown) and links all Madrid’s neighborhoods.

The M-30 Río Tunnel parallels (from underground) the route of the south part of the M-30 and the Río Manzanares (Manzanares River). The entire tunnel is 16.4 km (10.2 miles), including several branches, and contains twenty-one entrances and twenty-five exits.

We drove through two parts of the tunnel.

M-30 South Bypass Tunnel

The M-30 South Bypass Tunnel was inaugurated in 2007 and is about 4.2 km or 2.6 miles long (the map below says 8.1 km because it shows the M-30, not the tunnel route, plus some additional roads because I suck at using Maps). Situated in the southern segment of the M-30, this tunnel extends from the A-3 (near Conde de Casal) to Paseo de Santa María de la Cabeza. It has two tubes (one for each direction) and three lanes in each direction.

M-30 Manzanares Tunnel

Constructed in 2007, the M-30 Manzanares Tunnel is the longest tunnel in Spain and is 5.9 km or 3.7 miles (again, pardon my slightly inaccurate map route below). This tunnel runs along the Manzanares River, primarily in the western part of the M-30. It contains two tubes (one for each direction) and 3-6 lanes per direction.

So, coming from the airport, about one third of our trip was underground.

We drove through the tunnel for maybe 8-10 minutes, but it felt like 20. Also, it wasn’t busy at all even though it was afternoon rush hour, and when I asked the driver about that, he said that the tunnel is not usually crowded. Maybe, like me, no one knows about this subterranean miracle!

Day 2: Chocolatería San Ginés

Besides driving through a long tunnel, day one was filled with hugs, catching up, hugs, apartment tour, hugs and sleep.

But by the second day I was eager to show Mom and Bro my new city and yet mindful of their jet lag, so I thought: What’s the perfect thing to do today? The answer? Chocolate at one of the oldest cafés in Madrid that’s just a ten-minute walk from my place.

Founded in 1894, Chocolatería San Ginés is among the oldest cafés in Madrid (apparently Café Comercial, opened in 1887, is the oldest café in Madrid, but I never hear anything about it). In 1890 an inn was built in this spot and four years later it became an establishment for making churros using the traditional technique called “a hombro” (“on the shoulder”). I believe (as in someone told me) this is a method in which the dough is squeezed out directly into the hot oil from a height, often over the shoulder, to form long, straight churros.

Not like the ones in this photo, obviously, which are from a different chocky ‘n’ churro experience because I forgot to snap a pic on this day. (Can you blame me? My mom and brother were visiting me in Spain!!!)

Chocolatería San Ginés is also open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and I can see why. There are always lines – even though they have two locations almost right next to each other.

We got in, ordered, and found an empty table no problem, probably because everyone wanted to sit outdoors in the historically gorgeous courtyard/alley.

Day 3: Parque de El Retiro & La Cervezería Mayor

Sufficiently rested (according to me), I took Mom and Bro to Parque de El Retiro (El Retiro Park), a huge “19th-century park with boating lake and rose garden, plus numerous fountains and statues.” It used to belong to the Monarchy until the late 1800s when they opened it up to the plebes.

At 350 acres, it’s one of the largest parks in Madrid (number one is La Casa de Campo park, which is 4,255 acres, and number two is Parque de Valdebebas - Felipe VI, which is 1,161 acres). Just to put it in context, New York’s Central Park is 842 acres and Vancouver’s Stanley Park’s 1,000 acres.

We took the metro there because Bro was interested in checking out our “excellent” public transport system and Mom was interested in not walking 2.5 km across town. The great thing about the metro here is that the Multi Card is a non-personal, reloadable public transport card that can be shared among multiple users. In other words, I didn’t have to buy two additional Tarjetas Transporte Público (Public Transport Cards) which would then take up space in my purse or kitchen drawer for the next hundred years.

Madrid's shared-use public transport card is not unique, but also not all cities have them. New York does, London doesn’t.

Once we arrived at the park, the first thing some of our group had to do was find the aseos públicos (public bathrooms). There are a few in the park, but the closest one said “Closed” on Maps, so we took a detour and hit up a café/kiosk called Las Estatuas that was small (all seating was outdoors) but actually had a downstairs bathroom.

Speaking of estatuas (statues), they are everywhere in Madrid – of famous people and statues of regular people – but in the park they do it one better: There is an actual Paseo de las Estatuas (Promenade of Statues).

For example, here’s one statue we examined: D. Chintila M.° A° DE 638:

"D." stands for Don, a traditional Spanish honorific for nobility.
"Chintila" is the name of the king, Chintila, who ruled as a Visigoth king of Hispania.
"M.° A° DE 638" translates to "Year of 638".

At first I wasn’t sure what the significance of 638 was, since he reigned from 636 to 639 and died in 639. Then I found one mention of the year 638 on Wikipedia basically saying that the Sixth Council of Toledo was convened by King Chintila in 638 to reunite the Spanish church, reinforce political decrees from the Fifth Council, and establish rules on topics including royal security.

I can’t say I’d give someone a statue just for calling a meeting, but whatever. I’m not in charge of the statues. Also, he died at 33, so let’s be fair and say he didn’t have time to do some really great things.

We continued walking through the park and saw the Estanque Grande de El Retiro (Great Pond of El Retiro – which I’d really call a lake), the Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace), a venue for art exhibitions that’s modeled after London's Crystal Palace, and Palacio de Velázquez (Velázquez Palace), a contemporary art museum.

Velázquez is closed until 2026, but fortunately, there was a super happy man selling his artwork right in front of it. Jonathan was a very lovely painter from Haifa, Israel who told us that he gets a kiss from his wife every time he sells a painting – so of course all three of us bought one. Suckers for love, we are!

We wandered through the north-west quadrant of the park, making our way through the gazillions of paths, spotting a helluva lot of Iberian Magpies, and trying to avoid a sax player who kept following us from in front. Seriously, we walked about 2 km (1.25 miles) through the park, and every time we arrived at a new spot – the café/kiosk, the pond/lake, Velázquez Palace, Crystal Palace – there he’d be already. And playing the same damn tune, too, which I have already repressed.

Once we left the park, we stopped for a coffee/tea at Sucre Salón de Té (Sucre Tearoom – which really ought to be translated as “Sugar Tearoom” since “sucre” is French for “sugar”), one of my favorite cafés. (Just in case you wondered, no that’s not my mom and brother in the picture.)

Finally, we headed back home and stopped at La Mayor Cervecería (Main Street Brewpub), the perfect neighborhood bar that, in addition to its huge selection of artisanal beer, also has great food and super nice bartenders/waiters. We all had Kwaks! 😂

Day 4: La Fisna Wine Bar with My New Madrid Friends

In my Moving to Spain blog post, I mentioned James Blick’s Moving to Spain Masterclass, which I took. It was enormously helpful in preparing me to relocate to a whole new country. One of the great things is that everyone who takes this course gets access to a private Facebook group for Masterclass alums. This means that you can chat with people who have already made the move or are in the process, and ask them questions or just make plans to meet up once you’ve arrived in your new city.

This is all to say that I met a very lovely couple (R&E), also, as it turns out, from California, who moved to Madrid six months before I did. They were so friendly and welcoming that I when I landed, I met them for lunch. Over the course of that delicious meal, we absolutely hit it off, and I felt like they were my new Spanish family (I say Spanish because we’re living in Spain, but they’re actually originally from Costa Rica and Nicaragua). I adored them so much (they came with me to the health clinic to apply for my Tarjeta Sanitaria (Health Card)) that I wanted my family to meet them and vice versa.

So on day four of Mom and Bro’s visit, we met up with this couple at a fabulous place: La Fisna Wine Bar in Lavapiés. I’d been there once before on my last vacation to Spain, but only had a glass of wine. This time we enjoyed many delicious tapas, like albondigas, ensalada rusa, berenjena al horno, and a few other dishes that I can’t remember. Plus a bottle of young Rioja (whatever the hell that means), which everyone loved.

I can’t tell you how much I loved having my new friends meet (part of) my family and vice versa. It really made me feel grounded and connected – both to my old life and my new life.

That concludes the first half of our visit! 👇

Click here to read the next post, Adjusting to Life in Spain: My First Visitors to Madrid (Part 2)

Note: All photos taken or created (using DALL-E) by Selena Templeton, unless otherwise noted.

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