Alright so second day in Madrid we hit the Reina Sofia museum which, while gorgeous, was majorly confusing! We also hit the main market, which was the best so far! More of a tapas and specialty market than a market market, it was absolutely adorable. We sampled many things - an incredible paella, smoked haddock with a sweet mustard, cava sangria and fresh frozen yogurt. The day was spent wandering the city, and we ended with a high lookout point with a bar on top of the building and chaise lounges to enjoy the view. Dinner was at Vi Cool, where we shared a tomato emulsion and fresh garlic on crusty bread, followed by pizza with a crust so thin it was reminiscent of a carrs cracker, stacked with enmental cheese, brandy marinated pears and finished with thinly sliced and cured iberian ham.

Yesterday ended up a partial day trip to Segovia, a couple hours north of Madrid (or 28 minutes if you have access to a high speed train). Segovia is known for their intact roman aqueduct (that was built without a speck of mortar,) and their fairy tale castle, which inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. It was a quaint little town and Mum and I both got a unique piece of jewelry from a local artisan shop. After an afternoon exploring we headed back to Madrid and spent the evening strolling the high end shopping street and some gorgeous sunshine to go with it.

Today started out a little off - we missed our first train to Granada so we ended up cooling our heels at the train station while we waited for the afternoon connection. After a combo train and bus ride (part of the granada line was down for repair) we made it to Granada. It kind of feels like we entered another country; there is so much moorish influence here! It definitely has a bit of an moroccan flair. We had an incredible moroccan style dinner, starting with hummus and babbaganoush with house made bread and moving on to a chicken tagine with lemons, olives, onions, raisins and saffron, and lamb with prunes, dried apricots, and blanched almonds. We finished the evening with a small hike to see Alhambra lit up at night.