After our cruise, my Mom and Dad made their way back to Madrid with us to see the city and what life was like for us living here. It was tight quarters in our small studio apartment for four of us, but we had lots of fun. It was hard for them to imagine how Jay and I could live together in one room for so long without getting in each [...]

Ryan Air, one of Europe's popular discount airlines, gets a bad reputation for poor customer service and ridiculous fees, but I love them. Even with their outlandish fees (everything from luggage fees to processing and credit card fees), we've gotten some amazing deals making short weekend trips affordable. [...]

I'm glad I was awake for the bus ride back to Santander because the ride along the coast and through the countryside was very pretty (Jay slept). After a fun visit to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim Museum, we were back in Santander, a beach town on the northern coast of Spain. We checked into our hotel (right across the [...]

Two Saturdays ago we made our second attempt at a day trip to El Escorial. It was worth the wait. The morning weather was sunny and 70°F — perfect for a hike. And it was a festival weekend in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which meant free entry into El Escorial and a $20 savings for us. After an hour bus ride into the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains outside of Madrid we arrived in the small [...]

Madrid proudly boasts more trees per capita than any other capital in the world. Only Tokyo has more trees, and they have three times the population. This fact makes Madrid a great place for me since I love city parks. I love the contrast; being surrounded by large buildings and bustling life one minute and then being lost in the middle of lush green trees, grass and flowers the next minute. And the [...]

Thankfully, we've had no catastrophes our first few weeks in Madrid — just our fair share of challenges: such as taking eight hours to open a bank account, getting our eleven large boxes to our apartment, and me repeatedly standing inside elevator doors waiting for them to open automatically. There is so much to do to get settled into a new country, from finding an apartment and moving in to getting [...]