Sweet Side of Madrid

Daniel, Amber, Brandon, Kate, and Daniel found the sweet side of Madrid.

More photos are here.

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While in Madrid we did quite a bit of exploring after visiting the well known Prado and Reina Sofia Museums. Our first adventure was a little off the beaten path in Madrid; to find El Jardin del Convento (dulces de conventos y monasteries). After weaving and winding up and down the narrow streets of Madrid, past the Basilica Pontifica de San Miguel, we had finally found a nice tiny alleyway and at the end we were welcomed by their lovely little sign and knew we had arrived at our destination. El Jardin del Convento is a pleasant little shop near the Plaza de la Villa which specializes in selling natural, old-style treats made entirely by hand by convents and monasteries in Spain. It was hard to decide on what to purchase amid their tasty looking selection composed of candy, jams, muffins, pastries, and cookies. In the end we decided on some of their famous tea cookies, which were delicious, and well worth the trek. We thought this was a really neat and fun way to explore some of the less touristy sites in Madrid.

After our search for Jardin del Convento, we all decided to stop for a well deserved afternoon snack at Chocolatería San Ginés. This was one quaint café, covered in green wood panels, pictures of well-known visitors, and marble tables. San Ginés is most well known for its chocolate con churros, so we split three servings of churros, fried batter almost doughnut-like, covered in powdered sugar which we dunked into two cups of hot thick chocolate accompanied by cold milk (yes, cold milk, much to the surprise of local Spaniards)and limon granizados. These yummy treats were hands down the best churros we’ve had in Spain thus far.

Lastly, the morning before leaving Madrid, we walked to the La Latina area of Madrid to check out the city’s weekly Sunday flea market, El Rastro. This market is one of the largest in the world, encompassing everything from t-shirts to leather bags to antiques. We had a great time exploring all the displays, as well as scoping out great bargains. El Rastro had such a variety of items to offer that we could have stayed there all day, but alas we had a bus to catch back to Sevilla.