Arrival In Madrid: Staying At Hotel Urso

It’s safe to say this was a trip we’d been looking forward to for a while, and seeing as we had only two nights to spend in Madrid, we figured we might as well make it count and go for a hotel that definitely stands out. That hotel happened to be the Hotel Urso in Madrid’s city centre.

It’s a 5-star boutique hotel in Madrid which was the best kind of treat.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THE HOTEL URSO?

Er… well, the food is particularly fantastic. The bed is uh-mazing (big deal here – I stayed in a hotel where the bed was like concrete back in the UK and since then, I have a HUGE appreciation for hotel beds done right).

Oh and there’s the swimming pool and spa too! I’ll show you what that’s like further down but you’ll start to see why even for just a weekend, this is the perfect place to stay when you’re in Madrid.

WHERE IS IT?

Address: Calle de Mejía Lequerica, 8, 28004 Madrid, Spain

Now, where was I?

Yes so our trip started in Madrid and after a rather early flight (I’d had no sleep the night before because I decided to leave my packing till the night before – silly when you consider this was packing for almost a month away), we headed straight for the hotel.

I was already taken as soon as we walked in. Here’s why…

I’m a fan of that airy design and sofas that seem to be beckoning to your bum to come have a little sit down (or perhaps even a tiny snooze? I was starting to feel the lack of sleep by this point).

I can’t even pretend! As soon as I got shown to my room and had a look around, I changed into my PJs and jumped right into bed for a quick nap. I have no shame in admitting this – we’d arrived early enough after all and we were all determined to have a relaxing time in Madrid. (Yes, we wanted to see the sights but we also wanted to have fun).

Where are my manners? Come see the room…

This is just a regular room but if you’re up for it – you can upgrade to the suites and other more decadent rooms when you’re here. This one suited me just fine! 🙂

Lloyd, Georgia and Chris decided they would head down to the spa while I had a power nap for 1.5 hours. (That’s all I needed at this point – coffee would have to be the fuel for the rest of the day…).

As it turns out, 1.5hours for a nap is plenty so I decided to head down to the spa and swimming pool to join the others before we headed out in search of food and some evening libations (i.e. somewhere to go draaaaaanking).

We meandered through Madrid’s rather quaint side streets…

… past the flower shops

…and little independent shops

…until we arrived at Mercado San Anton.

My limited knowledge of Spanish meant that I knew Mercado in Spanish = Market = Food so in we went in search of dinner.

Dinner turned out to be an actual sit-down meal (which I don’t seem to have any photos of for some reason), followed by drinks at a wine bar (we stopped at the first one we found) and cocktails at a different bar (again, the first one we found). As it turns out, picking out the first places we found seemed to have turned out quite well for us that evening! (The cocktail place was also pretty amazing but I can’t remember the name right now – if you’re interested, let me know and I’ll try to wrangle it out of Lloyd, Georgia or Chris – one of them will know).

After staying out drinking till late the night before, the next morning I was definitely looking forward to breakfast.

We headed down to The Conservatory (the dedicated breakfast restaurant in the Hotel Urso) where we had the most amazing selection of fresh pastries and an unbelievable range of breakfast choices. Oh, and you can also order hot breakfasts as well.

As expected, I pigged out! The trick is to never go to your table with a ridiculously full plate. Back in my rookie days, I used to create a mountain of food to take back to my table (accompanied by looks of horror by fellow breakfasters when they wondered how I would eat all of that. Spoiler alert – I always ate it all).

These days, I make frequent trips to the food stations taking away little bits of food with me each time at which I could sense people telepathically thinking “Aaawww, poor thing, is that enough food for you?” and to which I would respond “Yes… It’s how I stay so skinny!” *Disclaimer: Also, that faux telepathic conversation probably only happens in my head. They’re probably really thinking “Wow, that’s his 7th trip back to the pastries station“… also, I’m not skinny (but I’m guessing you already knew that 🙂 ).

Breakfast over, I mulled the idea of going for a morning swim but the food overtook any good intentions to exercise and instead, the four of us set ourselves a place to conquer all the sights we had to see in Madrid… and while we were at it, we also figured we might as well start to plan where to have lunch. It is never too early to start planning lunch.

Seeing as I forgot to take photos of the spa the day before, I figured I might as well pop in quickly to take some photos to show you what it looks like.

Oh and there’s a gym here too but I was on vacation. And I didn’t pack any gym clothes anyway. And I didn’t really have time in the morning anway. Okay, fine – I’m just making excuses. I’m too lazy to gym.

The best way you can get me to exercise is to tell me the bakery a mile away is giving away free cakes and you’ll have me there in seconds. Running to food is my favourite form of exercise!