We structured our trip trying to alternate more low key days in Madrid with more on-the-go day trips, and our fourth day let us settle back into the groove of Madrid.

Before we left, we had booked tickets to tour the Royal Palace, but the earliest time we could get was 12:30. So I took advantage of our open morning to take us to go see some more art -- specifically Picasso and Dali at the Reina Sofia. 

I remember studying Guernica in art classes and boy seeing it in person was just really something. It's huge and the gallery was crowded because it's the one art work that everyone was intent on seeing, but I looped us through the room twice because the piece was so impressive. 

I also really enjoyed seeing some of the Dali works, and got a chance to appreciate some of Juan Gris' paintings too. 

Again with a toddler this was a fairly quick trip, really focusing on just the highlights, but it was definitely worth it. 

We treated our kiddo to some playground time, and then we all made a pit stop for some churros con chocolate before touring the Royal Palace. 

The Royal Palace was massive -- apparently bigger than Versailles -- and so cool to walk through. I have to say, I also like the flow of this Royal Palace tour better than Versailles too. We did the self guided tour, and while some rooms were definitely crowded, it didn't feel like the crush of humanity we experienced in Versailles. 

The pictures of the palace don't do it justice. 

The gardens however were a little lackluster in comparison to the ones at Versailles. We enjoyed strolling through them, but they definitely didn't wow me as much. 

We spent our Saturday evening with our friends at Madrid's Christmas lighting. Apparently every year in Madrid there's a big event in the city with musical performances before the more than 13 million Christmas lights across the city are all turned on at once. We were lucky enough that we happened to be in town when the event was taking place, and this year it happened to be the earliest that Madrid has turned their lights on. 

They lit up city hall, projecting a movie on the walls before we listened to songs and then celebrated with an awesome fireworks display. 

It was such a cool event and I'm so glad our friends invited us along. So much of our trip was about seeing the sites and being tourists in a new place, and it was really nice that on Saturday night we got a break from that and got to enjoy this experience with the residents of Madrid. 

After two days in Madrid, we decided to venture out of the city for a day trip Toledo. We were really excited to see the history of Toledo and spent the day popping in and out of churches, mosques and synagogues.

We hopped on a high-speed train and reached Toledo in just under 30 minutes. The city sits high on a hill, and while you can walk from the train station, we were very glad we took a city bus because the journey up the city walls would have been more than a little challenging with the stroller. 

The bus let us off right in Toledo's main square, Plaza de Zocodover, and from there we could walk everywhere else. 

Visiting Spain this time of year was so fun because of the Christmas decorations and Christmas markets. Toledo's main holiday market greeted us as soon as we stepped off the bus. 

After snapping a quick pic with Cervantes, we wound our way through the narrow Toledo side streets. 

We were headed for the Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz, a mosque that was eventually converted into a church. 

The building itself was small, but the grounds offered sweeping views outside the walls of the city. 

Our next stop was the Toledo Cathedral. The church itself was massive and ornate.

There was also an entirely separate art museum inside the church, housing more paintings by famous Spanish painters. 

And the crypt houses the bones of St. Ursula, which I didn't realize when we walked down there. 

I'd say we spent about an hour exploring the church because it was so big. 

Our next stop might have been one of my favorite things we saw in the city.

It was another mosque that had been converted to a church. But this one was an archeological site, and you were able to walk underneath the church to see the original mosque architecture. This was also one of the few places we were able to climb the tower with our kiddo because the tower was wide and not a tight spiral staircase.

We made a brief stop at Santo Tome to see El Greco's The Burial of the Count of Orgaz before heading to the Jewish Quarter.

The Jewish Quarter was lovely with cozy cobblestone streets and distinct markers to remind you where you were.

We visited two synagogues here. One of them had been converted into a museum of Jewish history and the other, not surprisingly at this point, had been converted into a church.

We found an adorable playground near the first synangogue and decided to stop for a play break with some stunning views.

Our last religious site visit was to the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes. This was church was built to be the final resting place of Isabel and Ferdinand, but they ended up being buried elsewhere. So this church sort of just hung out.

After our last site, we strolled back to town to get some lunch. We sat outside, which was lovely in November and ejoyed carcamusa, stew known for its local meats. It was delicious and hearty and warm.

We spent the last of our time in Toledo exploring the Christmas market and just wandering around while our kiddo napped in the stroller. We decided to walk back to the train station since it was downhill, but we didn't factor in the part where we'd have to still walk down a million steps while carrying a sleeping toddler in a stroller. We got to see some cool architecture in the walls as we left the city, but I'm not sure I would recommend this for anyone who has to haul a stroller.

Despite that one hiccup, we absolutely loved our day in Toledo. It was one of our favorite things from the whole trip.

We planned our second day in Madrid to be incredibly low key. We started our morning exploring in Retiro Park. This was the perfect way to start the day after a long travel day. No agenda, just wandering around, letting our two year old explore.

This park had multiple playgrounds, which was perfect. We could spend some time at one, go explore more in the park, and then bounce over to another one.

Our favorite by far was one on the eastern side of the park, with multiple slides and climbing apparatuses. It was also packed with pigeons, and my kid's favorite thing was running around chasing them yelling, "I'm coming for you birdies."

He terrorized the pigeons of Madrid, and Ben and I could not stop laughing at how much joy he got from running after them and then watching them fly away.

The other incredibly cool part about this playground was that there were randomly peacocks walking through it. I have never seen a peacock in the wild, and these ones let us get decently close to them without spooking. None of them opened their feathers, but it was still really cool to be so close to them and see how vibrantly colored they were.

We spent time checking out the lake, fountains and other gardens scattered throughout the park until our stomachs started to growl and we left to find some lunch.

Our post-lunch plan was to visit the Prado.

I'm not normally a huge art museum kind of person, but my middle school art teacher spent years teaching us about the Spanish masters, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see some of their works in person.

The museum was definitely crowded, and we kept our visit short and fairly focused on a few pieces I really wanted to see because art museums aren't the most interesting thing to a toddler.

No pictures from inside, but when I got off the elevator and the doors opened right onto Las Meninas, I was a little bit awestruck.

We wandered around the second floor and hit some more Velazquez and El Greco pieces before heading downstairs to see Goya and his dark paintings.

AFter nap time, we met up with our friend at another playground in the city before heading to a tapas bar for dinner.

It was a perfect day of easing into the city.