Madrid itinerary

If I leave Friday morning, can I cover Bilbao and Dragonstone in 1.5 days and make it back to Madrid by Saturday afternoon

It is possible but would be terribly rushed. You could fly to Bilbao on Iberia at 7:35 AM. It takes an hour not counting the time it takes to the airport.

The train to Bilbao takes 5 hours not counting the time it take to get to the train station. Buy the transport you choose asap.
You still have to take a bus from Bilbao to get to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

We did El Escorial and Segovia in a day but had a native of Spain driving us.
If you do not have a car or planning on buying a tour I would go to Toledo since it is only 30 minutes.

I'm not a vegetarian, so others will have better information. However, you should be aware of the Spanish penchant for what I call "occult ham". It's a bit like the southern US, with ham used to flavor some vegetable side-dishes. You must also be careful about sandwiches and salads; they often contain ham, and it may not be immediately visible to the naked eye as you look at the food in the cold case.

Many tortillas (thick Spanish omelets, often containing potato) do not have ham, but you should always ask. The tortillas are much, much better if served warm. There's usually a microwave on the premises for that purpose. A cold potato omelet is one of the blandest foods imaginable.

Some cookies are made with lard.

Some people may assume that you, as a vegetarian, are OK with seafood. You'll need to be specific.

Thank you Jazz+Travels. I'll definitely consider flying to Bilbao.

Thanks Acraven. That's quite helpful. I'm imagining there would be some kind of restaurant chains like Subway/Taco Bell where I can ask for vegetarian food or order from the menu and ask meats to be substituted by beans/veggies. Are there any such chains in Spain or proper restaurants is all I'll find?

I tend to avoid chains, but I'm sure they exist. Two possibilities I can offer are the markets (including San Miguel in downtown Madrid), where everything is laid out in front of you, and the small café-like places that have cold cases of sandwiches and salads to grab and go. Both are especially handy if you are not on the Spanish meal schedule, which considers 2-4 PM to be lunchtime and 10 PM - whenever to be dinnertime. But remember my warning about the ham. You may find salads with goat cheese, but be sure there isn't ham hidden under the cheese.

I'd also be careful about tapas; many are deep-fried, and I don't know what they are fried in.

I hope within a few days some more knowledgeable folks will stumble on this thread and give you specific suggestions. You could also Google vegetarian restaurant Madrid and vegetarian restaurant Bilbao, then check the locations on Google Maps to see whether anything looks like it will be convenient for you.

Subway locations in Spain, found by Googling.

In addition to Subway, there's the local chain Pans & Co, which is similar, and from which it will be easy to get vegetarian meals.

Acraven is right about occult ham (great term for it, by the way). I've often seen pieces of ham floating in gazpacho (but not always, so some of it would be fine) or salmorejo (a thicker and creamier variant of gazpacho). Sometimes they're large and obvious, but sometimes I was only aware of them after I started drinking it.

At lunch, many restaurants will have a menu del dia for about €12, including appetizer, main, and dessert - a great bargain. I can't say if they often have a vegetarian option, but these were definitely a great relief to this non-vegetarian, who was tired of the nonstop parade of ham and sea creatures that seemed to constitute the main food options; the menu del dia was usually much more varied. I seem to recall some main course salads; of course, you'll really have to watch out for the occult ham in these, but some might be suitable.

Patatas bravas is a tapa that is vegetarian and widely available; it's fried potatoes in a spicy sauce. Vegetarian tortillas shouldn't be too hard to obtain either; the ones with ham or other flesh proteins tend to be labeled, as the default style is just eggs, onions and potatoes.

I believe Madrid has some dedicated vegetarian restaurants. Look at the Happy Cow website for ideas: https://www.happycow.net/

I had to look in Wikipedia to find out what San Juan de Gaztelugatxe or Dragonstone were (I've never seen Game of Thrones). I learned that Dragonstone was digitally created, so there's no actual castle on Gaztelugatxe - just so you're prepared.

I liked Bilbao a lot. It's got three wonderful museums (the Museum of Reproductions and the Museum of Fine Arts, in addition to the Guggenheim), a large Old Town with interesting, non-chain stores, and an attractive newer town. Not far from Bilbao is the transporter bridge at Portugalete, which was great for me to see (probably not as interesting to many others). Despite all that, I'm not sure I'd spend the time and money necessary to go to Bilbao from Madrid for such a short excursion - particularly when you only have a few days for the whole trip.

My old Rick Steves book lists Artemisia restaurants as vegetarian. 2 locations in Madrid: Tres Cruces 4 (2 blocks north of Puerta del Sol) and Ventura de la Vega 4 (2 blocks east of Plaza Santa Ana). Their hours were 1:30-4p and 9p-12M. Best to look them up on the web before you go in case of changes.

I'm sorry that I can't answer your questions but I wanted to ask you if you managed to buy tickets for RM vs. Sevilla game? I am currently searching to buy 2 tickets for either RM vs. Dortmund or RM vs. Sevilla (or both, depending on the price) and am still not sure what's the safest way to secure them.

Thanks Harold. Yes, I know about the location being created using vfx but that's only the monastery atop the hill. Rest of the walls, steps etc are filmed as they are. My gf and I are huge GoT fans and I plan to 'bend the knee' (sorry again for the GoT reference! :P ) at the same site. So it's a special place to me.

@Sadeja, I looked up tickets on seatwave and they're available for 10th Dec, Sunday 5 pm. However, the Real Madrid official website says the date is yet to be decided (9th or 10th). Hence I'm waiting for a confirmation on dates before buying the tickets. Also, the official website has cheaper ticket options whereas seatwave's cheapest tickets start from about 95 euros.

Thank you Huli. Yes, the game hasn't been confirmed yet and that's typical. I think mid-November we can expect to see it confirmed. on Real Madrid official site i can only see the VIP tickets. Have you researched how reliable is the site you mentioned? My readings point out to the official site and ticketmaster to be the only one which are 100% reliable. The rest (viagogo included) are sort of hit and miss, on top of being grossly overpriced (which I guess we are willing to absorb).

The site seatwave is a sister site to ticketmaster.. There are no tickets available for La Liga on ticketmaster. I'm also unsure of other websites you mentioned. If I can get something decent on seatwave as soon as the game is confirmed, I'll buy it there. Else, I'll wait for 2-3 weeks before the game when the tickets go on sale for general public.

If you go to ticketmaster.es, change the language to EN (unless you're lucky to speak Spanish, of course) and then pick the 'sports' tab. You'll see La Liga tickets there. ticketmaster.es is actually mentioned on the RM official site as the authorized site for their tickets. However, it's most likely that TM won't have the tickets before the official site.