Madrid, Spain, May 22nd - 25th, 2009

In part due to our love of Barcelona last June and also because we had another bank holiday to take advantage of Eric and I decided to travel to Madrid at the end of May. A friend of a friend hooked us up with a hotel arrangement that was right in the center of town. It was a no-frills, truly authentic place; so authentic in fact that we had to confirm 24 hours before we arrived and no spoke English. Eric's Spanish is quite basic and mine is only what I learned from Sesame Street so when they became over-booked and tried to send us to their sister hotel near the airport, our arguing skills in Spanish weren't really all that effective. We said, 'thanks, but no thanks' and at the very last minute, ended up finding another hotel that was quite aways outside of the city, but seemed nice and was really cheap (which is our style).

We arrived late on Friday night and took the metro from the airport to our hotel. The hotel was nearer to the airport than it was to the city center which was nice because it was so late. However, once we got out of the metro, the walk to the hotel was about 10 minutes or so and one guess as to what the weather was like...a wee bit of rain until we actually were inside the hotel and then the heavens opened up. Luckily we were inside when that happened. We watched the most spectacular lightening show from our room. I think we may even have some video footage of it. Didn't do too much that night except go to bed. Nothing except for some really sketchy Chinese place was open for dinner and I was so hungry I think I may have had some canned potato sticks from the mini-bar.

One of Eric's colleagues, who is from Madrid, was kind enough to write out an itinerary for us. We love taking recommendations from locals and were so grateful to Gonzalo for taking the time to share his favorite places with us.

Our first day was spent seeing the major sights of Madrid. We started out first at a coffee bar/tapas bar to get us going. We then took in a few gardens and a few of the main squares, Plaza Mayor (where bull fights and Spanish Inquisition-related executions used to take place) and Puerta del Sol (the official center of Spain). We also wandered into a random market down at the end of Cava Baja, a street we would return to many times. The market was definitely for locals, not tourists, which means it was gritty looking, but great. There was everything you could think of to eat, at least in terms for fruit, veg, meat, fish, etc. Spaniards, at least those who shop at this market, don’t waste any parts of the animal. Strangely, looking at raw cow snouts made us hungry so we went to lunch next. We chose Prada a Tope on Calle del Principe from our guidebook. At 3pm, it was just starting to fill up for lunch so we were lucky to get a table. The hostess/waitress was very friendly and helpful. Her English was about as limited as Eric’s Spanish, but she closed the gap by bringing over an English menu. Then, in case we were still confused she brought us a picture menu, presumably to be used for people who lack both English and Spanish. Well it worked and we had the first opportunity to sample the highly built-up manchego cheese and Serrano ham. Verdict? So so. Sorry, just being honest - go easy Gonzalo!

Makes a good stew?

After lunch it was time for the Prado Museum. If you know me, you know my attention span in museums is pretty short, so we only stayed for about 2 hours. The audio guide, as always, was worth the extra €5 or whatever. The Prado was full of works from artists we tend to see at all major museums throughout Europe (and the Met in NYC), but it’s obviously heavy on the big Spanish names such as Velasquez, Goya, Picasso – these were our focus and they did not disappoint. We then took a little nap on the steps on the way out because it was finally not raining and because it was siesta time. (Aside: Thank you to the inventor of siestas! Siestas son muy buenas. Please come visit America and England and introduce the beauty and rationality of your invention to our ignorant populations.)

A surprisingly nice, quiet drink in Plaza Mayor

After El Prado, we wandered through the Royal Botanical Gardens where we were tempted (successfully) by Edward Scissorhands trees and (unsuccessfully…for now) by the rent-a-boats in El Retiro. We slowly wandered back into town via Gran Via, taking in tons of various pre and post-Franco architecture. Eric’s favorite was the grand art-nouveau Metropolis Building. Since our hotel was so far out of town and we had a few hours to kill before dinner, we wandered the triangular shopping area between Gran Via, Sol, and Plaza de Callao. For dinner we went to a well known and highly regarded place in Plaza Santa Ana called Cerveceria Alemana (‘The German Beer Bar’). Eric’s calamari was a bit rubbery and the ham and cheese was again so-so, so we quickly moved on for a drink along Las Huertas. I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was good enough for people watching and cheap vino. It was relatively late by that point and since we had a long Metro ride back to the hotel we called it a night after a brief and fruitless search for ice cream.

On Sunday morning we were able to move into the Hotel Emperador on Gran Via. We also stopped into the Hostal La Macarena to argue (in Spanish) our case about being unfairly charged for cancelling our reservation (when in fact they had run out of rooms and tried to move us to a different hotel!) Eric later challenged that Visa charge and the case is still pending as of the editorial deadline of this blog entry.

San Gines was flooded with visiting students and visiting
family members of visiting students.

Rastro Market on Calle Ribera was a priority for us, because we love a good market, but this one was more ‘flea’ than ‘antique.’ No purchases made. If nothing else, though, it drew an interesting crowd and the people watching was reward enough. After a lot of walking, we were starved. We went to Orixe on Calle de Cava Baja, a tapas place we had walked enviously past a few times before. Eric had a little trouble ordering the tapas. Image yourself at a popular bar/club, trying to shout drink orders to a busy bartender. It was kind of like that, but instead he was competing with a bunch of Spaniards, all of whom were shouting orders for a few different plates of food – keep in mind that there is no menu and some of the items had already been picked over. Not easy. Thankfully, just about all the different tapas dishes are really good so as long as he could avoid the anchovies, we were all set. After lunch we went to see the main cathedral (Almudena), the Royal Palace (Palacio Real), and the royal gardens (Jardines de Sabatini.) All were very impressive from the outside, but we didn’t venture into any of them, per recommendations from our guidebook and Gonzalo. Between the Palacio Real and the Opera was an amazing statue by Galileo in the Plaza de Oriente. It is supposedly the first ever statue of a rearing horse. The horse is being ridden by Felipe IV, who is mostly associated with the decline of the Spanish Empire. The statue is impressive not only for its size and power, but also for the fact that Galileo was successfully able to make it balance on the horse’s two hind legs.

View from the hotel roof

Before our last dinner we decided to go for a drink in Plaza Mayor. Expecting a typical “Main Square” experience of extremely overpriced drinks and rude wait staff, we were pleasantly surprised by our €3 glasses of decent Rioja, it left enough for us to tip the accordion playing duo who serenaded us with same repertoire they probably suffer through every night of the year. Dinner a Casa Lucio was a good one. The build up to the churros con chocolate from San Gines near Calle Arenal were probably set a little to high, but the experience was fun. There must have been 30 people in line (mostly study abroad students and their visiting families) for the same thing. That churros machine earns its keep.

Rowing in El Retiro

We started the last day of our bank-holiday extended weekend desperately trying to catch some rays on the roof of our hotel, but alas the clouds rolled in. Once we got moving, however, the sun came out and the call of the row-boats on the pond in El Retiro proved irresistible. We rowed ourselves around in circles in the perfect sunshine for about 45 minutes. On the way there we had picked up some incredible manchego at a deli and we devoured it in the middle of the Estanque pond despite the “no food” rules. That’s right, we’re rebels. Gonzalo’s last recommendation took us to a Sushi restaurant up to the business district, past Plaza de Colón (Columbus). It was a bit businessy considering we were in shorts, t-shirts, and sandals, but whatever. The sushi was really good. Eric liked it so much that he “accidentally” ate most of the stuff I ordered. Formal sushi was an odd finish to an otherwise great weekend excursion to Madrid.

Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=hj0zhyv.9gq27x87&x=0&y=-1vcnxf&localeid=en_US