Thursday 19 May 2011

Last day in Madrid...(or what we ate!)

We started today in true holiday style with breakfast at "our" local cafe at 11am. A typical breakfast consists of "dos cafes con leche" - two coffees with milk - and then a portion of "churros" - a spanish style donut - and "tostada y tomate" - toast with grated tomatoe and olive oil.

The churros are traditionally eaten dunked in hot chocolate!

We then wandered up the street to the local Dias Mercado and stocked up on bread, ham, cheese and wine for a picnic lunch. We also stopped in at our local convent...to purchase a boxes of "galletas" or biscuits made by the nuns who live there. This wasn't a secluded convent, so when we rang the door bell we were invited inside to make our purchase. There are still many convents in Spain, and a large number of them sell sweets or "dulces" to the public as a means of supporting themselves.

We had seen a beautiful park from the bus on our way home from Segovia, and went in search of this spot of green. We came across the Templo de Debord, which is an 2200-year old Egyptian temple that was shipped to Spain, stone by stone, in 1968 by the Egyptian government as a gesture of appreciation for the help received from Spanish archaeologists in rescuing the Abu Simbel temples from the floods of the Aswan Dam.

We then spent the better part of the afternoon parked off on the grass in the most gorgeous park. We watched half of the population of Madrid walk their dogs, and were highly entertained by the antics of both the dogs and the owners! But the best part was eating fresh baguette with serrano ham and cheese and pop-in-youtr-mouth-ripe cherry tomatoes! Oh and course, the obligatory bottle of Rioja wine!

We then headed back to the hotel for our siesta before hitting the town once last time!

We headed out around 7pm on our "tapas tour". We decided to stay within walking distance of the hotel, and the plan was to simply walk into any and every bar that looked busy and enticing! By 11pm we had visited 5 bars, and finally decided to settle in for a light meal of tostadas. By Madrid standards we called it an early night and headed back to the hotel round midnight. All in all a fantastic evening!

So tomorrow, Friday, we head off to Morocco for three nights. We'll be staying in a small town in the north, called Chefchaouen, about two hours from Tangiers. We'll probably only update the blog once we're back in Spain on Monday or Tuesday.

Monday 16 May 2011 - Part 2

An evening with Dali and Picasso...

If you stroll down to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia between 7 - 9pm, they will let you in for free! And this is exactly how R. and I spent our Monday evening. The museum houses over 10 000 pieces, and boasts an amazing collection of paintings, sculptures, experimental space, and film. We focused on the second of the four floors, and saw works by Juan Gris, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. We also saw Pablo Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica, which is considered by many as the highlight of a visit to the Reina Sofia.

Dali's "Face of the Great Masturbator"

We rounded off our first full day in Madrid with tapas at a little bar tucked away on a side street. Casa Granada had a wonderful, but tiny, terrace from which we watched the moon rise over Madrid. We drank tinto verano and ate patatas bravas - yum!

Monday 16 May 2011 - Part 1

Walking through Madrid...

After a delicious breakfast of churros and tostada con jamon y queso, R. and I walked along C. Gran Via, headed for Plaza Mayor. The square was completed in 1620 for King Felipe III, and in the 17th century nobles on horseback spent Sunday afternoons chasing bulls in the plaza, while citizens joined on foot! Today, the plaza is filled with tourists and buskers.

We then stumbled across the Mercado de San Miguel, a tastebud-tantalizing indoor gourmet food market, selling everything from jamon iberico and stuffed olives to fresh oysters and paella. We could have spent plenty of time and plenty of money tasting our way around the market, but reason pervailed and we wondered off in search of the Palacio Real.

Today, the Palacio Real, or Royal Palace, is only used by the royal couple on offical occasions. It was commissioned by Felipe V, to replace the Alcazar, which burned down in 1734, and was intended to be a palace that would dwarf all others! It was in fact built according to rejected designs for the Lourve.

Before heading back to the hotel for our mandatory siesta, we visited the  Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena Cathedral, which houses the Almudena Virgin, the patroness of Madrid. Her history dates back to 1085 when King Alfonso VI found an image of the Virgin inside the city wall of Madrid.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Arriving in Madrid...

While R. had just arrived in Madrid, after flying from Jo'burg via Franfurt, I made my way from Brussels to Madrid and arrived in the late afternoon, just in time for our first foray into the world of tapas!

We headed towards the Calle Gran Via, one of the main streets in Madrid. Both tourists and madridellanos bustled along the sidewalks. We decided to slip down one of the quieter side streets and came across a small nameless bar that was filled with locals - we had decided early on that this would be the criteria that we used to select bars and restuarants.

We sat at the bar, ordered "dos cervezas" and munched on free chips and dip! We managed to chat with some of the locals, and partake of what appeared to be the house speciality - mojitos! Just as we were getting ready to leave, the patrons - most of whom had been standing round the door and drinking on the pavement - rushed inside and the door and window was quickly bolted down! It appeared that there was a major incident occuring on the street outside the bar, and we were, for the moment, trapped inside! After a few minutes the door was cautiously opened and while the original fight seemed to have moved on, the street had taken on a surreal appearance with the contents of rubbish bins strewn about and set ablaze. Never a dull moment in Madrid!

We decided not to hang about and set off in search of a less action-packed establishment. We ended up at a little place called Cafe de la Luce and had tinto veranos - red wine and lemonade - and tostadas with jamon y queso - toast with serrano ham and brie.

We ended our culinary evening with dinner, after 23h00 in proper spanish style, at a small, and again very local, cafe. We discovered that spanish garlic is not for sissies!