Another beautiful Day in Madrid!

Hola!

Robert had a pretty jet-lagged night, but when he finally fell asleep, he was able to stay in bed until about 7:30 am.  Then, up for showers and we didn’t get down to breakfast until 9 am!  As Robert has promised that we can return to Madrid one day, I decided that rather than get to the Royal Palace by 9 am we would take it easy today.  Especially as we are going to a Flamenco concert/dance this evening, which of course doesn’t start until 10:30 pm!  Robert is very much looking forward to picking up the car tomorrow morning, as that is his preferred way to get around!

Wide, lovely avenues and boulevards

View from the 9th floor of Cortes Ingles

Group singing opera!  Quite lovely!

Two beautiful buildings!

Walk "through" building into plaza!

Love the models!

Made it!

Now those are hams...

Something for every taste!

A nice glass of cava...

SO much to see!

And eat...

So wished I was hungry...

Mozarella bar!

More meat for sandwiches!

Mom would have absolutely loved this!

This seriously scares me...

Something for everyone! (Did I say that already?)

On a bus!

Note:  Barca defeated Real Madrid by the final score of 3-0, which means they will go forward into the next round of Cup play!

There were several things that I did want to accomplish today, though, including finding the El Cortes Ingles department store and taking a look at their big 9^thfloor food hall and visiting the Mercado San Miguel, which was recommended by friends Ketty and Gina!  So thank you, ladies!

But first off, to find the right El Cortes Ingles.  This time we walked a block north of our hotel, to one of the main streets in the area, Carrera de San Jeronimo.  This took us to Puerta del Sol, which is a huge mainly pedestrian area filled with shops and restaurants.  Robert has decided that the people in Madrid must be one of the best fed groups in the entire world – that’s how many food-related shops and restaurants there are.  (I’m not going to count the Steak & Shake that we walked past along the way…)  I don’t think those have even made it to Tucson yet!

Found the first of three El Cortes Ingles buildings located right off Puerta del Sol, and plunged in. Of course, the store we were really looking for was the third one – the farthest off the Puerta, but it was really fun to be able to look through the various stores and departments.  And to tell you that this department store chain covers truly everything, they even had a dental office on one floor, with people waiting to be seen!  Amazing!  Who knew?! (Didn’t see a doctor’s office, but I’m sure there was one someone there!)

The 9^thfloor Gourmet Foodcourt was lovely, and we were able to get a table by the window for coffee and water breaks for the two of us.  On the inside of the glass outer wall were tracings of the buildings around us, identifying what was what.  We were able to see the Royal Palace as well as the Cathedral.  Great view!  Rested up a bit, and then headed back downstairs, this time heading to Mercado San Miguel.

A lovely 10-minute walk to the southwest brought us through a lovely interior courtyard’ed building, and out the other side.  (We were able to stop at an official Tourist Information office in this building, and Robert was able to pick up a bus map to the central area of Madrid.  That made him very happy, as Robert is a great bus rider, and seems to be able to get from one place to another in record time via the bus!)  And there was Mercado San Miguel, whose iconic signature logo “mm” was everywhere!  And let me say, that is truly quite a place!  

The original structure was built of iron and glass in 1916, and stands on the site of an even earlier marketplace.  Renovated in the 21^stcentury, it now contains some 30 high-end vendors of fresh produce, gourmet foods, wines by the glass, tapas and much, much more! There was a draft vermut (Vermouth) bar with kegs of the sweet dessert wine along with sangria (Debby??) and sherry. Truly amazing!  It made both of us wish we hadn’t had breakfast so late, as we weren’t hungry at all.  We were, however, thirsty, so R got a glass of red wine and I got a glass of Cava, and we were actually able to find places to sit at the high tables arranged in the center of the building.  To say it was chaotic would be an understatement – there were wall to wall people, including a great many mom’s pushing strollers and carriages, though as Robert pointed out, mm wasn’t exactly equipped for it!

When we had finished our wine and taken a good look around all the various shops, we decided to head back to the hotel for a good rest.  (R says this is SO much better than yesterday, when we were on our feet for seven hours straight!)  And, we took the bus!  A good old #3 was just passing by, and we hopped on.  Tickets were 1.50€ each, and we were able to get them right on the bus. This took us as far as the House of the Deputies, which is right across the street from the DoubleTree.  Couldn’t have asked for me!  So, for now, R is napping and I may be joining him soon! As dinner isn’t until 8:30 pm tonight, I’m thinking we may head back to Casa Gonzalez for a repeat of the wine and cheese we had last night!  That should keep us satisfied until the dinner and show (I hope!).  

Lots of love and definitely more later!

m

xxx

Editor’s note: On second thought, I’m thinking as we will be getting back from the Flamenco REALLY late, that I will probably post that tomorrow morning!

m

xxx

Two Museums and a Nap!

 

Okay, so I’m a Philistine! But more on that later.  I have something to add from yesterday!

When we checked into the hotel yesterday, the gal at the desk indicated that tonight the hotel was going to be “very” full!  We asked why, and she explained that Real Madrid (the main one of two soccer teams in Madrid) would be playing Barcelona tonight!  MY TEAM!  I got SOexcited, and asked if tickets might be available!  The gal said she would check, and call us back.  Well, she did.  Suffice to say that I am seriously not kidding here.  She gave me three prices, and per ticket, here is what she said: Highest: 400€; second highest 350€, and I think the cheapest she could fine were 250€– EACH.  Really? That’s it???  Suffice to say that I declined the tickets, and we’ll watch it if/when we get back to the hotel tonight after tapas.  Unreal…

Prado -- before we were told NO photos!

Obelisk to National Martyrs

Stunning fountains everywhere!

Plaza Los Americas

Puerta de Alcala

Beautiful wide avenues!

I loved this building!  Hallow in the middle!

Biggest Oreo I've ever had!

Loved the Stele!

Another...

Think this is a person?

Amazing detail!

Temple

Lady of Elche

I do like Lions...

And these are great arms!

Wonderful mosaics!

Is this guy cross-eyed or am I?

Livia, Augustus' wife

Casa Gonzalez!

FABULOUS cheese and bread!

Casa de Abuelo -- note bull in back!

Garlic shrimp and garlic tomatoes!  No vampires tonight!

So … to move on to Wednesday and our very busy day!

Up around 7 am and down for breakfast at 8 am.  We both slept like rocks, or at least I did.  I think that a bomb could have dropped on the hotel last night and I for one wouldn’t have known about it.  Very comfortable bed!

Excellent breakfast! Some wonderful scrambled eggs and bacon, and fabulous mushrooms.  I did try a churro, which tasted very much like the one I didn’t like in Mexico City, but tomorrow I will dip it fully into the provided sugar.  So much for diets!  Interestingly enough, while I have had some wonderful “real” hot chocolate all over the world, here it was basically a glass of hot milk and a powder to stir into it. Disappointing!

Out about 9:30 am as the walk to the Prado was very short.  Cool, crisp day outside but brilliantly sunny, and while Robert was fine in shorts, I was very glad of my jacket and thinking that I also needed a scarf!  Got to the Prado in about 15 minutes, and found the Jeronimos entrance, as we had purchased our tickets on-line and didn’t need to go to the ticket booth! (Thank you, Internet!)  The doors opened promptly at 10 am and, as we were numbers 6 and 7 through the door, we were in, past security and coat check and picking up our audioguides in minutes.  (Very different than when we left, when the lines were very long indeed!)

So…I’m a Philistine. While I absolutely love the British Museum and the Louvre, both of which we have been known to spend upwards of 7 hours at a time, the Prado is basically flat, religious art.  And I find that really boring.  Sorry, folks! We had the audioguides as well as Rick Steve’s guidebook, but while I found the guidebook tour they put together to be really bad (a lot of back and forthing all over the place) the audioguide descriptions were very well done.  It’s just not our cup of tea!  So, we saw the paintings we were “supposed” to see and were done about 12:30 pm.  Stopped in the café for coffee (Robert) and water (me) and then out the door and on to museum number two!  Oh!  One other thought!  Seriously, a museum where NO photography at all is permitted?  So, nothing – nada – to show you on the blog, where pictures are really everything! (Even though I seem to add quite a few words…)

The second museum we visited was about half a mile further along the Prado street, and was the MAN Museo Archaeologico National.  This was FABULOUS!  By the time we got there, we were both dragging a bit, so our first stop after dropping coats and buying tickets was the nice Café they have.  We both got “real” Cokes (for the caffeine and sugar) and this time I had an Oreo Ice Cream sandwich!  Never saw one before!  (But then I don’t get out much…) HUGE Oreo with ice cream filling!  Easy to eat and really delicious!  Thankfully, that and the cokes seem to do the trick for both of us, as we had three floors of wonderful museum to cover!

First of all, the museum is housed in a lovely building with lots of skylights and exterior windows. Secondly, the presentation was beautifully done – lots of interactivity and things to do and touch and listen to. Everything was in Spanish and in English, which made for an excellent viewing experience!  We’d definitely give this museum 4 ****’s!

The museum “route” started in the basement with pre-history in Iberia, and worked its way up the floors to the present day and history of the museum.  The top floor also included what Robert called “bits and pieces”—a few pieces from the Near East, a bit more from Greece and Egypt.  A place for everything!

They had some truly stunning artifacts from pre-history and the chalcolithic and through to the Roman period.  Some of our favorites included stele and Phoenician pieces, as first the Phoenicians and then the Carthaginians moved into peninsula.  It’s fascinating to see how influences from the east and along the Mediterranean made their way here.  Robert particularly loved the ancient Roman water pump and tap – they looked like something that could be installed today and work really well!

There was a fun interactive experience on level two with goggles and earphones, which we both enjoyed trying.  All in all, a truly exceptional experience, and one that wasn’t crowded at all (although there were several school groups visiting).

Finally finished about 4 pm and debated the merits of taking the Metro back to the hotel.  No stops really close, so we decided we might as well walk back, which we did.  Arrived back at the hotel extremely leg-weary after being on our feet for seven hours, but very much enjoying being in Madrid!  This is truly a stunning and very clean city, and three nights here is not NEARLY long enough!  We will definitely be back … but probably not to the Prado…

Settled in for naps and were up around 6 pm.  Took turns answering emails, and I wanted to get a start on today’s blog posting, 1) because of the football game on tonight (Go, Barca!!) and 2) so I can get to bed earlier than last night!  We will again do tapas tonight, as with a really great breakfast, two meals (plus a snack) is fine for us … and we really do love tapas in any case!

More later!

m

xxx

Hola!  

Just back from dinner, and the Real Madrid-Barca score is 0-0 at 41 minutes of the game.  Frankly, Real looks better than Barca, but just hope it doesn’t work out that way!

Dinner – well, amazing really!  The Casa de Gonzalez shop was highly recommended for wine and cheese, so we headed there first.  Wow!  We ordered glass of wine – a red tempranillo for Robert and a Spanish Sauvignon Blanc for me – both wonderful – as well as a sample of five Spanish cheeses.  Well … there were two soft cheeses and three hard cheeses, and they were all wonderful!  There was a Spanish blue and a soft cheese (which we usually don’t like!) with a slice of quince paste, as well as three hard cheeses, at least two of which were Manchego.  Along with some wonderful bread and crackers, everything vanished quickly!  We arrived just at the right moment, as by the time we left, our “back room” was full of people!  From there, we headed back toward Plaza Santa Ana, and a block or so further along.  Found Casa Abuelo, which is famous for their garlic shrimp, which we ordered along with a garlic tomato.  Wow! Both excellent, as was their house red and house white wines!  Very filling and excellent dinner!

The area with the shrimp really is an “international” area of Madrid restaurants!  In addition to the sea food, we found a Thai, Japanese, Turkish, Mexican and Indian restaurants!  Amazing!  Right now, we’re really not interested in non-Spanish cuisine, but as I told Robert … ask me again in three weeks!

Back to the hotel afterwards, and arrived about 27 minutes into the Barca-Real Madrid soccer game – still 0-0 at the half.  Will get this posted now and into bed!

More tomorrow!

m

xxx

Editor's note:  at 70:56 in the second half, it's 2-0 Barca!!!!!

Editor's second note:  at 82.56 it's 3-0 Barca!!!!!

Hola from Madrid!

We made it to Madrid! But woof, it was a really long day!

Bob and Stew very kindly picked us up a little after 8 am Monday and dropped us at the Tucson Airport. As we always like to be early rather than late, we had to wait a couple of hours for our plane to Los Angeles to arrive.  Turns out, our friend and neighbor Sandy Manakee was returning from visiting her sister in Colorado, and came on our in-bound plane!  Apparently I was in the ladies room (where I am often to be found, especially when traveling…) when Sandy went by, but it’s nice to know she is safely back home.   

House of Deputies across the street from our hotel

Our lovely and comfortable hotel!

Some very interesting architecture

Sorry...couldn't resist...

Plaza Santa Ana

Cheers!

FABULOUS food!

Not sure what I'm eating, but it's great!

Chocolate and flowers!

More of Plaza Santa Ana!

Plane went out on time and wasn’t totally packed with people, so a nice, pleasant ride.  Also, my red suitcase was the very first one to be off-loaded at LAX, with our second piece following close behind!  Yeah!

We walked from Terminal 1 to Bradley International, where we knew we would have quite a wait.  Turns out that there are only two non-stops from Tucson to LAX, the one we were on in the morning, and the second arriving in early evening and way too close in our opinion to get everything done at Norwegian.

Last week, we were offered the opportunity to purchase an upgrade to Premium Class on Norwegian, and we decided to take it.  Have to admit that it did make things quite lovely!  We had a special lane of our own to check in, as well as first boarding on the plane.  But first, Bradley Terminal.  

There aren’t too many real restaurants before security, so we settled for PlanetHollywood, where we both ordered quesadillas --- R had steak (which was fabulous) and I had chicken, which was fine, but not as good as R’s!   Ate slowly, but still had about two hours to kill before we could drop our bags off.  We were lucky to find seats with power outlets to charge our phones (we have Kindle books on our phones), and the time passed very quickly.  Still, as I say, we had a long day.

Finally were able to check in at Norwegian and get through security.  Truly a breeze, and in probably less than five minutes, we were on the other side of security.  We went to our gate, and again, lovely, spacious seating areas, and lots and lots of power outlets.  Our airplane arrived early, but we were for some reason late in boarding.  Turns out that there was a problem with luggage load balancing that needed to be attended to.  At any rate, we were probably 45 minutes late taking off.

Norwegian’s Premium cabin in the 787-9 Dreamliner seats two, three, two.  We had the two seats on the right-hand side of aisle 3.  Seats nice and spacious, with a fair amount of leg room and plenty of storage.  Nice quilted blankets for all.  The seats recline a fair amount, and there is a leg rest that can be utilized.  The only problem we had was that if the seats in front of you are fully reclined, then it is a VERY tight squeeze for the person in the window seat to get to the aisle.  Need to make the reservation early enough to grab two of the bulk-head seats!  There were also two lovely and clean bathrooms for the 35 passengers, which worked out very well, thank you very much!

We were fed dinner shortly after takeoff, and we both chose the beef option.  I thought it was excellent; R not so much.  There was also potatoes and some lovely macaroon cookies which were delicious!  There was also a two-crab-cake option and a chicken option; maybe next time!

The entertainment was fairly extensive, although to be honest, I couldn’t find too much I wanted to watch!  I did watch the action film The Megabout a huge ancient shark twice, as well as the Best Marigold Hotelfirst edition and finally, Crazy, Rich Asianswhich I loved even though it made me cry – and more important, I now REALLY want to revisit Singapore sometime soon! (I’ve been there at least four times, but it has been more than a few years since our last visit…I’d really like to do that again!)

Fortunately for me, Crazy, Rich, Asianscame to an end about 6 minutes before we touched down in Madrid!  Talk about good timing!!

We got off the plane quickly, and after walking truly blocks and blocks, arrived at Spanish Customs. After our truly horrible experience in Rome last year, I was a bit apprehensive, but truly, it didn’t take five minutes and we were heading to baggage claim.  

Well, remember how early our bags came from Tucson?  Well, that of course wasn’t going to happen twice in one day!  (Or is it another day by now…?)  We waited what seemed to us ages, and R insists were among the last bags to arrive – but arrive they did, so now we have clothes for the next month!

Out to the street about 5:30 pm into about 68 degrees and sunshine, and into a cab for a ride to the Hilton Doubletree Prado in the central part of Madrid.  There is a flat rate charge of 30€to get to the city. Seemed very reasonable to us, and as we’d been up so long, we wanted something quick.  Well…I truly thought that after surviving two flights and thousands of miles, that we were going to be done in by a suicidal cab driver that truly – and we’ve been in cabs in some very busy cities – I’ve never felt that kind of fear before!  Phew!!!

Truly, Madrid is a stunningly beautiful city!  Some lovely parks and very interesting architecture.  Can’t wait to explore; I know we have already screwed up by not staying here for a longer time!

The Doubletree is on a lovely side street near the Prado Museum, and we are in room 201.  It is a very spacious king-sized room with two sets of French doors looking out on the street.  While Robert was getting the computer set up and answering email, I resorted our luggage into “hers” and “his” (I always divide our clothes for long flights, so that if one case goes missing, we both still have clothes to wear!) Then into our huge rain shower, which felt SOOOOgood and into clean clothes.

Finally, about 7:30 pm, we headed back downstairs to look for something to eat.  We got some city maps (which are already driving Robert crazy, as north is NOTat the top like it’s “supposed” to be!) and some suggestions of where to go to find places to eat.

Started to head to El Cortes Inglesbut were side-tracked by La Vinoteca on the corner in Plaza Santa Ana– a perfect place for wine and tapas!  Truly, a wonderful find!  It seemed like we were the only non-locals there, which was great.  We sat at a high table and had a good look at the menu. Fortunately, there was a bit of English, so we decided to plunge right in!

I started with a sparkling Cava which was excellent, and moved on to a fabulous Sauvignon Blanc. Robert went for a Spanish Merlot/Cab mix, which was also excellent.  

We had an order of papasbravas(brave potatoes, ie. Spicy); “toasts” – very large crutons in three kinds – one with wild mushrooms, one with caponadaand cheese, and a mystery third, which I still have to look up. Also had a plate of Ibericoham from the pigs who live on acorns in the forest.  Wow!.  Only problem was that we were sitting a bit too close to the door, and while there was no smoking at all inside the restaurant, there were always those folks who stood right outside the restaurant.  Note to selves:  Sit further inside to avoid that problem.

For dessert, I had some wonderful homemade chocolate ice cream.  YUMMY!

To be honest, while it was only around 8:30 pm by the time we finished, we’d had such a long day that we decided to head back to the hotel to get blogged and hopefully start catching up on SLEEP!  

Oh!  Editor’s note:  Believe it or not, we have so far run into a Tony Roma’sAND a Five Guys!  Really? When the food here is so good?! Oh well!

Back to the hotel stopping first to pick up some much-needed water for the room!  Now to get this done and posted ASAP!

Love to all!

m

xxx