WARNING: This post is NSFW.
So sue me.
What do you know about Madrid? What have you heard?
We have a day and a half here, and after the first half-day I am wishing we had another day or two on top of it.
I forget how much we like Spain. We spent a couple weeks in Southern Spain, but this is our first time in Madrid.
And what a surprise it is.
I have.
And today I found out.
We are staying at the Vitium Urban Suites (Vitium Hostal), in Madrid Spain. We had a nice double room reserved, but they upgraded us to one of the deluxe suites and what a treat it is. We are in the “nose” of the building, and almost the entire exterior curved wall is taken up by two huge french doors, with side doors, that open up onto patios. We can literally open up almost the entire wall of the room!
Amazingly cool room.
We are right above the Calle Gran Via, the iconic main street full of traffic, stores and theaters. But this is really just the street that leads to the side streets; all the little pedestrian lanes full of shops and cafés, squares and plazas tucked in here and there. Walking the Gran Via it is almost overwhelming, so much to look at. I feel dizzy from looking around.
The buildings are fantastical, with spires and statues, carvings and curves and balconies. Just when you have seen the best possible apartment; iron-railed, curved marble balcony with carved figures on the side, building topped with a spire, you spot another, even better.
You could make a book just photographing the carvings, figures and building toppers (There you go, Mark N, your next photography project. Might pay for the trip…)
Just up from us, at the intersection with Calle de Jacometrezo, there is so much neon that it looks like Times Square in New York City. The Schweppes sign is here, along with those bright TV screen signs that are the size of a building, advertising mobile phones, theater events and so on. In fact there are entire buildings with what appear to be TV screens in the windows, advertising this or that. And the theaters, with the giant signs advertising Queen, El Rey León, and other plays and musicals.
Well, this is the city of the pig.
Pork Central.
Jamón ibérico to be precise.
There are Jamón butchers on every block, and every one of them is full of hanging legs of smoked and dried pig; crowded with people eating slices of this or that type with beer or a glass of wine. his is a pork lovers’ paradise. I am having the time of my life for a euro here, a euro there. It is so easy to belly up to the bar and throw down a coin or two for the best, melt in your mouth thin sliced ham…
It took a little doing to get here.
From the airport, terminal 4, we took the light blue C-1 metro rail to Chamartin. There we transfered to the C-7 orange metro which worked its way out into the country (Hey Gail… we seem to be moving away from Madrid, not into it…) to the Principe Pio station at the end. From there it was a fifteen minute walk. The cost for the tour was €3,10 each.
Well, we stood and stared out the windows of our room a while, but then dropped our stuff and headed out. We just wandered sort of blindly in the general direction of the Centro, up the Gran Via until we saw the fabric shaded pedestrian lanes running off to the right. We just chose one to follow.
It is hot here, like at home. There is a giant thermometer on one side of a building, and it reads 35° (95 F) but the air is dry so it’s actually nice out.
So we walked until we stumbled across the main square, Puerta del Sol (Square, or Plaza of the Sun). It seems like every lane leads to the Puerta del Sol, known as “Kilometer Zero" and the very centre of the country.
It is home to the famous statue of “The Bear and The Strawberry Tree” (*note: “Strawberry Tree? WTF?!?!), the official symbol of Madrid.
Yes. OK. That makes sense now.
I mean, I was wondering what the deal is with all those strawberry trees we have been walking under.
Three Mickey Mice and one Minnie Mouse worked the crowd trying to pose for photos. I saw Minnie with her head off, and she was the saddest, most tired old woman I have seen.
Giant Teddy Bears are a thing this year.
Last year it was the statue people, and the year before it was the levitating guy. But now we see huge, eight foot tall bears; brown bears, polar bears, pandas. They just stand there, sweating I suppose, swaying and waiting for the euros to plunk in the can.
In the square a mariachi band, complete with huge floppy hats and black suits trimmed in silver, strummed and plonked out Mexican hits. Mexico.
Spain.
It all makes perfect sense in context of the strawberry trees.
A girl was over by the fountain singing Spanish pop hits with guitar player. Now she was good, and the younger crowd was singing along with her. Meanwhile down the street, in front of a graffiti-scribbled fold up door, a full on string sextet was playing beautiful classics, competing with the squeeky-scrunchy accordion guy gee-gawing a block away. Trumpet guy was over a street playing to a beat box.
I love the free entertainment.
This place is the absolute best! They have one hundred tapas for €1. Most are like little sandwiches, but some are things like fries (with sauce) or breaded mozzarella or chicken balls.
I had a pulled pork sandwich, a chicken bacon tomato sandwich, and Gail ordered acheese tomato pesto. With two mugs of the cold, red “summer wine” (on tap!) the total cost was €6
See the photos below.
Later we stopped at La Vinoteca for good wine and great sounding but unfortunately ho-hum tapas. The tapas looked nice and had fancy names.
I had Curry Chicken with Nuts, a Cheddar and Emmental Cheese au Gratin with Shoulder of Pork, and Iberian Tenderloin with Onion Confit and Foie.
Gail had a slice of Spanish potato omelette, then a Leek Confit with Brie Cheese.
But the price was too much, and as I said the tapas were blah.
The wines, however, were excellent. I had two really nice Spanish reds: Valdelacierva Reserva, a Tempranillo and then one called Emporda Cercium, a nice strong blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carñena, Garnacha, and Syrah.
Gail had a glass of Rias Baixas Zelos, which was 100% Albariño.
The 100 Montaditos was much better, and we will return there. Not as fancy, but the taste and prices are excellent!
We took a nice night walk, the Passeo (passeggiata in Italy) looking at everyone looking at us. This is the prime time of the day (along with sunrise for me) when things finally cool off. God the lighting on the buildings, neon signs, windows outlined, floodlights on the sides of buildings, highlighting just that certain feature… really it is spectacular in the way the Las Vegas strip looks so cool. It was a balmy night, perfect to stroll and look, and we were out late.
The next morning I was up early looking for coffee (the only place open at 5:30 AM was the 24 hour McDonalds, but surprisingly they made a pretty good espresso macchiato).
I dropped off our laundry and the lady said she would do it, can we return at 19:00?
We put in over ten miles walking the city today. We went in zero museums (I wanted to see the Prado, but Gail is not a museum buff) but we really worked the streets, trying to make a big circle to see what we could.
I got a neck cramp from looking up at all the buildings and statues.
In no particular order:
We passed by the Monumento a Cristóbal Colón, old Chis Columbus himself on top of a tall column, pointing the way to the new world. They have not heard here that Chis is a persona non grata in the US these days.
In the park next to the traffic circle there is a great sculpture of a woman’s head, very tall and thin. I lined up just right to make her lips appear ready to swallow Chris.
We strolled through the big city park, Parque de El Retiro. There we saw the big lake with the spectacular Estanque Grande del Retiro. This kind of reminded me of the plaza de espana in Seville.
Smack in the middle of the park is the Crystal Palace, Palacio de Cristal. This is a very cool glass building, completely empty save for a few pure white sculptures. It is just a very cool open space, but as you can imagine, a glass building in the blazing sun (over 100°F today) is not the place to hang out. The naked lady statue seemed to be enjoying the warmth of the sun, however.
There is a Johnnie Walker (Scotch Whiskey) store, the first one in the world, just opened to rave reviews. It even won an architectural design award.
We stopped in to see it, and noted the bottle of Scotch for €2,500 ($2,800 USD).
We sprung €2 for a sampler bottle instead.
This is one of those times I wish we didn’t travel with just carry-on luggage. We could have filled a bottle with scotch-of-our-choice from the barrel, and made a custom label for it. Well, maybe the store concept will take off and they will open one in San Francisco.
I had to go see the Fuente del Ángel Caído (fountain of the fallen angel, Satan), a fountain dedicated to old Beelzebub himself. Cute little demons, some with horns, others cute enough to take home as a pet, spit water out at the base as old Lucifer is pulled down. I suspect he might like to dunk in the water today however.
Leave it to Madrid to have a fountain for Satan.
The Metropolis Building is a spectacular landmark along the Via.
Just past it we stopped for sparkling water while listening to Neil Young and people watching.
Those damn stick weed scam ladies were out doing their best to scam tourists, without much luck. There is this thing called the internet, where you can google stuff like “Tourist Scams in Europe.”
It works like this:
They approach you with a smile and a sprig of rosemary that they want to give you “for good luck.” If you take it, they demand money and will refuse to take it back, getting in your face even screaming to cause a scene. Most people throw a few euros at them just to be rid of the shame. Well these ladies were actually running into people, getting in their way and blocking them. If it were me, I would have knocked the rosemary from their hand if they tried to block me.
I figured the king doesn’t need my euros all that much, you know, being king and all.
Next to that is the Catedral de la Almudena, which looks very nice from a distance. There was a group playing on the steps and the way the music echoed across the courtyard was beautiful.
At the suggestion (via text message) from Cousin Cheryl, we climbed up on Mirador de la Montaña de Príncipe Pío, or the mighty “Lookout Mountain.”
Now, don’t get too impressed with our climbing skills. It is really one set of stairs (barely registered on my iPhone Health App - one frickin’ set of stairs.) up a little hill.
From waaaaay up there we had a view over part of Madrid, and back towards the Palace and Cathedral.
It is also the the place where the Temple of Debod is rebuilt. The temple is an honest-to-god Egyptian temple, sent over as a gift. It’s pretty small, there was a long line to get in, and since we were in Egypt like last year we decided to skip the inside. But we liked the view.
I didn’t realize it until Gail googled, but Madrid is the third largest city in Europe, with 3.3 million people (London 1, Berlin 2).
I guess the good food, cheap wine, warm sun and friendly vibe makes up for the strawberry trees.
We passed the bull fighter bar, like in Sevilla, with the heads of famous bulls on the head. There was a sort of really weird, long legged frog statue. We saw more turtles in one pond than I have ever seen, even in a pet shop. A turtle infestation.
There is a nice statue to the refugees. Imagine that. Instead of demonizing them, they make a statue for their bravery in striving for a better life.
You know: the American Way.
We walked through Plaza Mayor, a huge square with a building painted with all sorts of *GASP* naked women.
On top of one building, instead of the usual Atlas Holding The World, or Goddess Shooting Arrow statue, there is a crashed angel who fell head first into the roof!
There was a guy in a Spiderman outfit who had a big belly, probably to teach the kids what happens in life if you enjoy the jamon a little to much, or imbibe in too much wine.
Madrid has a very large and active LGBT population, with flags everywhere. Even the pedestrian signals, walk and stop, have two women holding hands. However, on the heterosexual front, many of the statues feature full breasts and peni (penises ?).
This is NOT the city to come to if you are
Afraid of the devil
Scared to see naked things
Worried about homosexuality.
Scared of refugees or people who look different than you and who don't speak your language.
Stay home instead. You are welcome.
There is a lot of America here. We passed three McDonalds, four Starbucks, a couple Burger Kings, two Five Guys, Subway, KFC, two Tony Roma and one TGI Friday’s.
In spite of all this American temptation, we returned to The 100 Montaditos for our choice of 100 tapas and the good cold red wine, Tinto on tap (Tinto de Verano Jarra).
Sweaty, hot and thirsty we returned to our room, turned on the AC and enjoyed the traditional siesta.
Tomorrow we continue on to a new part of Spain, a place I have heard of, but I don’t personally know anyone who has been there: Canarias.
The Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco.