Spain: Practically Locals

Wednesday was our third day in Spain, a day for an extensive city tour of Madrid.

We had a few hours in the morning free before our tour, so we decided to head out and explore the city some more.  And whenever we explore, we always seem to be drawn to the goodies.  Why is that/

The pastries in Spain are a beautiful to look at as they are to eat!  I got shooed out of this place for pulling out my camera.  I can never understand why shop keepers don't like it when people take pictures of their shops, even if we are buying something.  What are they afraid of?  Do they think i am going to try to steal their secret recipes?  Whatever.

Once again, I can't get enough of the beautiful buildings!

A colorful fun soap shop was terrific!

Dennis spent some time in a coin and stamp shop while I wandered around taking more pics.

"God is in the details."

I love the nuns!

Back in the Plaza Mayor.

Look at that sky!  I loved the painted frescoes on the walls in the Plaza Mayor.

It is early morning, but the tables are set and ready for the onslaught of people who love to hang out in the Plaza.  We stop under an arch for a picture together.

Leaving the Plaza Mayor to explore a new street.  We were quickly learning that you can turn down any street in downtown Madrid and find something exciting!  You just can't go wrong!

We peeked inside this old Church.  Incredible!

I want a balcony like this on my next house!

More nuns!  I love how they are always walking arm in arm.

I just love the look of this Mercado de San Miguel, just outside of the Plaza Mayor!  It is just like the covered markets that I loved in Paris!  I wanted so bad to go inside, but we had to hurry back to the hotel so we wouldn't miss the bus.

After our walk about town, we loaded the buses for our Madrid City Tour.

This more modern building was very interesting.  It is suspension engineering.  That means that it is hanging.  They build the green supporting structure, then the floors were built form the top down, starting with the top floor.  Cool.

Our first stop was lunch, at one of Madrid's best restaurants, we were told, the Riofrio.

It was quite elegant with windows looking out onto the busy streets.  The specialty...

Paella!  I was looking forward to trying real Spanish paella, and Riofrio did not disappoint.  The paella came out in a HUGE pan (those are large plates stacked next to that pan!)  And the color!  So bright and yellow from the saffron in the rice dish with chicken, shrimp, and shellfish, and then add all the bright colors from the vegetables.  Paella is delicious!

Madrid had their own triumphal arch, symbolic gate to the city - the Puerta de Alcala.

The banking district.

The most famous street in Madrid, and the street with the best shopping is the Gran Via.  Can you believe the huge horses and driver statues on the tops of the buildings?

It is a fabulous street!

I love how the architects put big plaques on their buildings to let everyone know just who made these lovely buildings, top.  Who can blame them?  They should be proud!  They are pieces of art!

These round black things, bottom, are actually the tops to the newspapers stands, and are similar to the ones in Paris.  I love how they make everything pretty here, ever the news stands!

Madrid has recently started to build their own Spanish Broadway so people can enjoy great theatre in the Spanish language.  El Rey Leon needs no translation.

I loved the statue of the flamenco dancer, above, amid her fans!  So Spanish!

One of the great monuments in Madrid was built to a pair of fictional characters, the long lanky, and a bit off-the-rocker wannabe gallant knight, Don Quioxote on his tired steed, and his dimwitted faithful sidekick Sancho Panchez astride his donkey.  Together the roam the countryside of La Mancha, looking for chivalrous adventures.  I read much of Don Quioxote when I found out I was coming to Madrid, and even though the language is somewhat archaic, it is quite funny and had me laughing out loud more than I had expected.  I'm still trying to get through it.

Above the the fictional characters is yet another statue of Cervantes, the author of the famed book.

The bus tour brought us through many of the more remote neighborhoods that are not so accessible on foot from out hotel, like the more modern, upper crust neighborhood of Salamanca with its pricey shops.

And by the beautiful gates of the city's large Retiro Park.

We asked the tour guide where the Hard Rock Cafe was, because Nathan collects HR pins, and instead of telling us where it was, she had the bus driver bring us right there after dropping off everyone else at the hotel.  How nice!  A charter bus to take us to the Hard Rock.  I felt like a rock star.

Of course, it was only a one way trip, so we were left to walking back.  We took the long way, of course, down a tree-lined avenue.

I LOVE this building!  I love everything about it.  The slate roof, the round window, the moldings, the color, and the orange awnings!

The tile work on this ABC building was fantastic!

Check out the weather vane on top!  That is just super fabulous!

And look at this lovely lady!  Yeah baby.  I think her mirror might be a bit small, though.  It looks like Dennis likes 'em large and lovely, so there might be hope for me after all.

I think one of my favorite things about Europe is the bread!

We made our way back to the great shopping street, the Gran Via.  This is the fanciest McDonalds I have ever scene.  The guide said that this spot is the some of the highest retail rent in the city and McDonalds was the only company rich enough to afford this prime location.

Fabulous shopping from discount clothiers, like the shop where the poor old guy is dozing (classic) to uppers end Spanish shops, like Zara.  It is all here on the Gran Via, Madrid's answer to the Champs Elysees of Paris.

Dennis disappeared for a bit, and I found here emerging from the Swarovski store.  Sneaky.  He bought me some pretty blue bling to wear to the formal dinner Saturday night.  What a sweetie pie!

Wednesday evening we boarded the buses again for more "mystery dining" but tonight, instead of fine dining, we were getting more casual tapas.

The buses brought us, again, the long way through town and dropped us off right in front of the Mercado that I had seen and loved earlier.  But we had no time to go inside (darn), because the mystery dinner was in the other direction - back into the Plaza del Sol - the big cafe lined square where they used to  have the bull fights.

We were excited to think that we were having dinner in the Plaza del Sol.  It was a beautiful evening, and we thought it would be great to sit outside and watch all the crazy action in the square.  Unfortunately, we were taken downstairs again to the basement.  But this basement was not nearly as old or as fantastic as the one we dined in the night before, and was way more casual.  We had been spoiled, and that was a hard act to follow.

Dinner was tapas.  Now before I went to Spain, I had heard about tapas, but never could get a clear definition of what tapas was.  And after eating a whole dinner of tapas, I still can't really tell you what it is.  I guess tapas is just appetizers.  Spain does the whole siesta thing like we had seen in Italy, where folks take the mid day off, had a big meal, and take a nap if they can.  So lunch is the big meal of the day.  Then, late at night, people head to the bars and instead of a full dinner, will just have tapas, or small portions of food with their beer or wine.  We sampled plate after plate of tapas: several types of jamon ham and chorizo, little fried things, stuffed small peppers, sauteed mushrooms, and such.  None of it was too memorable.  The only thing memorable about this dinner was that spray bottle right in front of me.  It was spray-on liquid salt.  I have never seen that before, and was glad to see it there, because for some reason in Spain, there is rarely salt on the table, and you always have to ask for it.  But spray salt? I think it is an idea who's time has come.

Of all the days we spent in Spain, Wednesday was the least exciting, I think, (other than the entire day we spent sitting at the airport to go home.)  We had seen enough of Madrid - we knew our way around now and were practically locals.  But we were excited for tomorrow - a day trip to Toledo and an evening of flamenco!  We ditched the charter bus and walked back to the hotel, then hit the sack.