DAY 3 – Saturday 19 June
Started at 2pm :D We took the “Artistic Walk” through Madrid as suggested by Loney Planet. To begin our walk we headed down Calle de Fuencarral and stopped into a place for our first 'Menu del Dia' lunch. For Menu del Dia, your meal usually consists of at least 2 courses, dessert, and a drink. For our first course (primera), we had a paella marisco (a seafood, rice dish which equals yumminess) and a gazpacho (a cold, tomato soup). Segundo (our second course) was Costilla con Salsa Barbacoa and Filete Parrillada con Salsa Roquefort. Both dishes came with a huge portion of french fries and a tiny salad. For dessert, which we were barely able to finish, was Flan and Arroz con Leche. Lunch was amazing, but definitely too much for two girls who know how to eat! We have decided on smaller lunches from now on. [Spaniards, we are proud and in awe of your eating habits.]
Our walk really began after lunch and led us to numerous sites where painters and writers spent their time during the 16th century. The neighborhoods proudly showed their age through their architecture and their prices. Paseo de la Castellana showed us the riches of Banco Espana and provided us with a beautiful promenade under its trees. We were then led back into the Sol district where we found a plaza named “Plaza de Santa Ana”. It stands before the Teatro de Madrid which has been founded since the 16th century. Also, surrounding the plaza are numerous restaurantes con terrazas; the one which struck our fancy was a cervezaria that served una jarra (jug) of tinto de verano (wine with soda) for 2 euro. Of course, it was still too early for us little ladies to drink—it was only 5pm—so we put it on our To-Do list for the night.
Our first and only museum stop of the day was at the Museo del Prado! It houses many works of Goya, an amazing Spanish painter, Rivera, Velazquez, and many more! We found out the Prado is free after 6pm, and luckily, we arrived at 5:45p. The line may be long to get in for free, but don't be intimidated because it moves very fast. When visitng the Prado, take your time on the second floor because this floor houses the majority of Goya's works, features many other Spanish artists, has an amazing collection of Flemish art, and even manages to throw in some Raphael for you.
After the Prado, we headed back to the hostel for siesta and Skype, then at about 10ish, we headed out for dinner.
Tapas Crawl #3:
Bodega Melibea – 2 ciders and 2 pinchos de tortilla de espanola. We over-ordered on this one and had to walk to La Latina to make room for more food. Upon our return to the Sol area, we wanted to eat at Las Bravas but found they were closing up.
About 1am, we headed over to Santa Ana to try that cervezaria, but there were no seats available at the terraza and inside didn't look to entertaining, so we left and had churros con chocolate and 2 cafes con leche at Chocoleteria de San Gines instead.
DAY 4 – Sunday 20 June
We woke up early and went to the 10am Mass at San Gines—the oldest Catholic church in Madrid. The church was small but very beautiful, and as its altar piece was a painting by El Greco. Mass usually takes 1 hour and about 15 minutes, this day, it only took 40 minutes.
After church, we went to the Museo de Real Academia de Belles Artes located right behind the Sol district. This museum is free for students under 26; it also housed works from Goya, Rivera, and Velazquez and has Picasso but half of the museum was closed (probably because it was a Sunday) so we didn't get to see his work.
The Museo del Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, however, housed a great collection of Picasso's work including the infamous “Guernica”. This work is monstrous and awe-inspiring; the museum dedicated a whole room just for its display. The Reina Sofia is Madrid's modern/contemporary art museum, and it's free on Sundays but they do close at 2:30pm. This museum also features Dali and receives four thumbs up.
For lunch, we ate mondatitos (mini sandwiches) at the cervezaria we wanted to drink at the night before. We ended up getting more sandwiches than we paid for because the server mixed up our orders, but we didn't complain. The salmon humado con crema de queso (smoked salmon with cream cheese) was the best sandwich by far.
The rest of the afternoon was filled with nothing but shopping, and not just any shopping, H&M shopping. Spanish fashion = lots of H&M, and where our hostel is, there are 3 H&Ms located less than 5 minutes away from each other. Clothes shopping led to another type of shopping which brings us to our “Quest for Candy”. Over the last 3 days, we have seen kids with this pink, taffy type candy that was in a clear bag. It was decided that the evening would be spent searching for that candy. We asked a funny waiter at Plaza de Mayor if he knew where a candy shop was, and when he said yes we were excited. The place he suggested was a cookie place though, not candy. Other people we asked carried candy at their shops, so they only wanted us to buy their candy and were ultimately no help. In the end, we settled for a candy shop we had discovered the day before on our artistic walk called Ricon.
Tapas Crawl #4 (this one was much more successful)
Bodega Melibea – 2 sangrias and an empanada chileana de pollo.
Taberna Txacoli – una cerveza y una bomba (mashed potato meatball with mushroom gravy)
Las Bravas – 2 sangrias and oreja de bravas (pig ears with brava sauce)
Because it was 45 degrees outside, instead of hitting up another tapas bar, we decided to grab a warm cup of....guess.....try hard....cafe con leche and churros con chocolate!!!!!!!!
By the time we got back, it was 1am and time to get ready for the bus ride to Cordoba the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment