Holiday in Madrid and ¡Bona tarda, Barcelona!

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Late night  = late morning. We wake up the next morning to a city that was almost completely shut down.  La virgen Almudena is the patron saint of Madrid, and so on this day, Madrid shuts down except for bars and restaurants, and the whole city celebrate its version of the Virgin Mary by eating out. I love holidays in Madrid.  For tourists, it may seem inconvenient, but it is such a boost for local restaurants, in my opinion. I thought the Línea Cero stall in the Sol metro station because it was in the middle of tourist central, but alas, it was also closed for the holiday, too.  These stalls sell jewelry, handbags, hats, clothes, and scarves – all of which are hip and cheap, so I always make a point in stopping by one while in Madrid.  I still have all of the pieces I’ve bought from there because I love it so much.

We go straight for the train station.  With beautiful foliage and clean benches, we park ourselves under a tree, and I go exploring. I found a great little shop called Natur. If you need something to compare this shop to, then imagine if Claire’s Accessories and Muji had a classy, eco-friendly child. Souvenirs – check! Off to the train!

After finding our seats and settling in, we had lunch on the train.  We had already pulled away from the platform, and we were well on our way to Barcelona at more than 220 km/hr, or approximately 137 mi/hr. The café car was fabulous. The menu was great as pictured above. I got the ciabatta with a large quantity of Iberian ham and a red wine. Hubby ordered a combo of a smoked pork loin with roasted green chilies, potato chips, and a beer. Oh, lunch was simple and glorious. Who knew train food could be so lush?

The metro in Barcelona still offers 2, 3, 5, and 7-day unlimited passes for the convenience of tourists, so that was a bonus.  We hop on and make our way to my friend Éric Fuentes’ home.  Éric is formerly of the well-toured band The Unfinished Sympathy and is now pursuing a solo career making quite the name for himself around Europe as El Mal (The Evil). Check out his latest album on . . . and catch him on tour.

After a lot of drinking and catching up, Amit and I decide we need to get dinner before all of the neighborhood bars close. Our host recommended Bar Versailles as it never disappointed him. We found it easily on the main drag in the neighborhood. This establishment only provides beer, cocktails, coffee, and water as libations, so both the husband and I got a beer while deciding on which tapas we would try out of the cold case on the counter. We finally make up our minds and choose some rather heavy dishes as we were quite hungry of boiled potatoes dressed in aioli (garlic mayonnaise), mini chorizos stewed in cider, and a mixed olive plate. We make our way back to the house and enjoy an evening of mocking the television programs and getting to know Éric’s companion Maria.  Off to bed!

A Night on the Town

What a wonderful nap! Recharged and ready to go, the hubby and I set out on the town.  The Prado has evening hours where patrons can enter for free during the week, and so does the Museo Reina Sofía museum. We were ambitious and planned to stop by both museums before meeting up with my art history professor from grad school, Ángel Aragonés, who was normally a working artist in Madrid until pre-austerity measures cut a lot of the funding for the arts all around Europe.

When we came up out of the metro, the Prado was first on the list, but with closing time coming soon, we decided the skip the Prado since we had spent an entire morning there on our last trip and moved along to the Reina Sofía.  I really wanted to see Picasso’s “Guernica” again as it will be the 75^th anniversary of the painting in April 2012. I mixed up the day the Reina Sofía would be closed with the day that the Prado would be closed, so when we arrived at the museum, it was pitch black inside.  Only the office workers were coming in and out of the building, and there seemed to be an event going on.  We ended up at no museums that night.  Since we were already near the Atocha Renfe train station being at the Reina Sofía, I get the bright idea to go ahead and pick up our AVE (high-speed train) tickets while we were in the area.

Walking into the train station, the hubby’s eyes got really big.  There was so much to see. Between the rainforest in the middle of the station, the photography exhibition, and all of the shops and stalls, we occupied ourselves for quite some time before going and purchasing our AVE tickets. Once we picked up the tickets, the timing was perfect. Ángel was ready to meet us at his studio near Plaza Mayor.

Without a map in hand, we managed to make our way to the studio.  It is exactly the same – filled to the brim with sculptures and paintings, tools and canvases. I drop off a batch of the cranberry bliss cookies with Ángel for his afternoon tea in the studio, and we first go next door to the bar that he frequents.  We sat down and got a round of beers which came with a small dish of choice mixed pickles. The olives were delicately treated which impressed my husband because you could really taste the fruitiness of the olive itself and not just the brine as with most. After watching an episode “On the Road Again” about callos in Madrid, the husband was obsessed with trying it. Luckily, the bar featured a house callos dish, an offal stew with chickpeas, chorizo, and paprika. The tripe glistened with the gelatinous sauce.  The paprika was smoky and fruity.  The three of us cleaned the cazuela with the half-loaf of bread provided.  We all washed it down with a light local lager and moved onto the next venue.

We ended the evening at Stop Madrid. The wine flowed and so did the conversation.  Ángel and I would chatter in Castilian while my husband took photos of the bar and tried to keep up with our conversation.  We would pause, and I would interpret for my husband where he had gaps in understanding.  Ángel would use his broken English every once in a while to keep the hubby in the conversation, but I have to say, the wine helped my husband’s interpretation skills throughout the evening.  Dish after dish of tapas would come by . . . slices of silky dried beef followed by a plateful of tomato slices grown by the bar’s owner with sea salt, olive oil, and parsley, and a big slice of tuna pie were the highlights of the evening.

At the end of the night, we had a joyful departure from Ángel who is having an exhibition at the end of November in Madrid will, hopefully, be visiting us in New York for an exhibition here in the Spring.  He certainly is one of my favorite people in the world.