Spain: April in Madrid

 

The tiny Taberna La Concha gave us our introduction to artisanal Spanish vermouth. (No 
one is this photo, however, happens to be drinking the vermouth.) La Concha
 bottles and sells its own vermouth. Other tapas places on the street Cava Baja have 
vermouth on tap. We had both red and white vermouth and we both preferred 
 the red, which is slightly sweet and slightly spicy. A great aperitif.

Jane and I had never been to Madrid, though in 2003 we had toured the north of Spain, Bilbao to Barcelona, by car and enjoyed the Rioja wine region, the ancient small towns and the cosmopolitan cities. Jane had been to southern Spain before we met, but Madrid would be something we look for in travel: a place we haven't been before. Then we'd go to Valencia, followed by southern Spain. Madrid was the logical starting and ending point because of its air connections.

We originally planned to start our trip with five nights in Madrid, giving us plenty of time to recover from jet lag (it's nine hours later than San Diego, where we live) and see some of the world's greatest art collections. But Iberia cancelled the leg that was to have taken us from Dallas to Madrid, stranding us in Dallas for a night.  We finally made it to Madrid a day late (April 9) after flying British Air with a layover in London. 

We arrived at our hotel, the Pestana Plaza Mayor, in time for a late dinner (by our standards, not by Spain's) and a brief exploration of the Plaza Mayor, this historical heart of old Madrid and now given over to souvenir shops, candy shops and, oddly, fabric stores. Our room overlooked the plaza, filled every day with tour groups, illegal sidewalk vendors with blankets full of "designer" goods, and a bunch of sidewalk restaurants. From the hotel, we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go: the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the Parque del Buen Retiro and Cava Baja, a short street lined with tapas bars. Madrid in April could be chilly in the evenings but the days were sunny and comfortable.

Our first morning we walked out to an Orange store and bought the least expensive smart phone they had and a month of service. We used the phone's GPS to help us find our way walking in Madrid and to help with translation. We renewed the service at another Orange store a month later in Seville. (We didn't put a Spanish sim card in one of our U.S. phones because we need those phones to get text messages. On our next international trip, we'll be able to put a new sim card in our Spanish phone.)

When we returned to Madrid a few weeks later at the end of our trip, we stayed two nights at the Only You Boutique Hotel in a different, more upscale and less touristy neighborhood called Salesas. From here we walked to the Templo de Debod, where people line up to be admitted no more than ten at a time to enter the ancient Nubian temple that was relocated to Madrid rather than being submerged when the Nile was dammed to create Lake Nasser. We were also close enough to revisit the Plaza Mayor and Cava Baja. 

In Spain, lunch is usually the big meal of the day, and many restaurants offer a menu del dia, a fixed lunch menu with a starter course, a main dish and a dessert. In the evenings, everything tends to be a la carte. So it might be a salad, a paella and a piece of cake at lunch, and a selections of tapas for supper. Tapas are not to be confused with "small plate" menus in the U.S.  Tapas are usually no more than one or two bites, maybe a third of a piece of toast, spread with tomato puree and topped with a sardine. Something more like a "small plate" would be a media or half racion, sort of half of a half-serving. A racion itself is more like half of a main dish. So for two people, several tapas and maybe two raciones can be a meal. If you want something larger and not to share, it's a plato, about the same as a main dish in the U.S.

We found a good guide online to Cava Baja, and we took the writers' advice and started with a tapas bar called Taberna La Concha. Some of the tapas we enjoyed at La Concha included fish balls in mild Thai green curry, dried duck and orange slices on toast, and smoked sardines on toast. Elsewhere on Cava Baja we had duck confit in puff pastry, anchovy-stuffed olives (called gilda), fois gras on toast, baby squid on toast, quail breast on toast, small pieces of fried rabbit, and a smoked fish plate.  When we returned to Madrid on our way home, we returned to Cava Baja to have lunch at Taberna Tempranillo (magret de canard and grilled asparagus) and to buy two bottles of La Concha's own vermouth, which makes a wonderful aperitif.  At La Concha, there is a ritual involved. First, three ice cubes in a martini glass are spritzed with gin using a perfume mister, then the vermut is added, topped with eight or ten drops of Campari from a vinegar cruet. The ingredients of a Negroni but definitely not a Negroni.  

Cava Baja is just a block or two west of Plaza Mayor. Half-hour walks to the east take you to the Prado and the Reina Sofia, both located just west of the Parque del Buen Retiro, a huge park with a variety of gardens, water features and palaces.  

Picasso's "Guernica," which we'd seen long ago at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, returned to Spain after Franco's death in accordance with Picasso's wishes. It's at the Reina Sofia and is as compelling there as it was in New York.  The museum's focus is the late 1800s to today, and there are many unfamiliar but first-rate works from familiar artists like Picasso, Dali, Miro, Louise Bourgeois and Diego Rivera. There is a good restaurant on the ground level at the back of the building.

The most iconic work at the Prado is "Las Meninas" by Velaquez. A few years ago we saw his portrait of Innocent X at the Doria Pamphilj palace in Rome; the mid-17th-century pope seems to live forever on that canvas. "Las Meninas," by contrast and even though it's Velaquez's most celebrated work, seemed flat. I don't know if it was the lighting or if the Prado has it protected with nonreflective glass that mutes the colors and lessens the contrasts. If it was a disappointment, the museum's many other works by Velaquez, Goya, Reubens and especially "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Bosch made up for it. There is a small cafe with excellent iberico ham sandwiches hidden just off the Reubens gallery on the first floor (the floor above ground level). The Prado does not allow photography, but the Reina Sofia does. 

Here are some photos from Madrid:

Calle de Salitre is a small but steep street west of the Reina Sofia. Madrid is a
supremely walkable city. Just about everything you'd want to see is between
Retiro park in the east and the Royal Palace in the west.

Several arches like this one lead into the Plaza Mayor,
which dates to the 1400s and remains very busy
in the 21st century.

Wine, beer, food and vermouth.  Madrid's
many taverns stress the basics.

Calle las Huertas is one of many pedestrian streets. It connects the Plaza Mayor
neighborhood with the Prado.

The Prado's main facade. The expansive museum dates to 1785 and has seen many
additions and remodels. The entrance is actually in the rear of this building.

"A World," a 1929 work by Angeles Santos (1911-2013). Above it is another view

of a disoriented world, Picasso's "Guernica," his 1937 masterpiece inspired

by the fascist bombing of the northern town of Guernica during

the Spanish Civil War. He refused to show the painting in Spain

until after the death of Franco, who ordered the bombing. Both

of these are at the Reina Sofia museum.

Rowboats can be rented at the monument to King Alfonso X11 in the
350-acre Parque del Buen Retiro (the Good Retreat Park).

The Crystal Palace at Retiro is usually an 
exhibition space, but it was closed for
renovations when we were there.

Topiaries such as this at Retiro require a lot of work. 

Taberna La Concha is one of many tapas bars on Cava Baja,
a short but wonderful street near Plaza Mayor. Anyone visiting
Madrid should plan to join the many locals here.

Vermouth at La Concha is served in stemmed
glasses.  First ice, then a spritz of gin, then
a generous pour of La Concha's own 
vermouth, then a few drops of Campari.
The garnish is a chunk of orange and 
an olive, speared on the same stick.

Meanwhile, down the street at La Perejila,
the vermouth comes straight from a tap 
(or de grifo, which is also the way to
order a draft beer). Gildas are olives
 stuffed with anchovies. Delicious.

The Templo de Debod was given to Spain after Spain helped Egypt relocate
temples away from the rising waters behind the Aswan Dam in the 1960s.

Unlike at the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, visitors in Madrid
who are willing to wait can see the inside the 
 Nubian temple, part of which dates from the second
 century B.C.E. It was originally near the Nile a few
 miles upstream from what is now called the Aswan
High Dam. Most of  the depictions are of a
king paying homage to a god.

On our last evening in Madrid, we discovered Ficus, an
Africa-themed bar in the Salesas neighborhood near the 
Only You Boutique Hotel. The drink on the left is a 
"Cape Town Pisco." The other is "Greek Tonic,"
an herbed-up gin and tonic. 

Back home in San Diego, we can still enjoy
La Concha's vermouth, but it looks as if
our two bottles will soon be one bottle.