On Friday morning, we left Barcelona, taking a high-speed train to Madrid. It is a two and a half hour ride, mostly through the countryside. I’d like to be able to report more on the scenery, but trains seem to put me to sleep, so I missed a big chunk of it. Judie told me that there were castles and vistas.

Madrid: I don’t think that Madrid is one of the cities that is viewed as a must-see destination and, having been there, Judie and I could not figure out why that is.  It has beautiful architecture, great museums, good restaurants, an efficient subway system and it is much warmer than places like London. The part where most of the tourist stuff is located is walkable and not too big. It is inexpensive to go there from London, which is probably why there seemed to be countless “hen parties” and bachelor parties featuring oddly-dressed, inebriated Brits.

We stayed at very nice hotel on The Grand Via, which appeared to have just been renovated and reopened. The Grand Via is a major street in Madrid and is lined with a series of lovely buildings, mostly made of white stone with balconies and turrets and bay windows, interrupted occasionally by wide avenues and squares containing outdoor cafes. The street is home to many hotels and theatres. At one end is the beautiful City Hall, a former communications building of all things, and the Prado and the other main museums. At the other end is the Palace and Cathedral. While Judie was working on Friday afternoon, I wandered around for an hour or two and finally parked myself at an outdoor cafe and just enjoyed the early summer weather and watched people walk by. When I finally returned and Judie finished her last call, we retreated the roof of the hotel, where there was a bar with nice views and comfy places to sit.

   

That night, we went to a restaurant called La Baracca. I had looked into going to Botin, reputed to be the oldest restaurant in the world, but couldn’t get reservations. So I made reservations at this other one and it turned out to be across the street from the back door of our hotel. They specialize in paella and it really was delicious. The seafood in it was just OK, but the rice was just wonderful. It had great flavor and was both fully cooked a just a little crunchy, which we guessed may have come from cooking it in individual paella pans. The best we’d ever had.

The next day, we took one of those on-off tourist buses, taking a full loop around Madrid to decide where to get off. We got to see everything and get slightly sun burned at the same time.The Palace and the surrounding parks are up on a hill (which is why Madrid is where it is), with some pretty views. We decided to skip going into the Place since the lines were too long and went to the Cathedral next door instead. (I have become pretty sick of hearing about royal families and their histories. All of the European capitals seem to have this stuff. At a certain point, it just gets to be boring stories about a rich families. We did happen to walk by the Palace when the guards in funny uniforms out front were marching about and shouting.) We went up to the dome of the Cathedral (elevator part of the way made it easier) for some great views of the city. We continued on for a fairly long walk back to our hotel, via Plaza Mayor, a gorgeous square in the middle of Madrid with a long history. It is ringed by restaurants with alfresco dining and drinking.

        

Catastrophe Averted: By mid-afternoon on Saturday trying to find Plaza Mayor, Judie and I gave up and were sitting at an outdoor cafe (little did we know that we were two blocks from the Plaza we were tying to find), surrounded by hen party groups, tourists and families. We were eating Iberian ham, gazpacho, patatas bravas and fresh anchovies and washing it down with sangria and beer, when this kid comes up with a menu, puts it on the table and begins talking to us and pointing at it. There is a moment of confusion and then all of a sudden my old NYC radar kicked in. What is he doing here? He’s not my waiter! Why is that black peddler looking at him like that from over there? I instinctively slam my hand onto the table, moving the menu and instantly both of our hands are on my iPhone, which he had put the menu on top of. He gave up and ran away as I was screaming at him. A really close call…..

The Prado: On Sunday morning, we decided to go to the Prado. It was tempting to go to the Reina Sofia Museum, which is where Picasso’s “Guernica” is, but the Prado was a shorter walk and it is hard to go to Madrid and not go there. It was a pretty spectacular museum, although I have to admit hat I eventually got sick of all of the paintings of Jesus, Mary and various saints and martyrs in various states of torment and torture. But getting to see Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” was a treat, as was a room of paintings by Goya from his “Black period”. There were lots a lovely paintings and the museum was very well laid out. Here is one of those Goyas I particularly liked:

As a bonus, there was a special exhibit of the paintings an artist named George de La Tour, an Alsatian painter who seemed to be influenced by Caravaggio. There are only 40 of his works known to exist and the exhibit had 31 of them. The were just spectacular. Who is this guy? Two of them are below.

      

Copa Del Rey: After the Prado, I convinced Judie to go back to Plaza Mayor for a final visit and alfresco drink. It turned out to be a little further than I though and, even worse, all uphill, so I was not dealing with a happy camper by the end of the walk. But it really turned out great. The Plaza was hopping because it happened to be the day of the Copa del Rey, basically the Super Bowl for the Spanish football (soccer) league. The game was to be played in Madrid (at Athletico’s stadium) and featured mighty Barcelona (with their front line of Messi, Suarez and Nemar that is so great that it is almost unfair, plus great players like Ineinesta, Pique, etc.) vs. Sevilla, who are also no slouches (but without the star power). Fans for both teams, in full regalia, converged on the Plaza Mayor and were drinking and singing and marching and waving their colors. It was all high spirited and great fun. (Barca won 2-0 in overtime later that night.)