Coaching for Pizza: Exploring Madrid's Barrio Salamanca

Thursday, 27 October, 2016:

I made the conscious decision to spend the bulk of my continued exploration into a part of Madrid that I had not been to before.

My target area was the Salamanca barrio of the capital.

Do not confuse this barrio with the great city of Salamanca that is at the top of my list of cities to visit once Laurie arrives.

Got off the green #9 Metro

at Principe de Vergara

I emerged into the fringe of barrio Salamanca in need of nourishment.

Found It!

No time to change the winning routine, cafe con leche and a pincho of tortilla Español it was.

No churros or porous for me, my body is a temple!

Lots of old books for sale

In the 1870s, the Marquis de Salamanca began construction of this barrio which at that time was barren land just outside Madrid's main core. By the time that the original project was completed in the 1920s, Salamanca was Madrid's premier address.

Lots of great architecture

in Barrio Salamanca

See what I mean?

Love it!

Laurie's coming, I'll

need some of these soon

The first words/thoughts that popped into my head while traversing this barrio were upscale, pricey, Rodeo Drive, out of my league, etc.

I got the feeling that if you entered one of the many stores and found the need to ask how much something costs, you probably should not have gone in in the first place.

Now that's a doorway!

Blitz? Dooley?

Who did this to Andy, Jenn and Kevin's dog?

Visigoths invading Las Vegas no doubt.

Church Architecture

Gothic

Catholics and our Dragons

This is an elementary school

It didn't look anything at all like Camarillo's venerable Las Posas Elementary School.

Oh Boy!

Let it be proclaimed yet again from the mountain tops, I LOVE EUROPE'S TRADITIONAL FOOD MARKETS!

Barrio Salamanca's Mercado de la Paz is also upscale as many of Madrid's top restaurants and chefs buy their goods here.

Saffron in bulk anyone?

I'd buy this fish for

the can's colors alone

Goodness sakes alive!

A good food market must have

fresh produce

Lots of fresh produce

Almost Halloween in Spain too

I like ribs

I also love jamon iberico

Lots of jamon iberico

PULPO!

Shellfish too

Mariscos

Laurie loves these olive stands

Me, not so much.

The Mercado also has a needed

shoe repair shop

The Deli & Croq

Croquetas Gourmet

They sell croquetas with 23 different fillings ready for the customer to take home and fry themselves.

YIKES!

I love cheese too

Yes, I know, I'm a barbarian

for loving foie gras

Maybe there is a drop or two of Visigoth blood in me from an ancient relative.

Who wouldn't want to eat

lunch under a boar's head

Customers having a morning snack

This is more to my liking

You have to have wine

with your meal

It's only civilized.

I was ready to move on . . .

. . . when this bodega came into view

Well, now I had to go in

The bodega was a classic!

A random fountain

The Carrusel Serrano

Also known as the Carrusel de Belle Epoque because of its 19th century styling, this is a kid's delight in front of one of Spain's many El Corte Inglés department stores.

More Barrio Salamanca

architecture

Blue tiles are GRANDE in España

WOW!

Nice apartment building

Moorish architecture is good too

Serene Moorish style building

I suddenly felt safer

GREAT balcony!

How old is this door?

Barrio Salamanca's avant-garde

open air sculpture garden

Iberian Bulls

Beats me?

I loved how the sun reflecting off

of a nearby building lit up this

piece of art

Abstract art

Angles

Granite spheres

Cube near a waterfall

Heavy duty suspension

Sun reflected shadows from that

nearby building continued to

add to the artsy feeling

To sum up, Barrio Salamanca was great!

I decided to board the Metro, Madrid's fabulous mass transportation system, and head to one of Madrid's more unusual sites.

Now this is outdoor art to me

Memorial to those who died on

this site defending the old

Cuartel de la Montaña

during the Spanish Civil War

The Cuartel no longer exists, instead it now is the site of that unusual dice that I mentioned earlier, the . . .

. . . Templo de Debod

Yes, it is an intact Egyptian temple!

Interesting

In 1968, the Egyptian government gave Spain its own ancient temple. They were grateful for Spanish dictator Franco's help in rescuing monuments that had been threatened by the rising Nile River waters above the Aswan Dam.

The view from behind

the Templo de Debod

Wait, is that a satellite campus

of the University of La Verne

in the distance?

A gift to Madrid from the

people of Mexico

A tribute to an uprising by

Madrileños against the occupying

French troops in 1808

Near Plaza de España

Plaza de Espańa

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

The heroes of Cervantes' best known work.

Another nice apartment building

near Gran Via

Anybody up for bowling a

few frames?

Books in English!

Félix Lope de Vega

1562-1635

An interesting character/rascal in Spanish history, Lope de Vega was a notorious womanizer, a noted playwright, a husband and a father who, at the age of 50, became a Catholic priest.

Interesting . . .