Wednesday, October 5, 2022
If it's Wednesday, it must be Spain.
We were up at 3:45 a.m. on this first day of the third week of our shared Adventure, as we had an early flight to our third country, Spain.
Our taxi got us to Florence's
airport without a hitch
Ciao Italia!
DESTINATION MADRID
It would be unseasonably warm, in the mid 80°F.
It's almost as if the world in general is getting warmer.
We arrived comfortably at our
ideally located Madrid accommodations
after smooth plane and subsequent taxi rides
Due to our early arrival time, our rooms were not ready for occupancy for about another 30 minutes. We were allowed to store our luggage at the Las Fuentes until then, but what to do in the meantime?
Why explore of course!
Our first stop was the nearby Mercado de San Miguel, built in 1915, for some much needed sustenance.
Ham . . .
. . . in all of its various forms . . .
. . . is always a good choice in Spain
There were just SO MANY choices!
These looked wonderful
Those pistacchio croissants
looked AMAZING!
Then we had to eal with the
wonderful world of empanadas
We opted for a small sampling of tapas to start the day's food fest.
Please, follow your tour guide to . . .
The Plaza Mayor
Madrid's gran central square
It was designed in 1619, seemingly all that has been controversial in Spain has happened here.
Bullfights celebrating royal weddings and/or births took place in the Plaza Mayor.
The ritual autos-da-fé that were the condemnations of "heretics" during the Spanish Inquisition followed by their executions by either burning at the stake, garroting or hanging.
Today, Plaza Mayor is a tad more mellow.
King Phillip III
He keeps a constant vigil on the Plaza Mayor.
Real Casa de la Panaderia
Once housing the Royal Bakery, this splendid building on the Plaza Mayor now houses the Tourist Information Center amongst other businesses.
A great hat store on the Plaza Mayor
How old is this cash register?
Over our many trips to Madrid in the past, I've been known to purchase a hat or two here.
But not today.
The first of two stops today at the
Museo del Jamón where you can
buy entire ham legs or . . .
. . . procure smaller pieces of
Spain's famed ham culture
We only looked today as we started back to our hotel along Calle Arenal where we found this unusual store selling . . .
. . . Dick Waffles?
Same place sold Chochofre,
oh my!
What would Franco have done?
We needed to restore balance to our lives. Only one place to go.
Churros and Chocolate
should restore us
The ladies were primed and ready
NOW we're talking!
Look closely and you'll see
all four of us
Our hotel is only about two blocks from San Gines. It is a prime reason for us always staying here on our Madrid trips.
After finally checking into our rooms and freshening up, we hit the trail again.
A fine example of Madrid's
great architecture
Madrid's huge, bustling Puerta del Sol
was completely closed for repairs
We would be missing out on a lot of great people watching because of this closure.
The iconic symbol of Madrid,
the bear statue, was prisoner of the
renovation project on Puerta del Sol
The equally iconic Tio Pepe sign
still overlooks all of Puerta del Sol
In need of more sustenance,
we stepped in but it was too crowded
Don't worry, I know a place . . .
I love the tile art of Spain's capital city
Looked good but we trudged on
A caña, a small beer in local lingo,
sounded great on this hot day
This IS the place!
Shared food is just so delicious
I did my part
The drinks were good but . . .
. . . they may have
overwhelmed this one
What stories could he tell us?
Another beautiful store front
Did I mention Madrid's
majestic architecture?
Every sharp dressed man knows
that it all starts with good shoes
More renovation work obscured
the Metrópolis building
What is the rocket from Herge's
Adventures of Tintin doing here?
Bold look reminiscent of Star Wars
We sat for a bit on a bench
in front of this building
Is that former Rio Mesa HS
art teacher Gary Bowman?
Madrid's Palace of Communications
We stepped inside to have a look at the interior of this magnificent structure.
What a ceiling!
Great stairwell tiles
It offered us a bird's eye view of
the Plaza de Cibeles
We headed south in search of more shopping and/or dining.
This is the Neptune Fountain
Fans of the Atlético de Madrid soccer team assemble hear to celebrate after big wins.
We were now close to Calle de Jesús, one of Madrid's best locations for a tapas crawl.
Cocido is a stew that is made to
perfection at this fine establishment
But it was the temperature was too hot for cocido today.
Another good spot but we
continued our stroll
STOP!
This was the place, one of Laurie's
favorites in Madrid
You come all the way to Madrid
only to be sold PBR?
NO WAY!
We enjoyed four thirst slaking San Miguel cañas instead.
Los Gatos had an old
cash register too
An interesting shop next door
to our hotel that . . .
. . . still performs the ancient, time
honored task of book binding
With now over two weeks on the road behind us, the hot weather and the extremely early start to our travel day, we simply gave up early to get a much needed long night's rest.
We still put in some serious
steps in Madrid today
Stay tuned as tomorrow we visit, amongst other sights, Madrid's famed Prado Museum . . .
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