Ready to put yesterday behind us, we woke to an incredible day. Sunny and just a little bit chilly. We made our way via metro to our morning free tour (of course!). We got to Puerta del Sol (where we were to meet the guide for the tour John booked. As John got us coffee – from Starbucks (we were desperate!), I searched for the tour guide. I could not find his yellow umbrella but I did find a yellow and orange umbrella. We were not booked with this tour but the nice man told me to come back if I couldn’t find our tour.
Well, our tour got cancelled at the last minute so, again, a bit of kismet that we found Javiar at Tourstilla who allowed us to join his tour. He, and it, were both incredible. We really enjoyed his tour. He was clearly passionate about his job and educated in the history of Madrid and he was very funny and dynamic.
A couple of anecdotes from Javiar. At one point during the tour, he was showing a picture of one of the kings in the 17th century (I honestly cannot remember which one) and he called him “the Brad Pitt of kings”. He also told us about the tradition of las doce uvas de la suerte, the 12 grapes of luck. This is a New Year’s Eve tradition dating back to 1895 where each person eats one grape each for the 12 seconds prior to midnight. If you eat all the grapes you’ll have a year of prosperity and good luck.
Javiar was dynamic and fun. We learned a lot, saw a lot of historic sights, got a lot of recommendations and really enjoyed 2.5 hours of our day.
We had booked lunch with a local prior to arriving so we were off next to Nacho’s house. Per the tour, this young man would cook us lunch and we’d just chat and spend time together. We’d done a similar tour in Bruges, Belgium and thought it was fabulous. This one was as well!
We met Nacho and his brother, Guille at their 3rd floor apartment in a neighborhood outside of the city center. We were immediately invited to sit down and chat with Nacho’s brother while Nacho cooked our meal.
Nacho and Guille’s family are from Valencia where their parents and two twin sisters still reside. Both came to Madrid for work and additional education. Nacho is 26 and his Guille is 23. They were lovely young men. We ate some traditional food and chatted for two hours.
Nacho served a few things worth noting. First, sliced salami with picos de pan, which are mini-breadsticks. That was nothing new to us and we all know I love salami.
Second, angulas on bread. Now, I did not know what this was. Which I am glad of. What it looked like was baby eels on toasted bread. It was quite tasty! Nacho called it elver fish. I didn’t know what that meant. It is only researching for this blog that I know it is, in fact, baby eels. And it is considered a delicacy in Spain and, come to find out, pretty darned expensive.
Third, traditional tortilla, a delicious dish of eggs, potatoes and olive oil that looks very similar to an omelet but tastes much better.
Finally, morcilla, which is….blood sausage. I did know what this was although I’d never tried it. On purpose, to be honest. But I would not refuse food that our host cooked for us and I did want to try it. When in Madrid, right? It was ok! The texture was a little strange to me but served on bread with a red pepper on top, I can see why some like it.
Outside of the food, we really enjoyed our conversation with these two young men. We talked about family and jobs and dreams and more politics(!). We discussed their social lives and what their futures looked like. It was a wonderful way to spend time in this city getting to know two locals and hearing straight from them what is important to them and other Spaniards. Interestingly, they are interested in and focused on many of the same things we, as Americans, are. People are people, no matter what their background, I believe. We care about our family and friends and making the best life possible. The time with them was priceless.
We were close to Calle Ponzano, a street in the Chamberi neighborhood that was recommended to me by multiple people and blogs. It was described as a great place to shop or have drinks and tapas. Although we were stuffed, we were so close we decided to take a look. Yes, there were tons of very hip looking restaurants and bars. Also a lot of boutiques. Unfortunately most were closed either due to it being a Sunday or due to the holiday. Still a great place to have a stroll. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll return.
We decided to head back down to the central area of Madrid and try to go to the Museo Nacional del Prado, the main Spanish art museum and another place that multiple people said was a must-do. They offer 2 hours free entry every day which is pretty cool. We got there and…just didn’t want to wait in a queue for an hour. We didn’t do the must-do.
Instead we headed North just a few blocks to Parque de El Retiro, a massive park in the middle of Madrid. It boasts 15,000 trees and the “Great Pond”, which is a small lake in the middle of the park. You can rent a row boat and relax on the lake surrounded by beauty. The lake is also surrounded by many people along with vendors, artists, locals, kids running around, musicians. It is very cool. There is also a huge monument dedicated to Alfonso XII that looks over the lake.
It was such a gorgeous day and we’d been on our feet so long that we decided to pick a shady spot near the lake, lay down my jacket and have a little rest. Much needed and what a wonderful place to be.
John and I both wanted to get a drink at this point and of course I wanted to go to a rooftop. Javiar, our tour guide, had recommended a few and I had a few others on my list. We ended up at the 360-degree Rooftop Bar on top of the Riu Plaza Espana hotel on Gran Via.
We had to pay 10 euro per person just to go to the roof. And we should have known it would be nuts up there with the amount of people in the queue to go up. Don’t get me wrong – it was a super cool spot to be. But there were SO MANY PEOPLE! It did have a 360 degree view of the city from 27 floors up and we managed to get a few great pictures at sunset but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Just not my scene. Lots of people, cologne, smoking and DJ music. Nope! And we didn’t even get a glass of wine…
At this point we were thirsty (see above and no wine) and hungry and just wanted to get off our feet. So we did what I was trying not to do. Just stopped in a restaurant that happened to be off the main street. This time it worked out fine. Taberna Rincon de Reyes had just what we needed. A place to sit, a decent glass of wine and some good tapas. More meat, cheese and bread. All good with me.
We are at the point in the trip where we’ve managed to forget about our worries from home and enjoy each other and this place. This is one of the joys of travel. I love seeing the world, of course, but I love seeing this side of the man I love as well. What a blessing.