mylifeinspain: madrid impressions/fotos

After Mr. C. got over his angst regarding my visa, he proved to be a most helpful man. He spent at least twenty minutes showing us different travel routes for both weekend and day trips out of Islamabad. We talked about Pakistan politics, food, disease, and life in general. I think we parted on good terms. Anyway, we spent the rest of our time in Madrid just being tourists. August visits have their good and bad points, the positive being half the city in down on the coast for their summer holiday/the negative being half the shops and restaurants are closed for the month. I think, though, for first-time visitors, the positives outweighed the negatives.

We stayed at the fairly posh Wellington Hotel (http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187514-d228658-r3449197-Wellington_Hotel-Madrid_Madrid.html). The reviews on tripadvisor are mixed, but our experience was excellent. We had a large room (by any standards, but especially by European standards) with a king-sized bed, beautiful (again) large bath, and attentive service. The breakfast buffet is expensive, although the cost is included in some packages, but it was very good regardless, and frankly comparably priced to other similar sorts of hotels in major cities (I believe we paid $20-25 for breakfast at the Algonquin in NYC a couple years ago, for example). And the location is fantastic---only two blocks from the Retiro metro stop and the park itself. I have stayed in all sorts of hotels, from cheap hostels and Motel 6 to the Savoy in London, and the Wellington certainly ranks in the top 10 percentile.

Not only was our bed turned down and chocolates left, a fine-cotton cloth was placed on the floor by both sides of the bed. Never seen this before, not even at the Savoy. We loved, loved, loved the Prado (check this one off my Spain "to do" list; plus I have now been to all the major collection museums except for the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna), as well as Retiro Park.

El Bosco

Retiro

I just loved these pine trees---and they were superfragrant as well. The metro system is fantastic (and surprisingly not smelly---it is August after all) and cheap. We bought a 10-ride Metrobus pass for 5.80 euros. Because our stay was so short, I cannot give a fair assessment of Madrid, just first impressions. People were friendly and helpful, and it was a joy to hear Spanish spoken so articulately. (I know I always go on about this, but if you had to try to translate and then decode our village dialect on a regular basis, you would understand my utter glee of being able to converse in proper castellano once in awhile.) Lots of trees everywhere, which seemed to do double-duty as shade provider and traffic buffer. We were amazed at how quiet the wide avenues were, even during busy travel times. Had a good meal at an old traditional Madrid tavern called La Bola (on c/ Bola). Food was very yummy. I had sauteed spinach with pinenuts and Big Jim had a bean salad as starters, and then swordfish for me and leg of lamb for BJ. We both had flan for dessert. As I said, no complaints about the food; however, the service was too quick, especially for Spain! My entree was brought as I finished my starter, and the waiter came for our coffee and dessert orders while I was still eating my swordfish! Bad, bad, bad. Overall, though, a most-fun minibreak, and I look forward to seeing more next time. For now, enjoy the rest of the pics; Big Jim and I are off to the beach and then back for tonight's Noche del Vino festivities.