Manny and I have had a great few days in Madrid. The theme of the (long) weekend – Friday was a holiday – has been walking, shopping, and cafes 🙂 We’ve also been checking out the different gyms in my neighborhood.
On Friday, we started the day with brunch/lunch with my mom’s work friend who lives here in Madrid and her two sons. We enjoyed a traditional Gallician tapas meal. Together, we walked through El Retiro Park which was a bit hot, though not very crowded. We then split off from the three of them and went to El Prado – which was free for the two of us! Manny and I enjoyed the Velázquez portraits and found some Titian, which Manny recognized from Venice (Tiziano! – he says). After that, we hit the stores. In El Corte Ingles (think Bloomingdales but better and 8 stories with a lot more options), we found great prices for clothes and stocked up on some linen shirts and pants. We hit our first Zara of the weekend and checked out the Spanish version of Starbucks. We ended the day at the gym and had a (very late for us, on time for Spain) takeout dinner.
On Saturday, we tried out a second gym, this one a little bit bigger, but still small by our American standards. We took the metro up to Plaza Castilla to see the leaning office towers and had a really nice breakfast at a cafe. After that, we took the metro to the center and walked through Malasaña, visiting some vintage stores along the way. We ended up at Mercado San Miguel, a large indoor food market with many stalls and different offerings and enjoyed burrata tapas, some empanadas, and bao buns. We then walked towards the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). We walked through the large cathedral near the palace (Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena) and went into the expansive crypt below. We walked around the next door Royal Palace, and decided that it was far too big for any one family to live in. We made an emergency water break at the Starbucks tucked into the Royal Theater building (it’s been over 100° walking around!). After our revival, we walked through the Gran Via and ended up in Plaza de España. From there we walked around Temple Debod where we saw the sunset. It got a little cloudy just before the sun set so we didn’t have a great view, but there were a lot of people out which was fun to see.
Today we took the metro down to the Lavapiés neighborhood again for some brunch. After that, we walked around the El Rastro street market. It’s a huge flea market open every Sunday with hundreds of stalls selling leather goods, jewelry, clothing, books, and a lot more. We got some gifts and I found a leather bag for work. We’re having a bit of a relaxing afternoon before we head to our third and final gym and out for dinner. Tomorrow work starts, which is exciting! I’m looking forward to meeting my colleagues and hearing more about how the school year will work.
Abe Tolkoff 