Madrid - walking down Carrera San Jeronimo and beyond

Wednesday

Learning to eat late like Spaniards does mean mornings become a little harder to do. Last night we didn’t sit down until 8.45 p.m. and we were still the second table to be seated, a family of Spaniards where there before us, but the other 12 tables didn’t fill until close to 10.00. Our meal in the gentle Spanish style didn’t finish until 11.15 so it was after midnight that we got to bed.

On Wednesday morning it was therefore 8.30 before we were ready to venture out for breakfast (the hotel asking 22 euros each per morning for the pleasure, we thought we would find our own). We opted to go back to our friends in Cervecería Mery-Cruz. We had noted when passing last night that they had a breakfast offer. So we both had Café solo y Zumo de Naranja and Tostadas de tomate y aceite olio, a very nice start to the day.

Just as yesterday we turned left from the hotel into Habsburg Madrid, so today we turned right and went past the Cortes (Parliament) building and down to the Fountain of Neptune.

Crossing the roundabout on which the fountain sits we came to the Prado Museum which even by 9.15 had a lengthy queue outside. Walking across the front of the Prado we came to the lovely Church of St. Jerome it is a 16^th century gothic church filled with spectacular stained glass. St. Jerome’s was a Royal chapel built near a, now demolished, royal place. Due to the building work on the Cathedral this Church was used for the Mass of investiture of King Juan Carlos.

A further walk took us past another, older, part of the Prado. This building had been part of a long demolished palace which overlooked the park we were to go to shortly. We then came to the Puerta de Alcalá located in Independence Square.

We walked across the road from here into the beautiful gardens of the Parque del Buen Retiro. The park, which had been the gardens of the Royal Palace, were filled with monuments, memorials and fountains. It also had some lovely walks and places to sit and watch the locals jogging, exercising on fixed bikes and other such facilities. Drew did encourage me to join them, but I was happy just walking :-) We liked the park a lot and wandered around for a few hours.

Perhaps most spectacular in the park is the memorial to Alfonso the Twelfth. Alfonso is an old friend of ours, having a statue on the Balcon de Europa in Nerja where we go for our Easter break. He started the great Spanish love for summering in Nerja. The memorial is very impressive, remarkable to be here to remember someone who was only King for 11 years, dying at the age of 28, but it appears his son, Alfonso the Thirteenth built it in memory of him. It was this Alfonso (XIII) who was the grandfather of the current Spanish King.

From the memorial to Alfoso we came upon the Palace De Velázquez which was hosting a modern art exhibition. I know I’m not an arty type, but this modern art was just weird. It appeared to be bits of scrap piled up or hung on walls. The artist Nacho Criado is apparently a master of this style of art. Me I’d send the cleaners in and sort it out (yes I’m a philistine!).

The park then led on to the other central building, the Crystal Palace, this was modelled on the London Crystal Palace and built by Valazquez five years after the original. It also had some of Criado’s work on display, the picture on the right of broken glass, rusty metal and sand is an example of this type of art!!

On leaving the park we walked up the Paseo del Prado, past the side of the museum and along a lovely tree lined boulevard. Valazquez appeared as a statue here. This was one of the most difficult statues to photgtaph as Spaniards would come to stand in front of it just as Drew was about to take his shot, but he managed it in the end. The Paseo del Prado brought us back to Neptune’s statue.



We walked on further and came to a fascinating Jesuit church called Jesus in Medinaceli. I was interested in the history of this, as the Ducs of Medinaceli had lived in the house which had become the hotel in which we stayed in Barcelona. They played a significant part in the development of devotion to the Icon of Jesus in Medinaceli, and the mother of one of the Ducs funded the Church we were now in. This church is a busy centre of worship with Mass on the hour from 7 – 1 every day (and two in the evenings). But it still manages to be a beautiful place filled with lovely light from its range of stained glass.

We stopped for dinner in one of the network of streets of Hapsburg Madrid, the place was called Prada A Tope and was very oldie worldy.

We shared Queso, Pimentaos asados, Morcilla de Lyon and Ensalada per la dia. The morcilla was cooked in a peppery spicy sauce and in a decomposed, rather than a sausage like style. It was very very tasty.

By now it was after 2.00, so we went back to the hotel for a cool.

Wednesday evening

This evening we again went for a pre-dinner walk. We choose to walk along streets that we had not visited before and came to the amazing Town Hall of Madrid, the fountain of Cibelis and the pretty Paseo de Recolectos.

Two hours after we set off we decided it was time for us to eat, and finally learning we got to a restaurant after 9.00 p.m. I had been enticed to this restaurant by the look of some lovely meat in the window. It was an Argentinean style restaurant called: La Cabaña Argentina

Apologies to my vegetarian blog readers, but this was a real meat feast. We started by sharing a Chorizo and Morcilla. These were served as sausages and we cut them up and shared them ourselves.

I then opted for the Bife Cabaña de Lomo Alto (500g) this was cooked to my taste, Poco Hecho, which is Spanish for bleu; they cooked it exactly to that style. I had a patata a la Brasa (baked potato) as the accompaniment. I loved the way the meat arrived, unadorned, just it on its plate it all its juicy glory. It was absolutely delicious.

Drew opted for a Brochet de la Casa served with Patatas Fritas, this was less meaty than my dish, but still had plenty of meat on the skewer. He really enjoyed the flavours of the meat with the onion and tomatoes on the skewer.

For dessert I had the fruit of the day – Manzana, yes an apple, it was nice and crunchy and I think the first apple since I left home (I normally eat four a day). Drew opted for Helados con chocolate caliente, reminding us of an old friend from Nerja called Miguel who always translated this dish as ice cream with chocolate hot, and it was exactly that.

So we finished the meal really happy and went back to the hotel and to bed by 12.30 a.m.

Madrid is a town with so much to see, so many places to stand and stare, so much to surprise and engage. I think we’ll be back and spend more time here the next time we visit.