Granada

If you close your eyes and imagine Spain with its cobble stone streets, wrought iron balconies and impressive churches, you are probably picturing Granada. It is the quintessential Spain portrayed in movies and art. It is how you imagine all of Spain must look. The city is beautiful and steeped in culture. Its roads are a labyrinth of narrow streets and stone stair cases that look like something from a M.C. Escher print (It turns out M.C. Escher was quite fascinated by the Alhambra in Granada so I would not be surprised if some of the seemingly impossible staircases here helped to inspire his works).

One of many seemingly endless staircases

We arrived here by car. It was Sean's first time driving outside of the United States and he was very nervous. Getting out of Madrid was easy though as they city has an underground highway that circumvents most of the busy surface street traffic. Once on the freeway it was a 4 hour drive through a sprawling suburban area that surrounds Madrid leading into a barren dry landscape that looks like Central California on I-5. The highways are well marked with dozens of signs telling you how many lanes there are, what the road ahead looks like (straight, curved, exit on the left), high winds or possibility of snow. Along the highway are via servicos, service roads that allow you to exit to get gas, food and stay the night in an inn without venturing into any neighboring towns. It is a little bit like driving in Connecticut where they don't want tourists leaving the main road. We stopped for lunch at one of these roadside cafes right in the heart of Don Quixote land. Cervantes was from Madrid and outside of the city are low sloping hills with old windmills. Many of the small service areas take advantage of this fact and are named to reflect the connection.

As we got closer to Granada the landscape shifted into more rolling hills, more tunnels carved into large seemingly impassable rocks and acres upon acres of olive trees in neatly arranged lines as far as the eye could see. The freeways here are very sparsely driven. I imagine the availability of high speed trains and cheap puddle jumper flights makes traveling by car largely unnecessary and so the entire drive was leisurely until we reached the outskirts of Granada and we first came into traffic. Getting into the city was challenging as many of the main roads are closed during the day to all traffic but Taxi cabs and buses. So we had to take weird back streets that look pedestrian. We made a few wrong turns and had to go back to the beginning but eventually made it to the car park.

Out the window on the way to Granada

Many olive trees and not much else

Our apartment is a beautiful well furnished apartment on the top floor with a large enclosed balcony literally steps from one of the Alhambra's many entrances. Much like our apartment in Madrid, we are blessed to have a shop directly next to our apartment that carries freshly baked bread, pastries, coffee, juice, and ice cream. The shop keep is a friendly woman who is always excited to see us and has praised Sean many times on his Spanish. Granada is a hilly city. To get to the main center of the old town with most of the restaurants and shops we have to walk down a long steep street which means to get home we have to go back up. Getting up to the Alhambra itself is an even steeper climb. The whole city sits about 2400 feet in elevation with the Alhambra perched higher on a large hill. Despite the high elevation the weather is hot in the summer. It has been in the 90s our entire trip here with the day time heat creeping up to 99 (supposedly) but it never felt that hot. The evenings cool down fast as soon as the sun sets around 10pm. Oddly the sun here does not rise until almost 7am because of the timezones (Spain is further west than say Britain but is in the timezone one hour ahead).

The street we stayed on. Calle Gomerez. Our apartment is the second building on the right, white with all the windows, we had the top floor apartment.

The cool thing about the Alhambra is most of the grounds are open to the public. You can walk around within the walls, there is a small forest and a few free museums all without a ticket. Of course the three best areas of the Alhambra require a ticket (The main palaces, the gardens, and the Alcazaba). But we were able to pick up our tickets early so come Monday morning we will be at the gate waiting to go in. The actual palace itself, they assign each person a specific time and even a month in advance when I ordered the tickets the only time available for the main palace was 1pm.

View of the Alhambra from another hill in town

River that divides the two parts of old town. The Alhambra side is on the left.

Granada is snaked by a shallow river that cuts through the center of the city between the Alhambra and the other part of old town. We climbed a large hill on the other side of the river to get a great view of the Alhambra and the city. On a Sunday much of the city is closed but the walk up the hill was dotted with white canvas tents where artists sold their wares, paintings and hand made jewelry. At the viewpoint at the top, exhausted dogs slept under tiny trees and a flamenco band played for the crowd of tourists (most of whom likely took public transit to reach the top and did not brave the maze of stairs). Throughout the old town are large bronze plaques at key points highlighting different structures and architecture making it easy to design your own walking tour. It is almost surreal walking around a city where on one corner is the ruins of an ancient draw bridge left over from the Moors in 1050 and up a flight of steps is a church built by the Christians in the 1400s. Souvenir shops sell Spanish style fans and tickets to Flamenco dancing alongside hookahs and middle eastern wares.

Better picture of the river.

Sean in Flamenco pose

Tapas in Granada are free with the purchase of a drink. So a 2 euro beer comes with some kind of snack that varies widely between establishments. Our first night in Granada we went to a small well worn and crowded local favorite, Los Diamontes. (It has a more polished and larger version in the tourist part of town but with Ikea furniture it lacks some charm so we ventured out of our way to go to the original). There was standing room only at the bar and we ordered 2 beers and some raciones. Grilled shrimp and deep fried eggplant. The grilled shrimp was succulent and juicy. Our beers came with a complimentary tapa of deep fried anchovies.

Our meal at Los Diamontes

Yum!

Compare this to the second bar we went to another night where our 2 beers came with a bagel shaped piece of bread with a slice of pork and some kind of mystery cheese and tomato sauce. It was reminiscent of a hot pocket. By far the best free tapas so far was at Gamboa Taberna, dark corner location with a long mahogany bar and 4 tables. I ordered a sangria and it was almost like a long island ice tea. Red wine, lemon soda, gin, vermouth, brandy, and more lemon soda. This boozy concoction set us back 2.50 and came with a plate of rice with bits of chorizo and a slice of bread. Convinced this was the sort of tapas bar we had been dreaming of we went in for round two with beers and wine. This time we were given a plate with a seafood salad made with shrimp and imitation crab, two deep fried croquettes, crackers and olives. Yum! Now the tapas are suppose to get better with each drink so we went for round three and were presented with buttery sauteed potatoes and onions topped with shaved ham that was shaved right off the haunch in the bar. The potatoes and ham was served with a salty cheese that tasted much like fontina and of course more bread. All together our 6 drinks (and three generous plates of free food) came to 14 euro. 

Awesome tapas bar

Our second free tapa at Gamboa

Whatever magic was missing from Madrid, we certainly found it here. The people here have been very friendly. At least three different shop keeps/ restauranteurs have complimented Sean on his Spanish. I am in love with the architecture and the Moorish influences.

View of the city from hilltop

Awesome kind of out of place building in city center

Granada Cathedral

Old structure along the river

Rarely used side entrance to the Alhambra

I feel like the Alhambra deserves its own post after all we took over 200 photos there. Please keep an eye out for that in the next day or so!

Madrid: Our Final Days in the Capital

Day 3:

8 hours at an art museums is hard on your body, your back gets stiff and your feet ache. Following the Prado we were eager for a lighter day of sight seeing. We slept in and decided to skip breakfast opting instead to head the Mercado San Miguel for a tapas brunch. The Mercado San Miguel is a beautiful glass enclosed market. However instead of selling ingredients they sell delicious freshly prepared tapas. Beer, wine and sangria is served at nearly every stand for a euro or two. There is a fresh oyster bar, olive stand, roasted nuts, many places with toasted breads adorned with cheese or fish or meat, a small stand that sells imitation baby eels (baby eels are a delicacy in Spain that have been severely over-fished  so instead this stand takes Alaskan cod and fillets it then cuts the fillets into tiny strips that visually look like the baby freshwater eels. I have no idea if it tastes like baby eels but it seems to be common in Spain. The real baby eels are called anguila and cost like $800 a pound for frozen or canned stock and the fake stuff is called guila and is commonly seen around Madrid). Several stands serve traditional Spanish tapas and of course dessert stands. The market is comprised of 12-15 stands so there is a lot to choose from.

We chose a clean brightly lit stand that specialized in seafood tapas and had our favorite tapa on the menu, pimento padron (little green peppers). The bar has a large wicker basket, big enough to hold 4 basketballs, filled to the brim with these little green peppers. When you order them, the server fills a small cast iron pan with the peppers and hands them to the kitchen where they are deep fried and returned sprinkled with thick kosher salt. This was a favorite we first experienced while in San Sebastian that we fondly refer to has roulette peppers because most of them are sweet but a few are devilishly hot. We had toast with tuna and peppers and beer. It was a lovely brunch. And while standing at the counter we struck up a conversation with our server about the peppers. "Donde esta le pimento caliente?"  I asked the man. None of them were hot! He told us he is from San Sebastian and that the peppers get hotter as the summer goes on. He said this time of year none of them are hot but by August they are spicy. Which makes perfect sense. We were in San Sebastian in September of 2011. So the peppers in the bars would be a mix from the season some riper than others making them unexpectedly hot. Perhaps when we get to San Sebastian in a few weeks there will be an early crop of the hotties.

Yum!

Sean at the San Miguel Market. Notice the large basket of peppers behind him.

After brunch we headed over to the Mercado de la Cebada. This brightly painted building is a traditional Spanish market where you buy fresh produce, meat, and fish. Unlike our experience in France where finding a fish market was its own special challenge, here in Madrid we had our pick. This large market had a variety of butchers some that specialize in poultry including pigeons. Some that specialize in lamb and pork. Others just sell cured meats. And of course a nice selection of fish mongers. Much like in France, we did not know the Spanish words for many of the fish. Some we could recognize by sight but others remained a mystery. We asked the man "Que pescado es mas fresca?" What fish is the freshest? And he indicated all of them. We ended up buying a whole fish we later figured out was Haddock. We then proceeded to buy ingredients to make a verde sauce.And of course by we, I mean my husband who was eager to cook.

Late in the afternoon we made our way to the Museo Nacional Centro de Renia Sofia. The building reminds me of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. There are large glass elevators surrounding a mostly historic looking building. A large courtyard with massive modern statues greets you at the entrance.  I know what you're thinking, another art museum? 

Museo Nacional Centro de Renia Sofia

Our feet still sore from the Prado,  we could not resist the modern art museum. It houses a collection of primarily Spanish artists with works from 1900-1985. Most notably it houses Guernica by Picasso. This piece alone is worth the admission price. The museum also houses a healthy collection of Dali paintings that helped to wet our appetite for all we would see while in the Girona region. Compared to the Prado, the Renia Sofia was a ghost town. We had most galleries to ourselves and were able to stand directly in front of and admire the massive scene of Guernica uninterrupted for at least a good 10 minutes. The museums layout is beautiful a colonial Spanish style structure with a massive interior courtyard.

Interior Courtyard of the Renia Sofia

 And walkways that lead you from the main building to a newly built maroon modern building with a cafe and some excellent view points/terraces. The museum allows you to take photographs in most of the exhibits (which mean we have plenty to share!) except the one covering the 1930s (which includes Guernica). We have noticed during our trip that the country has a certain repressive theme about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), mainly it is not talked about. Many of the same issues that lead to the Spanish Civil War are still present today and it is a sensitive and divisive topic that is largely swept under the rug. So it was not surprising that many of the politically charged paintings in this gallery were off limits to photographs and the laminated placard that explained the theme of these galleries, glossed over the war treating the tensions more like a footnote. (Unlike the Prado that is largely organized by country of origin and then by artist, the Renia Sofia is organized by time and art movement. So the collection probably contains 20 Dali pieces but instead of being in the same room, they are sprinkled throughout the museum based on the style or time frame the piece was created in.)

Sean in front of the Tricorn

Dali piece inspired by Cap de Crues (we plan to visit there later this trip!).

Krystal with her favorite Man Ray piece

Following the museum we made our way to the Buen Retiro. This is the massive park that lines the streets filled with museums. The park is huge and houses tennis courts, soccer fields, fountains, art galleries, cafes, a man-made lake where you can rent a rowboat and most importantly, grass. Oh how I love to sit on some soft green grass in the afternoon. When we were in Paris, there were dozens of city parks and gardens but all contained dirt paths and manicured shrubs and whatever grass they had was carefully guarded behind tiny fences with signs indicating 'Stay off'. But not here. We were able to stretch out under a tree with a cold soda and just watch the people running, walking dogs, and enjoying this treasure. The lake is an especially beautiful location with an impressive monument dedicated to Alfonso II. After a few days walking around art galleries, a nice trip to the park was just what we wanted.

We ended the day with a beautiful bottle of Spanish wine and a home cooked meal. Sean had made fish stock during our midday break and now late in the evening he used the fish stock with white wine, lemon, olive oil, sauteed green peppers and onions and garlic to make a beautiful Verde sauce. It was light but flavorful and was the perfect accompaniment to the fish. The haddock was a beautiful white fillet expertly cut by the fish monger with a blade that looked like something out of Game of Thrones. The blade was as wide as a dinner plate with a wicked sharp edge that easily could take a person's head off clean. We enjoyed the fish smothered with the verde sauce and some fresh bread from across the street. 

Sean en la cocina. Sean in the kitchen preparing pescadillo.

We were very blessed in Madrid to have an apartment adjacent to a convenience store. It was open at 6am and closed at 1am. It had fresh baked baguettes for half a euro. Along with beer, wine, cold soda, cheese and meats. They also sold fresh squeezed orange juice and bocadillos. We probably went there every day at some point to buy a loaf of bread. And their selection of bread was better than the fancy super mercado (grocery store) that was like a combination Macy's department store and Whole Foods.

Day 4:

Our final day in Madrid we had tentatively planned on taking a day trip to the ancient city of Toledo. Toledo was the capital of Spain for a long time before Madrid and is about half an hour outside the city by high speed train. But the cost of the tickets, combined with the sense that we hadn't seen all of Madrid we wanted, lead us to spending our last day in a city that had grown on us. It is still not my favorite city but having seen more and more of it each day, it has really started to impart itself on me. So our final day we explored the last section of the city we had missed characterized by being elegant and mostly "old money". We passed the only modernisma structure in the city that houses the Society of authors. It is closed to the public but still a beautiful and unique building in Madrid. 

Society of Authors. Madrid.

We ended up at the National Archeological Museum which shares a home with the National Library. The building is spectacular but the museum is probably the best kept secret in Madrid. 

National Library

Archeology Museum

At 3 euro it is a fraction of the cost of the art museums. The museum was founded in the 1860s but recently underwent a massive interior renovation making it sleek, modern and glossy inside. All the exhibits are displayed in clean  brightly lit glass cases. Each period of time depicted in the museum includes a 4 minute introductory video and everything is written in both Spanish and English. Some of the oldest human settlements unearthed are in Spain. And the museum has exhibits on prehistory all the way to 1867 when the museum was founded. We didn't explore the whole museum which is massive and would easily consume half a day. Instead we just focused on the first two floors which went from prehistory to the crusades. It is really interesting how Spain is made up of all these largely autonomous areas with very distinct cultures and looking at all these ancient maps you see that the cultural differences have existed since before the Romans occupied the area. Spain is united only in name.   

2nd floor atrium, Archeological museum. 

Moorish Arch Way with ceiling.

Moorish wood beam ceiling.

After the museum we took a long stroll back to our apartment along a very different route. We enjoyed another meal at Mercado San Miguel this time patronizing different establishments including a stand that specialized in Vermouth. My husband has developed a taste lately for Manhattans made with rye whiskey and sweet vermouth. However vermouth is traditionally an aperitif. An aperitif is a liquor designed to be drank before a meal that is bitter with flora elements intended to wake up the taste buds and prepare them to more fully enjoy a meal. It is uncommon in the United States to drink aperitifs but many classic cocktails contain them. This particular stand had vermouth on tap for a euro fifty so Sean ordered a dry while I had a sweet. It was served straight up with a single large cube of ice. Turns out we are both vermouth fans! We enjoyed our vermouth with a plate of olives. 

Dry and sweet vermouth.

Following the Mercado San Miguel we decided to check out a famous cafe that only serves coffee, hot chocolate and churros. It is open 24 hours and has been operating in Madrid since the 1800s. It is prominently featured in the lonely planet guide so it was packed with tourists but you can't deny it is a tastey dessert. The hot chocolate is so thick its undrinkable, more like a thick warm chocolate syrup. You can imagine it being churned in Willy Wonka's magical factory. Each cup of chocolate is served with 6 crispy churros ripe for dipping. It was a fabulous treat and a great way to spend our last day.

Sean con churros

All in all our time in Madrid has been fabulous albeit busy. We walked 36 and a half miles in 4 days. We visited 3 museums. We ate tapas, enjoyed churros, took many photos and discovered our new favorite zany Spanish sitcom about the lives of a cruise ship crew. But we say goodbye to this capital city and look forward to the next leg of our adventure, Granada!

Las Meninas: I do believe this painting is following us...

Las Meninas by Diego Velasquez Image from Wikipeida

This masterpiece by Velasquez is one of the highlights of the Prado museum. The piece is massive clearly designed to be displayed on an impressive palatial wall. The painting depicts the Spanish princess surrounded by two ladies in waiting (Las Meninas). In addition there is a court dwarf (the Prado includes many portraits of court "guests" often unique individuals that served as a private  sideshow including dwarfs, bearded women, and a 150lb 6 year old). The painting also shows the artist himself, the king and queen's reflection in a mirror and other court figures. One of the subtle marvels of this piece is the composition. The arrangement of the figures draws your eye guiding you through a particular path in the work that is almost a spiral that starts small and expands outward.

Hanging in the Prado. Picture sourced from google search.

This particular piece of art has unexpectedly woven itself into our life in a way one could only describe as stalking.

It all started in 2011. Sean and I were in the most beautiful city of Barcelona. It was our first time traveling abroad together. We were just discovering our shared appreciation and timing of art museums. (We are very blessed to enjoy art museums on the same scale. We spent 12 hours at the Louvre together. We both tend to breeze through the same video exhibits and overly abstract post modern art. And neither of us understand the work of Richard Serra.) While in Barcelona we visited the Picasso museum (another common theme in our travels). The Picasso museum in Barcelona is amazing. Not only is it nestled away in a wonderfully unimposing classic Spanish home on a quiet street in Barcelona but it houses a very unique collection of Picasso works. There are few if any of his seminal works on the walls however there is an entire gallery dedicated to his study of Las Meninas. Picasso painted 58 works inspired by the early Spanish master and his seminal work. And amazingly the entire series all 58 paintings are housed at the Barcelona museum. He painted many of the figures from the work individually and in small groups. Perhaps exploring some of the compositional elements that makes the original so great. 

Of course my high school art history class delved into Las Meninas but I never really thought much about it until I saw the collection of Picasso works.

Las Meninas by Picasso sourced from Google search

 It was not long after seeing the Picasso collection of Las Meninas in 2011 that a building two block from our apartment in Capitol Hill scheduled for demolition featured an art installation while the contractors waited for permission to tear down the former Indian Restaurant. One artist covered the building in reclaimed wood and another filled the windows with a piece titled "Lamps Meninas". As you might have guessed, this artist created Las Meninas using lighting fixtures.

 This piece remained on the corner of an intersection we regularly passed for almost a year, a constant reminder of this painting.

I can't pretend we are the first people to be haunted by this work, this particular piece has captured the imagination of dozens of artists. The Wikipedia article lists at least 20 major artists who have made pieces inspired by the original including Dali, Goya, and Sargent. Now that we have paid homage to the original, the question remains, are we free from its allure or have we only become further ensnared.

Madrid: The Adventure Begins

Just finished day 2 in Madrid. I will start by saying that Madrid is not my favorite city. I can't gush about the splendor, charm or magic because that's not the way I feel about it. Madrid is sort of a mash up of a lot of ideas about what makes a city. In that way it is unique. It has the formality of a capital city with armed guards outside prestigious government buildings. It has a glittery thorough fare with a bright light theater district that looks like a miniature version of Times Square. It has a beautiful french style park along a wide winding boulevard adorned with museums not unlike balboa park in San Diego or the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris. The city is diverse but compact making it easy to traverse. Despite its short comings, we have managed to have an amazing time so far. Perhaps it is the company, I could have a good time anywhere with my husband. Or perhaps there is just enough  magic for those willing to look for it.

We arrived bleary eyed on Monday. We took the metro from the airport to our apartment. The apartment is beautiful. Parquet wood floors and 12 foot tall ceilings with two balconies that look out onto the Calle Montera. The location is steps from everything in particular a dunkin' donuts and at night a gaggle of Eastern European prostitutes in hot pants and stilettos. 

After a long nap we started out exploring the city. We walked down to the Palacio Real. The 1st Royal palace in Madrid burned down so this structure is new by European standards built in the late 1700s. I think Versailles largely ruined palaces for us so we didn't go inside but enjoyed the facade.

 Next to the palace is a cathedral, one of no doubt many we will see on this trip but I couldn't resist going inside. After all I planned my entire vacation clothing to include sleeves specifically so I could stumble into any cathedral I happened upon and was not about to pass up this chance. I was not sorry, this cathedral had some of the most unique stained glass windows I have ever seen. While the content is typical cathedral imagery, the style is uncanny.

Our first meal in Spain was awesome. The one challenge with being located in the very center of the city is the closest restaurants are all tourist traps. Sidewalk cafes with paella and sangria for cheap. Often when we travel abroad we rely on trip advisor for reviews (Yelp is not widely used in Europe). However the best reviewed restaurant in Madrid on trip advisor is an American restaurant. Yeah no. So we are operating blind. Using only instinct to find the good eats. It is no surprise that we were drawn like a moth to the flame to a restaurant called Pimento Verde (green pepper). Thick blonde wood picnic tables with black and white gingham table cloths. The decor vaguely reminded me of the Searsucker in the Gaslamp district of San Diego. And they served Basque cuisine (which should have been no surprise given the name of the restaurant). Of course we are going to San Sebastian in a few short weeks but there is nothing wrong with a culinary preview! Sean ordered the lamb. It was a generous portion of flavorful lamb shoulder delicately slow cooked until it was tender and nearly falling apart. It was served with a small salad and sauteed potatoes that tasted mostly of butter. This simple but well executed dish was by far the star of the evening. I ordered the creamy rice with lobster. I imagine that you are picturing what I was picturing when I ordered this a bowl of risotto style rice with a few lumps of delicate lobster meat. Instead I was served large bowl with a full lobster still in the shell swimming in a sea of thick pearls of rice. The rice had been cooked with the body of the lobster giving every bite a briny flavor. I was not expecting to shell a lobster when I ordered this but thankfully it came with a unique tool unlike anything I have seen in the US. It was half shell cracker and half scissor. Using the scissors to cut through the shell to extract the lobster was relatively mess free. It was a slow meal with an excellent bottle of wine.

Most restaurants in Madrid do not even open for dinner until 8:30pm because the prevailing dinner time is between 10pm and Midnight. So in true Spanish fashion we had our meal late and left the restaurant around Midnight to wander the streets. It was a slow night (As per International Standards for a Monday evening). Although admittedly it was a slow day too. However the main boulevards were still cluttered with young people looking for a night on the town until the sky opened up and it started to pour. It had been threatening to rain all evening but once those big drops started to fall  everyone but the hookers ran for cover. We called it a night early satisfied we had adjusted our sleep schedule to Spanish time.

The next morning we went to the Prado. Now this is a truly magical place. I have been to a lot of art museums around the world but this is now one of my favorites. I fell in love with art history my sophomore year of high school thanks to the passionate teachings of Mr. Bewley. I even considered it as a major while in college. While the Louvre in Paris is significantly larger and gets a lot more attention than say the Prado, I would argue that the Prado has one of the largest collection of Masterpieces in the world. Certainly per foot it has significantly more seminal works than the Louvre. Also the layout is more welcoming. The gallery rooms wind into one another making it a slow serpentine dance to see the whole place but it feels more accessible. Whereas the Louvre has many large expansive hallways that each lead into one room. Making it so you do a lot of in and out zigzagging to see the various areas. Sadly you can not take photos in the Prado and surprisingly I didn't see anyone attempting to skirt the rules by pulling out a iPhone. I think there are several reason the Prado boasts such an impressive collection. One, the art museum was created in the 1700s by the Royal Family. They specifically commissioned prominent artists such as Velasquez and Goya to produce works for the galleries. Also given the importance of art and patronage of art in catholic society and the role the church played in Spanish culture a lot of pieces were commissioned by Spaniards while in other parts of Europe. There were a lot of pieces I was excited to see. The bizarre and fanciful triptych the Garden of Earthly Delights https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights  has been something I dreamed about seeing since my art history class. It is a massive piece each of the three panels is about 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide (All together it is about 7 feet tall and almost 13 feet wide) . Making the display something that can only really be appreciated in person. It is a busy piece with so many components that once you get the school children on tours out of the way you could spend all day marveling over it. The other piece that really made my day was Las Meninas. This piece has been stalking my husband and I for the last 4 years and perhaps now that we have paid homage to the original we can move on. Of course this requires explanation but I will leave that for its own blog post.

Following a long but wonderful 8 hours at the Prado we headed to the gay and hipster part of Madrid to find a restaurant for dinner. Naturally we felt most at home in this part of the city because it reminded us so much of our very own Capitol Hill. We went to a darling little restaurant with international tapas called Le Patron that was well reviewed on yelp. Given the positive reviews on yelp, the patrons were largely Americans but the food was excellent. We shared 4 large tapas (raciones) and a bottle of wine. We had a Mesa plate with hummus, baba ganoush, and phylo meat pies. Followed by goat cheese ravioli. Next came tuna tataki with edamame. And final steak tartare. We managed to eat food from 4 countries at the same restaurant and have it be high quality food. Following dinner we decided to go for a walk ending up eventually back on our street where we patronized one of the mediocre sidewalk cafes for a sangria while watching the prostitutes aggressively yet unsuccessfully attempt to pick up johns. Some of the best people watching outside of Las Vegas. 

All in all its been a great start to our trip. Thanks to the Fitbit I can definitively say that during our first two days here we walked 17 miles covering most of the city a few times over. Please stay tuned for upcoming posts on the Las Meninas and Day Three: Modern art and the unspoken war, Market adventure and the architectural splendor of Madrid. 

Thank you for reading!