Darcy's Paris Blog

Eating and drinking across Madrid

Today we slept in a little bit, then got quick bite on the way to the Museo del Prado. While walking there, we ran into a protest against cutting down trees on the Paseo del Prado, a beautiful boulevard down central Madrid. We weren’t sure what was going on until we got close, but they had tons of people chanting to drummers in the middle of the street. We checked that out for a little bit and then headed to the museum. It’s a wonderful museum, but it’s not laid out all that great, and it’s pretty easy to get museum burn-out. Afterwards we each bought 2 paintings outside from street vendors – Spanish-themed oils for Mike, and watercolors for me. We strolled down the Paseo del Prado and got midday tapas in the same outside square as last night, but in a different place – in fact, the same restaurant I ate at a few years ago. We followed the Paseo down to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, which is a lovely museum with a lot of 20th century stuff, including Picasso’s Guernica. Fantastic. After that we stopped for another drink in square just outside, near hotel where Emily and I stayed in ‘99, near the Atocha train station that was bombed a few years ago. Afterwards we cabbed back to hotel to rest up for a few hours – 4 euros again – so cheap. After a few hours, we went to small tapas bar across the street and to an outdoor bar in the middle of the Paseo del Prado, but since I was dying for paella, we sought out a paella restaurant waiter recommended near Gran Via. It was 10:00, but they still said they couldn’t seat us for an hour. We went down the street to another paella joint, with an English/Irish group following behind us. They couldn’t get us in there, either, so I suggested we go back to the first place and hang out for an hour – hey, the Spanish eat late, anyway. As it turns out, he could seat us right then on the second time around – maybe he thought we were all together with the Brits behind us, or maybe he was just playing hard-to-get, who knows. The seafood paella was fantastic, by the way. We decided to go out around there, where there were lots of little bars. We walked up the street, but when we realized we were getting further into the gay district, we turned around and ended up in fantastic little modern bar. You know it’s a good place when it’s not obvious it’s a bar from the street and all you see are translucent glass sliding doors. We stayed there for several rounds, where the drinks were good and the waiter was great. We cabbed it back again to the hotel – lovin’ these cheap Madrid cabs.

posted by Darcy @ 10:37 PM