The Futile Cycle

Madrid was an amazing experience, and there are some things I’d like to note. Firstly, try to visit a little earlier than July; it’s damn hot (it hovered between 90 and 110 during the day). Secondly, wear good shoes, as always on a tourist-y trip in Europe. Third, travel guides are good for metropolitan areas, but get out of date rather quickly for side trips (e.g. Toledo, El Escorial). Check ahead for closings, restorations, and rennovations of key things (e.g. the alcazar in Toledo). Lastly, plan to stop often for food and a drink break. It helps a lot.The GreatThe Crystal Palace is a definite thing to see, in the Parque del Buen Retiro. The lake near there is also very nice to sit by and laze an afternoon away on.Aloque (Torrecilla del Leal 20, M. Antón Martin) is an excellent, excellent wine and port bar, with very good raciones to accompany the wine; I recommend the carpaccio. Ask the bartend for suggestions if need be. His taste is very good.In fact, Lavapies is just a great area for dining and drinking. Good, friendly, cheap. Not as touristy as the areas near Sol and Gran Via, so spanish-speaking is a must, but they’re very patient and kind, with good suggestions. La Buga del Lobo was good.The Post Office on the Plaza de la Cibeles is amazing, like a giant castle.The Thyssen is very well organized and curated. They have a wonderful collection of art spanning many centuries of European work. Completely awesome.The Prado is awesome, with a huge collection of wonderful Ribera paintings, as well as a lot of Velasquez, Goya, and El Greco (of course). Very good museum, though organized a little difficultly.Las Tablas (Plaza de España 9, M. Plaza de España) is a great bar to watch flamenco dancing, a show that goes an hour and a half or so. We had a table right up at the stage, and the whole room was having a great time. The owners got up and danced afterwards, which was absolutely amazing. Food was a bit pricey. Get there early. The Plaza is also pleasent to walk through.Restaurante Sobrino de Botin was pricey, but worth it. A tourist trap, to be sure, but the food is still very good, and how can you resist the so-called “oldest restaurant in the world”? The roast suckling pig is like eating a slab of crisp bacon. I’m quite serious. The squid cooked in its own ink is also very good.The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando is surprisingly good (we got in free, too). Among its twisting walls are some very nice Spanish works, and we discovered a few new artists that we hadn’t known about before.El Escorial was mindblowing. What a monastary. What a palace. What a library. It was kind of awe-inspiring to stand in the mauseleum with the coffins of Philip II and Charles V. Everything was wrought gold, jasper, and beautiful marble. Seriously, a burial befitting of one named Imperator et Rex – Emperor and King. Didn’t know we had to make a reservation beforehand to see the Bourbon apartments inside.The Palacio Real was also quite an experience. So this is how the king lives, huh? Much more extravagent than Buckingham, apparently (I’ve not been to England, but JZG has). Some rooms have embroidery instead of wallpaper. Just…wow. The view from the adjacent cathedral’s top is quite beautiful, too, thought the cathedral itself was underwhelming. The crypt below is kinda pretty.Toledo was very, very hot (43 C, 110 F), so that was a bummer, but the city was beautiful, like stepping back into the olden days, except without all the crap on the streets. Beautiful, monumental cathedral. The Casa Museo de El Greco was under rennovation, but the painting of the Burial of Count Orgaz was very beautiful, though crowded. The actual church (Iglesia de Santo Tomé) is quite a nice experience as well. Watch out for shoddily-made damascene; “hand-made” is often an outright lie.La Trucha (Calle de Núñez de Arce 6) was pricey, but so good. Definitely order the fish tasting tapas platter.Palazzo (Gran Via 32) has great ice cream.Basque food is heavenly, but I can only handle it in small quantities. Oxtail pan-fried and stuffed with foie gras was cold, hot, salty, oily, fatty, crisp, creamy, and every so delicious, but afterwards I distinctly felt a few of my arteries gasp.The OkThe Reina Sofia was ok. “Guernica” was obviously the highlight, but modern art doesn’t really do it for me. They don’t have many of the artists that I like, though they did have some excellent pieces from the Italian Futurists and Suprematists (who are not to be confused with “supremacists”). I find Joan Miró to be absolutely boring, hence eliminating maybe 1/3 of the collection from my consideration.Cerveceria 100 Montaditos was underwhelming, but the food was ok.The Convento de Las Descalzas was pretty interesting, but tiring (no places to sit for the entire tour). Rest before going. There’s also a long wait to get in.Casa Labra was too crowded, food wasn’t worth it.Shopping in Madrid is quite expensive, even places like Zara. Go to the outlets if you can.Plaza de la Villa was underwhelming at best.The view along the edge of Calle de Bailén was pretty nice, but not the fantastical view I was led to believe it was. Too much development had crowded it a bit.Chocolateria de San Gines is good, but the chocolate is so thick that it is pretty undrinkable, except to have with churros.Frommers has one or two good suggestions, but Lonely Planet is overall a more useful travel guide, I think. To Frommers, “Inexpensive” is still quite above my range of expense (i.e. a meal is around $25-30 per person), while for Lonely Planet, it’s a much more reasonable range of < $15 or so, it seems like. Still, it is useful to have at least two to cross-reference and check against each other.

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