Madrid: Food, Wine, and Art

In Europe, dining out tends to be very expensive, but it seems to me that Madrid offers excellent food and excellent wine at a reasonable price.  Especially wine was surprisingly cheep.  I truly enjoyed the food experience in Madrid.  I am a food lover.  However, I am not a food fighter and cannot eat a lot of food.  Therefore, tapas, which is a name of various small appetizers and snacks, was a great Spanish tradition for me, because I could taste many different kinds of small dishes.  However, I tended to order too much.  Tapas would be better if you have someone to share the food, drinks, and conversation. 

Honestly, it was difficult for me to enter the tapas restaurant or bar alone on my first night.  I wandered around the tapas bar area.  I finally entered one of the tapas restaurants because a doorman asked me to have dinner at his restaurant.  I know that following a doorman's sales talk may sometimes get me into trouble.  However, I was too hungry and too tired to look for another restaurant, because of Spain's late dinner-serving time starting around 9 PM.  Fortunately, the restaurant was not a rip off.  The food and drink were good.  All I wished was having tapas with my travel partner so that I would be able to taste more dishes and would not have looked ridiculous focusing to eat lots of small dishes by myself.     

Despite the unexpected solo eating-out experience, I had many occasions to share food with my friend from the next day.  My friend and I loved Botin, the world's oldest restaurant opened in 1725. So did Hemingway!  The famous roasted suckling pig was good.  Dessert was divine.  My friend wanted to come back just for dessert.   

We also loved the marketplace, called Mercado de San Miguel, near the Plaza Mayor.  This place offered a variety of delicatessen food, fresh produce, desserts, wine, and more.  It was so crowded that we could not sit down and eat.  However, it was worth visiting here, because its atmosphere was very cool and friendly where both locals and tourists had a good time.  After all, this is the best place to sample Madrid's great food and wine. 

I did not go to a Flamenco show, because I have watched it before.  I did not go to see Real Madrid's game because I was not interested with the soccer, or the football, at that time.  I did not watch bullfighting, because I did not want to pay to watch an animal being killed.  So what did I do? 

I indulged myself in eating and drinking!  Well, joking aside, I mainly visited museums and cultural heritage sites.  I just enjoyed strolling through the beautiful Madrid. 

I especially loved three places as follows:

• The Royal Palace (Palacio Real) - A must see in Madrid.  Definitely see the interior of the Palace, which was spectacular.  (I wish I could take some pictures inside the Palace.)  Join the guided tour, because a guide shares very insightful stories about the Spanish history and Palace.  It is only 1 Euro more expensive than the entrance fee without the guide.  My guidebook stated 9 Euro for the guided tour, although I paid 10 Euro for it.  I now see 11 Euro online.  The fee seems to be inflated within a few years.  Anyway, do not forget to drop by Royal Pharmacy and Royal Armory after the tour.  I especially enjoyed seeing impressive pieces shown at Royal Armory more than I expected.   

• Plaza Mayor - Free admission (of course)!  This plaza has hosted bullfights, markets, concerts, and so on.  I saw some street performance at this plaza when I visited there.  I liked its lively atmosphere, mixed with tourists and locals.  If you have some time, visit the plaza during day and night, because it has different faces.  Drop by the nearby market called Mercado de San Miguel to taste a variety of excellent food, after you visit the Plaza Mayor.

• Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center - I love this museum the most among the museums in the Golden Museum Triangle, mainly because of Picasso's work Guernica.  Guernica was one of the few art works that I wanted to see with my own eyes when I learned it at a middle school.  I was more moved when I saw the actual painting.  Moreover, I was stunned to see so many rough sketches that Picasso made to complete Guernica.   

Small bump on the road:

I hate to say this, but it is not worth visiting Real Jardin Botanico during the summer time.  My guidebook listed this botanical garden which collected over 30,000 kinds of plants from all over the world.  However, I did not see flowers blooming.  Many plants were dry.  I only recalled cactus.  Timing matters, but money matters as well.

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I stayed at the hotel Alexandra (currently a different hotel name) near the metro station called Noviciado for three nights.  The hotel was conveniently located in the center of Madrid and close to many sights.  I shared 62 Euro per night with my friend.  The price included a free breakfast buffet, lining up different kinds of breads, hams, cheeses, coffee, tea, juices, and more.  The bedroom and bathroom were quite spacious.  The hotel staff can speak English, but they seemed to be understaffed.  The charge was relatively cheap when I considered the hotel's service and location.  However, the hotel was undergoing the construction when I stayed there.  During the daytime (only), I could hear a noise of construction from my room.  The hallway was dusty.  In addition, other customers and I had to wait for the elevator, which never showed up, for a long time on my first day.  It is hard for me to say that it was a good deal, but if the hotel offered a similar deal without any renovation, I would stay in the same hotel.

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• Restaurants in Madrid are open around 9 PM to serve dinner.  Lunch is served after 1 PM.
• You may want to carry some snacks until you adjust yourself to Spain's late meal time.  Otherwise, you can go to a fast food restaurant.
• Tipping is not customary in Spain. 
• Madrid is safer than I thought it would be.  As long as you are aware of your surroundings and belongings, you should have little to worry about. 
• Be aware of anyone who approaches you.  This is true to anywhere in the world.
• Major roads are bright with people at night.  However, some areas in Madrid are dark with few people.  I got lost when I was heading back to the hotel after dinner.  It was spooky and worrisome when I did not see anybody walking on street.
• Try to find the brighter area where you will see people when you are lost, such as metro stations and hotels.  Do not go to a park.
• Do not enter Plaza de Espana at night.  A local man who led the way to the hotel told me that I should be alerted when we approached the plaza.  It was dark, but I noticed some men were drunk hee-hawing or peeing. 
• There are many tapas restaurants and bars in the La Latina neighborhood, just south of Plaza Mayor, especially along the Cava Baja street.
• It is easy to become disoriented around the southern part of Plaza Mayor because it has a maze of small roads.  I noticed that my guidebook had a warning after I got lost. 
• I saw a long line waiting to enter the Royal Palace when I arrived around 11:30 AM.  It may be better to get there earlier. The palace opens from 9 AM daily, but you do not have to arrive there at 8 AM.
• The Reina Sofía Museum has free admission hours.  The Prado Museum used to have free admission hours when I visited there.  However, it now has reduced price hours. 
• I noticed that Madrid had experienced inflation.  In 2011, the inflation rate in Spain is highest among countries using Euro.  Do not blindly trust the prices listed on the guidebook, because they may not be updated.  In addition, the prices listed here show just how much I paid when I traveled Madrid in 2009.
• I practically had two days to do sightseeing in Madrid.  I wish I had one more day in Madrid so that I did not have to rush through sights in Madrid.   

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