Sunday, December 8th, 2013
We first visited Madrid in 2009. I gatecrashed a physics conference Dean was presenting at whilst working towards his phd. It was the height of summer and we stayed at the very nice Westin Palace hotel. At the time, it was the number two ranked hotel in Madrid, behind only the Ritz. Having become accustomed to staying in luxury we agreed – next time the Ritz!
Well, four years later, our friends Fabrice and Elena have recently made the move back to Madrid so we decided it was time for another visit. Hotel rankings have changed somewhat, but we still decided to make good on our promise and stay at the Ritz.
As we had spent time in Madrid before, on the Saturday, we decided to explore further afield and paid a visit to Aranjuez, about 40km south of Mardrid. The town was designated a world heritage site in 2001, thanks to the Royal Palace, the gardens and one of the oldest bullfighting rings in the country.
Elena and Fabrice were responsible for her parents’ yorkshire terrier, Tizón, that weekend, so he joined us on our trip. We started by walking around the town itself, taking in the sites before stopping for a tapas lunch in a pedestrianised side street.
After lunch we visited the Jardin de la Isla, the formal gardens North of the Palace Real. We had one problem though …. no dogs allowed! Fabrice and Elena were not at all phased by this though. “Don’t worry we’ll put him in the backpack!” And so they did. We then had a very entertaining walk around the gardens with poor Tizón protesting at being in a bag.
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On Sunday, we took a wander around the city. We went to the Mercado de San Miguel. This market has had a recent makeover and is now a trendy upmarket place where you can come for lunch. We were there to taste some sherry and sampled cheeses and meats from other stalls while we drank. I could have spent all day in the market – there were so many stalls selling so much yummy food and drink! On the way out, I spotted a stand selling cones of serrano ham which were the perfect take away snack to nibble on as we continued to walk around the city.
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During the weekend, food and drink were a definite highlight. On the Friday night we ate at Cubik where we had a very reasonably priced tasting menu. On the Saturday, we ate at Cuevos el Secreto – lots of steak followed by sorbet and cava for dessert. When we had visited in 2009, we found a bar on a very peaceful square very close to the Plaza Mayor. It was much less touristy that other nearby places and had a very authentic and relaxed feel with free tapas. At the time, we didn’t note the name or location! After our dinner on Saturday evening though, we set out on a mission to find it again and were very happy to find it was still there and had not changed. The square is called Plaza Conde de Barajas and the bar was of the same name. In fact they were still advertising that they had the same prices as 3 years ago!
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