Just back from Madrid & Barcelona
May 13th, 2004, 05:31 PM
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Just back from Madrid & Barcelona
First, a huge thank you to Maribel, whose suggestions for restaurants and places to visit were so very helpful.
Rather than a blow-by-blow report, I'll pass on some highlights:
We encountered mostly rain in Madrid, which made the kind of street browsing we like to do not really possible, but we had planned our three days there around museum visits anyhow. We found the Prado overwhelming, even more than we expected -- very crowded and HOT too -- and finding the rooms we wanted to see was not nearly as easy as it might seem. The complexities of room number sequences sometimes eluded us entirely, in spite of floor diagrams -- I swear the place is laid out like a honeycomb! Obviously, one has to learn to navigate the Prado by going there quite a lot, to be expected in a museum of its size, but frustrating all the same for first-timers!
Far easier to get around and with a collection more to our contemporary tastes was the Reina Sofia. Two exterior glass elevator towers overlooked both the square in front of the museum and Atocha train station, which is huge. We stood at the top floor of one of the glass shafts and offered our silent prayers to the victims of the bombing there, and their families.
The museum houses a splendid collection of Joan Miro, whose work is among our favorites, as well as the offerings of many other contemporary Spanish artists. Its best-known painting, Picasso's "Guernica," was for us even more powerful than it was when we first saw it nearly 50 years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. How much incredible suffering the world has seen since then . . . I did not expect that this work would affect me as strongly as it did, but the agonies of Guernica seemed universal and really hit home, so I stood there and cried and I don't think I was alone. It was a very somber crowd in that room.
No more somberness after that, though, just pure enjoyment of a wonderful collection and a rest of our weary feet in the large courtyard dominated by a large Alexander Calder mobile (and a not too shabby Picasso bronze sculpture along one of its paths.)
We stayed at the Villa Real, a small 5-star hotel ideally located a short walk from both museums. Our room was delightful, with a separate step-down living area, compact but very attractive and comfortable with a luxurious bath and attentive staff. Flowers and wine from the manager on the second day of our stay added a touch of specialness, and we enjoyed excellent wine and inventive tapas at one of the hotel's restaurants, called East 47. If your taste is for low-key luxury without a huge price tag, you might want to check out this hotel.
We couldn't resist trying dinner at Botin, which is supposed to be the oldest restaurant in the universe, or maybe just in the world. The Queen took Hillary there, and I forget who else, so we went too. At that point we were not yet acclimated to 11 pm dinners, and of course we were there with all the other tourists (not all American, though) at 9pm. Had the roast suckling pig and roast baby lamb, naturally, and it was good, but not great -- the wandering lady photographer made the point, in case it had eluded us, that we were tourists.
Afterward we discovered the rain had stopped, so we wandered into the Plaza Major, very beautiful at night, but the winding, narrow side streets were not welcoming , very dark and still, and when we saw a cluster of shaved headed young men dead ahead of us, we felt that a vacant taxi cab that just happened to pull into the street was truly providential and we leaped into it with more dexterity than we'd shown in years!
Next evening we dined at Casa Paco, also a tourist favorite, I think, but we didn't see any aside from us. A simple place serving magnificent Sopa de Ajo, excellent steak ordered by the kilo (or fraction thereof!) and flan for dessert.
I don't think that anyone on this site (at least since I've been checking in on it) has mentioned that both Madrid and Barcelona suffer from a very severe graffiti problem. It absolutely overwhelms some areas of both cities, often the oldest sections, and is very depressing to see (and, I'm sure, a lot more depressing to live with).
On to Barcelona-- and ye gods, what a royal pain Baranjas airport is. It seemed to us we walked miles looking for Spanair to check in, then more miles to our gate, only to find it had been changed with no notice and we had to walk half-way back the way we had just come. We felt like characters in the movie "Airplane!" But the good side of it was that we did get to exercise off some of the Casa Paco flan . . .
We stayed at the H10 Gravina, conveniently located for reaching the Ramblas, El Born, the Bari Gothic and the Eixample. But it is a 3-star hotel and definitely has its limitations in terms of amenities and style. An excellent buffet breakfast included in the reasonable rate went some distance toward making us miss the pampering of the Villa Real in Madrid somewhat less . . . and the young desk staff is very friendly and accommodating. I absolutely loved the metric scale in the bathroom . . . I haven't seen such a low number in MANY years and it started each day with a big smile. All the same, next time I think I'll opt for another star or two . . .
Great weather for most of our stay there, so we started with a two-hour bus tour of the city that really whetted our appetites, and on successive days walked the Ramblas numerous times, toured the Modernist houses in the Eixample, and the Sagrada Familia (I am an architecture nut and was absolutely ecstatic through all of this visit), Casa Guell, Park Guell, the Palau de Musica Catalana, Barceloneta & the Olympic Port. We flung ourselves into the Bari Gothic and El Born repeatedly -- originally looking for specific places which we almost never found, but finding other places that we loved, eating ourselves silly on tapas and having more wine in a week than we normally have in six months. There's Santa Maria del Mar, where we stumbled on a special mass with lovely music, and the Cathedral with artwork in its many chapels that was stunning -- and a tapas bar at the side of the plaza there (I forget the name -- sorry, folks) we liked enough to come back to a couple of times, sitting outside watching the mimes and listening to assorted wandering musicians.
Celebrated our 46th anniversary with a lovely dinner at Maria Christina and tried hard not to lose it in the lap of the cigar smoker at the next table . . . when in Rome, and all that, but really, the level of smoke in public places is prettty tough to take. I know, I know, Europeans think we Americans are a wimpy lot when it comes to smoking.
Another evening we dined at Talaia Mar on the waterfront. Beautiful view, excellent service, fine wine and cuisine that is, I guess, best described as Nouveau Med. We had the chef's tasting dinner, which was an adventure that was mostly quite excellent, and left us almost painfully full at the end, which for some dumb reason we hadn't anticipated. But you do have to be amused with such dishes as Gazpacho of avocado with red beet yogurt andWalnut of Macadamia (huh?); Foie with gelee of pomegranate and coriander with Papaya sauce; Potato omelette in deconstruction -- candied onion, egg yolk emulsion and potato foam; Octopus double carpaccio with candied scallop and vanilla sour juice . . . and that was just part of what we had.
The last two days we had rain, so we went to the Picasso Museum, as did the entire population of the city; it was jammed! Learn from our mistake, and don't save it till the end of your visit when it might rain; it's no fun in a mob, and it's a museum very much worth a leisurely visit. The rest of our final day there we broke down and did the shopping for gifts that neither of us enjoys on our travels, but it was made pleasant by gallery browsing in between the shops in El Born (again) and our final tapas meal at the Basque place there, Euskal Extea, that Maribel has recommended. I've saved a napkin, because it was imprinted with" thanks for coming" in Basque--and I pass it on to you because you never know when it will come in handy: Eskerrik Asko Etortzeagatik.
Rather than a blow-by-blow report, I'll pass on some highlights:
We encountered mostly rain in Madrid, which made the kind of street browsing we like to do not really possible, but we had planned our three days there around museum visits anyhow. We found the Prado overwhelming, even more than we expected -- very crowded and HOT too -- and finding the rooms we wanted to see was not nearly as easy as it might seem. The complexities of room number sequences sometimes eluded us entirely, in spite of floor diagrams -- I swear the place is laid out like a honeycomb! Obviously, one has to learn to navigate the Prado by going there quite a lot, to be expected in a museum of its size, but frustrating all the same for first-timers!
Far easier to get around and with a collection more to our contemporary tastes was the Reina Sofia. Two exterior glass elevator towers overlooked both the square in front of the museum and Atocha train station, which is huge. We stood at the top floor of one of the glass shafts and offered our silent prayers to the victims of the bombing there, and their families.
The museum houses a splendid collection of Joan Miro, whose work is among our favorites, as well as the offerings of many other contemporary Spanish artists. Its best-known painting, Picasso's "Guernica," was for us even more powerful than it was when we first saw it nearly 50 years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. How much incredible suffering the world has seen since then . . . I did not expect that this work would affect me as strongly as it did, but the agonies of Guernica seemed universal and really hit home, so I stood there and cried and I don't think I was alone. It was a very somber crowd in that room.
No more somberness after that, though, just pure enjoyment of a wonderful collection and a rest of our weary feet in the large courtyard dominated by a large Alexander Calder mobile (and a not too shabby Picasso bronze sculpture along one of its paths.)
We stayed at the Villa Real, a small 5-star hotel ideally located a short walk from both museums. Our room was delightful, with a separate step-down living area, compact but very attractive and comfortable with a luxurious bath and attentive staff. Flowers and wine from the manager on the second day of our stay added a touch of specialness, and we enjoyed excellent wine and inventive tapas at one of the hotel's restaurants, called East 47. If your taste is for low-key luxury without a huge price tag, you might want to check out this hotel.
We couldn't resist trying dinner at Botin, which is supposed to be the oldest restaurant in the universe, or maybe just in the world. The Queen took Hillary there, and I forget who else, so we went too. At that point we were not yet acclimated to 11 pm dinners, and of course we were there with all the other tourists (not all American, though) at 9pm. Had the roast suckling pig and roast baby lamb, naturally, and it was good, but not great -- the wandering lady photographer made the point, in case it had eluded us, that we were tourists.
Afterward we discovered the rain had stopped, so we wandered into the Plaza Major, very beautiful at night, but the winding, narrow side streets were not welcoming , very dark and still, and when we saw a cluster of shaved headed young men dead ahead of us, we felt that a vacant taxi cab that just happened to pull into the street was truly providential and we leaped into it with more dexterity than we'd shown in years!
Next evening we dined at Casa Paco, also a tourist favorite, I think, but we didn't see any aside from us. A simple place serving magnificent Sopa de Ajo, excellent steak ordered by the kilo (or fraction thereof!) and flan for dessert.
I don't think that anyone on this site (at least since I've been checking in on it) has mentioned that both Madrid and Barcelona suffer from a very severe graffiti problem. It absolutely overwhelms some areas of both cities, often the oldest sections, and is very depressing to see (and, I'm sure, a lot more depressing to live with).
On to Barcelona-- and ye gods, what a royal pain Baranjas airport is. It seemed to us we walked miles looking for Spanair to check in, then more miles to our gate, only to find it had been changed with no notice and we had to walk half-way back the way we had just come. We felt like characters in the movie "Airplane!" But the good side of it was that we did get to exercise off some of the Casa Paco flan . . .
We stayed at the H10 Gravina, conveniently located for reaching the Ramblas, El Born, the Bari Gothic and the Eixample. But it is a 3-star hotel and definitely has its limitations in terms of amenities and style. An excellent buffet breakfast included in the reasonable rate went some distance toward making us miss the pampering of the Villa Real in Madrid somewhat less . . . and the young desk staff is very friendly and accommodating. I absolutely loved the metric scale in the bathroom . . . I haven't seen such a low number in MANY years and it started each day with a big smile. All the same, next time I think I'll opt for another star or two . . .
Great weather for most of our stay there, so we started with a two-hour bus tour of the city that really whetted our appetites, and on successive days walked the Ramblas numerous times, toured the Modernist houses in the Eixample, and the Sagrada Familia (I am an architecture nut and was absolutely ecstatic through all of this visit), Casa Guell, Park Guell, the Palau de Musica Catalana, Barceloneta & the Olympic Port. We flung ourselves into the Bari Gothic and El Born repeatedly -- originally looking for specific places which we almost never found, but finding other places that we loved, eating ourselves silly on tapas and having more wine in a week than we normally have in six months. There's Santa Maria del Mar, where we stumbled on a special mass with lovely music, and the Cathedral with artwork in its many chapels that was stunning -- and a tapas bar at the side of the plaza there (I forget the name -- sorry, folks) we liked enough to come back to a couple of times, sitting outside watching the mimes and listening to assorted wandering musicians.
Celebrated our 46th anniversary with a lovely dinner at Maria Christina and tried hard not to lose it in the lap of the cigar smoker at the next table . . . when in Rome, and all that, but really, the level of smoke in public places is prettty tough to take. I know, I know, Europeans think we Americans are a wimpy lot when it comes to smoking.
Another evening we dined at Talaia Mar on the waterfront. Beautiful view, excellent service, fine wine and cuisine that is, I guess, best described as Nouveau Med. We had the chef's tasting dinner, which was an adventure that was mostly quite excellent, and left us almost painfully full at the end, which for some dumb reason we hadn't anticipated. But you do have to be amused with such dishes as Gazpacho of avocado with red beet yogurt andWalnut of Macadamia (huh?); Foie with gelee of pomegranate and coriander with Papaya sauce; Potato omelette in deconstruction -- candied onion, egg yolk emulsion and potato foam; Octopus double carpaccio with candied scallop and vanilla sour juice . . . and that was just part of what we had.
The last two days we had rain, so we went to the Picasso Museum, as did the entire population of the city; it was jammed! Learn from our mistake, and don't save it till the end of your visit when it might rain; it's no fun in a mob, and it's a museum very much worth a leisurely visit. The rest of our final day there we broke down and did the shopping for gifts that neither of us enjoys on our travels, but it was made pleasant by gallery browsing in between the shops in El Born (again) and our final tapas meal at the Basque place there, Euskal Extea, that Maribel has recommended. I've saved a napkin, because it was imprinted with" thanks for coming" in Basque--and I pass it on to you because you never know when it will come in handy: Eskerrik Asko Etortzeagatik.
May 16th, 2004, 01:52 PM
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Thank you for posting your trip report. It has so much great information and I plan to keep it in a file for our trip next year.
I too was moved beyond words when seeing Guernica and had also seen it in N.Y. on a previous trip, but seeing it in Madrid was somehow even more dramatic. In this particular painting, more than any other I have seen, I think Picasso captures the sad futility and horror of war. And to think it was painted so many years ago for another war and to think that humanity just doesn't seem to learn! It's certainly one of the strongest statements ever painted!
I too was not totally thrilled with the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. Although it's certainly worth going to, it didn't feel "people friendly" to me. However, the Picasso Museum in Malaga was fantastic and felt very "people friendly" to me--I highly recommend it to all Picasso fans.
Did you get to the Miro museum in Barcelona? If not, you'll have to go back again to see it!
I also was totally thrilled with Botin, but had to try it (as well as Antonio's in Malaga, which disappointed me as well, but I had to go there.)
Thanks again for posting your report. I really enjoyed it.
I too was moved beyond words when seeing Guernica and had also seen it in N.Y. on a previous trip, but seeing it in Madrid was somehow even more dramatic. In this particular painting, more than any other I have seen, I think Picasso captures the sad futility and horror of war. And to think it was painted so many years ago for another war and to think that humanity just doesn't seem to learn! It's certainly one of the strongest statements ever painted!
I too was not totally thrilled with the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. Although it's certainly worth going to, it didn't feel "people friendly" to me. However, the Picasso Museum in Malaga was fantastic and felt very "people friendly" to me--I highly recommend it to all Picasso fans.
Did you get to the Miro museum in Barcelona? If not, you'll have to go back again to see it!
I also was totally thrilled with Botin, but had to try it (as well as Antonio's in Malaga, which disappointed me as well, but I had to go there.)
Thanks again for posting your report. I really enjoyed it.
May 17th, 2004, 04:05 PM
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ckwald -- many thanks for your report. My husband and I are headed to Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville on Sunday. I have taken note of your restaurant recommendations. Happy Anniversary! I hope it was magical!
