J came to town for a visit this weekend. After a horrible descent into budget airline hell, she finally arrived 4 hours late. Ryan Air was the culprit, along with some of that pesky Venetian fog. Thus, we did not see her until Saturday morning.
J was our first visitor. In the following blog, you will see just how much fun we have here at amagomundi, especially when we have nice guests.
On Saturday morning A met J and they walked around town and took lots of pictures. (They were to meet S later for lunch.)
J mailed some postcards, and A helped.
Everyone was happy after mailing those postcards. It was a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
We all met up at Cafe Oliver (c/Almirante 12) for lunch. We like the atmosphere of this restaurant near Chueca. Above, we have a photo of the fine piece of duck with potatoes that S enjoyed. Confit de pato, baby. A had the solomillo and J had a delicious bit of steak tartare. Cafe Oliver has a house red is definitely worth drinking.
On Sunday we met J at 10:30 to go to the Rastro, Madrid's huge swap meet.
We never seem to buy anything, but we enjoy going anyway. We like to look at the stuff. Last time we bought clothespins. This time we bought nothing.
We looked at some antique furniture and art.
Then we decided to make our way to the Plaza Mayor. The Rastro is way too crowded by 11. We suggest that you go early, like 9:30. Above, we have a plaza somewhere between La Latina and Plaza Mayor.
A satisfying trompe l'oiel (above). Only one side of the building has real windows.
We took more photos and kept walking. Madrid is very nice at this time of year.
J and S. I wish we remembered what this plaza was called. It is very nice. We had fun with J.
This is a little garden we stumbled upon. It is in the middle of the Madrid de los Austrias.
It's a regular urban locus amoenus.
Still walking around the portion of Madrid that was built up when the Austrian kings ruled Spain.
Calle de Cuchilleros, on the southwest corner of the Plaza Mayor. S's parents have a watercolor reproduction of this bit of Madrid.
Interesting Plaza Mayor factoid (above and below): On Sundays old man philatelists gather to trade stamps and talk about philatelia. You can find them at the northeast corner of the plaza. Bring your stamps.
After walking to the Rastro and then trading stamps at the Plaza Mayor, we suggest that you get yourself to the nearest churreria forthwith for churros and chocolate. Only we Spaniards could invent such a delicious combination of fried dough and molten milk chocolate. It is a meal in itself, and well worth whatever physical side effects you may ultimately suffer. When we were younger, we used to enjoy churros y chocolate on the morning after a drinking binge. Now we like churros y chocolate after a morning spent shopping with our girlfriends. Ah, the pleasures of ageing.
After a brief break at our apartment, where we looked at photos of our house in Indiana (which we miss, believe it or not), we went to Arola Madrid for lunch. It is the new restaurant in the new wing of the Reina Sofia Museum. Unfortunately, we got there too late to sit in the restaurant area, but we were able to order sandwiches and patatas bravas at the bar. S had a nice glass of wine, while the ladies enjoyed bottled water. We also had croquetas. It was a very fried dough kind of day.
On Monday morning, A met J to go back to the Reina Sofia Museum to see the art. They had a very nice time together. We all did. Ain't life grand?
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