The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Adios Espana
It is our last day in Madrid (and in Spain for that matter ... at least for now). For something different, David, Maria, Margene and I spent most of the day touring Madrid on a double-decker bus. It was a pretty cool set-up -- open top, a blow-by-blow commentary (available in a dozen languages) via headphones plus the ability to hop on and off all day. It was also a great way to see the city without walking 20 miles in the heat! Here are some of the results of today's drive-by shooting around Madrid.
I was struck by a couple of things: the advertising wrap on one of the towers in the new town, the street art and TGI Friday's. Not that I am a big fan of Friday's, but it is interesting to see how concepts which are pretty much past their prime in the US are finding new life overseas.
After a few hours of riding around, we hopped off the bus at Retiro Park, stopped at a sidewalk cafe for a refreshment break, then wandered through the cool green of the park.
Our take-away at the end of it all was that architecturally, Madrid struck us as a relatively new city. It was definitely European, but the more interesting buildings were from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. There was no medieval old town like we found in Cordoba and even what is called Old Madrid -- the area we wandered around in the most -- didn't look that old, perhaps dating to the 1700s.
We wandered into the old town behind the Plaza Mayor and down into the area where we were last night to find a bite to eat. (That glass structure on the right in the third photo is Mercado San Miguel). We stopped at a sidewalk cafe for our last taste of tapas. At the end of the meal, David asked the waiter for a cup of coffee. "We don't have coffee, senor," he said. A few minutes later he returned and said, "But I can get you some from across the street" ... and he did! It was the right response, but would have had more impact without the time lag.
That was enough of a day for us. We said our goodbyes to David and Maria as they headed off to the airport, headed up to the room to pack and called in a successful trip.
© 2012 Restaurant Doctor
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