Devouring Madrid - October 30, Evening

In the evening we took a lovely food tour called "Tapas, Taverns, and History" with Devour Madrid. Our guide, Hagar, did a great job leading our group of six through an evening of history, food, and drink. At our first three stops we would eat standing up, as is common in Spanish bars.  

First we stopped at Taberna Real to learn about Iberian ham and vermouth. Iberian ham is special because the pigs eat only acorns and they are a special breed of pig. 

First stop: Taberna Real. Another beautiful tile street sign.

 

Hagar speaks to our group in front of Taberna Real

 While Hagar was talking to us, an interesting procession passed by.  

 

Inside, we realized we were very hungry and thirsty.  

Hagar offers us olives

Tasting vermouth. It was sweet and nice.

Jamon Iberico

Vegetarian option

Peeling tomatoes. Each one of the hams in the background is worth at least 1500 euros.

Our second stop featured grilled mushrooms, flash-fried peppers, and tinto. Tinto is like sangria, but lighter. According to Hagar, Spaniards never drink sangria.

Mesón del Champiñón

Peppers and mushrooms in the small area where the grilling occurs

 

At the mushroom bar

Vegetarian or chorizo stuffing

Hagar showed us a special way to eat these mushrooms. You hold the toothpicks and pull them down until they are horizontal, and then pop the whole mushroom in your mouth.

Our third stop was La Casa del Abuelo, where we tried sizzling garlic and chili shrimp with wine or tinto. The shrimp was really good. It was incredibly hot - the oil sizzled for minutes.

 

Here is a short video of the sizzling, delicious shrimp that was served to us:

Continuing on, we found ourselves at Casa Toni, a small informal restaurant.

Window display at Casa Toni: _____________, sweetbreads, and intestines wound around a stick and fried

Sweetbreads, cooked. I forced myself to try them. They tasted like some sort of meat, but nothing special. I only had one bite. I don't need to try them again.

Ham

Chorizo

Mushrooms and eggs

Potatoes Brava

 

Fried peppers - not spicy

 

Fried eggplant with honey sauce. Mmmmm!

 

Special cookies made by nuns

We dipped our cookies in muscatel

We really enjoyed this tour.    Now if only I could learn how to use BlogPad Pro. I have had such a hard time adding photos. 😒 

Hitting La Tierra Running - October 30

We landed in Madrid at 7:15 in the morning. We walked for about 20 minutes to get to the luggage claim area! This airport seems bigger than Atlanta's.  We found the "Left Luggage" office - not without some difficulty - and left one of our bags there. Then we grabbed a cab and headed for our hotel. 

Of course it was too early to check in, but the nice people at the desk told us we could leave our bags with the bellman and partake of the breakfast. I wasn't very hungry, but it was nice to have some strong coffee and a preview of what we can expect tomorrow morning at breakfast time.  

Soon it was time to walk to Puerta del Sol to join our first tour. It took us less than ten minutes to walk there. Many of the streets had beautiful tiles serving as street signs.


 

We found the guides from OGO with their green umbrellas.  
Our guide was Tatiana, originally from Kyrgyzstan. She spoke very good English. Our group, limited to 20, had people from Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Not all of them spoke English as their first language. 

This two and a half hour walking tour was a good introduction to Madrid.  
 
Puerta del Sol is a big, busy square. We immediately noticed the statue of a bear reaching up to a tree. It seemed out of proportion (and out of place - are there bears here?). Tatiana  told us it is part of the coat of arms of Madrid. The tree is a "strawberry tree." (Wait, strawberries don't grow on trees.) Tatiana said she would show us one of the trees at the end of the tour. She did. It was a small tree, so the bear is not too far out of proportion.

The coat of arms of Madrid shows a bear eating from a "strawberry tree."

The starting point for all roads in Spain - Kilometer Zero.

The oldest hotel in Madrid

Tatiana talks about ham. 
Look at the hams high up on the wall. We saw this everywhere.

The Plaza Mayor
The Plaza Mayor has been the scene of markets, bullfights, football games, public executions, and, during the Inquisition, autos da fe against supposed heretics.

We saw a lot of street performers. Many had some variation of this tableau.

We got to go inside Botin, "the oldest restaurant in the world." They have a certificate from Guiness to prove it.

Vegetarians: don't look! Botin specializes in suckling pig

Lots of Spanish kings have eaten at Botin. Hemingway ate here, too.

The gourmet food market

Beautiful wrought-iron balconies everywhere. Mustn't forget to always look up.

Elbow Street

Almudena Cathedral

Almudena Cathedral stands on the site of Madrid's first mosque. The exterior was a striking fusion of Gothic revival, neo-classical and neo-baroque. Surprisingly, construction took place from 1879-1993. We didn't have a chance to go inside on our tour. Apparently the interior is stunning. If we go back to Madrid we will have to make a visit here.

The Royal Palace

Phillip IV, or Felipe IV. His name comes up quite a bit.

Smiling Tatiana in front of a strawberry tree

 

It is actually a madroño tree

That New Plane Smell - October 28-29

October 28
We flew to Seattle on a brand new Alaska airlines plane honoring our military. This was the 737's fourth flight. It still had a little of that "new car smell." The plane has a special livery featuring American flag motifs on the wing tips and five gold rings around the engines, representing the five branches of the military. Although many people at the airport, including ground crew and people in the Board Room, took photos of the plane, I didn't think about taking photos until after we were on board and saw the ground crew taking photos. Alaska's newest plane 

Our flight from Seattle to Atlanta was uneventful except for a brief shouting incident that was triggered by somebody suddenly putting his seat back and knocking someone's computer off the tray table. 

We arrived in Atlanta around midnight and went straight to our hotel. It was only 8 pm as far as our bodies were concerned, and we stayed up way too late. I know this is not the correct way to minimize jet lag. :( 

October 29 
Lots of time to kill today before the flight. We wandered around and took photos of Halloween decorations made by different departments of the hotel.

Finally it is time to go to the airport. (What a large airport! It seems like it takes 15 minutes to drive from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4.) We kill some more time. 

Hey, did you know that TSA Pre-Check works when you are leaving the US? I thought you needed Global Entry, but apparently not. 

This Delta flight is not very full. Yay! Two young women sitting behind us have gotten upgraded to first class. I hear snatches of their conversation with the flight attendants. I hear something that sounds like "Alaska Wildberrry Chocolates." We turn around and and talk to them and find out they are Alaska Airlines flight attendants from Anchorage. Small world. They are off to Spain for a week. They flew standby all the way to Atlanta and were nervous about making this flight, but they made it. We take off and dinner gets eaten and then everybody goes to sleep. It is quiet but the flight is pretty bumpy. 

Our Next Great Adventure is about to begin!