On day 9 of my Paris trip I headed to Charles de Gaulle airport for a flight to Madrid. I was on my way to Toledo to meet my mom at a conference where she was giving the keynote address. On the train ride to Roissy I noticed that I missed a call from Seiko. After checking my luggage and looking through the bookstore near my gate, I called Seiko and she told me that Michael Jackson died. I was in a state of disbelief. I was also tired from staying out late the night before and waking up at the crack of dawn for my flight. I called another friend who I had not yet had a chance to see and then I called Tania and Shay who were sad about MJ. As I hung up the phone I looked down at my watch and realized I had ten minutes before my flight left. I ran to where I thought my gate was, realized I was in the wrong place, lept downstairs to the correct gate and saw that there was no one there. The doors to the hallway leading to the plane were locked. Merde! I missed my flight! And I was at the airport two hours early!
That was the start of my adventure to Spain. Mr. Jackson's death seemed unreal to me but missing my flight seemed very real so I focused on trying to get to Spain. I couldn't get my ticket exhanged so I stood in a line for ticketing for about an hour, produced some tears, came up with an excuse for missing the flight and bought a new ticket. I immediately got lunch and then went to the correct gate, parked myself in a seat and waited for the flight at 2pm.
When I got to Madrid I was exhausted and my luggage was lost. I filled out claims to have the luggage delivered to Toledo and then tried to figure out how to get to Toledo from Madrid. I took the metro from the airport, with several transfers along the way, to the train station and then took a train to Toledo. From the train station I took a long-ish taxi ride to the hotel and was shocked to see graffiti that said "skinheads" with a few swatstikas interspersed along the way.
Getting to the hotel was one of the happiest events of the week. I got settled in and turned on the TV to the French station and then decided I should try to accept MJ's passing and turned to CNN for details. I woke up and my mom was in the room, relieved to see me since she thought I was on a 10 am flight and did not know where I was.
Day 2 in Spain. My mom gave a kickass speech for her conference. We had lunch and then a siesta. Later in the evening we went with all of my mom's colleagues to the center of Toledo for a stunning flamenco performance and dinner. We were on the terrace of a swank hotel and the flamenco dancer's stage had the town and the sunset as a backdrop. Gorgeous. We drank cava and ate tapas like the famous Iberico ham and once the performance was over we were seated for a sumptuous feast.
Day 3. We left Toledo and went to our hotel in Madrid. My luggage was still lost at this point. Once we got to Madrid we were hungry. At the hotel we had an 88 euro lunch that was borderline depressing it was so bad - canned vegetables, and fried fish. Afterwards, we walked around near Sol, got ice cream, and walked around some more, trying to figure out what we thought of Madrid. My mom said it reminded her of places she had visited in Latin America. I thought Madrid had a feel similar to Rome, but on a different scale.
We finished our stroll and went to the airport to get my luggage. When we got back to the hotel we took a siesta and then got up hours later at 9pm with a mission to find a dinner that would be better than lunch. I read about a place in The New York Times called the Urban Hotel and figured that maybe there would be good places surrounding it, so we headed for Carrera San Jeronimo and the Restaurante La Catedral caught our eyes. Compared to our overpriced lunch, the prices at this restaurant were completely reasonable: 5 to 15 euros. I had a delicous pork tenderloin tapas and grilled asperagus and my mom had an excellent chicken cooked a la plancha with mushrooms and asperagus. We both had wine. The bill came to 30 euros.
After dinner, we walked along the crowded San Jeronimo and ended up at the Urban Hotel which has a lovely rooftop bar. All the tables were full so we admired the view and then left.
The next day was our big, full day in Madrid. Here are the highlights:
Day 4 in Madrid was pretty much all about art. We started the day wandering in the area behind our hotel and ended up near the Senate and the Opera. We happened upon a gem of an antique store called Oliver Twist at C. Bailen, 7. We meandered further and had brunch a brunch of smoked salmon at a pretty cafe overlooking the square in front of the Opera. After eating we decided to go to the Museo del Prado so we set off for it. We later learned that the Prado is closed on Mondays, so we went to the Reina Sofia museum instead.
The Reina Sofia museum is one of the most impressive museums I have ever been to and I would happily return to Madrid just to visit the musem again. The building is a mix of older architecture (probably from the 19th century) and stunning modern architecture and design. The middle of the older section of the museum houses a darling sculpture museum that is a little larger and more rugged than the MoMa's.
My favorite exhibit at the Reina Sofia was of The Atlas Group by Walid Raad. The Atlas Group is an art project developed by Raad with the aim of investigating and documenting Lebanon's recent history, particularly during the wars between 1975 and 1990.
Check it out: Santa Isabel, 52 28012 Madrid or www.museoreinasofia.es
After Reina Sofia, we went to Caixa Forum, a museum dedicated to North African art. This is also a beautiful must see. Paseo del Prado, 36
After the museums we both decided we wanted to get art work from Oliver Twist, so we headed back in that direction. We made one detour before our art transaction to the three-month old food market, San Miguel (Mercado del San Miguel) in the Puerto del Sol district. This market has been around for centeries but it recently re-opened with new local vendors selling everything from sweets to wine to seafood, tapas and cheese. The prices are amazing. My mom and I had two glasses of delcious wine (I forgot the names) for 6 euros! In Paris you're lucky to get one glass of wine for 7 euros! I also had a great tuna tapas for 1 euro.
For dinner we went to the same place we went to for brunch, next to the Opera. Our lunch was better than our dinner but we were happy with our art buys and a thoroughly stimulating day in sunny Madrid.
On day 5, I headed back to Paris, did some speed shopping, saw friends, and prepared to head back to New York the following day.
Comments