Day 4 Madrid

Managed to get a needed good night's sleep so we didn't get a very early start to do what we had planned to do. I was the first one up and went down to a local bakery and brought back a baguette and croissant for a late breakfast. We headed out around noon with the intention of grabbing a few tapas at Mercado de San Miguel then planned on spending the afternoon at the Royal Palace. As it turned out we were not very successful at either. We did get to the Mercado but it was way to crowded to get anything. Just walking through it was a real chore. It's very famous, although not a traditional market, but the best food court I've ever experienced. The tapas and drink stalls looked fabulous. It's to bad we didn't get to eat anything. We'll try again in a few days.

Undeterred, we had only a short walk over to the Royal Place. However, when we got there it was surrounded by barricades and hundreds of police. It seems as though there was some special event occurring there and it looked like it would be a long time before it concluded.  I understand it's a takes at least 2-4 hours to tour the Royal Palace, it has 3,000 rooms...yep 3,000. Pretty big place. We'll try again in a few days.

Somewhat disappointed, but okay with it since we have seven more days in Madrid. Instead we just wandered around checking out all the sights. We had a late lunch at an outdoor cafe and each had a Jamon Iberico bocadillo (ham sandwich). Only it's not your regular ham, it's really, really good ham. We walked a few hours more then went back to the apartment and waited to go out to dinner, When we did go out it was 8:30 and we went up the street to Lola Cocina. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, and they were Americans of course. By the time we had a drink and ordered our food and wine the place was packed. As is typical, nobody dines until after nine. We had a shareable appetizer of thinly sliced pork loin with capers and a sauce made of creamed tuna fish. It was very good. Sylvia had chicken and I again made a goof ordering. Instead of trying to pronounce the unpronounceable I pointed on the menu to what I wanted, and of course the waiter misunderstood.  I ended up with a hamburger and fries. Oh well, at least it was an excellent burger.  Overall, it was a good meal that we were more than satisfied with. That pretty much ended the evening.

Mercado de San Miguel

A few Tapas

More Tapas