- 5 days in Madrid
April 2009
We packed as much as we could into our short holiday to Spain's capital. It's a fantastic city and there's plenty to do. Here are just a few of our experiences and one or two recommendations.
Flamenco
Peña Duende
A friend from Foro Flamenco, Norman, arranged for us to visit this members Peña in the suburbs of Madrid. The excellent singer was Pepe Caballero, accompanied by Juan de Madrid. Thanks to Luis for making us so welcome and the lovely couple who gave us a lift to the station at 2am after the show.
Tomatito concert
We couldn't believe our luck that Tomatito was playing while we were there! The venue was an auditorium in a University and we walked past it a few times because we couldn't believe someone so well known would be playing somewhere so ... well ... ordinary!
The artists were all from Almería and the three hour concert included the powerful singing of Montse Perez, accompanied with great precision by Antonio Carrión; and Maria-Ángeles Fernández (Tomatito's elegant daughter) whose guitarist was El Paquete. All three acts were absolutely fabulous. Dave thought it was probably the best thing we've ever seen and we left the hall absolutely buzzing!
La Soleá
This little bar in the Latina district is a meeting place for flamencos. In both rooms anyone who wanted to could play and sing, and in the bar area there was even a little bulerías dance going on. But it's all completely informal and unplanned and my guess is that some nights there may not be much happening.
El Juglar
Shows every Sunday at 10 in a nice bar in Lavapiés, cost €9 which includes a drink.
Most excitingly for me the guitarist was female. And damned good too! The pictures were only taken on my mobile phone, but give you an idea.
Recommendations for bars:
La Venencia - a dusty traditional sherry bar on Echegaray. Very easy to while away the afternoon in here over a bottle!
Bodega Melibea - another friendly bar in Espoz y Mina, open in the evenings only, decorated with tiled murals of naked women!
La Soberbia - excellent and good value breakfasts and the friendly staff remembered us when we went back. In Espoz y Mina just off Sol.
The city:
Tiles Many of the bars are covered in traditional tiles. Viva Madrid just off Echegaray is one of the prettiest, but if you are trying to escape fellow travellers it's perhaps not the place to stop too long! Here are some we saw just off Plaza Santa Ana.
Art Madrid is full of amazing art galleries, but we decided to keep it small by visiting just two: the Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo and the Museo de Esculturas al Aire Libre. The first included one painting which just stunned me and the image will live with me for a long time: Cabeza Urbana by Ángel Orcajo. You can see some of his work on his website http://www.orcajo.com/angel.htm. Here are some of our favourites from the sculptures.
The Retiro Despite the pressure on space that there is in any capital city, the Madrileños have not given up their beautiful park in the east of the city. Here is the Palacio de Cristal.
Accommodation: there's plenty to be found but we loved the place we stayed in, Hostal Alaska. Very central, bright and airy, reasonable prices, and excellent English spoken (for when I run out of the right words in Spanish!). Have a look at their site www.hostalalaska.com
- More stories...
