Eating in Madrid

Yessiree, I'm blogging in Madrid! I love these beautiful old cities. Wish you all, whoever you are, were here with us to enjoy the scene and the scenery.

The flight(s) were unremarkable. American Airlines still feeds you on the way, but airline food hasn't improved a bit. Nor has my ability to sleep on a flight. I made up for that with 14 solid hours of zzzzzs last night. Now my body is pretty much rested and on local time. Long flights east-bound are tough since you arrive in the morning most of time, after a crappy night on the plane. Long flights west-bound I can live with since you usually arrive at night and can crawl right into bed when you get to your hotel.

Yesterday's highlight was the tappas bar crawl in our neighborhood around Plaza Mayor. It's like a giant singles bar. With food. It isn't easy to even get into a restaurant or bar, they're all so crowded. Great people watching. We lunched at La Peonza, one of many, many, many such establishments. We had sangria and cola, croquetas caseras, huevos manchegos, and tosta salmon with parmesan. All delicious! The ham here (jamon) is especially wonderful, not at all like ham that we know in the states. I intend to eat as much of it as possible.

We breakfasted at La Mallorquina this morning. I had a little jamon sandwhich on a bun. Randy had a chocolate croissant. And cafe con leche with sugar, of course, for us both. This establishment is a bakery and confectionary. You order and eat standing up at a coffee bar. It's so wonderful and so civilized. Food is respected here, as is dining in general. We've lost that in the USA, lost that simple respect for food and dining. No wonder Alice Waters gets so much flack from so many quarters.

Well, I'll bring my camera with me today as we're out and about and will take some photos to post when we're home. We are off to the palace this morning. Probably this will still be a relatively low-key day. Randy's knee, of course, still bothers him, and all those hours on the plane flights didn't do my back much good. But, who cares! We're in Madrid! I do hope some one somewhere is reading this and will comment, just so I know you're all there.

Ciao bella! Ooops, wrong country. Buenos dias!