Wanderings: Madrid, Cordoba and Seville

I mentioned in my last post that Ed and I traveled for a few days in southern Spain before we met the kids at the farmhouse, and for a few days afterwards. Here's my report from our wanderings through Madrid, Cordoba and Seville.

Madrid

Hurricane Irma, in her rage, delayed our flight out of Atlanta by 24 hours. No big deal as we got the notice before we ever left Farm Dover to drive to the Louisville airport. What it did mean is that as soon as we landed in Madrid from the overnight flight, we had to hustle over to the meeting point for a food tour of Madrid. (We have concluded that a food tour of a new city is the best way to learn our way around and figure out where we want to go for future meals. This one proved no exception.) Joy, from Devour Madrid, led our group of seven to eight different venues, starting with churros and chocolate, moving on to sweet red vermouth and tapas at the El Mercado de San Miguel, then bull-tail bundles with red wine, followed by a local stew, Iberian ham tasting, and on and on.

El Mercado de San Miguel

Three hours into the tour Ed and I were almost comatose from lack of sleep and an overload of food and drink. We apologized to our tour guide and staggered back to our hotel for a siesta.

Refreshed from our nap, we headed out toward El Corte Ingles, Spain's largest department store, seeking a pair of Parsol sunglasses like the ones Ed loved from the 70's. Found them! To celebrate, we headed up to the store's rooftop bar for a beer and to watch darkness fall over the city. Eventually, we made our way over to Calle Colon seeking out the century-old Bodega La Ardosa for a glass of vermouth and some tapas. We stood at the crowded bar eating and drinking, pretending to be real Spaniards.

We spent the next day exploring Madrid and lunching at the La Ideal, Madrid's best calamari sandwich shop. We split a sandwich, which is served with potato salad; ordered two beers, which came with a dish of green olives. Perfect lunch.

The Prado, the main Spanish national art museum, offers free admittance every evening from 6:00 to 8:00. We headed over (after our siesta) only to find a line of several hundred people, each of whom needed to be screened for bombs or other weapons of destruction. We eventually made our way in and headed for the Goya paintings. Not my favorite, but the museum space is beautiful. Downstairs, we found more Goyas, this time of his "black" paintings – dark and moody, but done in a looser style that I much preferred.

At the Prado

From there we walked across town to the La Latina neighborhood seeking out Cava Lucas, a wine bar/tapas place we had discovered on a previous visit to Madrid. I had been dreaming of the baked calamari with black squid ink mousse that we had ordered last time; we ordered it again. It was a good as I remembered.

Córdoba

The next morning, we took the fast train out of Madrid for Córdoba, arriving in time to visit the Mosque-Cathedral, an incredible (and enormous) example of Moorish architecture. 

Mosque turned Cathedra

Back at our hotel, Hospes Palacio del Bailio, Ed opted for a siesta, while I took up the hotel's offer for a Roman Bath, which I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting myself into. Turns out, it was beautiful underground room with three pools: one with hot water, one with cold water, and one with just right water. That night for dinner, we took the advice of the hotel receptionist and walked over to a local tavern and allowed the bartender to bring us his favorite tapas. All were delicious, especially the fried eggplant, with honey and feta.

The next morning, we toured the The Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Castle of Christian Monarchs), the very place where Christopher Columbus received his marching orders in 1492 from Isabella and Ferdinand. After strolling through the magnificent gardens, we checked out of our hotel, picked up a rental car and headed to the farmhouse to meet our kids.

Fast-forward one week...

Seville

Upon waving goodbye to the kids, we drove to Seville, where we spent the next three days, wandering the streets at leisure, eating churros and tapas to our heart's content. 

We toured the Seville Cathedral, the world's largest Gothic church; and the Royal Alcazar, with its beautiful gardens. 

Our hotel, Becquer, was just a couple of blocks from the bridge crossing the Guadaira River and we explored the farside Triana neighborhood, looking at art along the riverside, checking out the spices at the mercado, and alfresco dining at the slightly out-of-the-way Puratasca, where once again, we asked the waitress to bring us her favorites.

We spent one final night in Madrid, before flying home the next day. After a quick lunch at the counter of Hontanares, our favorite coffee shop, Ed visited the El Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, taking in its 1600 paintings, while I did a bit of shopping in the Salamanca District. That night, we wandered the streets hoping to find a good place for our farewell dinner. We did! Somehow we stumbled upon the unpretentious and absolutely delicious Los Porfiados on the Calle Buenavista and had one of the best meals of our trip. Sea bass on pea puree for me; beef cheeks for Ed, plus great starters, dessert, wine and after-dinner drinks. A great way to end a great trip. 

_____________

We are now back at Farm Dover and enjoying our gardens, meadows and woods as they change with the season. At this point, we have no travel plans for coming months. I'm sure once we have had a chance to fully recover from our jet lag, tend to our end-of-the-season gardens, and catch up with friends and family, we will once again get the urge to go exploring. I'll keep you posted...