I have not had time until now to sit down and post some of the pictures I’ve been taking. Don’t believe I took as many in the many many years I lived here as I have in the past few days, chronicling as I have each encounter with old memories.
I am staying with an old friend, in La Latina, just above Puerta de Toledo (right), off calle Toledo. Very touristy zone, right next to El Rastro (wow it even has its own webpage now!), but close to just about everything. Over the years I’ve stayed with Raquel all over Madrid, starting with my Junior Year Abroad, when we shared a flat on Plaza de Peñuelas, not too far from where she lives now. Other houses? One in Calle Barquillo (Banco de España), and one in Lavapiés (stayed there during my last visit to Spain, in 2011… it had been four years!)
Madrid is constantly in the process of having a face-lift, somewhere. Every time I come, la Plaza Mayor seems to be en obras.
The biggest change with which I was previously unfamiliar is the new Parque Madrid Rio they’ve placed–at great expense–in Arganzuela, burying the nightmare M-30 in tunnels and turning the area into a pleasing park with slides, bike/running trails, water areas, etc.
It is certainly very pretty.
Walking north from Raquel’s house on calle Toledo toward’s la Plaza Mayor you will pass by the Mercado de la Cebada.
The back of the market has been turned into a colorful recreation area.
On the other side, there is an excellent restaurant-bar, Taberna la Buha. We had the best tortilla con cebolla carmelizada y queso de cabra there last night.
More pictures taken on the way from La Latina to Gran Via:
La Calle del Arenal probably has a significant place in a lot of people’s memories; it certainly does in mine. One night I walked from Joy (a disco, pictured below) to my then-house in Dehesa de la Villa. It’s a LONG way 😉
On the other side of the Teatro Real lies the Plaza de Oriente. The metro stop is “Opera” and of course operas are produced in the Teatro Real, which is quite fancy inside. It’s well worth the price of admission just to see the amazing visual show that happens in an opera, with the stage changing in marvelous ways.
Across the plaza from the Royal Theatre lies the Palacio Real or Royal Palace
Some final thoughts from someone who mustn’t like milk (drawn on a wall along calle Fuencarral I believe):
