Regal Madrid

A Visit to Santiago Bernabeu

Day One Madrid:

OK lets get one thing out of the way. I love Madrid. I love it's people, it's museum's, everything. So I'm kind of jaded.

Ok so to the blog post.....Traveling with Mr. B resulted in our visit to FC Barcelona's Camp Nou. Hence, with our arrival in Madrid it only seemed logical to visit the home of Madrid's amazing Real Madrid soccer club.

So after a little R&R at the hotel's very nice Executive Lounge we saddled up the great Madrid Metro and made our way to the home of the Real (Royal) Madrid Soccer Club located in its amazing Estadio (Stadium) Santiago Bernabeu. 

Much like the visit to Barcelona's Camp Nou, the visit to Real Madrid was especially enlightening for me (Mr. No Sports gene). This is the only soccer team in the world to recieve FIFA's Century Award (Best Soccer Club of the Century). This team is a very real part of the heart and soul of Madrid.

FIFA Century Award

The tour walks you through the entire stadium top to bottom including team dressing rooms and presents the club history in splendid multi-media museum spaces complete with 100 plus years of  trophies and memorabilia.

Team Roadboy at Santiago Bernabeu

(This Stadium Seats 80,000 Fans all Afforded Perfect Sight Lines)

Madrid is suffering from horrific economic conditions presently, yet its soccer teams offer a source of pride.

Little Madridista's 

Day Two:
The highlight of our second day was a follow-up visit to Madrid's Exquisite Palacio Real. This is my second visit and it was still awe inspiring.

The Palacio Real 

Viewed from the Plaza Oriente

(The Bronze Horse With King Philip IV was Engineered by Galileo) 

From last years post readers may remember the mystery of the corpse on display in the glass coffin in the Royal chapel. You can't miss it since they've even moved the thrones to make it clearly visible. On my last visit we asked them in the library and they simply smiled. So when I could I kept trying to find out something and Nada. I had a friend tell me it was the corpse of a saint and was a gift from a pope. I was also informed by one reader that one of the kings slept with it. Now, I'm gonna assume they meant in the same room, hopefully not the same bed!

So this trip I bought the audio tour figuring they could not possibly gloss over a corpse under glass.  Well the audio tour discusses everything down to the drapes, yet it made zero mention of the mystery corpse. So who is the dude under glass sarcophagus in the Royal Chapel?

Well this trip I just camped in museum store reading every english language book about the palace. And in one a very small aside is made to the wax covered skeletal remains in the Chapel. It was indeed the pontifical gift of the bones of (one of the) St. Felix's (there are more than one).

From there we walked to the lovely Mercado de San Miguel for some beer and tapas. And a bit of drool time at all the lovely food available.

The Mercado de San Miguel

From there we breezed through the Plaza Major and the Puerta De Sol. The huge (and uber cool) Tio Pepe sign is still under wraps a year later......Bummer!

We returned to the hotel early enough for a swim and finally knocked down Mr. B's bottle of birthday prosecco (from Vienna) to commemorate the trip.

On to packing for tomorrow's long journey home.


Roadboy's Travels © 2013 

2012 in Food

Yum!

As 2012 comes to a close I look back fondly on a year of wonderful food!

The epicureal highlight of the year was found in Spain and Portugal where we immersed ourselves in the wonderful mercats selling fresh fruit, fish, ham and olives. Then there were all of the cafes that incorporated local foods. 

New things to love? Well one of them was Catalan Cream. It is Spain's version of (what in France would be) Creme Brûlée or (in England) Trinity or Burnt Cream (it was served at Trinity College, Cambridge). 

We enjoyed it at Granja La Pallaresa in Barcelona. It differs from Creme Brûlée in that the custard is infused with citrus zest and cinnamon and was traditionally only served on Sant Josep's (Saint Joseph's) day. Now this crunchy top delight is available year round. Also, in Spain the top is caramelized using a hot iron or broiling, not a flame.

Tea Time at Barcelona's La Pallaresa

I also loved the wonderful fresh combination juices at the various mercat's throughout Barcelona. The stalls have hundreds of the brightly colored cups each featuring two or three juices. It is a visual treat as much as a taste treat.

Juice at a Stall at Barcelona's La Boqueria Mercat  

In Madrid we trolled the restored (and very wonderful) Mercado San Miquel. Even in mid summer Its aisles were filled with olives, ham, and those delicious little bocadillo sandwiches (filled with salmon, ham or roast beef). 

In one stall a vendor made me the most amazing lemonade granita ever. But you can also shop for pastry or sip a glass of reasonably priced wine or beer.

The Mercado San Miguel

We left Barcelona with memories and a new cookbook from Spain's most famous avant garde restaurant El Bulli. How avant grade? Well it closes for 6 months of the year to experiment on recipes. When it opens for reservations each January about 1,000,000 people will request one of the 8,000 available bookings.

In Lisbon we enjoyed some wonderful cafe food. We found Lisbon to be a joy. There are lots of parks and each has a little stall selling sandwiches, beer and wine. This is a city that loves to eat, and knows what to do with its seafood (both fresh and canned.)

Lisbon Adores Canned Fish

(And I Love the Packaging)

In Lisbon we also quickly became additcted to their little custard pastry (Pasteis De Belem) which we found everywhere. Luckily our hotel always had a tray of these little gems out for breakfast every morning. 

During the rest of the year I enjoyed other great dinners. In May there was a visit to Bliss in San Antonio which featured a great entree of scallops and finished with Grapefruit Tiramasu desert.

Grapefruit Tiramasu

Other highlights included (another - can there ever be too many?) visit to that mecca of Southern cooking The Wilkes House in Savannah. I also visited Elizabeth's on 37th for the first time. If I lived in Savannah I'd double my weight in record time.......

The year also included great coffee at the Royal at the Biltmore and a few lunches at the Grand Central Market in LA.

LA's Grand Central Market

Soon it will be 2013 and Roadboy looks forward to another year of great markets, street food, and, hopefully, some fine dining thrown in for good measure!

Cheers!

Roadboy's Travel's © 2012