Wednesday March 11 was a beautiful day. Bright blue sky and sun and a high of 25C.
We were out of coffee beans, so walked first to Coffee Code at the Mercado Barceló to pick up some beans. We then decided to check out another café in the Chamberí neighbourhood, just north of Chueca (our 'hood). We have decided that looking for cool cafés gets one walking to new areas. We have explored a number of neighbourhoods in Madrid, all walkable, and thus have a much better picture of the city than we had during our last visit in 2015. Our first visit to Madrid had been in 1998, and we found the city very cold and imposing. In 2015, we started to have a more favourable impression and it is fair to say that in 2020, we are totally enamoured with the city, it's neighbourhoods, food and culture.
We decided to take a "social distancing" approach to our last full day in Madrid. We had initially picked up the phrase from Trevor Noah on The Daily Show and then saw that it has become the new strategy for slowing down the infection rate of COVID-19. This was not difficult to do, as the streets and shops are much quieter than one would expect. Very few people out and about. In one store, the sales person said she had never seen her store so quiet.
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| Wonderful apartments en route |
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| More corner details |
We loved this poster--- Dali, Kahlo and Warhol...
On one of the new streets we were walking on, we came across a fabulous jewellery store called Papiroga. All their earrings were shown on boards using magnets. Then if one found a design that one wanted to buy, the staff would get the actual earrings.
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| Lots of choice |
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| Lots of wonderful designs --- I got a single earring (they were very nice about selling me one earring as I have only one pierced ear). |
We found our next destination, La Colectiva Café. They have great coffee and an all vegan menu which includes both sweets and savoury.
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| Very clean and inviting café |
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| Black board with coffee prices. They also had a menu for food. |
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| Vegan babka-- we shared a piece |
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| Best looking vegan treats we have seen in a cafe |
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| Great lighting |
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| Alano with our coffees and treat |
Across the street was another interesting apartment building.
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| Pink Apartment |
We walked back to the Salamanca area- just to the east and south of the Chemberí neighbourhood.
Our first stop was Oriol Balaguer, a chocolate boutique. The Catalan pastry chef Oriol Balaguer, who has worked in the kitchens of famous chef Ferran Adrià, and won a prize for the World's Best Dessert (the Seven Textures of Chocolate). The shop was like an art gallery of chocolates and cakes. We got a chocolate bar.
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| We saw this interesting Church from afar. |
We then stopped at Mercado de la Paz, a popular indoor market established in 1882 in the Salamanca neighbourhood. It was hidden behind a courtyard entrance . Lots of very nice produce and treats.
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| Veg |
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| Cheese and meat |
We went to Casa Dani for a late lunch. A Spanish chef, in an article we read, said that the finest
tortilla de patatas in all of Madrid was found at Casa Dani, located in the Mercado de la Paz.
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| Alano with the tortilla and salad we shared |
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| Outside of Casa Dani-- they also had a restaurant inside the market, where one had to order a prix fixe meal - we preferred to be outside and sample the tortilla. |
We wandered some more in Salamanca until we got a message from Airbnb telling us that our host in Valencia had cancelled our booking! This was after being in contact with him as recently as Tuesday about arrival details. This is less than 24 hours notice as we head to Valencia on March 12. We immediately headed back to the apartment. Fortuitously, Airbnb which does the actual notice of cancellation, sent us some other listings of available rentals. We found a booking with a host with very high ratings. Everything is now arranged.
We asked José (our new host) about any COVID-19 issues in Valencia. He said that only the famous
Las Fallas fiesta was cancelled (it attracts a million people). The economic impact of the cancellation has been estimated to be around half a billion euros! Yikes-- good thing our decision to visit Valencia had not been based on
Las Fallas (we had only found out about this fiesta after our itinerary had been finalised).
Alano made a late dinner of left over pasta, beans, a salad with avocado, a piece of chocolate and our IPA beer from Bee Beer.
Tomorrow we take the 11:10 a.m. train to Valencia, a city we have never visited. We are due to arrive at 1:25 p.m. Join us there.
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