Museum and Mushrooms

How I feel!

Garden entrance at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Mushroom Menu 1

Mushroom Menu 2

Not Mushrooms, but fresh Shrimp

Porcinis, Olive Oil and Finishing Salt

 

Mushrooms with Eggs

Poached Artichokes

Tomato Salad from their Garden

After breakfast we headed to the enormous Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. It is located near the Prado (the most famous of all the Madrid Museums). The building is quite large created from an old palace and bank building but completely gutted into a modern exhibition space.

 

On our previous visit we loved it and were anxious to return. We spent basically the whole day there. There was a special exhibit of Occult as portraited in Painting. The scope of the museum is amazing. One of the very best features of the museum is the explanations of the paintings. You don’t need to constantly be searching for QR codes on your phone the info is right there next to a painting or on a wall explaining why a group of paintings are gathered. It is a very accessible collection.

 

It is said “All great fortunes begin with a crime”. (Aside to reader if you don’t know the source of a quote you want to use assign it to Voltaire, you will probably be right, and if you are wrong no one will question you). I don’t know the source of the Baron’s vast wealth (actually I do, his father gave it to him, so I guess what I really don’t know is how the fortune started), but it is a good thing his collection now sits in Madrid where it is appreciated by the crowds of viewers.

 

Continuing our attempt to act like native Spaniards after our extended walking in the Thyssen, we returned to our hotel for a siesta. I still am bothered by the fact since the word SPAIN has the letter “I” before the letter “N”, the word Spaniards does not have the “I” before the “N”,I think it should be spelled “Spainiards”, but no one else agrees with me.

 

We had a cocktails on the deck overlooking the Madrid from the hotel’s rooftop bar. I decided this Hotel doesn’t know how to make a decent Martini. I switched to wine.

 

We walked to a favorite restaurant of ours: El Cisne Azul Taberna. It is a restaurant that specializes in dishes made with Mushrooms. We had eaten at the restaurant on a previous trip to Madrid. We love mushrooms. Since it was fall, they had Porcini Mushrooms (the best of them all)  and unlike last night they served them raw with olive oil and salt, it was delicious! Once again, we had poached Artichokes. We can only guess how they are made, maybe steamed then poached in olive oil, but we can’t figure out when they remove the course outer leaves. They are great and we expect Jaimie to figure out how they are made! A careful look at the pictures will note some fabulous fresh shrimp were served without the benefit of mushrooms.

 

Acting like natives our reservations were for 9pm (late by our usual standards) and we didn’t finish dinner till midnight.

We had an unusual tourist experience when the bill arrived.

The tab was 144 Euros, but I noticed on the wireless machine that they bring to the table to charge us with our waiter entered 154 Euros. I told him it was the wrong amount. He apologized and entered the correct amount. He poured us an extra portion of dessert wine as a penitence, but I tend to think it wasn’t a mistake. Savvy traveler alert: always check the amount they charge vs the amount on the check!

 

We walked back through the narrow streets of the Chueca neighborhood to our hotel feeling totally safe and enjoying our late night stroll. Tomorrow, we go to the Sunday Flea Market where everyone says “Beware of pickpockets”. Life is an adventure.