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.

Jet Lag Day 2

Just Looking

Best Artichokes Ever!

Absolutely the BEST Basque Cheese Cake Ever!

Porcinis and Egg 

Did someone say Porterhouse?

Day 2 continued to suffer from Jet Lag. We took strong sleeping pills last night be we had a sleep deficit due to the crying babies on the flight. We understand there is no remedy for the situation, babies get to fly too, but it sure ruined our sleep!

We decided to make an easy day of it. Surprisingly, it involved a lot of walking, but Cathy did great. When all else fails and you aren’t up for a museum or lecture, shopping always works as a low energy experience. We found a great store Loewe’s (not the hardware store for sure!). We shopped and went to several stores before returning to The Principal Hotel and taking a mid-day nap. Of course, all the Madrid natives at the hotel thought "how wonderful, you understand our need for a siesta". We earned Spanish respect!

After we awoke, we went for a massage. The best cure for Jet Lag ever invented!

To recover from the massage we had cocktails on the patio of the Hotel overlooking Madrid and a called Barbara to check in.

It was time to walk to our favorite Madrid Restaurant: Roostiq. I know there are a lot of pictures of food on this blog today but that is what we did today, I don’t think you want to see pictures of our massages!

A few food thoughts. It is impossible in the States to get Porcini Mushrooms this good! We are so lucky it is the fall and Porcini season. We know we are returning to Roostiq on this trip and we will definately order them again. The same goes for the Cheesecake. It is the best Cheese Cake we have ever eaten!

We can get good steak in Los Angeles, but this one has a great 2nd act in store for it. Madrid has wonderful food markets and we have walked through them salivating, but never bought anything. This time it will be different. We took back to the hotel lots of our leftover steak and stored it in our refrigerator. We plan to go to the food market and pick up all kinds of great sides to go with the leftover steak. We are sure the hotel will set a place for a picnic on the deck, and we will have a feast of steak and whatever the great markets offer!

1st World Problem in Business Class

Our Living Room

Deck Overlooking Madrid

Bacalao - Salt-Cod Fritters

Veal Shank

Avi, our usual driver, picked us up about 3pm to take us to LAX. It was traumatic because we hate to leave Parsifal behind, but we are sure Kiesha / Layne will take good care of him.

 

LAX was it usually zoo. I can’t understand how the new People Mover will work in the real world. Every other airport in the world we have been to you pick up your luggage usually take an elevator down to meet at train that takes you to the exit. Here you have to go up and walk to the middle of the airport to meet a people mover which will take you to a remote site. I can’t picture it being efficient but will withhold judgement.

 

Last time we were at LAX we were flying to Mexico and were prechecked and it was simple to go through TSA. This time for some reason we weren’t so the lines were longer. We learned that if you are older than 75 you don’t have to take off our shoes. Wow what a benefit! Cathy declared herself as 75 (the whole point of this trip is to celebrate her 75^th ) and wasn’t challenged although she is a week short of the milestone.

 

We flew on Iberia Airlines the only airlines offering non-stop flights from LAX to Madrid. We had a brand new A350 and Business Class was quite nice. I was very impressed with it, although they didn’t have a rich assortment of movies to watch.

 

The whole point of for us in purchasing an exspensive Business Class tickets is to have the use of lie-flat seats, have a drink or two, take a sleeping pill, go to sleep and wake up at your destination, in this case Madrid, Spain.

 

Unfortunately for us and ALL of Business Class there was a couple with two young babies that screamed and cried the entire trip! It was a torture, both the sounds of their screams, the volume and the screech it self were continual and unending. The two babies never ceased! It overpowered the sleeping pills, the earphones we put on and the pillows over our heads. The staff was sympathetic but there was nothing they could have done except ignore my suggestion of stuffing stuffing them in an overhead bin and locking it!

 

This has never happened to us before. When we arrived, I started googling “Crying babies in Business Class” many people believe babies should not be allowed in Business Class or First. Others consider the parents inconsiderate for flying with crying kids. You are paying a LOT of MONEY to fly in Business Class, and it is basically wasted. I will write to the airlines and see what they say.

 

We arrived in Madrid about 2pm, very unrested and were driven to our hotel: The Principal (Jaimie had recommended it, and we had previously stayed at The Principal and like it).

 

Exhausted, we unpacked, took a nap and ate at he hotel. The hotel sent us a complementary bottle of Cava, so we drank it and FaceTimed our friend Barbara in SF as we do every night, no matter where we are.

The Hotel has an exceptional restaurant and we had Bacalao as an appetizer and shared a veal shank. Once again we were amazed that we had an excellent bottle of Spanish wine for $ 25. The entire dinner was less than $100. The food was as good as I remembered.  Sleeping Pills for us tonight and we will wake up for our first full day in Madrid which will include massages and a dinner at our favorite Madrid restaurant: Roostiq.