Spain (Spring 2023) - Madrid - Day 4 (return leg)
Back to Madrid for a few more days before going back to the US. This time we stayed at a place about a block east of Puerta del Sol. It was a bit quieter here at night and nothing is really that far away from anything in Madrid.
Robot cleaners at the airport
La Venencia
Unfortunately they don’t want you to take photos inside
It really is too bad that they discourage pictures inside since this place has a lot of character. They have a sign saying no photos. They also have a sign that says no tipping so let’s call it even.
If you look on the internet, there are plenty of people who disregard their no pictures rule but I figured I’d try to be respectful.
They only serve dry sherries here and they have a small tapas menu where they have sausages hanging behind the bar and they just slice it there. I asked if they have sweet sherries and the guy said we don’t do that here (at least that is what I inferred since he said something in Spanish while shaking his head).
You do feel like you are in a scene in a WWII movie as I don’t think anything has changed since then. It’s said that the no photos rule came about when this was a meeting place for revolutionaries and they wanted the secrecy.
This place is also one of the Hemingway hangout bars you can visit in Madrid. And they have a cat so also cool.
Taberna de Angel Sierra
We walked north into Chueca and went in here as it looked pretty local and casual. Not sure how old this place is but maybe you can count the layers of dust on their wall bottles like a tree ring to find out.
The front is their stand up bar area and the back has the seating. Both sides were relatively busy. I ordered razor clams but didn’t realize they were the canned version. Really not the same experience. I should have ordered something else.
Museo Nacional del Prado
No photos allowed in the Prado so here are some outside shots. We went in the afternoon because the last 2 hours of the day are free to the public - at this time it was 5-7 (sometimes their flyers and website have the hours posted wrong).
I highly recommend doing the free entry. The Prado is not that big and if you just want to hit the highlights, 2 hours is plenty of time. Heck - you can just go back the next day if you want to see something you missed. The collection is excellent here and not just of the Spanish works. For example, the famous Bosch paintings are housed here.
We weren’t there at the start of the free session so there was no line but my understanding is that it moves fairly quickly.
Salmon Guru
This is a fun place just down the street from La Venencia. The two bars could not be more different. La Venencia is frozen in time from early in the previous century. Salmon Guru is all modern cocktail entertainment.
Most of the their drinks have these huge special serving concoctions. Which begged me to ask - don’t you run out of them? To which they said - yeah - happens sometimes. Also if you break them, some of these things don’t look too replaceable.
They do serve excellent cocktails. Also since it’s a young crowd they all speak English. Very creative and very fun place.