I know why they call it ‘Mad’rid

We spent 4 nights in Madrid and the city is… frustrating for a celiac.

We arrived late in the day and decided to just walk around a bit to get the lay of the land. After walking for a while we decided to get ourselves something to eat, so we found a nice outdoor restaurant in the square we were in and went up to get a table. Well the gentleman that greeted us spoke very little English. So we let him know that I was “celiacos” and did they have anything I could eat, a look of horror came over his face and he tells us no they have nothing we can eat. We ask for a menu and lo and behold we quickly find a few items we can enjoy so we ask for a table. He now gets a look of disgust and tells us to sit over there, pointing off in the general direction of an empty table and says he will get someone else to wait on us. Maybe he thought celiac was contagious. So we had a pitcher of sangria (good) and a couple different dishes (just okay), paid our bill and then headed back to the hotel. Not a good start.

We tried to see all the big touristy things beginning with the park across from our hotel. Retiro Park is a large Central Park style of park. The park is massive and fortunately we were able to walk through it on a Sunny Saturday. The park is amazing, lots to see and do, from museums to street performers, but the best of all is the people watching.

We entered from near our hotel and after a short walk we found ourselves by a lake that you could easily walk around. The large walkway next to it was lined with street performers. Their were musicians, puppeteers, jugglers, and everything you could think of. The highlight for me was the old puppeteer siting on the ground with his puppets in front of him and a cigarette dangling from the side of his mouth. I had to snap a picture.

We went to one of the free museums and checked out the modern art exhibits. I can now safely say I am not a cultured guy. Most of the exhibits I would have filed under “WTF?” as I had no clue what the point of them was. I think my old co-worker from my gas station days, art major Chuck, would have been happy here.  I didn’t get it. We did see one interesting exhibit inside a large glass building. It was a trailer that held an odd assortment of miniatures and full size items depicting…something, Didn’t understand it but I enjoyed looking at it.

The park had lots of pathways, which we walked, including a rose garden, that we strolled through. This led to us becoming very thirsty and hungry. Which is where the food fun continued. We walked up to one of the kiosks and when the lady behind the counter asked us what we liked, we once again explained about our need for gluten free, and the smile that was on her face immediately turns to disgust and then she points to the tables outside and says she will get someone else to help us. Obviously we weren’t her kind of customers. This time we left and went and had an ice cream by the lake and called it a day. For dinner we just hid in the hotel and ate at their restaurant.

The next day we went to El Prado museum. What an incredible collection of art, again not for me, although I tried. We walked for hours looking at hundreds of pictures of basically some famous or infamous person standing or sitting in period attire. Before long they all began to look the same and I became quite numb to the whole thing. After several hours of this I finally turned to Helen and said “Okay the museum wins, I can’t take any more lets get out of here”. Thankfully she agreed. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit, while there we tried to hunt up some gluten free options for food. I was dying to try Tapas. Helen ended up finding us a place that ended up being a bit of a hike from the hotel. This place turned out to be fantastic.

Taberno La Concha in Madrid turned in to the best meal we had in the city. It was a bit of a walk from our hotel but well worth it. They set us in their basement, probably to keep us away from all the locals that would be coming in later. And handed us a menu. And the best part was the page of gluten free Tapas that they had, we didn’t know where ot begin. I don’t remember what we ordered. But I loved all of it. And the best part was that they didn’t look at us in disugust when we asked for the gluten free menu!!

We also toured the Royal Palace of Madrid, which was nice and was a great way to wind up our time in Madrid. The next morning we headed to the airport to fly to Rome in preparation for our first cruise aboard the Norwegian Jade.