Madrid in January Day 2 El Rastro, Chocolateria San Gines, Plaza Mayor, Mercado San Miguel, Cathedral
An early night means we get off to an early start the next morning. Perhaps too early, because 8.30 in Madrid is as empty as an hour earlier in cities of Northern Italy. But we can admire a still deserted Plaza Mayor.
It’s also a lot colder than the previous day so we go to Chocolateria San Gines and invest just under 10 euros in two hot chocolates and 6 churros.
We pop back to the apartment to finish warming up and add a scarf and an extra layer and then go back out to Mercado San Miguel. The first thing to realize about Mercado San Miguel is that it’s not a Mercado, in the sense of a place where you go to buy food to take home to cook. It is a very elegant gastronomic area selling a variety of exquisitely decorative miniature food items at prices in proportion to their beauty rather than the quantity. The ‘flowers’ of cheese are perhaps emblematic.
Our objective this morning is El Rastro, the ‘flea’ market in the area around Ribera de Curtidores. We wander it until the amount of people means it’s impossible to make progress and then head back to base for lunch.
We also discover the very pleasant roof terrace where we’re staying and take our coffee up there to bask in the sun and thoroughly warm up.
We’re out again before 3 o’clock to make the best of the weather, wandering in the general direction of Palacio Real but going by the Theatre. We wander around the area in front of the Palacio Real, finding the entrance because we’re hoping to go during the free times one afternoon. We have a look at the Almuneda cathedral, free to enter and open all day (one euro donation is required). Clean soaring lines, pleasant modern ceiling paintings inspired by tradition, we linger a while.
The crypt is still closed so we wait on a sunny sheltered stone bench near the gardens until it opens at 4.30. It’s ok, but not wildly atmospheric or interesting. From there we walk along Calle Mayor, stopping at Plaza Mayor, now full of people, young people also sitting on the ground and relaxing, and look at a couple of shops we remember from previous trips to Spain.
A quarter of an hour earlier we couldn’t wait to get back and rest but now we have a second wind, take the long route back to the accommodation, stopping at a 100 montaditos on the way because it’s Sunday and all the Montaditos cost one euro. We get 4, al jambon, and a beer and take them up to ‘our’ roof terrace to watch the sun going down. I have no experience of penthouse living but to be up on the 7th floor with the sun going down behind the Tio Pepe sign of Puerta del Sol, for me, is fantastic.
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