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Toward the end of January I had occasion to go to Madrid, Spain for five days. My family from Brazil was going to be there and invited me to join them. It sounded like a good idea. I hadn’t been to Spain since 1984 and wondered how it had changed. I know I had changed and assumed that it had changed also. We were to stay in Madrid and do a bit of touring.

I arrived first and had a small room in an Airbnb hostel off the Gran Via not far from Puerta del Sol. This is just about as in the center of Madrid as you can get without actually staying in the Plaza Mayor. It was the MH Fuencarral on Fuencarral Street. Looking off my balcony, the street below looked much as the streets had those many years ago. However, the breakfast option, Dunkin Coffee, was new. It looks like Dunkin Donut and has lots of good donuts, but is Dunkin Coffee.

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I arrived before my family, so I took a Hop On/Hop Off tour of Madrid, just to get reoriented. After all, I had lived there about 48 years ago and I didn’t remember everything. Except for some American fast foods, and international department stores, and different cars and everyone on cell phones, the area covered looked pretty much as I remembered: The Prado museum, Plaza de Cibeles, La Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace. I was sad to see that the Hotel Plaza in the Plaza de España was no longer there. I had met my cousin, Bill, there for breakfast every Sunday morning.

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The Gran Via, was and still is a major shopping street, had an unusual change. A few years ago the sidewalks had gotten so crowded that it was impossible to enjoy shopping there. The stores started to lose business. Instead of moving all the stores to some other part of the city as some places do, Madrid did something surprising. They removed a lane of traffic in the street and widened the sidewalks. I think this is the first time I have ever heard of this happening.

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Above are pictures of the “Food Court” at the Corte Inglés department store. It is on the 9th floor and is not like any food court I have ever seen. They have an incredible wine “cellar” with a sommelier, if you need one. Then there are 9 different kitchens with Spanish, French, Indian, American and other types of food. The dining area overlooks the Gran Via and has writing on the windows to tell you what you are looking at. About the only thing missing, is that it does not rotate.

Puerta del Sol is the geographical center of Spain. There is a placque at one end that declares Kilometro 0. It is also a central intersection for the metro (subway). And has a stop for the train that goes, among other places, the airport Barajas. At one end is the entrance to the Gran Via and at the other the entrance to the Plaza Mayor.

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We arrived at the start of a taxi strike, so had to be creative in getting around. But, the hostels made arrangements for us to get to and from the airport, and the train station was accessible by train from Puerta Del Sol. Here are some scenes from the streets of Madrid.

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Here are some pictures from the hostel where we all stayed. It is very nice and quite reasonable at about $80 a night for me. It is the New Point Madrid, and I recommend it highly. Great location and great front desk.

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Notice that there is a washing machine in the kitchen. I looked at it and thought it was a washer/dryer combined. So, I thought I would wash some clothes. When the wash was done I realized that it was not a dryer and there I was with wet clothing. I hung it around the room and it was getting dry, all but the jeans. I did learn something, however. It is possible to iron jeans long enough that they dry. I ironed them in about 6 sessions and they dried well. Something to remember if you get into this situation.

While in Madrid, we took a tour to Segovia and Toledo. I will write about that in my next post. Bye for now.