Exploring Madrid … Again
After a quick recovery from my travels, it was time to explore the neighbourhood a little. The house is on Calle de Fuencarral, right on the border of the neighbourhoods of Malasaña and Chueca, both very fashionable, both north of the Centro and Sol. Sol, or rather, Puerta del Sol, is THE place in the city for, well, everything. Similar to the Plaça de l’Ajuntament in Valencia, everything that is anything happens in Sol. It is not only the place for people to meet up, it is also home to kilometre 0 of the six major highways of Spain. It is literally the centre of the Spanish (contiguous) territory. There is even a plaque commemorating this but, unfortunately, the throngs of people gathered there on my day of wandering around prevented me from finding it. I know it’s there somewhere.
Of course I didn’t start at Sol, I ended up there after leaving the house and walking downhill towards the centre. Madrid is a pretty large city (population of 3.2M so about twice as populous as Barcelona), and a pretty densely populated one as well. To keep their air breathable, they limit the number of vehicles in the centre and on weekends and holidays designate a number of major roads pedestrian only. One of these streets is Fuencarral, as I had the pleasure of finding out. As I walked towards Sol, I felt pulled by the river of people heading towards that central point; everyone seemed to have the same idea … so I let myself float along. Now, before you get all freaked out, I don’t mean there were so many people on the streets it was unsafe, Covid-wise. Nothing like that, just many–mostly young–people doing Sunday shopping in the many fancy shops all along this street, especially in the pedestrian-only part. Let me tell you, if you like shopping, especially for shoes and clothes, this is the street for you. I wish I had the space in my suitcase (and the will to buy stuff) because the choices were endless. As it was, I only peeked into a Pikolinos store to see what they had only to find a very pretty pair of sandals I almost walked out with. Almost.
As I neared Gran Via (the most famous street, or, rather, avenue of Madrid), the numbers of people swelled even more. It wasn’t until I reached Sol itself did I realize why everyone was heading there at the same time. On May 5th, the Madrid autonomous community will be having a major election, and how Madrid votes often indicates which way the rest of the country may be heading. The whole country has its eyes on Madrid, and not in the same way Canadians look at Ontario to see what craziness happens there each time. Madrileños see themselves as the bellybutton of Spain, and, in many ways, they actually are just that. For this reason, everyone is interested, everyone is invested, and everyone was hanging out at Sol on a Sunday. It didn’t help that this is where the major parties (and there are a few) had their leaders and supporters out in force, all staking out a section of this very large plaza. It was quite the sight to see.
As soon as I figured out what was going on, I turned right around to go back the way I came, more or less. This many people in one place with a pandemic still raging? No, thank you. I took a few pictures and ran away. But on my way I had the pleasure of spotting a few of interesting things. For one, there are some very posh doggos here. I spotted this brood while walking to Sol and at first I thought there were only eight of them there but then the fellow in front turned around to show me one more. Aren’t they awesome?
These were not the only puppers I got to see. At one of the smaller plazas I came across a local charity/dog rescue place looking for homes for their pups by bringing them to the public. I fell in love with every one of them immediately and wanted to take them all home with me. I’m sure Mr. Smoking Jacket would have loved that!
As I started walking back to the house, I came across a rather nondescript restaurant with, of course, a Michelin star marker, reminding me that 1) there are more Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain than most anywhere else in the world, and 2) I was hungry. It being Sunday meant that finding a place to have the “meal” (remember, this is between 2pm and 5pm) was always going to be tricky, if I wanted to eat a proper meal, that is. There are plenty of take-out places in this city but history has taught me that on Sundays, most restaurants are booked up early and getting a table as a walk-in is not easy. When I got close to the house I walked down a side street where I came across an interesting prospect: a small, below-street-level, hidden gem of a place, Italian, where I just had a sense the food was going to be great: Fratelli Figurato — Trattoria Popolare. I think the waitress that greeted me saw the hunger in my eyes (and I was pretty damn hungry by then) and said that if I can be out of there by 3pm, I could have a table. I assured her I had no plans to hang around and thus got myself seated. Everything on the menu looked delicious, and, hearing only Italian being spoken by all the staff, I knew it would be very authentic too. I settled on a prosciutto pizza and I am happy to report this was THE best pizza I’ve ever had. Hands down. Not kidding. I just hope I’ll get to go back there to try something else in the future.
I already liked this city from my previous visits so that’s not news, but I’m definitely going to like this neighbourhood …
