Madrid: Heat and hedonism
Move over Barcelona, step aside Seville — Robert Elms says Madrid is the real thing
Madrid is the most relentlessly, joyously Spanish of all cities. Unlike elegant European Barcelona, or languorous Andalusian Seville, this grand, tough town in the very centre of the land has all the traits that make contemporary Spain such a fascinating country. Hedonistic, intense, friendly, deeply traditional, yet relishing its post-Franco freedom, Madrid is the perfect place to take the temp-erature of Spain. And believe me, the blood is still hot.
Like the city itself, in fact. Throughout its long summer, Madrid swelters, which explains why the place never sleeps: in the hours of darkness, the streets are full of people taking advantage of the cool night air. It's Europe's best fiesta, and everyone's invited. Here are 10 high points to take in while you're there.
1 Stay at the Santo Mauro
Madrid is strangely short of good hotels. The Ritz is fan- tastic in its way, but if you want a smaller, more modern town-house hotel, it has to be the lovely Santo Mauro. Uptown, in the leafy old embassy district of Chamberi, this 19th-century palace is now a lovely 36-room oasis of antique grandeur and contemporary design. The gardens are cool and tranquil; the bedrooms are handsome yet functional; and the restaurant, in the old library, is one of the hippest in town. The whole is a perfect marriage of tradition and chic. And with doubles from £185 a night, it isn't bad value.
Calle de Zurbano 36, 00 34-91 319 69 00
2 Eat at the Ritz Terrace
The two great culinary traditions in Madrid are evening tapas, which at their best form a kind of culinary bar crawl, and the endless, deeply indulgent lunch. They've spent a century perfecting the latter on the terrace of the sumptuous Madrid Ritz, and its Sunday brunch is an institution. At about £35 a head, it's expensive by Madrid standards, but good value just the same: the setting is magnificent, the food flawless and endless. Even better is the cast of characters, from ancient dowagers to trendy designers, all dressed up and queueing for the grilled prawns, paella and devilled kidneys.
Plaza de la Lealtad 5, 91 701 67 67
3 Stroll down Calle de la Cava Baja
This charismatically curvy jumble of taverns, restaurants, bars and holes in the wall is the perfect place for a tapas trawl. The street is in the heart of Old Madrid, an area that was considered beyond the pale for years, but is now deeply hip. It's a perfect combination of one-room, 19th-century tiled tascas covered in sawdust and newer, smarter places with impressive wine lists. The thing to do is to flirt with as many as you can of an evening, returning later to those you've fallen in love with.
4 Drink at El Viajero
In the summer, Madrid lives by night, and every avail-able avenue, square and back alley is littered with tables and chairs. These terrazas all have characters of their own, and there are half-a-dozen near- perfect ones. Cafe Gijon, on Paseo de Recoletos, is the most intellectual and argumentative; Cafe de Oriente, on Plaza de Oriente, the most gracious, with swooning vistas of the Royal Palace. But the coolest, in every sense, is the upstairs terrace of El Viajero. The main bar has plush sofas and great music, and the rooftop space is hidden away up a flight of narrow stairs: climb them, and you'll find lush plants, great views and a thoroughly benign ambience of trendy exclusivity.
Plaza de la Cebada 11
5 See flamenco at La Solea
After a night's carousing, the place to end up is this tiny flamenco dive, behind an almost unmarked door. Arrive after 3am, and keep your fingers crossed that some of the local gypsy performers have turned up. On its best nights, when the resident guitar is in good hands and the deep song starts to emerge, this is one of the best spots in Spain to experience improvised flamenco puro.
Calle de la Cava Baja 27
6 Dance the tango at El Viejo Almacen de Buenos Aires
Way up on the northern outskirts of the city is this extraordinary place: part restaurant, part concert hall, part club, totally authentic homage to the darkly sensuous tango. Behind the atmospheric bar, with its pictures of Carlos Gardel and Evita Peron, is a large garden (a rarity in crowded Madrid) where you sit and eat superb chunks of barbecued meat, flown over from Argentina daily. That alone would make it worthwhile, but it also offers fine live music, professional dancers, and, if the sangria has worked its magic, a chance to make a fool of yourself. It's all slightly tacky, slightly shabby — and exactly as it should be.
Calle de Villaamil 277, 91 316 113 17
7 See Goya at the Prado
Madrid has a fantastic array of art. The golden triangle of the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen, all within a few hundred yards of each other, is probably the greatest concentration of old and new masters in the world. If you have to be choosy, though, pick the Goyas at the Prado. His paintings take up two floors of one wing of this surprisingly laid-back museum: start at the top, and watch his extra- ordinary descent from the joyous life and humour of the tapestry cartoons to the tormented pit of the “black paintings”. That struggle between extremes of pleasure and pain, reason and superstition, is at the core of the Spanish soul, and is absolutely encapsulated in these wondrous works.
Paseo del Prado, 91 330 29 00, museoprado.Mcu.es; closed Monday
8 Shop at Seseña
One of the great pleasures of Madrid is that it's not a city that demands that you shop. It's hedonistic rather than materialistic — and the arcane, ancient, faintly crusty emporiums of the Huertas district are a pleasure whether you're buying or not. The most amazing is Seseña, a 100-year-old wood-panelled boutique that makes and sells nothing but capes. It boasts some famous customers: the window has pictures of Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton and Pablo Picasso draped in its wares. Quite why you'd want a cape, I'm not sure — but if you do, this is the place to get it.
Calle de la Cruz 23, 91 531 68 40
9 Parade through Retiro Park
The Retiro, right behind the Prado, is a paragon of a city- centre park. This is Madrid's playground, concert venue, sporting arena, courting arena and communal family garden. People love it with a passion and use it with vehemence, so it's usually just as lively and noisy as the streets — which is precisely how they like it.
At about seven o'clock every evening, Madrileños like to parade along its main thoroughfare in a ritual mini migration known as the paseo. There's no real pattern or point to it all, but at some stage a cold beer is usually taken on one of the mini terrazas, the occasional street performer is perused, an ice cream is purchased and an hour or so is wonderfully wasted.
10 Take a trip to Chinchon
Locals seeking a day out of town tend to head for one of the fine historic Castilian towns nearby — Aranjuez, Avila, Segovia or Toledo. But perhaps the best is the least famous, and usually the least crowded. Chinchon, about 25 miles southeast of the city, is a classic medieval town based around Plaza Mayor, one of the most striking squares in all Spain.
An irregular amphitheatre of three-storey timbered houses leaning at odd angles like a set from some lavish prod- uction of Don Quixote, it's an almost preposterously perfect setting.
Some of the houses are now mesones, rustic restaurants that specialise in roast sucking pig and local red wines, where you sit on balconies overlooking the square and revel in the deep, deep Spanishness of it all. Should you want to stay for more than lunch, the Parador de Chinchon (91 894 0836; doubles from £70) is excellent.
Bus 337, hourly from Conde de Casal Metro station
Robert Elms was a guest of Kirker Holidays
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