Madrid: Hotel California (Gran Via)

Hello everyone! What a great, great website! I first lived in Madrid in 1986 when I was 14 (on the corner of Calle de Maldonado and a street I've since forgotten) and have been in love with it ever since.

Many, many years ago in 1990 my girlfriend and I stayed at the Hotel California, which I believe was at Gran Via, 38, in Madrid. It appears to be the Hotel Atlantico now, which looks far more posh than I recall the California being but also has the architectural appearance of having been the Atlantico for some time now. So much time has passed that it's hard to suss out one way or the other. I was wondering if any of you had stayed at the California, remember it, have a pic of the sign, a matchbook, etc.? Any help is appreciated. Cheers!

welcome to MM

you can google the street base on calle Maldonado and might recall the other name. I came there in 1970 left in 1974, and been back zillion times afterward. But we had an apartment in Calle Alcala metro Quintana ,line 5. I do stop by when in town so see the old folks in the neighborhood.

I never stayed there myself.
Cheers

Hope some of our more "mature" message board members can answer this one. The Hotel Atlantico's website, on the "History" page, doesn't mention anything about previous hotel owners of the building, only saying the building is nearly 100 years old. The next time I walk by there I'll pop in and ask. OR, if anyone beats me to it, feel free to share!

I just did a Google Image search and did find the "luggage label" for Hotel California in Madrid for sale/big on eBay. Who knows, maybe they have other stuff for sale/bid, too.

Saludos, MadridMan

Thanks for the replies! I ended up sending an email to the Hotel Atlantico and got the following response:

Now is all Hotel Atlantico
Years ago part of the building was Hotel California.

So that explains it! Interesting that there were two hotels sharing a building.

Regarding Calle de Maldonado: I did try google maps but nothing rang a bell. I also tried using the street view because there was a small market on Maldonado that you could see looking down on the street from our corner apartment. Years later I was able to go into this same small family market and ask the owner if he knew where the lady I had lived with had moved to...and he did! However, everything looks quite different now and I wasn't able to suss out which place was mine, unfortunately.

Wow! Thanks for the follow-up, Hope Chest! Mystery solved!

Saludos, MadridMan

so Atlantico was stronger than California after all ::) great find.