In the early part of 1991 I left for Madrid, Spain to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My knowledge of the country and language was minimal at that time but I soon learned to love Spain, the culture, and especially the people. On my mission I was able to live and work in various areas around Madrid and in Castilla – La Mancha. I came back home to Boise, Idaho in 1993 and I have since been back to Spain with my wife Caitlin in the winter on ‘93/’94. I eventually graduated from college with a BA in Spanish and the following is a tour report of our recent trip to Madrid, La Mancha, and Granada.

Jared Williams

[ 04-20-2001: Message edited by: Leche ]

Thursday 29 March 2001 8:43am on the airplane

We are on our way to Madrid! It’s amazing to think that we will be back in my favorite city after nearly 7 years (Christmas 1993/94). The strange thing is that I feel like I have never left in many ways – much like when I first arrived in 1991. Since then much has happened and changed in my life but my love of Spain and it’s people has remained constant. My experiences there formed who I am today and who I will be. Over the past years I have dreamed of Spain often, usually spending several minutes a day in that corner of my mind experiencing the beauty and wonder of such a magical place. I want to make my explorations of Spain my life’s study and there is nowhere I’d rather be right now that in the air on the way to Madrid with Caitlin.

Boise, Idaho > Minneapolis, MN > Amsterdam > Madrid

Friday 30 March 2001 12:30am on the balcony of Hostal Aresol , c/ Arenal 6, 3 izq. (Metro: Sol)

After the torturous trans continental flight we finally arrived in Amsterdam to the very modern airport. Adverts for the small airport shops were laser hologrammed onto the walls and floors of the busy walkways. We landed in Madrid and took the Metro from Barajas down to Sol. Walking up into La puerta del sol was the definite highlight of my day with the area buzzing with excitement. It felt like suddenly running into an old friend with so much to tell him.

The Hostal Aresol is run by Jose who lives there with his wife and 2 small children. He’s about 30 and extremely nice and accomodating but speaks only Spanish. He told me that since his hostal has appeared on www.madridman.com he has been continuously booked so advance reservations are necessary. The room #106 is the largest double room in the hostal and was very spacious with lots of closet space, excellent shower, and a 12 inch TV - and at 6.000 pts/night it is an excellent bargain. I have stayed on hostals all over Europe and this one is the best hands down http://empresas.arrakis.es/telisa/aresol . The small balcony overlooks the calle Arenal with the discoteca Joy just to the right and across the street and La Puerta del Sol directly in view to the left probably only a hundred yards down. Noise levels were somewhat high due to traffic and late night revellers but the glass balcony doors and the heavy roll-down blinds blocked it all out.

We walked up and down the C/ Preciados to the Gran Via and back, making the obligatory walk through El Corte Ingles where I had to stop into the ferreteria to find the correct adaptor for my camcorder’s battery recharger (425 pts). Many of the same shops were still on this street but so much was new. Lunch was at the Museo de Jamon on C/ de Postas – 2 bocadillos de jamon y queso con coca-cola (2.000 pts).

We made our way into the always impressive Plaza Mayor and walked all the way down the C/ Toledo and found my old mission piso at number 144 which has a completely new cross street new wide sidewalks were they were building the new Cercanias line back in ’93. It was early evening and we encountered many small children outside with their families just enjoying the evening air. We stopped into a small Frutos Secos shop for some of the wonderful Spanish caramelos of all types….my favorites are the huevitos and the rellenitos (rojos y blancos). We walked all the way down over the Puente de Toledo and into the San Isidro district with a few stops to rest on the ever present bancos to people watch. Walked back up to the Plaza Mayor and stopped into a bar for a porcion de tortilla y pan. A gypsy accordian player soundtracked the wonderfully clear and romantic Madrid night in the plaza. From my perch on the balcony here in the C/ Arenal I can see the streets full with people strolling at 1am in the morning in the perfect temperate air….we are back in Spain!

[ 04-21-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Saturday 31 March 2001 1:40am on the balcony of Hostal Aresol

The day started with a trip up to the old mission offices at C/ San Telmo, 26 metro: Pio XII. We took the metro back to Atocha and strolled up the Paseo del Prado and over to tour the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (tickets 800 pts). From there we took a walk around the Estadio Santiago Bernabeú where Real Madrid was to play Numancia that night – we couldn’t go since we had plans. A couple hours later we were ready for a paella lunch at the Museo de Jamon on the Paseo del Prado. By this time we were ready to echar la siesta for awhile.

At 8pm we met Stephen Drake-Jones, the chairman of the Wellington Society at the foot of the large center monument in La Puerta del Sol. This amazing British expat has been living in Madrid for the past 28+ years and as a professional historian is always ‘on’ telling his stories and doing his routine. He was really entertaining and allowed me to ask him all sorts of questions about the time in Spain’s history when Franco died. With a group of 8 of us we walked through old Madrid as he brought to life the histories of the cracked plaster of the buildings and centuries old granite blocks of the cathedrals we were passing by. We walked from La Puerta del Sol up the C/ de Correo, stopping at a tapas bar for tortilla and discussion and up into the Plaza de Pontejos. Then right onto C/ La Bolsa and up near the Plaza Santa Cruz where we took into the gorgeous luxury dining room of the restaurant Casa Santa Cruz which is built inside a old church (C/ La Bolsa, 12). Walking still further south we passed the Catedral de San Isidro, Madrid’s patron saint who could command water to spring from the earth. We stopped into another restaurant El Estratagon Vegetariano in La Plaza de la Paja, 10 ( http://www.mundovegetariano.com/MVdoc/MVdoc.php3?accion=infoempresas&id_empresa=1 )
where Stephen chatted with the owner Carlos. We walked through the small plaza featuring a beautiful flower garden where the mayor of Madrid lives and to our last stop in a small restaurant up the old stone steps where we ate a dinner of croquetas, wild boar stew, home made partridge pate and tapas of aceitunas (olives) and tortilla. Up from Sevilla was Dan O’Beirne of www.magicalspain.com (Tel. 34.954.53.44.09) who does walking tours in the south of Spain. He had been collaborating with Stephen and was taking notes on his animated tour style. By this time the chairman had taken quite an interest in my English raised wife Caitlin and they were chatting up a storm. He even offered to give a lifetime membership to the Wellington Society to our youngest son Rory (2 yrs.) as a gift. Get ahold of the chairman at sdrake_jones@hotmail.com and see his website at www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~ian/welltours (Tel. 609.143203). We headed back to our hostal at 1:30am.

Tour – 2.500 pts each / Dinner and tapas 123.000 (together)

[ 04-21-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

Sunday 01 April 2001 12:05am Hostal Aresol

Today started with a trip to the famous Rastro, getting off at the metro Tirso de Molina and working our way down through the maze the Lavapies area of stalls run by immigrantes and Spaniards alike selling everything from Tshirts to old records to luggage and bags to used tools and plumbing parts.

Breakfast: churros con chocolate in bar at the Puerta de Toledo.

From there we took the metro out to the Pavones stop and saw the new Temple for the first time. It’s set right into the working class neighborhood of Moratalaz among the red brick project type apartment buildings and really is a breathtaking site. The local residents consider it an asset to the barrio and the complex of Temple, Stake Center for reuniones, missionary training center and hostal are built around a beautiful plaza the public is free to walk through and many locals take advantage of this area.

We met up with some of my old Spanish friends from Alcazar de San Juan, Don Quijote country in La Mancha – Antonio, his wife Irene, daughter Gemma and 6 yr. old son Jared. It was a great reunion and it was so great to see these old friends whom we last saw on our honeymoon to Spain at Christmas ‘93/’94. Everyone had a huge picnic on the temple grounds were we ate pisto manchego, pan, and fruta where we talked for a couple hours in Spanish about all the things that had happened in our lives over the past 5 years since we had seen each other.

At mediodia we had to head back to the hostal for a couple hours of siesta. As morning turned into evening Caitlin was still jet lagged so I went solo out for a stroll through Retiro park where it was packed with families enjoying the weekend together and giving a paseo. I walked through the park from the metro Retiro down the C/ Menéndez Pelayo to the metro stop which took a couple of hours. Just around midnight I took a walk from the metro Callao around the Gran Via and down the C/ Preciados where all the old buildings were so brilliantly illuminated and the street was nearly empty as most of the crowds had moved from Sol up to the Gran Via. It was a beautiful moonlit Sunday night when I arrived back at Hostal Aresol.

Monday 02 April 2001 1:03am Hostal Aresol

Breakfast: Palmera de chocolate in pasteleria in Sol. Magdalenas y zumo de piña y uva from the Corte Ingles grocery store in the sotano.

Caitlin wanted to find a good view of the city so we too the metro to the Plaza de España where I had previously gone twice up to the top of the Torre de Madrid skyscraper. The first time in ’91 there was just a short wall and rail from the lookout point and the open space. When I went back in ’93 they had installed full length bars to the prevent jumpers, and now we found out that the cafeteria at the top has closed and they no longer allow you to go to the top. So we sat down facing the famous Don Quijote and Sancho Panza obelisk monument and had a fun time watching the old madrileños out for a paseo on this sunny morning. There was no need to carry a jacket with us as it was so warm out and there was no chance of rain. But of course these old Spaniards were wearing 2 or 3 sweaters as they usually do. Caitlin spotted 3 old and very Spanish looking men sitting on a bench and wanted me to ask if she could take their picture (she had a career in photography and graphic design). So I politely asked and 2 said yes and the other no. So I convinced him that of course he was the most guapo of them all and then he was delighted to have his photo taken! Another old man on a bench across the path began to pretend his cane was a rifle and he was firing at his friends so the men we were with did the same back at him. I realized again just how much I admire these friendly Spaniards who had lived out their lives in this beautiful city. We all shook hands and headed on our way down the C/ de Bailen to walk through the Palacio Real.

The tickets were 1.000 pts which was a little high but we managed to latch on a tour in Spanish that was going on inside. But Caitlin got bored so we left out into the courtyard to a great view of the western side of the city and the Casa de Campo from the raised hill the palace is located on. We wandered up through the Plaza de Oriente and into the Plaza de Isabel II back towards Sol and the Plaza Mayor where we had lunch at Las Cuevas de Luis Candelas (5.875 pts). I once again proved that I cannot eat an entire plato de cocido madrileño and especially not at this restaurante where it included 4 large pieces of lamb on the bone, a chorizo and morcilla, a hearty helping of garbonzo beans and a side of boiled cabbage, all previewed by a large bowl of pasta soup cooked chorizo for flavor. The place was filled about half full with tourists trying to point at the menu and asking the waiters questions in English. My opinion is that you really should give it an honest attempt to comminicate in Spanish. We have been looking quite a bit like tourists though at times as well since I love to stop and get any Madrid postcards I don’t already have to expand the collection I started nearly 10 years ago. The special Semana Santa edicion postcards had just come out featuring the processions exclusively from Madrid so of course I had to get those!

After lunch we walked down the famous C/ Cuchilleros and got the metro from La Latina over to Atoch to see the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The Picasso paintings were fabulous of course but so many studies of the same subject were starting to appear as simple duplicates to my untrained eyes. Gernika was impressive as expected. I didn’t realize it was that large.

From there we followed the C/ Argumosa up through the working class castizo barrio of Lavapies during mediodea where I had spent so much time in ’93. I had heard that this area had recently undergone some great renovations and yes, many of the shops looked very nice there there is still that bad element down there. Quite a few madrileños had warned us about the gente de mala pinta in this area and that petty crime was at an all time high. There were small groups of ruffians and homeless people through the area and I almost hesitated to take out the camcorder and film the other neighborhood. It was sad because I really love that old area of the city. There was construction everywhere, even more that you normally see around Madrid. The entire C/ Meson de Paredes was torn down to the dirt and we literally hiked up the streets through the stopped and honking cars and past the many import/export shops which supply the African street vendors with their wares. We caught the metro back up to the Gran Vía where we stopped into Madrid Rock where I got some Spanish CDs (11.995 pts) –

 Rosario – Mucho por vivir
 Cómplices – Cómplices
 Pedro Guerra – Ofrenda
 Amistades Peligrosas – Nueva Era
 Estopa – Estopa
 Ana Torroja y Miguel Bosé – Gira dos en concierto 2CD
 and the 2CD which is in the superventas right now Sabor Flamenco

We walked back down the C/ Preciados and browsed the Corte Inglés bookstore which is located in the same building their CD department was in back in the early ‘90’s. There we found some wonderful Spanish vocabulary picture books to help teach our 3 young boys at home and a few Mortadelo y Filemón comics as well. I got a critical book on Almodovar’s cinema ‘Un canibál in Madrid’.

10pm – We took the metro to Puerta del Angel and walked downhill across the Puente de Segovia to the Sala Riviera concert venue where we were to meet up with a longtime internet friend of 6 years David from Barcelona. He works for the largest concert promotion company in Spain and had us on the guest list for the St. Germain show. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after they announced it would be rescheduled due to technical difficulties to the extremely packed sold out venue. Everyone started to chant ‘Hijo de puta! - Hijo de puta!’ till they turned on the lights and we left.

Dinner: bocadillo de calamares in la Plaza Mayor.

So it’s now 1:45am and the full size glass doors leading out into the C/ Arenal are wide open, drawing in the cool Spanish night air. Sounds of passing groups of friends, buses, and the occasional car horn are our non stop background soundtrack. Desire to sleep always seems to come very late in Spain.

Tuesday 03 April 2001 Madrid

10am - Breakfast: Cafeteria Nebraska on the Gran Vía. Expensive but good churros con chocolate and freshly squeezed orange juice (1.850 pts).

We walked over to the Museo Municipal on C/ Fuencarral, 78 which detailed the history of old Madrid and it’s many reincarnations and famous figures. Tickets were only 300 pts. By this time it was already starting to be mediodía so we took the metro up to Colon and had a lie down in the grass in the Plaza de Colon. The usual skateboarders were out and entertaining us along with the school kids playing soccer in the grass. It really is amazing how good they are at such a young age in Spain. The weather was perfect and I caught about a half hour’s nap there near the pines and bancos.

Lunch was at the Bar Brillante near Atocha where we ate outside on the very dirty street. The bar was extremely busy and we ordered bocadillos de jamón y tomate, patatas bravas, and coca-cola (2.600 pts). I had been wanting to see the tropical jardín inside the Atocha station as it was not there when we were last in Madrid. It was a nice walk and we stopped at the gigantic Tutti Frutti candy store inside for more caramelos de goma.

We walked over to the see about getting into the Prado and there was a line out the door and down the street! People told us that it would be at least a couple of hours before we would get in so we just decided that we didn’t need to go this trip….we had both been there before anyway. So an excellent alternative was a nice shady stroll through the Real Botánico Jardín to the north side of the museum (250 pts entrance) full of different species of trees from all over the world and of course, many benches to rest on!

I had never been on the Teleférico de Madrid which is the cable car skyride so we took the metro to Arguelles and walked the C/ Princesa and around the neighborhood till we found it. The ride lasted about 10 minutes and left us in the Casa de Campo with the Parque de Atracciones in view. But it was closed and that whole section of the metro near Lago and Campamento was closed for construction so we couldn’t do anything but get back on the Teleférico and go back up to Arguelles over the rolling green hills, the highway, and back into the city. We had been going non-stop all day without a break so we walked back down the C/ Princesa past the Corte Inglés and took the metro back to the hostal for a nap.

10:15pm – saw the movie Traffic at Cine Ideal just up from the Puerta del Sol in the C/ Doctor Cortezo where all films are shows in version original (1.800 pts).

Wednesday 04 April 2001 Madrid


 We walked down the whole C/ Toledo again to the metro Pirámides.

Took metro to Aluche to walk through one of my old neighborhoods where we located the first piso I lived in Spain on C/ Camarena 132, 2, 1 in this working class area. It was about 1pm with not too many people out on the street and we were enjoying walking and talking, making our way through the seemingly endless maze of red brick buildings with lines of laundry drying in the afternoon air.

We decided on a change of scenery so we took the 45minutes metro ride up to Madrid’s northern business district and got off at the Plaza de Castilla metro stop almost directly under the very impressive Torre de Europe, which are two large skyscrapers leaning in towards each other with the main traffic artery of Madrid cutting through the middle, el Paseo de la Castellana. These buildings were only shells in ’93 with only the lower half glassed and the upper a steel metal skeleton. Now it looks like they are headquarters for the Caja Madrid bank.

Jumped on the metro and went back south to the church chapel I had gone to many times in Madrid on C/ Pablo Iglesias 22, near Cuatro Caminos where we needed a pit stop. I had promised a friend that I would stop in a see her parent’s at the family run frutos secos store on the C/ Jaén 44 where we surprised Mariano who remembered me after all this time away from the mission. We talked for over a hour with this nice older man who had emigrated from Mexico to Spain many years ago. His daughter Wendy no lives in Salt Lake. I needed change for the phone so I asked to buy a coca-cola but he insisted in giving it to me and changing my bill instead!

Jose from Hostal Aresol had referred us to a Paella restaurant in Madrid but assured us that it would not but ‘real’ paella, only paella from Madrid..ha! They do take their paella seriously in Spain. Just a short walk down the C/ Arenal we found La Paella Real Restaurante, Plaza de la Opera – Arrieta, 2, which opens up only at 8pm nightly. We ordered la paella de marisco and 30 minutes later the waiter brought out the best looking HUGE paella to our table for our approval….it was excellent. Price with coca-cola just over 6.100 pts. We could hardly move after that meal so we walked – slowly – back down to Sol and stopped into the Corte Inglés grocery store and headed up to the room to watch the Leeds vs. La Coruña match.

Thursday 05 April 2001 Madrid

12pm – We made it back down to the Madrid Temple for a session and ate at the cafeteria afterwards were we discovered that the head cook is Alberto Villaroya, the old branch president from the Aluche branch (Rama III) and it was nice to see him again. We left the temple grounds and walked down the C/ Hacienda de Pavones to where I lived as a missionary in the summer of ’91.

Since we were to due to arrive for our stay at Hostal Lopez on Monday we stopped in to take a look at the room. It was decent…but nowhere near as nice as the Hostal Aresol and the location was not as good either. So we walked back down to the Atocha station and got some more Spanish caramelos de goma to take home for the kids and then up to Retiro Park for an evening stroll just as it was starting to get dark. Back at the hostal Caitlin called Stephen Drake-Jones as he was going to go with us to get tickets to the bullfight later on in the week.

We ate at the Cafeteria Nebraska on the Gran Vía again (a different one this time though). Tortilla francesa y churros con chocolate (just can’t get enough of those!) (2.700 pts). It was so sad to see the homeless beggers out on the street in this area, many with small signs saying they had AIDS and needed a handout. We caught the late show at the Cine Ideal (15 Minutes).

Friday 06 April 2001 El Escorial & Madrid

11am – We got to the Hertz rental office on the Gran Vía right across from the Plaza de España and picked up our new silver Peugeot 306 Boulevard hatchback (only 13k miles!). We drove straight out of Madrid on the carretera to Villabla the 30 miles or so to the small mountain town San Lorenzo El Escorial. We walked the cobblestone streets and had lunch at a small bar. Spent a little over an hour walking through the monumental monestery and looking at the old paintings in the galleries there (tickets 1.000 each).

I wanted Caitlin to see the gigantic imposing Valle de los Caídos so we drove the 8 kilometros out of the city and up into the pine covered forests. Many Spaniards don’t like this monument because of the repression it represents to them but it’s a part of Spanish history and I consider it a necessary and interesting excursion. The walk up the sendero a la cruz took about 20 minutes and we were the only ones up there. This was the third time I’ve been to the VDLC and a strange sort of silence always seems to prevail. Entrance fee to the road to the monument 1.600 pts (includes entrance to the basilica which we didn’t care to do).

We navigated ourselves back into Madrid and quickly discovered that trying to plan our route on our map was useless..the traffic was so crazy! After a drive down the Gran Vía (unintentional!) we got back down to Sol and up the C/ Arena where we found a parking garage under the Plaza Descalzas Reales behind the Corte Inglés. At 2.400 pts/9 hrs the Madrid public parking garages are NOT cheap.

So we took a break in the room and at 6:30pm went down to the Delicias area of town to visit and eat with our friends the Cantos family: Enrique, Alicia, Jorge, and Carlitos (metro: Palos de la Frontera). We had a wonderful evening of conversation and finding out about their lives over the past years. We talked about the groundbreaking and dedication of the Madrid Temple and the city officials who where there. A member had actually filmed a lot of the activities and distributed the video to friends which we watched as well. We brought Gobstoppers, Nerds, Reese´s Peanut Butter Cups, and Shock Tart candy from the US for the kids (age 14 and 12) which they loved (buenísimo they said!). The boys showed us their móviles (cell phones) that it seems all Spaniards old and young alike now carry. The spend their evenings sending their friends mensajes cortes (short text messages). Enrique, who is the professional driver for the US embassy in Madrid, said that it was announced that last year that the number of móviles in Spain now outnumbers the number of teléfonos fijos as they are much easier to get. We had an excellent dinner of something resembling ensalada Rusa, a salad made of crab, bread, vegetables, and mayonnaise along with home made croquetas, tortilla, pan and coca-cola.