Iberian Adventures Part 4: More Spain

We packed up early in the morning and hit the road back to Santander, where we were slated to spend the next 2 nights. We turned in our rental car -- from now on we were to be bound to foot and public transportation. Our hotel was right across the street from an enormous casino that looked like it was lifted right out of the James Bond Casino Royale movie. We were also right across the street from the beach, which put us in a pretty damn good location. The beach at Santander is supposed to be the "least polluted" beach in Europe. Initially I was guessing that this was because it was either really ugly or really rocky, and thus no one wanted to go to it. Upon arrival, however, I discovered a third alternative: it was really freezing. Now, this is Spain, so it never really gets THAT cold, but it was definitely too cold to be hanging out at the beach. This was more of your overcast and chilly northern California beach as opposed to your hot and sunny Florida beach. The locals, however, seemed unperturbed by the cold and tons of them were lining the beach playing paddle ball, sun bathing (despite the lack of sun), and swimming. We did brave the beach one afternoon, but only my brother had the stamina to enter the water briefly, and we had to head in after about half an hour because it started raining.

Aside from casinos and beaches, Santander is famous for its myriad of tapas bars (which, when you say it, sounds an awful lots like "topless bars" and yes, that has led to some confusion in the past). Tapas are sort of the Spanish take on bar food. While in the US we may content ourselves with nuts and pretzels while drinking, the Spanish demand a bit more bang for their buck. Tapas are small appetizer-like dishes that range in complexity from slices of ham to beautiful seafood pastries. As an added perk, tapas are usually ordered and served from a bar, which means you have to elbow your way through a lot of noisy Spaniards and somehow catch the bartender's attention in order to get your food. We made it to two tapas places while in Santander, both of which were extraordinarily good.

From Santander, we caught the train south to Madrid. Needless to say, I was excited to get to see the city again after so many years. Unfortunately, we were only able to schedule one night in Madrid, so things were gonna be a bit rushed. We arrived in the mid-afternoon and immediately hit the town. I was pleasantly surprised to find I still more or less knew my way around the downtown area and could walk around comfortably without fear of getting too lost. You get such a different perspective on a place when live there as opposed to just visiting there. Generally, when we roll into a city, we read the guide books to locate the main attractions, maybe wander around some of the more scenic parts of town, and hit up all the good restaurants. Having lived in Madrid, I wasn't interested in doing any of that. It wasn't so much that I'd already been to most of the main points of interest (which I had, for the most part), but rather that what I remembered and loved about the city had nothing to do with the various attractions it had to offer. Coming back to Madrid what I really wanted to do was not to see anything specific, but just to wander around.

Number 2 on my list of things to do was going to the grocery store. My favorite type of cheese is Manchego, which is made near Madrid and while in the US it may cost upwards of $20 a pound, in Madrid it costs a little less than $10 a kilo. I was also in the market for some good bottles of Spanish wine. After going for our wander and doing our shopping, it was nearing time for dinner. My mom had booked us a reservation at a very traditional central Spanish restaurant which, ironically enough, we never been able to go to when we were living there because it was always too crowded and we never thought far enough in advance to make a reservation. I had to admit, however, that the place had good reason to be crowded. The food was excellent, probably some of the best I'd had in Spain. The restaurant was famous for it's huevos fritos con patatas (literally: fried eggs with potatoes). Now, this may sound boring as all hell, but my brother ordered it and I have no idea what they did to those eggs and potatoes, but they were amazing. I went for the traditional roast suckling pig, which was awesome, but I was actually more impressed by the lentil soup that I got along with it -- easily the best lentil stew I'd ever had.

Sated and somewhat sleepy, and facing something of an early departure the next morning, we still had one last stop to fit in: Plaza Oriente. Almost every self-respecting European city has a plaza, and most of the larger cities have a lot of plazas, but Plaza Oriente is easily the best plaza in Europe. It's essentially the back yard of the Spanish royal palace and is bordered by the palace on one side and the opera house on the other. It's not nearly as opulent as the numerous fountain and monument laden plazas of Italy or France, but it has an odd sort of secluded and peaceful feeling to it that I find very appealing. It also is home to our favorite cafe, Cafe Oriente which, among other things, has the best sangria in Spain (and thus, anywhere). We spend a peaceful evening drinking sangria and sitting in the plaza. It was time to call it a trip, but I was happy to have been back to Madrid, even for a little while, and I promised myself I would try and come back for another visit after the end of my Peace Corps assignment. As always, however, we shall have to see what the future will bring.