Vacation Journal, Day 3 - Working Up an Appetite

Our day started with the Museo Nacional del Prado. Our friend Sandy sent us this wonderful article from the New York Times, which was very helpful because we did not want to devote an entire day to visiting this huge museum. It took us four hours rather than 45 minutes to tour the Prado, but the article definitely facilitated our tour. The most popular painting in the Prado is Velazquez's "Las Meninas", and it was one of my favorites. We also liked Goya's "Second of May, 1808" and "Third of May, 1808" and Rogier van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross". The building itself was quite impressive, too.

Our next stop was Parque del Retiro, a huge park near the Prado. We saw the boating pond, many beautiful fountains, and the Palacio de Cristal ("Crystal Palace"). The Crystal Palace was not a really a palace at all, but a beautiful building where events are held.

We walked across the street to one of the best places we visited in Madrid, the Mercado de San Miguel. We ate a variety of tapas for lunch -- a chorizo empanada, assorted cheeses, wonderful mixed olives -- enjoyed with beer and sangria. We finished it off with our first taste of churros con chocolate. These are crispy fried donut-like pastries dipped in rich, thick hot chocolate. Out-of-this-world. (Preview: this won't be the last time we eat this today).

After resting at the hotel, we made our way to Puerta del Sol to meet our Adventurous Appetites Tapas Tour group. Heather was our guide, and we were joined by a married couple who were professors from Rutgers University traveling during their sabbatical.

Our night started with an interesting (not sweet) apple drink called Pachu. It had to be poured in an interesting way to create the fizz, and you had to drink it quickly to get the pleasure of all the fizziness. I have never had anything quite like it. We enjoyed it with sausage, ham, potatoes and bread.

We moved on to the Museo de Jamon (actually a restaurant dedicated to ham) for our second stop. It is here that we had our first taste of Jamon Iberico; we tried the bellota, which is a black pig that has grazed only on acorns. It was one of the most wonderful things I have ever tasted. It is amazing how much the Spanish love their ham, and once you taste it, you understand why. Unfortunately, it is illegal to bring it back from Spain, and although I can find it at our grocery store, it is prohibitively expensive at $115 per pound!

Our next stop was a cute little wine bar, where we dined on anchovies on potato chips, tripe stew (it is actually better than it sounds), and some wonderful fried fish.

The last stop on our tour was Los Gatos, where I had my first taste of Vermouth Spanish style. I have always thought of Vermouth as a drink mixer, but in Spain it is on tap and served over ice. It is sweet and absolutely wonderful. We had a huge plate of tapas at Los Gatos before everyone in the group went their separate ways.

We probably should have gone back to the hotel to rest up for our last full day in Madrid, but instead we walked to Choclateria San Gines, where we ate delightful churros con chocolate before calling it a night at about 1:30 a.m.