Day Two In Madrid

So, there was a communication error, and we thought Lauren would be arriving a day earlier than she did. We waited around and worried about Lauren being able to make it to the hotel from the airport. But then after figuring out our error, Chris decided he should just go pick her up at the airport. He and C left early in the morning. I guess they ran into a the morning rush hour on the subway and were packed in like sardines, which C did not like. They found Lauren at the airport, and then briefly lost C. He just decided to take a trip up the escalator by himself, but then came right back down. C is not good at overriding his natural tendency to explore and often doesn’t follow directions… recipe for a lost child. But he is just 3 years old.

Ruby and I spent a quiet morning at Hostal Helena playing in the room and out on the balcony. When they finally arrived, Lauren was very wiped out by jet lag, and lugging her enormous amount of luggage. She took a big nap in the early afternoon, but we got her out walking in the evening. We searched for La Farfalla, but found it closed. It opens for dinner at 9 pm! Those crazy spaniards… :) We wandered a bit further south and found a place called Los Conspiradores (or something like that). Nice ambiance, friendly waiter. We had an excellent tortilla, maybe the best I’ve ever had. Definintely better than I’ve ever made. We also enjoyed a nice plate of sheep cheeses, and Lauren confirmed her dislike of sheep cheese. We also enjoyed another dish called “pisto manchego” which was stewed vegetables with a hearty bread. And, of course, muchas cervezas. Ruby hadn’t been very enthusiastic about eating since we arrived, but she loved the tortilla.

We found La Farfalla, one of my favorite restaurants ever. It’s not that the food is spectacular (though it is good), it’s the whole package. It’s in a cute area and it’s homey and nice inside. The servers are kind and laid-back. There are nice vegetarian options (I appreciate this now that we are eating more vegetarian, but I also appreciate it as something slightly unusual in a ham-obsessed country). And they serve “Pizza Erotica”! That always cracked me up. It’s too bad I didn’t get more of the sign in the picture, but you can see “Pizza-Restaurante La Farfalla” and half of butterfly on the sign.

The tortilla was so perfect: potatoes soft and velvety, eggs light and creamy… I wish I could find the secret. I’ll keep trying! Ruby totally loved the tortilla. It was the first thing she ate with any gusto for the first two days we were in Spain.

That’s the verduras manchego (maybe it was called piso manchego, or pisto manchego?) to the right and patatas a la casa on the left. The potatoes were really great with lots of butter and garlic and paprika. The flavor was very reminiscent of chorizo.

Even though the picture is a little blurry I wanted to keep it because it’s such a great action shot of Ruby’s method of eating, which is sticking her tongue out as far at possible as she shoves the food in. When you try to feed her something, she does this, too. It’s pretty funny and very cute. I wonder when she’ll grow out of it!

Yum, it was all so good! And just a little bit of beer to wash it all down… the perfect spanish food experience. :)

One our way home, we stopped in this playground in Plaza Santa Ana. This is one of Rick Steve’s big recommeneded hang-outs in Madrid (not the playground, but the cafes and restaurants around this plaza). I thought it was neat that there were fenced in play areas near the cafes’ outdoor seating. What a great idea!