Plaza Mayor

After work I headed down to Plaza Mayor in my first formal attempt at sightseeing. The plaza itself was quite impressive and, perhaps because I came on a weeknight, was not completely overrun by tourists like myself. The night was quite comfortable, with no signs of fall just yet, so I debated whether to grab some tapas at one of the many restaurants that line the plaza. However, I had heard from many people (both locals and visitors) that such restaurants are notoriously high on price and low on quality, so I fought the hunger pains in order to find a better spot.










Before leaving the plaza, I took in some of the local talent showcasing their skills. The highlight was definitely the flamenco dancer and her partner on classical guitar. As can be seen from the video that I shot (excuse the poor quality – I used my digital camera, which resulted in the need for some editing to increase the brightness and rotate it from “portrait” to “landscape”…), she was quite talented.

After the flamenco show, I went to a tapas restaurant that met the two primary criteria driving my selection process: (1) it was packed with locals (thus indicating some minimum level of quality) and (2) there was an open seat at the bar (after being on my feet most of the day, I really wanted a nice spot to sit down for dinner). And as luck would have it, the food turned out to be excellent – I ordered Iberian ham (freshly carved from the leg behind the counter), Manchego cheese, calamari and croquettes.

All in all, my impressions of Madrid thus far are very favorable. Just one question – why does lunch and dinner have to be so late? For someone used to having lunch at noon and dinner around 7pm, holding out until 3pm and 10pm for lunch and dinner, respectively, requires some serious commitment.