Mad About Madrid

Madrid 2012 - The City's Olympics Bid

On the 6th July, 2005 Madrid will know if it has been successful in its bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the City. The final candidates are Madrid, London, Paris, Moscow and New York. The city has never hosted the Olympic Games but was shortlisted for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

The Queen of  Spain, Sofia, will be heading a delegation which includes the President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the President for the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre and the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. Sporting celebrities, include  Real Madrid soccer star Raul Gonzalez, five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain and former tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

According to a report in the Chicago Tribune:

Madrid maintains its strongest point is the closeness of the venues to the athletes' village and the low cost of its project.

Given the IOC's wish to reduce costs, Madrid's bid could seem desirable with an Olympic operating budget of $2.1 billion and separate infrastructure budget of $1.6 billion.

Twenty-two of the 35 planned venues already have been built, while two are being refurbished, five are under construction and six are awaiting a final go-ahead.

The Mayor of Madrid says:

"We have 83 percent of the venues already built or in the pipeline and seven years to do the rest -- no other city comes near that."

The article also identifies the following points in the city' favour:

• Madrid has hosted nearly 90 sports events in the past four years, including the European swimming championships and European indoor track championships. The city is also home to one of the world's most famous soccer clubs, Real Madrid, whose Santiago Bernabeu stadium downtown would be a 2012 venue.
• In terms of popular and political support, the evaluation committee report recognized that Madrid's bid was backed by all Spanish parties and regions and by more than 80 percent of Spaniards.
• Central to Madrid's bid is the plan for the main Olympic stadium and other venues to be a short walking distance from the athletes' village and about 10 minutes away from both the airport and downtown.
• Madrid also boasts that spectators would be able to travel to 25 venues by public transportation. The city's cheap and modern underground metro would serve more than 80 percent of the sites.

Having been to London recently I would say in terms of transportation and infrastructure, Madrid wins hands down.

Madrid 2012 Olympic Candidature Site

Related Articles
Olympics 2012 (BBC)
Madrid 2012 (Olympic Blog)
GamesBids.com
Madrid confident of upsetting big guns in Singapore (Reuters)

Juan Gris at the Reina Sofia Museum

José Victoriano González-Pérez was born in Madrid in 1887. Better known as Juan Gris he became one of the main practitioners of Cubism, developing his own style of it. Having studied mechanical drawing at the Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas in Madrid, he moved to Paris in 1906 where he came under the influence of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. According to Wikipedia:

"At first painted in the analytic style of cubism but after 1915, he began his conversion to synthetic cubism of which he became a steadfast interpreter, with extensive use of papier collé. Unlike Picasso and Braque whose works were monochomatic, Gris concentrated on painting with bright colors."

The Reina Sofía Museum is putting on a Juan Gris exhibition, which is the culmination of 3 years' hard work by them, and is said to be one of the finest  ever put together on the artist. The exhibition includes 250 pieces (90 drawings) - quite a few of which have never been seen in Spain before. The exhibition started on 23rd June and will run until 19th September.

Prices: Museum - 3.01 Euros. Free on Saturdays from 2.30 p.m.

My Madrid - Pereza

One month ago I wrote an article about Pereza, a Madrid Rock duo, who are currently number 6 in the Spanish Top 40 (Los 40 Principales). Well, I decided to fire off an email to ask them if they'd like to contribute in the 'My Madrid' section of this site and they said they would. Here are the answers to the questions I asked them about Madrid:

Favourite Bar/Café - El Siroco
Favourite Dish - Tortilla de Patata
Favourite Tapas - Patatas Bravas
Favourite Restaurant - Casa Paco [Plaza Puerta Cerrada 11]
Favourite Shop - The stalls of the Rastro [famous flea market just off Tirso de Molino]
Best time of year in Madrid - June afternoons in the Retiro Park
Favourite Barrio - La Latina
Favourite Building(s) - The Windsor [a building which burnt down in February, 2005!]
My favourite day trip from Madrid is to ... London
A perfect ‘night out’ in Madrid would …be in Malasaña
My favourite walk … El parque del Capricho, en la Alameda de Osuna [located outside the city centre]

Vinoteca Barbechera

So the other day it was sunny, and warm, and basically another perfect day to sit outside in the sun and do nothing at all, except drink wine that is! With plans to meet up with friends at a later time, my wife and I decided to head over to Plaza Santa Ana (map), for a glass of wine and a pincho or two. Located on the eastern end of the plaza sits Vinoteca Barbechera, a franchised bar that serves tapas, raciones, wine and much more. It is known as a wine bar first and foremost, I suggest you keep this in mind when you visit.

Wanting a quick snack, we ordered a couple glasses of white wine and a few tapas. Looking at the menu you are not left without plenty of choices, basically the same tapas you’d find at every other bar you might visit in Madrid. Yet what makes it worth going to, is the quality. Incredible! For those of you who like to go out and blow a 100 Euros on dinner and have small tastes presented in front of you of various delicacies, this is a great place for you. For an average of 3 euros each, you can taste your way through a plethora of small culinary treats.

Today we tried three treats:

Solomillo con Cebolla Caramelizado (Beef tenderloin with Caramelized Onions)

Crisp toast drizzled with good olive oil works to hold this concoction as you raise it to your lips. As you bite into it your mouth is rewarded with tender fillet, lightly seasoned and garnished with a candy-like caramelized onion. The best part of this dish is that any one part would be overwhelmingly rich by itself, but as a whole, they work together to balance each other out. As you finish you know you’ve just has a small bite of heaven. 

Trucha ahumada con Puré de tomate y tapenada (Smoked trout with puree of tomatoes and an olive tapenade)

Though not my favorite today, this dish will appeal to anyone out there who is a lover of smoked fish.

New Tourism Centre in Madrid

It looks like visitors to Madrid will now be able to get tourist information from a new Tourism Office. Situated in the famous Casa de la Panadería, in the Plaza Mayor, the office will be open from 9.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. According to the Esmadrid website:

"The centre has arranged six internet access points allowing visitants to look up – through the esmadrid.com website – the new Tourism Board database, developed by the city council-owned company Promoción Madrid. This new venue provides as well the visitants with WI-FI (wireless) access making available Internet access through portable computers."

 

Madrid Tapas Fair

Practically everyone who comes to Madrid will end up eating tapas - the dish that often accompanies a beer, wine or other beverage in Madrid's bars and restaurants. Well, from today (9th June) until the 12th June, the city will be hosting its own Feria de la Tapa or Tapas Fair.

Held in the Pabellón Auxiliar Madrid Arena, in the Casa de Campo, it is open to both catering businesses and the general public and should prove an ideal opportunity to get to know one of the gastronomic delights of the city, and indeed Spain. Many of the best places to eat tapas in Madrid will be represented including 'Chantarella', 'El Rincón de Goya', 'Las Bravas', 'El Almendro', 'La Taberna del Alabardero', 'Los Cigarrales' and 'La Montadería'. There will also be lively discussion and a competition for 'pulling the best beer'!

Entrance is FREE and tapas only cost 1.2 Euros - a bargain!

Here is a map and directions on how to get to the Campo de Naciones

More Details
Madrid acogerá del 9 al 12 de junio una feria gastronómica dedicada a la tapa (Yahoo! España)
De tapas por la Casa de Campo (El Mundo/Metropoli)
Madrid, capital de la tapa (Es Madrid)

Related
Tapas in Madrid
My Madrid - Andrés Jarabo Perez