Mad About Madrid

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Heavy Snow in the Mountains Around Madrid

I have blogged about this quite a few times this year. So, I'm sure that once more won't make much difference. I have just taken a look at the Sierra Norte website and, as you can see above, there is heavy snow there. Taking a look at the El Mundo weather page, I saw that the forecast for the mountains for the next few days is snow and cold weather - pretty good weather for skiing I should think.
Here is an article I have blogged about skiing before on this site:

Skiing in Madrid

However, if you can't get out to the mountains, you can always see them from the Parque del Oeste or even the Templo de Debod.

Good Quality Shopping Centres in Madrid

If you enjoy shopping, here are 3 shopping centres that you should think about visiting: the Moda Shopping Centre, the ABC Shopping Centre and the Jardin de Serrano. The Moda Shopping Centre is located near Madrid's football mecca, Santiago Bernabeu, and has a wide range of shops - from smart designer shops to jewellry shops and antiques shops. You can also find a number of places to have food or a drink. From one side of the centre you will see Madrid's largest building - the stunning Torre Picasso. From here you can walk across to the departmetn store El Corte Ingles and/or visit the shops on c/Orense.

The ABC Centre is located in a building that the well-known ('very' conservative!) newspaper ABC occupied until 1989. It has two principal entrances - one is the Paseo de la Castellana and the other c/Serrano, Madrid's 'poshest' street. It has a fine selection of shops, from clothing and jewellry to shops where you can buy nick nacks. During the summer its summer terrace (on the 4th floor) offers fantastic views across the city. There is a nice shop for kids there called Imaginarium, which even has a special 'little' door for them to go in through!

The third shop is located a short walk from the ABC Centro (right next to Serrano Metro stop) and though it's called Jardín de Serrano, it's located in c/Goya! This place has a neat selection of good quality shops and clothes boutiques - women's clothes, jewellery, picture framing shops, handbags, children's clothes, etc. You can also find the Mallorca restaurant, where you can have a good quality, reasonably priced meal or wonderful pastry in very pleasant surroundings.

As the latter is located at the start of c/Serrano, you can walk up to the designer shops which are located on or jutting on to this street.

No Smoking Bars in Madrid

From this year a new Anti-Tobacco Law has come into force in Spain. This law prohibits smoking in work places and requires that bars and restaurants of a certain size decide whether they want to be smoking or non-smoking establishments. However, Spain being Spain, it will probably take about 2-3 years before EVERYONE takes any notice of the law!- they prohibited smoking on the Metro some years ago but you could still see people smoking years after. If it is really important to you, you may want to check out this directory of bars and restaurants where smoking is not allowed. Simply select the 'province' of Spain that you want details on, and hit "Buscar".

Check out our Madrid Restaurants section for a selection of good quality restarants.

Workplay by Andrew Losowsky Opens at the Alternativa Theatre Festival

I just had an email from Andrew Losowsky, a journalist/photographer/author, who has written to inform me that his new play - Workplay - will be premiering on 21st February (until 26th) at the Teatro Independiente Sur.

It's called Workplay, and it's premiere is next Tuesday, as part of the La Alternativa theatre festival. It's the only English language production in the festival. The director is Tom Wright, a London theatre director who has flown over especially to direct the piece.

According to Andrew's weblog, Workplay is:

"A Hitchcock-style drama about strange people and ordinary jobs. If work was nothing but a game,  would you know when to stop playing? An unsettling new play with sharp dialogue where nothing is what it seems.

I wish him all the very best!

Ticket Prices: 10 Euros 
Address: c/ Primavera, 11
Tel: 91 528 13 59 664 345 789
Metro: Lavapiés

El Barberillo de Lavapiés at the Teatro de la Zarzuela

According to Wikipedia Zarzuela:

"..is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre, which alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating dances."

Indeed, some of Spain's most important opera singers, like Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe, have all done Zarzuela. Domingo will actually be playing a lead role this summer in a zarzuela production in Madrid.

The Barberillo de Lavapiés, composed by Barbieri, first premiered in 1874 and is often referred to as the greatest zarzuela grande. I have been to a number of zarzuelas over the years and would recommend them to anyone. They have a true Spanish/Madrid feel to them and are performed to such a high standard - you never know if you'll be listening to the next José Carreras, Placido Domingo or Alfredo Kraus. By the way if you don't understand Spanish very well, it's well worth getting the score beforehand.

El Barberillo de Lavapiés is performed by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid and the choir of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, accompanied by the voices of Beatriz Lanza, Amparo Navarro, Carmen González, Marco Moncloa, Luis Álvarez and Julio Morales. It will be at the Teatro de la Zarzuela until the 10th March.

Timetable
Wednesday-Saturday: 8 p.m.
Sundays: 6 p.m.

Prices
12 - 216 Euros

Carolina Herrera on Madrid

Whilst searching for a quote for an article that I'm currently writing, I came across an interesting article on the world-famous fashion designer Carolina Herrera. The article, called Spanish Steps and written by Mitchell Owens, offers a fascinating insight into Carolina Herrera's love affair with Madrid. It talks about her favourite tapas, bars, museums and places of interest. I love a quote from the article where she says that the clientele for a famous restaurant - Casa Lucio - ranges from:

"the King and Queen to the local hooker"

She also comments on how life is so civlised in Madrid:

"The life here is so civilized. The lunches are late and the dinners are even later, which allows you to do so many things during the day. And have you noticed that nobody eats or drinks while they are walking? In New York, everybody eats in the street. But in Madrid, people go to a café and they sit down. Even in Starbucks, you buy your coffee and sit and drink"

And here's an interesting shopping tip:

"Calzados Lobo, a store that has stood near Plaza Mayor for more than a century, is where the Herrera women stock up on the traditional handmade espadrilles (they start at around $8 a pair) that found favor with the Paris Opéra, which ordered dozens of Lobo shoes for a production of Carmen. The shop is about half the size of a one-car garage; its open shelves are crammed with boxes, and dozens of customers stand elbow-to-elbow clutching wait-your-turn numbers."

A Selection of My Madrid Articles

As many of you are aware I often ask people to take part in the "My Madrid" section of my site, where people let us know about their favourite foods, bars, restaurants, walks of Madrid and even seasons. Well, here is a complete selection of people who have taken part so far. I hope you enjoy them!

                                                                                                               

Andres	Beverley		Vicen	Simon
Juan	Susana		Roger	Carolina
Juan Manuel	Fran		Pereza

Otto Dix Exhibition at the Fundación Juan March

From the 10th February to the 14th May, 2006 the Fundación Juan March will put on an exhibtion dedicated to the German painter Otto Dix. The Foundation says that it will be the first major exhibition devoted to the artist in Spain. Otto Dix lived throughout some of the major events of the last century: the Weimar Republic, the rise of the Nazis and two World Wars - he fought and was seriously wounded in the first world war. According to Wikipedia:

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they regarded Dix as a degenerate artist and had him sacked from his post as an art teacher at the Dresden Academy. He later moved to Lake Constance. Dix's paintings The Trench and War cripples were exhibited in the Nazi exhibition of degenerate art, Entartete Kunst. They were later burned.

The exhibition includes 84 of the artist's works: 35 oils, 27 gouaches and watercolours and 22 drawings, which cover the period 1914 to 1969. On display are his triptych Metropolis of 1927-28,which is considered Dix’s most important work, together with War (1932). The Juan March will also be holding conferences on Degenerate Art: The Repression of Culture During the Third Reich on 28th February and on the 2nd, 7th and 9th March (7.30 p.m.).

Visiting Hours
Monday-Saturday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday/Holiday: 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

Free Guided Visits
Wednesday: 11.00 a.m. - 1.30 p.m.
Friday: 4.30 p.m. - 7.15 p.m.

Bomec - a Tea Salon in Madrid

Coffee is definitely the preferred hot beverage in Madrid (well, throughout Spain) but if you would just prefer a cup of decent tea, you should head over to Bomec - a tea shop which is tucked away just behind the Metro in the Tribunal area. Bomec has on offer over 160 varieties of tea, all neatly displayed in metal tins behind the counter, and which come from China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Africa and India.

The shop is unlike other shops in the city centre - it is quite dark inside and seems to be inspired by the Orient. Bomec's tea shop, which also sells all manner of tea accessories, is open during the morning and afternoon, whilst the wonderful little tea salon is open just in the afternoons. If you live in Spain, you can also have tea delivered to your door by Bomec. Also on the same side of the street you will find a traditional book binders - you can actually see them at work from the front window! Nearby, in c/ Fuencarral you wil find Corripio, a great place to stop for a glass of cider.
 
Location
Address: C/ San Joaquín, 8 - Madrid (corner of Fuencarral nº 73 )
Metro: Tribunal

Fame (Fama) - The Musical - Debuts in Teatro Calderón

From the 1st February, 2006 Madrid will be able to offer residents and visitors yet another musical. The latest offering is Fame (Fama in Spanish), based on the popular series from the 1980's and which will run at the Teatro Calderón .The Madrid version, obviously in Spanish, features singers, dancers and actors from both Spain and Latin America. Much like the series, the musical charts the story of the aspiring performers of the High School for the Performing Arts in New York, with all the usual themes: drugs, finding themselves and their sexuality.

Timetable
Tuesday- Thursday: 8.30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 6 p.m. and 10.30 p.m.
Sunday: 7.30 p.m.

Tickets
Box Office or El Corte Inglés

Price
32-50 Euros

More Details
Sudor y lágrimas, 20 años después (El Mundo Preview)

My Madrid: Simon Hunter

Simon Hunter is the 27 year-old editor of InMadrid, billed as Madrid's No.1 English Language Publication, who hails from Essex but now lives on the Gran Vía. He has been writing for the magazine for five years, and editing it for a year. Since he first arrived in Madrid he has taught English, worked at a record company, been a recruitment consultant and done PR for one of Madrid's biggest club nights, Mondo. In addition, he also DJ's once a month in AntiCafé (c/únion, 2).
Favourite Bar/Café - El Tigre, c/Infantas. The only place where you can find Granada-style tapas for free.
Favourite Dish(es) - Lentejas or anything with big, juicy gambas.
Favourite Tapas - Bonito con pimiento, jamón de bellota and really tasty olives.
Favourite Restaurant - Embarrasingly, one of my favourite places in Madrid is Fresc Co - I can't get enough of that all-you-can-eat salad. For a more traditional meal though, it has to be Casa Mingo or La Comunista in Chueca.
Favourite Shop - The butcher's on calle Colón where I buy large chunks of delicious duck paté every month.
Favourite Building - The LaSGAE building - it's the closest Madrid gets to Gaudí.

Watching the 6 Nations in Madrid

Saturday sees the start of the 6 Nations Rugby Championship and Madrid's bars offer a great chance to watch the games, meet up with rugby supporters of all the teams taking part and, of course, to have a few beers (or Guinnesses)! The first weekend sees Ireland v Italy (2.30 p.m. Madrid time) and England v Wales (4.30 p.m.) on Saturday with Scotland v France on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Instead of pointing you to a previous post that I wrote (for the 6 nations last year and the World Cup!), I have decided to cut and paste some of the places where you will no doubt find the games going on:

Finnegan’s – Plaza de Salesas 9 - Metro: Alonso Martínez - Tel: 91 319 8716
Finbars – c/ Marqués de Urquijo 10 - Metro: Argüelles/Moncloa - Tel: 91 548 3793
Irish Rover – Avda de Brasil 7 - Metro: Santiago Bernabéu - Tel: 91 597 4811
Kitty O’Sheas – c/ Alcalá 59 - Metro: Banco de España - Tel: 91 575 4901
La Fontana de Oro - c/de la Victoria 2 - Metro: Sol - Tel: 91 531 0420
Molly Malone's c/Manuela Malasaña 11 - Metro: Bilbao - Tel: 91 594 16 35
Moore's - c/Barcelo 1 - Metro: Tribunal - Tel: 91 532 6331
Moore's - c/Felipe - Metro: Sol - Tel: 91 365 5802
O'Connors c/Alamagro 3 - Metro: Alonso Martínez - Tel: 91 310 44 35
O’Neill’s – c/ Príncipe 12 - Metro: Sevilla - Tel: 91 521 2030 (Apparently, the biggest Irish pub in Europe!)
The Quiet Man - c/ Valverde 44 - Metro: Tribunal - Tel: 91 521 4181
Triskel c/San Vicente Ferrer, 3 - Metro: Tribunal - Tel: 91 523 27 83

I would suggest you phone beforehand just to ouble check that the games are being televised. My personal favourites has to be Finnegan's.

A list of 6 Nations Fixtures can be found on the IRB site. No prizes for guessing which team I'll be supporting!