Mad About Madrid

Suma Flamenca - Madrid Community's First Flamenco Festival

From today, 30th May, 2006, until the 11th June, the Comunity of Madrid is putting on its First Flamenco Festival, called Suma Flamenca. Events and shows associated with the festival will take place in 9 of the Community's town councils and will obviously include the centre of the capital. For more details of what will be going on over the coming days, visit the Metropoli site or  Guia del Ocio. Sorry for the brevity of this article but I am preparing to go to this event (therefore, posting will be light for the next few days!).

Feria del Libro Madrid

Didn't have a chance to write this up last week as I was in Cambridge (UK) but for those literary types amongst you, you may be interested to know about Madrid's Feria del Libro (or book fair). It started on Friday and goes on until the 11th June, 2006 in Madrid's Retiro Park. It is quite some event with 300 events, 355 stands and 5 pavilions covering this open space of the park.  Even if you don't read Spanish (which is obviously the main language!), it is quite nice to walk around and have a look at the variety of stand on display.

Madrid's Municipal Swimming Pools Open this Weekend

As a Brit I find there is something quite pleasing about sitting around an open air swimming pool in the summer without a cloud in the sky. In Madrid you are practically guaranteed 3 months of perfect weather for going to the pool. Many Spaniards will shortly begin their summer timetable and will be able to enjoy the hot afteroons next to the pool.

Within the next 2 weeks practically all of Madrid 75 municipal pools (yes, 75!!) will open their doors. According to the newspaper 20 Minutos, 5 will open this weekend: Centro de Natación M-86, el Estadio Vallehermoso, el Canal de Isabel II, San Vicente de Paúl and el Parque Deportivo Puerta de Hierro.

Madrid's municipal facilities are very good and, from a British standpoint at least, very cheap. Prices for entry this year are 4.05 Euros with discounts of 20% and 40% for youngsters and children, respectively. If I'm correct you can even get a summer pass which brings the price down to much less. What's more you'll be able to enjoy a cool beer and decent food at practically all of them.

For a good list of municipal pools check out this article - Open Air Swimming Pools in Madrid - that I wrote on this site or  go to La Netro.com.

Bullfight-Related Bars and Restaurants in Madrid

Here's an article - Dos orejas, rabo... y una de callos - that I first came across about a year ago in Metropoli. Given that then, like now, it was around the time of the San Isidro Festival, they thought that they would write an article on the best taurine-related (bullfight) bars and restaurants in Madrid. On this list you will find two of Madrid's oldest eating (and drinking!) establishments - Casa Alberto and La Taberna de Antonion Sánchez - dating from 1827 and 1830, respectively.

There is also one fantastic place - El Rincón de Jerez - which offers good Andalucian food and where, every night at 11 pm., they dim the lights and sing to the Virgin Maria. One place called, New Street (Spanish in all but name!), even serves up the a dish of bull's tail from one of the bulls which fought the day before.

Translation Tool
Use the Google Translation Tool for a rough translation.

Madrid's Museums Open Up At Night on 20th May

The night of the museums is a European intitiative in which more than 1200 musuems across Europe will open their doors 'after dark'  on the 20th May, 2006 and where visitors will be able to listen to music, theatre and go on guided visits. In Madrid, the Thyssen Museum will be open from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. In the Museo del Prado a group of youngster will be able to answer visitor question between 8.30 and 10.30 p.m and the museum will remain open untl 1 a.m - entry will be free from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m 

The Museo del Traje will be open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. with a jazz band (Missing Stompers) and entry will be free until they reach their quota.  At the Museo Nacional de Antropología they will have a "night of repercussion" with an African percussion band, Babacar and the Diengoz, playing. Again entry is free until they fill the quota, whilst the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas will open its doors until 10.30 p.m. The Museo Sorolla will be open from 9 p.m. to 11.30 p.m

The Museo Arqueológico Nacional will have an Andalucian Reminiscences night with guides , theatrical guidse literary stories and a nocturnal concert with Araba and Andalucian music in the garden.

International Day (and Night!) of the Museum

Today is the International Day of Museums and many of Madrid's Museums are offering free entry. For those who are interested, the Prado Museum will be taking part in the Night of the Museums and will offer free entry to some of its art halls from 8.30 p.m to 1 a.m.

Imagine India Film Festival

From today, 16th May, 2006, until the 23rd May the fifth edition of the Festival ImagineIndia will take place. It will see over 40 Indian films being projected in 3 of Madrid's cinemas -  Cine Estudio de Círculo de Bellas Artes, Filmoteca Española and Cine Palafox. This follows hot on the heels of a Spanish film festival that was held in India in February. Aside from showing a wide selection of Indian films, there will also be a retrospective of the work of Mira Nair.

Franz Ferdinand Signs Up For MetroRock

On the 23rd and 25th June, 2006 Madrid hosts its own rock/pop festival, MetroRock. Artists from both Spain and internationally will converge on Parque Juan Carlos and perform on their two stages. The headline band this year will be Franz Ferdinand, who just signed up to perform.

Other artists include: Paul Weller, The Charlatans, Gecko Turner, Macao, Sexy Sadie, 12Twelve, Chambao, Lori Mayers, Bersuit, and many more. Last year over 30,000 people turned up to enjoy the show.  In addition, there will also be a clubbing area with DJ’s like Karl Bartos (Kraftwerk), Jaumëtic, Damian Schwartz, Iñaqui Marín, Tadeo.

Tickets
1 Day Pass - 35 Euros
2 Day Pass: 55 Euros
Box Office: Ticktackticket.com or El Corte Ingles

El Koala - Opá, yo Viazé un Corrá

This is not related to Madrid
It's not sung by a Madrileño - but by a Malagueño (from Malaga)
The video wasn't done in Madrid
BUT
I think it's great
:)

Hat Tip to Vicen (my brother-in-law) for sending it to me. He think's that Opá, yo Viazé un Corrá will be the Spanish song of the summer - I have no doubt he's right. For more details on Manuel Jesús Rodríguez and El Koala, visit the El Koala website.

Strawberry Train 2006

I completely forgot to write about the Strawberry Train (Tren de a Fresa), which leaves Madrid's Atocha Station and travels to the beautiful Royal Palace of Aranjuez. Luckily, seeing some strawberries on Ben and Marina's site reminded me! The price includes:

• A 'historic' steam train which takes around 50 minutes to get to the town of Aranjuez
• Strawberries served on board by stewardesses dressed in period costume
• Bus to the Royal Palace
• Free entry to the Royal Palace  (with a tour guide - though probably in Spanish)

Cost
24 Euros for adults, 16 Euros for children

Dates
May: 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th, 20th, 21st, 27th and 28th
June: 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 24th and 25th

Timetable
Departs Atocha: 10.05 | Arrives Aranjuez: 10.55
Leaves Aranjuez: 6.00 p.m. | Arrives Atocha: 6.50 p.m.

Full Details can be found on the Tren de la Fresa site.

My Madrid - Marina Diez

For this feature of My Madrid I have invited another Madrileño (well, Madrileña actually!) to answer some questions on the things they like about Madrid. Marina Diez was born in, and still lives in, Madrid - at the moment she lives just south of the Retiro park near Mariano de Cavia. She married an Englishman, Ben, who "works as a translator, web designer and writer" and works as a consultant for an IT company - she is currently working on a project for a Satelitte control center.

In her spare time she works with Ben on the very popular (and very good) Notes from Spain website, which features podcasts and blog articles about Madrid and Spain. Marina is actually in charge of the Cuisine from Spain podcast on the site. If you haven't listened to their podcasts yet, take some time to listen to them - they're well worth it!

What is your favourite bar/café? At this time of the year (May) the best are the terrazas, specially the ones in the Retiro park and La Latina.
What is your favourite dish? I wish it was cocido, which is one of specialities from Madrid but it’s
not. It’s tortilla de patata and fabada (bean stew).
What are your favourite tapas? Tortilla de patata, ham, croquetas, broken eggs, prawns, empanadillas, pimientos del pardon…everything except pigs' ear!
What is your favourite restaurant? I like a very simple Asturian restaurant called Casa Hortensia on c/ Farmacia nº 2.
What is your favourite shop? I like the food market behind the Plaza Mayor, it’s called the Mercado de San Miguel, and is worth the visit.
What is your favourite season? Spring, though autumn is said to be the best in Madrid.
What is your favourite barrio? La Latina and the Retiro area.
What is your favourite building? The Italian Embassy in c/Velazquez, as a child I always said to my
father that that is where I’d like to live.
A perfect 'night out' in Madrid would … start with some tapas, but in the Spanish way, one drink and one tapa in each place and visiting at least 4 or 5 places. Followed by a drink in a terraza in La Latina with a nice view of the old buildings and churches.

San Isidro Festival 2006 in Madrid

This week sees the start of Madrid's famous San Isidro festival. I will be writing a report about it in the next day or so but in the interim I would like to point you in the direction of these two websites, where full details of events and activities can be found:

San Isidro Festival (EsMadrid)
San Isidro Festival (Munimadrid)