Return to Madrid

You'll be forgiven for thinking I had fallen off the face of the planet or something, not having posted anything since the New Year. 2012 has already been totally mad - and will continue to be until May at the earliest - and while I have often thought of blogging about something, there has always been a pressing deadline which has meant it was not to be.

Statue in honour of The Arts, erected by Queen Isabel II in the Plaza de Oriente

I am now in Spain - Madrid to be precise, having come from Granada on Thursday night where I was participating in a conference on Alhambrismo connected with the Owen Jones exhibition I co-curated, which closes at the Alhambra on 28 February and has received more or less 100,000 visitors! I am participating in another conference here in Madrid on Monday and Tuesday - this time on Islamic textiles - so preparing two conference papers and Powerpoints at the same time, on totally different subjects, neither of which I feel I am a specialist in, rather took it out of me before I came.

But I decided to take advantage of the few days in between the two conferences to revisit the city which was my home town for a year, back in 1999-2000, when I was based here for my research 'fieldwork' while working on my PhD. I have not come back to Madrid many times since then, and always too briefly alas, but I always feel quite emotional coming back, and it is always nice - and a little bit odd - knowing so well a city that you do not live in.

Today I just walked. I always used to do that when I was living here, to discover new neighbourhoods and soak up the feel of each place. I love urban walking. I am staying in the cheap and cheerful and appropriately named Hostal Dulcinea in Calle Cervantes (ha ha) in the 'Barrio de las Letras' (where all the streets are named after important Spanish writers), which is very close to where the department of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas where I was based used to be (about 10 years ago it moved miles out of the centre of town). So this is the area I used to wander around. The weather is also totally amazing - cold when the sun is not shining, but in the 20s C during the day! It feels like spring though the Spanish are worried as there has been no rain for months.

After a brief desayuno I followed old paths to the Plaza de Oriente and the Palacio Real, which is always an impressive view, especially in the sun, then down to the Plaza de España and stopped for a couple of hours at the Museo Cerralbo, the stunning house-museum constructed and decorated in the late 19th/early 20th century by an important Spanish noble family - so very indicative of elite taste for collecting and display at that era. I hadn't been there before but it was brilliant, and very well presented.

The impressive grand staircase at the Museo Cerralbo

The ballroom, with paintings by Juderías Caballero from 1891-2 on themes of dance throughout history

After a quick stop at the nearby Temple of Debod - given to the Spanish state by the Egyptians in the 1960s (!) - I walked down to the lovely Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, the little elegant 18th-century chapel decorated with a cycle of beautiful frescoes by Goya as well as the artist's resting place.

Next to it is famous Casa Mingo, an Asturian sidreria which specialises in amazing roast chicken! I was not the only one who had had the idea to have lunch there on a sunny Saturday and I had to queue for about half an hour for a table! I could have got a table quicker outside, in fact, but chose to stay inside for the full cacophonous experience of Casa Mingo when it's busy - fantastic!

The menu board at Casa Mingo framed by hundreds of bottles of sidra!

I couldn't finish my chicken and needed a walk afterwards so it was just as well I had planned to walk along the riverbanks of the Manzanares, which has very recently been totally landscaped with parks and playgrounds and interesting bridges and other activities, and again it was full of people out enjoying the weather. I don't think I ever came down to the river when I was living in Madrid - there was nothing here, certainly no walks to do. Now it is a real pleasure, which great vistas of the Madrid skyline on either side.


There are such regular bridges that I kept criss-crossing to get different views. The landscaping has also incorporated Madrid's two historic bridges into the parks - the Puente de Segovia built by Philip II, and the 18th-century Puente de Toledo, which is now totally pedestrianised.

The Puente de Segovia with Madrid Cathedral in the background (coincidentally, built on the site of the Great Mosque when Madrid was an Islamic town in the medieval period!)

I walked for about 3km (there are handy markers in the pavement), all the way along to the Puente de Toledo, then left the river and wound my way through the streets around Lavapiés and Atocha, to go and see the new extension at the Reina Sofia - I didn't go in but I can tell you that it was big and red and slightly unrealistic in that way that impressive modern structures sometimes are.

Then I headed to the Prado. I hadn't been there for years and considering I had already been walking all day, I wasn't sure how good an idea this was, but I wanted to see its not-so-new extension as well, revisit some paintings there, as well as go and see the 19th-century paintings that the extension has allowed them to display. I got there at 5.30 and was dismayed to discover an enormous queue - forming ready for the free entry that kicks off at 6pm. I got in ahead of the crowds with my ICOM card. The museum was already busy but a few minutes after 6 it was heaving! They had to close off the gallery where an early and accurate copy of the Gioconda by a student of Leonardo da Vinci has just gone on display after a major restoration project - I hadn't realised it is only up for a few weeks so that makes more sense of the total craziness of the crush of people that gathered round it, somewhat like the original in the Louvre, and then later on the gallery was totally closed off and you had to queue to get in to see it. Ironic, since at the Leonardo exhibition in London recently, no-one was at all interested in any of the works by Leonardo's students!

I left the Prado when it closed at 8, swept along in the crowd back to nearby Dulcinea to rest my feet for a little bit and check my email (Dulcinea has free wifi but the connection has been really weak the last few days and I haven't been able to get online recently - it is quite strong this evening so I decided to take advantage and have a blog!). I was thinking about going to eat at another old haunt - yesterday I went for cod fritters at Casa Labra just off Sol, and then for pimientos de padrón at Viña P in Plaza Santa Ana, both old favourites - but then I thought I would try something new: a little place I had passed last night on Calle Lope de Vega, that had a really nice look to it and reminded me of all the little places that have been opening up in Brixton.


This is La Mojigata and it was lovely - everything home made, all the bread and cakes home baked, all the ingredients responsibly sourced and ecológico, and what's more something different, fresh rather than the fried food that tapas often is. I had a sort of risotto made of whole rice with wild mushrooms, and a salad of red endives with strawberries and rocket - delicious!! And a really nice atmosphere - so this is a definite restaurant recommendation if you are coming to Madrid! But it is very small - it only seats 17 - so you made need to book to ensure you get a table!


So Madrid is the same but different - reassuringly familiar and happily still buzzing, despite 'la crisis' which is also on everyone's tongue. It always comes up in conversation, as does the fact that there are no jobs. There are more people sleeping in the streets or begging than there were before, many shops closed or closing down, people wandering around Puerta del Sol offering to buy gold. A lot of graffiti against the banks, and there was going to be a demonstration in Plaza Lavapiés this evening. But it's still great to be here and I plan to make the most of enjoying it for the next few days!