Tips for a Madrid visit

When my spouse, Isolde, and I visited Spain in May ’08, the AeroCity shuttle (phone +234 91 747 75 70, www.aerocity.com), at €21 (near $28) for two persons, was a convenient way to get from the airport to our accommodations.

We stayed at Hotel Europa (Calle del Carmen 4, 28013 Madrid; phone +34 915 212 900, www.hoteleuropa.net), located just off Puerta del Sol, and paid €100 ($132) for a superior double room. We were very pleased with the modern, clean room and the accommodating staff. The adjacent hotel café was a plus for both breakfasts and people-watching. From the hotel, it was easy to walk to all of the sights we planned to see.

The only downside to the hotel was (despite their apparently modern, noise-attenuating windows) the pervasive sound of street musicians in the pedestrian zone — music played loud and long into the night. If we stay at Hotel Europa again we would request a room away from the nightly entertainment.

Our primary mission in Madrid was to have adequate time to enjoy three museums: Museo Nacional del Prado, Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. We scheduled a full day for each. The Abono Paseo del Arte pass, available for €14.40 at any of these museums, admits you once to each of the three museums for one year from date of purchase.

The Prado café, located adjacent to the museum shop on the basement floor of the Prado, was both good and economical.

A recent expansion of the Prado is accessible via an underground passage near the Prado café/museum shop and then up a couple of flights of escalators. The new construction is in an area that was formerly a cloister. They took the cloister apart and reconstructed it within the top floors of a modern building and it is now home to a sculpture collection. The expansion is particularly impressive when one considers how it was designed. Be sure to check out the view from outside the Prado.

Only about 100 meters away from Hotel Europa is an El Corte Inglés department store, the basement of which houses a full supermarket providing a great selection of meats, cheeses, wine, etc. — all one needs to supply a delicious hotel room picnic. Their gourmet section was also a source for saffron (the larger portions of which are kept under lock and key).

Near to Puerta del Sol is a traditional place to try hot chocolate and churros: the San Ginés Chocolateria.

Only a short walk away was Plaza Santa Ana, a fine area to wander through, with numerous shops and bars and lots of outdoor seating. We found Mesón Cinco Jotas (a Spanish chain restaurant that features home-cured ham) at the northwest corner of the plaza. With its sidewalk café setting, it was particularly appealing.

For us, however, the epicurean high point of our visit in Madrid was an excellent seafood lunch at Sirena Verde (Gran Via 62; phone 915 473 910 or visit [in Spanish] www.accua.com/sirenaverde). (Entrées run from €14 for grilled salmon to €85 for a one-pound lobster; a mixed seafood platter for two costs €40.)

BOB LATA

Paso Robles, CA