People in Spain love ham! Yesterday we ate ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and somehow ended up eating ham and cheese croissants for breakfast. Madrid even has a chain of ham stores here called “Museo de Jamón” or Museum of Ham. Dried pork legs hang on the walls in all the delis.
Today we went on an organized group tour of the Holy City of Toledo. It was amazing to walk around a city built in 200 BC! I wish we could have spent more time in Toledo. My favorite part was seeing the El Greco masterpiece – The Burial of Count Orgaz.
On our walk back to Puerta del Sol from the Plaza Espagne, we ate mystery items at a beer and tapas joint. It was super fun to see what actually arrived at our table. I found out that I really like a dish called Fideuà . It’s like seafood paella, but it’s pasta instead of rice. We also found an amazing leather bag store called Salvatore Bacchallio or something similar. We wanted to buy everything in there but decided to leave and just think about it.
Then we found a theater showing the live musical Spamalot (Monty Python) in Spanish and impulsively bought two tickets in the theater’s best section for tonight’s show. And of course, I then had to go shopping for a hot Spanish outfit, so I will have something appropriate to wear tonight. I bought a crazy purple taffeta dress and ruffly sparkle vest to wear over my black jeans and boots, with gold jewelry. Clinton says I look like a Spanish punk princess. Sweet!
Spaniards also eat dinner SUPER late. Can you believe the restaurants all open for dinner starting at 9 PM?! That is past my bedtime back home, but when in Rome…. I’m going to pry my eyeballs open tonight so I can eat dinner after the show just like real Madrid-ians. Probably will need more espresso to make this happen.
We’ll let you know how the our late, late night goes. Hasta luego, amigos!
