Mercado de San Miguel

I’m still feeling terrible, but I got out for a few minutes this afternoon and stopped by the Mercado de San Miguel. It’s a nineteen century cast iron open market that has been enclosed with huge sheets of glass to create a great interior space, and one which draws in both natives and tourists alike. They did a great job in maintaining the original architecture and making a now closed-in market feel like it’s original open air space. They sell all kinds of prepared foods as well as raw fish and vegetables. Madrilenos go there after work and on the weekends to eat and drink wine with friends.

Spain has a love affair with cured ham. There are shops all over town with hams hanging from the ceilings and people noshing on tapas made of either Serrano or Iberico very thin-sliced cured ham. It’s a lot like Italian prosciutto, but don’t tell Aunt Mary I said that. Hector took me to a place where they served small cups of warm juice from the hams; really. It must be an acquired taste ...

Lastly, Spain has great pastries. I had to snap another pastry shop window photo on the way home. It’s the window of my stand-up breakfast bar and it is constantly jammed with people. Since I have to start school at nine-thirty and this place doesn’t open until nine in the morning, I have to buy pastries the day before and take them home. The pay at this place must be abysmal, because the employees are completely devoid of personalities. And no, that’s not a typo; they don’t open until nine o’clock. This is not an early-to-rise kinda city. Suits me well ;-)

On the way back to the house, I saw an American style high-end RV coming down the road and my first thought was: Sarah Palin's in town barn-storming! I still have night sweats about her campaign trips through Florida. Maybe it's a publicity stunt on it's way to the Puerta del Sol and Tiny Fey is going to pop out and tell everybody how swell it is to be in Madrid. Then as it passed, I realized it was actually a tour bus. Whew.

I hope I feel better tomorrow and can venture outside of the immediate area. I want to go up to the new city, where they have skyscrapers and modern architecture, to see what that’s all about ...