A touch of grandeur
With tapas bars and wonderful parks, exploring Madrid is a pleasure, writes Jo Fernandez
Madrid has barrios cloaked in grandeur, coolness, edginess – whatever you want, you can take your pick. Deciding where to stay depends on which elements you favour combined with your budget, but wherever you choose, you’ll never be far from some of the capital’s finest tapas bars.
In the remodelled and recently pedestrianised Plaza de España, at one end of Gran Via, you’ll find showy skyscrapers yet tourist-free neighbourhood tapas bars just a street away. To the western end, the 35-storey Torre de Madrid competes with the stepped red-brick facade of the Edificio España, which strangely resembles a Manhattan Art Deco landmark, on the Plaza de España.
Part of Franco’s flexing in the 1950s and 60s, this landmark has morphed from a shopping centre to apartments and offices and now houses the Hotel RIU Plaza España, one of the largest hotels in Madrid. And it’s a lot of hotel – 550 rooms in soft shades of duck egg blue and cream, multiple terraces and various bars for tapas with views and even a club. From these upper floors you can survey the sprawl of Madrid below until the dense centre merges with the countryside.
Like many great cities, central Madrid is blessed with swathes of greenery that create shade in the fiercest summer heat and dramatic detail in winter.
The revamped Plaza de España is home to gardens with fountains and olive trees, while a five minute walk away, the Sabatini Gardens, adjacent to the Royal Palace of Madrid, are beautiful in any season with paths set with benches backed by trees, cooling fountains and pools making it a lovely place to sit between sights. In all honesty, I much prefer such spaces to trawling museums. Here, symmetrical terraces set with sculptures are the ultimate in al fresco culture. My friend Zena and I whiled away an hour or so on our way to lunch.
Just past the gardens, you’ll find one of my favourite spots in the city – the glamorous Plaza de Santa Ana in the Barrio de Las Letras (Literary Quarter). Steeped in arts and culture, to one end there’s the Teatro Español, where a statue of Federico García Lorca holds a bird in his hands, to the other the ME Reina Sofia hotel presides over the square as if carved in thick white icing. We stop for the first of many lunches at Lateral, a restaurant chain with multiple branches around
Spain. Inside, the modern space is decorated in light wood and art by contemporary artists. Outside on the terrace we oohed and ahhed over the impeccable presentation on a menu that mixes classics such as tortilla and croquettes with internationallyinspired fusion-style pinchos such as smoked salmon filled with a creamy yet refreshing blend of mascarpone, apple and ham.
On our way back to the hotel, we stop at Ginger, around the corner on the Plaza del Ángel; a chic stepped-back-in-time space with herringbone parquet floors, mirrors and vividly coloured club chairs. Padrón peppers and Iberian ham croquettes tempt but seeing as the menu sweeps across the globe from Spain to South and Central America, we share guacamole with Mexican tortillas and a crunchy green salad of fresh sprouts, carrots, courgettes, Portobello mushrooms and radishes. Tapas can err on the beige side so this fresh and textured tapas ticks all the boxes.
Each morning we’d take our time over the hotel’s bountiful breakfast. Multiple stations allow guests to help themselves to pastries, eggs, yogurt,
fresh fruit, salami and olives. Then we’d plan which tapas bar to head to once hunger returned, on our way to each new place finding local sights worth seeing from the luscious Parque del Oeste, to the Debod Temple, relocated from Egypt to the Cuartel de la Montaña Park in Madrid in the 1960s, to the opening lines of Don Quixote written on the pavement of the Barrio de las Letras.
On our last night, as we returned from dinner, a trickle of people turned into a crowd lining the Gran Via in anticipation of the Spanish women’s football team returning from their World Cup win in Australia. We waited outside our hotel until we heard the bouncy Soca music announcing their arrival on an open-top bus. I like to think they ended the route with bountiful tapas to celebrate their success.
Plaza de España is home to gardens with fountains and olive trees
TUI offers three-nights at the RIU Plaza Espana for £461pp B&B including flights from Edinburgh bookable at Tui.co.uk. Hotel only options available. Jayride.com offers airport transfers in over 110 countries including Scotland; Edinburgh airport transfer from £57 one-way. easyjet flies from Edinburgh to Madrid, from £22.99 one way, www. easyjet.com