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Guadalix de la Sierra
Blair, Aedan and I had a fabulous weekend in Guadalix de la Sierra, a small town outside of Madrid, where my Spanish sister, Silvia, and her family own a weekend home (chalet). We rode the bus from Plaza del Castilla to Guadalix on Saturday morning. It only took about an hour to get there by bus, but Silvia said it only takes 30 minutes by car. We ate and ate and ate some more!
Eduardo, Silvia's husband, had bought all of the ingredients to make a seafood paella espanola, so he and Blair got to work almost the minute we arrived. Blair's not crazy about seafood, so I'm surprised he handled it as well as he did. Squid, tiny crabs, mussels and all! The paella was delicious, and Silvia served gazpacho beforehand. She makes hers different than Mari's, but it was also good. I think I'm finally developing a taste for gazpacho! In the afternoon, we traveled down to the village, which is very small. The church is beautiful, and it has become a nesting place for at least a dozen, maybe more, storks! Their nests are huge. Afterward, we had a cold beer in la plaza, and Eduardo bought a vat of whipped cream for the waffles Blair planned to make on Sunday morning. We got home late, and Silvia made a tortilla espanola, also different from Mari's technique, but equally as delicious. We didn't eat until midnight! I guess we're finally on Spanish time.
Sunday morning, we slept in late (10 o'clock), and Blair got up to make the waffles. In San Antonio, he uses a Belgian waffle iron. Silvia just had an electric grill that they use to make grilled ham and cheese sandwhiches here. Luckily, it worked. The waffles, called gofres here, looked like cushions, cojenes, so we started calling them Blair's cojenes. Silvia said that it was very not to substitute an "o" for the first "e," otherwise the word changes completely. After a late breakfast, we drove over to Miraflores, another small village close to Guadalix. A lot of Madrilenos have homes outside of the city to escape the heat and the crush of people. Miraflores is very picturesque, since the residents have decorated their houses with window boxes full of geraniums.
When we got back to Guadalix, Silvia started making "la comida," lunch, a roasted chicken that sat in a bed of potatoes and onions. It was delicious. Blair said it was the best thing we've had to eat since we arrived, and I have to agree. While lunch was cooking, Aedan and Carmen, Silvia and Eduardo's daughter, played Monopoly. Instead of NYC's street names, the board featured Madrid's streets. Fun! After cleaning up, we headed for Madrid. Silvia dropped us off at our apartment, and then she and I walked over to a shop on Fernando de Los Rios that sells beads. She and her sisters are really into making jewelry, but she said she was having trouble finding stuff to work with in Madrid. (Her sister, Mary Carmen, who lives in New Jersey, brings stuff to her.) She was pleased to find out about the shop. Afterward, we went to look for "Woody's," a bar that we used to hang out in the year I lived her. It isn't far off of Cea Bermudez on the street Andres Mellado. Unfortunately, it's a pizza/pasta place now, but I looked in the window and could see the same seats that we used to spend many a night. Silvia and I walked back to my apartment but decided to duck into a corner bar for one last despedida. She had a half beer, half limon (Schwepp's limon, sort of like lemonade) drink, and I had a vino tinto (red wine). The bartender put out a plate of green olives. Bliss. I burst into tears when we got back to Silvia's car. It'd been too long since we'd seen each other, and I guess I'm worried about when we'll see each other next. It's too bad we live so far from each other, because we are muy amiga.
To backstep a little, the Friday after our hectic Thursday was pretty low-key. On Thursday, we spent a good four hours at The Prado, took the metro over to the classical guitar concert, which was good but not great, then took the metro again over to the paella restaurant. (Good, but expensive. I tasted my first black paella. It's made with the "tinto" de calamares, the ink of squid. Sounds gross, I know, but it tasted pretty darn good.) We didn't get home until after midnight. On Friday afternoon, Cristina invited Aedan to go swimming at a nearby public pool. Mari and I went with them, and it was a nice place. We walked there from our apartment through the Parque de Oeste. We went over the River Manzanares, and Mari taught us a cute song, which I wish I could remember. It went something like "Rio Manzanares, dejame pasar, yo tengo una moreno, yo quiero visitar." (River Manzanares, let me pass. I have a dark-haired beauty, I want to visit.)
Yesterday, Monday, we spent all morning until 3 p.m. at school. My students are getting their papers turned in, which makes me happy. I'm going to post them to the web when I return. Yesterday afternoon, it was scorching hot, so we waited until 7 p.m. to hit the streets. We tried to go up to the "Faro de Madrid," Madrid's "Tower of the Americas" sort of, but it was closed on Monday. We're going to go up it today before our farewell picnic in El Parque de Oeste. From McDonald's (yet another 2 Euro meal for Aedan), we took the metro down to La Puerta del Sol. We went into El Corte Ingles to buy Aedan a CD of her favorite Spanish band, 3 mas 2 (three girls and two boys). We've seen them again and again on the Cola Cao commercial, so we decided to check out their CD. We also went shopping for a t-shirt for Steve, our neighbor, who's taking care of Windy, our dog. From there, we got a picnic para llevar at El Museo de Jamon and went over to eat on the street in front of San Gines Chocolateria, the place we're going to miss the most. When we went to pay, I told the guy it was our last visit this trip, and he handed me our money back. What a nice surprise!
Tomorrow, our train to Paris leaves from Chamartin station at 7 p.m. I've been on the verge of tears for days. I'm sure going to miss Madrid. |