Today, we woke up earlier, about 8AM, so that we could take a trip to Toledo. We took a train from La Puerta del Sol to la estación de Atocha Renfe. Atocha is a hub for railways that are leaving Madrid, versus the other stations that connect the many Metro Lines that travel within Madrid and its many sub-communities. Upon getting off the metro train, we attempted to find our way to the place where we could buy tickets to Toledo. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the right place, and missed the train by 10 minutes. The bad news, the next train wouldn’t be leaving until 12:20PM, the good news, at least we didn’t buy the tickets for the train we just missed; instead, they just stop selling tickets for trains that are bound to leave within a specific time frame. No worries though, we’ll just visit Toledo tomorrow.

Atocha Renfe Station

Having no other choice, we left Atocha to go to a famous local market, El Mercado Chamartin. The market was opened in 1962 and has a wonderful selection of fresh fruits, meats, fish, cheese, etc. We went through all the stalls, and noted that there were many shops that sold the same products, but that each had their own supplier and their “regular customers” that knew them by name. What was great, was that, one of the meat vendors was providing people samples. These samples were mini-hamburgers; the meat simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Honestly, it was some of the best hamburger beef I’ve eaten in a long time; very simply prepared but the quality of the beef itself gave the mini-burgers and explosion of great flavor.

Vegetable Vendor @ Chamartin Market

Fish Vendor @ Chamartin Market

Leaving the market, we headed back to La Puerta del Sol and found a restaurant called Rodilla. Rodilla is a restaurant that specializes in small sandwiches. You can get cold or hot sandwiches all of which have the crust cut off, so I knew a few friends that would love a restaurant that automatically cuts off the crust as if they were selling to five year olds We both ordered a combo that gives you the choice of two cold sandwich halves and 1 whole hot sandwich. My father chose Foie Gras and Serrano Ham as his cold sandwiches and Crepes as his hot sandwich. For me, I choose Tomatoes/Cheese and Anchoa (Anchovies) for my cold sandwiches and a hot Spanish ham & cheese sandwich.

After lunch, as we were walking around at La Puerta del Sol, my dad pointed to some guys who were selling merchandise out on the street. Due to the fact that this is illegal, they use a sheet with strings on each corner. When the police officers are approaching the area where they are transacting, they quickly pull the strings which make the sheet become a bag that holds the merchandise, and then they run away. A few minutes later and at a different location at La Puerta del Sol, they extend their sheet and continue to display their merchandise until the next police officer approaches. I guess they really practice mobile business strategies!!! What was funny is that I was looking at a watch, when you hear one of them say something to another; they all look to their left. All of a sudden, all of them pull the strings together; tuck the bags under their arms, like a running back in football, and literally start running away. A few seconds later, you see a few cops nearby. Luckily for one vendor he was very fleet footed, because he nearly was caught, but evaded capture by doing a few jukes.

Later in the day, we headed to Principe Pío to stroll through a mall. This mall was once a train station, but later converted to a mall featuring about 80 stores and about 15 restaurants spanning three floors. It was a great mall, but too bad we were told we couldn’t take photos of the mall; I guess due to security reasons. They were a little slow; we took one photo before being told we couldn’t take any more – that’ll show ‘em.

Principe Pío

Sandwiches from Rodilla

Now, we had noticed a Chinese restaurant right beside Lena, the restaurant we visited yesterday. Well, what the heck, why not try Chinese in Spain? Well we did, and it was great! Not sure what it is, but the meats were very tender; lending us to believe that the overall quality of the meat in Spain is very high, and that the preparation of the dishes were completed at the time of one’s order. Oh, and it was really cool to hear the waiters and managers speak Spanish. All my life, I’ve heard the Chinese accent when speaking English, but it was interesting to hear the accent now transplanted to Spanish. It is something that is very thought provoking. Come to think of it, a Spanish accent in English is not the same as a Spanish accent when speaking Chinese or Russian, so why wouldn’t it be the same here? I guess it’s because I’d never been exposed to the Chinese accent outside of the United States. Regardless, I see Spain as a great mix of cultures, you see a lot of people who either come from or have Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Moroccan, and Indian heritage. The world is certainly becoming smaller and smaller.

Filed under: Travel by Giancarlo Deleon