Spain: Sightseeing in Madrid

Spain was always on my bucket list of travel places to visit. However when I dreamed of Spain my thoughts leaned towards the Seville and Barcelona. I thought Madrid would be my least favorite part of my recent trip there but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the sights and food.

We started off our most recent visit checking into the modern style Hotel Regina (see room above). The hotel was affordable and in walking distance to most areas of interest – including Puerta del Sol where we saw these ladies below trying to work the crowd.

We also saw elmo and others but could only deal with so many poorly made character costumes so we headed over to Plaza Mayor where we saw this really weird goat thing.

Bubble fun…..

Interesting frescos in plaza.

Later on in the evening we happened upon a used book store.

And a store all about SHUTTING YOUR MOUTH.

Puerta del Sol was much nicer in the evening. Many people gathering around socializing. Madrid is a very social city.

Walking back to our hotel.

The next day we set out for the Royal Palace.

Official designs of the royal palace.

After we visited the palaces we stopped for tapas. Olives and sardines are a staple of tapas cusine.

We also had some chicken and tripe soup.

And Churros con chocolate

If you wander around the city enough you will happen upon small markets like this one. I liked the war machines made out of bullets.

There was also a great supply of Greek sweets.

And some fur accessories if you need them.

Nice fountain near the market.

Some beautiful night views of Madrid.

And back to our hotel to bed.

If you want to experience more of the food night life of Madrid, visit the past posts of Mercado de San Miguel and Tapas in Calle Cava Baja.

Beyond BBQ – Downtown Memphis Day 1

The corporate headquarters for my corporation is located outside of Memphis. I have visited there a time or two. During my last few visits I never ventured out of the suburbs. During my recent trip I had the majority of my evenings free so I was able to explore more of Memphis. I feel lucky that I got to visit during the month of May. I belive that is the time of the year when Memphis is at its best. The weather is awesome and there is so much to do (if you get past the allergens).
I came in a day early for my trip so I could take part in the Beale Street Music Festival.

I started my downtown experience by dining at the famous Arcade Restaurant. History states that it was a favorite dining spot for Elvis Presley when he was alive. I took reviewers advice and ordered the sweet potato pancakes. While it was true that they were good I think I would have enjoyed them more if they were whole grain. I have taken a liking to whole grain pancakes so white flour pancakes taste too much like dessert for breakfast to me now.

I easily found downtown parking for $10 a day and walked down to the festival gate near Beale Street. I visited on a Sunday about an hour after the gates opened. There were no lines to get in but it was hot.

Photo credit: Taken from beale street music festival facebook page.

I decided to start at the Blues Tent close to the entrance to enjoy the shade for a while. The first act of the day was Dr. Herman Green. Herman is a spectacular saxophone player who still plays great at the age of 83. He has played with many notable blues legends but typically will do a set with the jam band FreeWorld at these festivals. Unfortunately they scheduled Herman Green and FreeWorld to perform at the same time this year. After enjoying Dr. Green for about 20 minutes, I wandered over to another tent to see the end of the set of FreeWorld.
FreeWorld is a fun jam band with a loyal following. They did some covers but even their originals were easily recognizable by the audience. I joined the energy at that stage and finished the set with them.
After they were finished I walked over to the stage where the Dandy Warhols were going to perform and caught the last few minutes of the energetic Latin band Los Rabanes. I can’t believe I have never heard of this ska-rock band. They had me dancing over to their stage with their version of “Electric Avenue”. They performed a few more covers and original songs with intense energy that made you feel foolish if you were in the crowd standing around. They were truly a fun band to watch.
While waiting for the next act I found a beer tent that had beers close to craft-beer like (since the event was sponsored by Bud). I picked up a Goose Island Urban Wheat Ale (Goose Island sits on the fence of big beer and craft beer anymore) and headed back to the stage to get a good spot for the Dandy Warhols. This was my first time seeing them live but I have enjoyed some of their tunes for a few years now. I was excited to hear their higher energy tunes when they were played; sadly the crowd was not. I suppose many in the crowd have never heard of them. The Dandy Warhol’s played a great set but it would have been just a bit better with a more excited crowd.
After Dandy Warhols I walked back over to the stage where Leftover Salmon was playing to catch their act. Leftover Salmon is a Colorado based jam-band that I have caught before at New Orleans Jazz Fest and other music festivals. They are fun to watch but I was getting hot standing around in the sun so I decided to leave the festival for the day. I took a re-entry ticket thinking maybe I would just hang out in a cool restaurant for a while and come back; but I was tired and I had to work the next day.

A couple of days later I headed back downtown to try to catch what I missed the first day.
However that evening I wanted to try to get dinner closer to my hotel. I stopped at the Hog & Hominy and enjoyed one of their delicious cocktails and pizzas.

I ordered the Bebop and Rocksteady – the pizza with sopressata and clams. I was curious because I have never tried clams on a pizza before. The whole flavor of the pizza was delicious, especially the sopressata, but the clams were chewier than I like.
After I finished my dinner it was off to bed early to make sure I got a good night’s sleep before work the next morning.

Madrid Tapas stroll on Calle Cava Baja

Previously I have talked about my food experiences at the Mercado de San Miguel. It is tough to top the food choices at the mercado but we were determined to find more good food.
For a tapas crawl experience, our guide book recommended we visit the restaurants of Calle Cava Baja in Madrid.
We started in the early evening down the street whereas most locals do not go out until after 9. We were able to try some places out before they got crowded. We made our way down the street and sampled as much food and beverages as we could for the night.

It happened to be St Patrick’s day. I caught this festive guy on a cell phone break.

This place was packed everytime we walked by.

Albóndigas (meatballs and sauce) served with potatoes.

This was pretty good and I while I am still not 100% sure what it is, the waitress called them little fish.

We spent some time sitting at the bar at La Perejila. They have some nice vermouth and great tapas.

Love me some Spanish vermut!!!

Pate

More fishies…

This place wasn’t on Calle Cava Baja but was quite busy and recommended in the guidebook.

The night proved to be a success. I advise anyone who can to visit Madrid and do a tapas crawl. Your mouth will not regret it!

India: New Delhi & Noida Part 2

Since we didn’t get to see much of New Delhi on our previous day trip (See India: New Delhi & Noida Part 1) we arranged with our hotel to have a car for the day to take us from sight from sight. It was a rip off at $80 but we felt like we didn’t have much choice since our hotel was far from the city center and there is a lack of public transportation. Note if you do stay in the city center I have learned you can be taken around to all the tourist sites for as little as $20 a day.
We started early and the fog was still thick. Our first stop was to Humayun’s tomb.

Humayun’s tomb

We visited the tomb of the Mughal ruler Humayun. It was impressive but I was interested more in the smaller, older tomb nearby: The tomb of Isa Khan Niyazi (see picture above). The tomb had an erie feeling to it and kept luring me in.

Mosque next to the small tomb

Beautiful pathway around the smaller tomb.

Interesting looking structure we could see from walking the walls of the smaller tomb complex.

Stairs that just appear out of nowhere. Be careful!

And then we move on to the tomb.

It was here that we first encountered the “friendliness” of locals. An older man offered up many stories and took us around the tomb. We hadn’t asked for his help and really couldn’t understand much of what he said but he had his hand out for a tip. It is something you need to get used to in India. Either politely say no to people when they offer their help or expect to tip. You will be tipping all the time in India. I think there was only a couple times I was able to go to the bathroom without tipping.

After the tomb we had a quick stop at the Lotus temple. The Baha’i House of Worship of the Baha’is of India is more commonly known as the Lotus temple.

Lotus Temple

It is a place of peace and you can tell when you enter. Like many other temples, no shoes are allowed.

Next stop on the tour was Qutab Minar.

Qutab Minar

This tall stone tower was built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din Aibak and sits next to the first mosque to be built in India.

Carvings and verses from the Qur’an.

Wall scriptures in different lanuages.

Alai Minar

Another tower was built but never finished.

Part of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque

Our driver dropped us off for lunch at Pindi. One other thing about India is that typically your driver will just drop you off at a lunch place of his choosing. Mostly because you don’t really know where you are and if you did have place in mind, you wouldn’t know how to get there. Plus the “yelp” of India isn’t really that helpful to tourists. Fortunately this place was good. I ordered butter chicken and wow was it filling.

After lunch we got caught up in the first of the shopping emporium time suck. Partially my fault because I told hill I wanted to go back to the Dilli Haat to shop a bit since it was closed on my last visit. He takes us to the Dilli Hut (even though he knows what I meant), I get upset but he insists it is good quality stuff. We go in and product after product is put in front of us. I am anxious and annoyed and cannot shop when people are talking to me non-stop. It was here that I first discovered I am unable to shop in India. I am a slow shopper who needs time to digest my choices. I don’t even think I got anything at this place; I can’t remember for sure. This scenario repeats itself over and over again our entire India trip.

After losing 2 hours with shopping nonsense we arrive at the Jama Masjid mosque to find it has just closed for afternoon prayer and would no longer be open to non-Muslims for the day. Ok, kind of annoyed we lost that time shopping.

This is what we could see of the mosque.

Outside the mosque.

Last stop in New Delhi is the Red Fort. But guess what – it is closed as well. Because of the shopping time suck, we missed out on two attractions. The lesson here kids is to just say no to shopping.

We finished the day with a stop at the the Askshardhm Temple Complex near our hotel. Majestic at a distance, this new temple is like a Hindu Disney World. There is boat ride (which I think was closed while we were there) and a bunch of vedic exhibits. They spent a lot of money on this complex. I think there is a musical fountain (which was also closed while we there there). You know what wasn’t closed? The gift shop. Lots of interesting stuff in the shop. Lots of Ayurvedic vitamins and body products can be purchased there.
This is the best picture I could get of it. It was foggy the whole time and they don’t let any cameras or phones in the complex.

That concludes our last day in Delhi. The next day we were off to start our religious experience on the Ganges.

Touring Crete

As part of our honeymoon tour package we stopped at the greek island of Crete. Crete is a rather large island and our sightseeing was concentrated in the city of Heraklion. We only got to see a small part but Crete was much less island vacation like than the islands of Santorini and Mykonos. However there was still plenty to see in Crete.

Upon arrival to our hotel, they gave us a honeymoon gift.

We also had a pretty nice view from our room.

While in Crete, we visited the ancient palace of Knossos. Knossos is an ancient Minoan civilization that is one of the oldest in European lands. We wandered around the grounds with its very well planned rooms and halls. Some has been reconstructed to look as it once might have. Fresh frescos have been painted (some of the originals exist in a nearby museum.

Taking a break from sightseeing we stopped in some local cafes in Heraklion. The city has a bustling cafe life. Many young people spend their afternoons and evenings at outdoor cafes. They either slowly sip an ouzo on ice or enjoy fancy coffee drinks. We made sure to carve out some time to participate in this as well.

Morosini Fountain (Lion Fountain)

Later we visited the archaeological museum. Archaeological Museum of Herakleion contains a large collection of Minoan art and artifacts.

Museum visitation is exhausting. We took at break at a nice cafe. We ordered some snails and the restaurant was nice enough to give us a free dessert.