I decided to cancel my online reservation I had made a few days at Botin, known as the world's oldest restaurant (and recognized in the Guiness Book of World Record as such). Got to thinking about how the restaurant got generally bad service reviews, was really expensive (I would have spent about $100 US dollars for just me), and the fact that I had to identify my country of origin when I made the reservation (possibly subjecting me to even crappier service), I decided to cancel it. I was planning to have their house special lunch: gazpacho and roast suckling pig -- which didn't really even sound good to me then. So, I decided to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe instead. Haha, what an American I am.
Made a long roundabout walk across town to get to HRC, and my timing was perfect -- I snatched up one of the few open tables just before 2pm, when a lot of people started showing up. For whatever reason the half a BBQ chicken sounded awesome to me (I would typically get ribs, or a burger) -- and it was. Along with 3 beers. And a cafe con leche afterwards since maybe just a litle of Europe has rubbed off on me :)
When I was through with HRC I was thinking of going to visit the Palacio Real, but decided not to. Headed back to the hotel and decided to formally complain about my room (the construction noise had been consistently starting early, lasting throughout the day) -- and in channeling my diplomatic but firm grown man-ness I succeeded in getting upgraded to a top floor (9th) room that was double the size and had a window view of the entire city. Sweet!
Got my stuff up to the new room and ultimately headed back out to go see the Templo de Debod. I had passed by it quite a few different times on my hop-on/hop-off bus excursions, and the one time I walked through that area it was closed. It was this time and I got to go inside what is an ancient Egyptian temple that was given to Spain as a gift from Egypt back in the 1960s/70s. It was two stories and had ancient hieroglyphics etched into many of the walls. Pretty cool -- I was excited for my trip for one reason for being able to see things hundreds of years old -- and I ended it with seeing a temple that was truly thousands of years old.
After the Temple I headed back to the hotel as I wanted to catch my last Iberian sunset from the rooftop terrace. I had the terrace to myself to ruminate over the fading light (note: sunsets in Madrid don't happen until after 9pm here in March/April).
I decided to make one final walkaround town and maybe stop in somewhere for a drink and maybe a tapa or two. Ended up checking out something else on my to-do list -- a Museo de Jamon. They are all around the touristy areas, but filled with both locals and tourists as the food and drinks are pretty cheap, and allegedly good. One part is an actual butcher shop, another part is a huge walk-up bar/counter where you order food and drinks and eat there, and then there's a separate dining area. The bar areas was packed so I decided to do a final sit-down meal. Went with their house special -- and had probably the grossest soup I've ever had in my life. Salmorejo, it was called. Didn't even know what it was when I ordered it, haha. I thought it might be some ham tapa thing -- I was presented with a bowl of pink thick soup that had chunks of ham in the middle, and was dotted with olive oil in spots around the diced up ham chunks. The color and consistency reminded me of that picture/video of what McDonald's Chicken McNuggets are made from -- that pink chicken soft-serve like puree of muscle bits and connective tissues. So, I go to take a spoonful bite -- and it is COLD. Like it just came out of the refrigerator. And it tasted like -- pureed ham. Like what a ham milkshake might taste like. It was disgusting.
Second course was pollo al horno -- not sure why I wanted chicken again, but it sounded the best out of the special options. And that was actually good. But haha, when the waiter took the soup away he asked if I didn't like it with a smile, and I confirmed (in Spanish -- final meal biz was all en espanol there).
I had two beers with my bill and when I got la cuenta, I saw I was only charged for one. That was nice. Both my first meal in Madrid and the last had a comped drink.
Headed back out and through Puerta del Sol/Vodaphone Sol/Sol and ultimately back to the hotel. Got aggressively propositioned by a prostitute on the way back lol -- that was a first here in Madrid. Headed back up to the room and got to the business of sorting out my luggage situation, as I had a morning flight out of Madrid the next day. Finished out a few more beers and didn't get as far with packing as I had planned, as I crashed out on the nice king-sized bed. Buenas noches to me.
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