Paella

Yes, you heard right: Paella!

That very Valencian of dishes can be had in Madrid and whats more its, actually, depending on where you go, truly authentic!

Madrid is fortunate in that its restaurants are not restricted to simply Madrileño cooking and in fact almost any regional style can be found. Whilst off the beaten path a bit, and in cases down some of the smaller streets in the center of Madrid, these establishments give the visitor the chance to have Spain come to them rather than having to trek around the whole country! Now what excuse do you have not to try something a little different?

Don’t worry, we’ll start off with the internationally acclaimed and well known Paella before going onto some of the more stomach churning dishes!

More on:

• How to prepare Paella
• Variations
• Paella in Madrid

Can be found here in our photo and guide to Paella in Madrid

Tuck in!

Real Madrid Jerez – Away fans make the day!

Real Madrid Jerez is hardly a fixture to get the pulse racing but theres more to this match than a simple La Liga fixture. Jerez have finally clawed their way into the top flight of Spanish football for the first time in their history and the trip to Real Madrids Santiago Bernabeu was something the people of this Andalucian town were not going to miss!

One has to understand two things about Spanish football to see why this match was different to other fixtures. Namely that:
- Real Madrid are considered to be a national institution and tourist attraction in their own right.
- Away fans in Spains La Liga frequently number less than a hundred. Even for matches between teams just an hours travel away.
The upshot of these factors, combined with the match been Xerezs first visit to the Bernabeu as an equal, was a fleet of coaches carrying around 3,000 travelling Jerez fans leaving Jerez early on the saturday morning for the 8 hour trip to Madrid.

Away fans in the Santiago Bernabeu are always allocated the 4th tier at the northern end (Fondo Norte) of the Bernabeu accessed via Torre D and are normally seperated from home fans by a movable police cordon. The view of the pitch itself is marginally interupted by a net designed to prevent missiles being thrown but this doesn’t detract from the view. There are even gas heaters in the roof of the stadium for those cold mid winter games! Pre match the residential area just behind the northern end of the stadium offers a large number of bars for pre match “refreshments” and places to purchase the ever popular “bocadillos” (half a baguette stuffed with anything from deep fried squid rings to pork belly slices and tomatoes) for half time.

Whilst the tickets we had for the match were for the Real Madrid part of the ground a few words with the police saw us let into the Xerez part of the ground and what a good move that proved to be. Its a curious fact that with multi million Euro players on show and one of the best football stadiums in Europe the atmosphere created by Real Madrid fans is generally flat. A couple of those irritating blow horns / truppets are about the sum total of 75,000 peoples contirbution to an afternoons football. The atmosphere created by the 3,000 Xerez fans was however the complete opposite. What else would one expect from people treating the game as their “cup final” and after having spent 8 hours on coaches partaking of varying quantities of “liquid refreshment”!

Whilst the match itself was a flattering 5-0 to Madrid Xerez were “in the game” for the first hour trailing to a single Cristiano Ronaldo goal. After the hour mark the difference between a recently promoted team and a 9 times European champion club showed with a fine display of clinical finishing and fast counter attacking from the Madrid midfield and forwards. One must say however that the result was not why the Xerez fans were there. It was more of a symbolic statement of 90 minutes of non stop singing, chanting and clapping to say “We’ve arrived”! Drowning out the little noise made by the real Madrid fans the Xerez supporters certainly did so in style!

If you are looking to take in a Real Madrid match whilst visiting the city check out our guide to purchasing Real Madrid tickets direct from the club.

English readings and Literature

During the long winter months the International Institue Library in Madrid organise a series of free English storytellings and readings which anyone is welcome to attend. Meeting once a month these literature celebratuions offer the chance for ex pats and visitors alike to interact with and explain to Spaniards their take on the texts being read aloud. There is even a dedicated kids session which allows the younger ones to start understanding cultural differences at a young age in a positive light.

For more information and to confirm precise timings the following offers directions and contact information click here…

Lack of updates?

Admitedly we haven’t updated the blog for three weeks now but thats due to a great reason. We’ve been out and about in and around Madrid researching new articles for the blog and the main site! In the next few weeks visitors can look forward to articles on visits to:
- The valley of the fallen
- El escorial
- Toledo
and
- Segovia

As well as a review of the football in Madrid which saw staff take in games between
- Real Madrid and Jerez (Xerez)
- Real Madrid and Marseille in the Champions League
- Atletico Madrid vs Almeria
and
- Atletico Madrid finally winning a match against Zaragoza

A busy couple of weeks I think you’ll agree but we believe that something isn’t worth recomending unless we’ve gone out and done it!