Romantic Madrid: a capital just for two
**PLANS TO EXERCISE LOVE (AND ITS SUBSTITUTES)**
1. Silently look at the seas of Sugimoto.
The exhibits are whisper-quiet and, hopefully and often, dimly lit. Plus, they're not like a visit to Ikea or the old-fashioned forays into video stores. In museums it is not discussed . The Art it always moves to a place outside of time and space, and what is love if not that? There are leisure decisions that can only consolidate a couple. The exhibition of the great Hiroshi Sugimoto on the Mapfre Foundation is one of them. Review four of his great projects: seascapes (his seas from him), portraits (historical photographs made in wax), Theaters (cinemas and drive-ins), dioramas (landscape photographs taken at the New York Museum of Natural History) and Lightning Fields (photos without camera) . Sugimoto's work is a continuous reflection on what the eye sees and what the mind reads, the possibilities of technique, and the eternity of the gaze. It sounds poetic. It is. Watching one of the seas of him with a loved one next to him is something that we should all do once in a lifetime.
Part of his Dioramas / Hiroshi Sugimoto
2.**Visit the Bunker del Capricho**
Visit a bunker as a couple. How to say no to something like that. There is no one who improves that plan. The Capricho bunker has just opened to the public. Ah, El Capricho, another romantic place. This 18th century garden is one of the most beautiful corners of Madrid. It's not in the center it is not mediatic nor does it have trendy restaurants , but it has something more important: pose and charm. The bunker was built in the Civil War by the republican army to defend against the bombs of the Francoist army during the siege of Madrid. It is excavated at 15 meters and has a capacity for 200 people . It's not your usual romantic setting (those are boring), but it's loaded with historical density and is a great conversation starter. And there is nothing that pushes intimacy more than conversation.
3. Cinema: dark room and big screen
There is little to write about cinema as romantic territory. We have learned almost everything in the cinema; For this reason, because we must never stop learning, we cannot stop going to the movies. The series on the laptop are something else (without which we could not live), but we owe our sentimental education to the dark room. We can choose an indoor cinema or an outdoor one . ** La Cineteca **, perhaps the most beautiful room in Madrid, non-fiction program and documentaries. how is it in the Slaughterhouse afterwards you can take a walk along the river to complete the romantic evening.
Another interesting room, due to its programming and how secluded it is, is the Círculo de Bellas Artes Cinema Studio. This month reviews the figure of the filmmaker and critic Jacques Rivette. The films he wrote reviews about will be screened in Cahiers du Cinema , What the eternal dream either Splendor in the Grass. Also some of his latest movies. Seeing Natalie Wood and Warren Beauty on a summer afternoon is a romantic plan. No one will dare to question it. Another more summery option is to watch a movie in the Cibeles Palace . The cycle is called ** Cibeles de Cine **; Under the dome, films such as The engaged princess (extremely romantic) or Kiki, love is made (also) .
The Cineteca of El Matadero, in Madrid
Four. music, musics
Love (and its surroundings) are with music or they are not. Music should be in the background, before or after any romantic moment . Live music unites more than (almost) any other experience. Madrid offers many concert options throughout the year. In summer, in addition, there is the added bonus of being under the stars, which usually contribute to creating an atmosphere. ** Botanical Nights ** add music to a spectacular setting. We only reproach him for only taking place during July.
Another unique space where you can listen to music in the open air is the Olivar de Castillejo. ** Las Noches del Olivar ** offers concerts of classical music and jazz until September 30. Another unusual place is Francisco Giner Foundation , where figures as mediatic as James Rhodes. In addition to these, the Price Circus , count Duke or venues like Clamores, Café Berlin or Galileo Galilei are still good musical references. If there is good music, there is a good plan.
The Nights of the Olive Grove
5. Chlorophyll and love
Visit the Botanical Garden It is a gift that all of us who live in Madrid should give ourselves from time to time. It is in the center, next to the Prado Museum and we usually pass by its side without entering. If we do we will be happy for a long time. This is a work space, a living garden in which plants, flowers, trees are studied. It is inexhaustible, one day we can go to the Plant Stove , another to see aromatic plants, another to read at the Los Tilos roundabout and another to explore the Bonsai Terrace . Or we can spend a whole day to go through it all. We can't think of a better place for a declaration of love. They would even be wonderful for a breakup statement because isn't heartbreak an important part of love?
Royal Botanical Garden
FOR SLEEPING
A hotel is one of the founding spaces of Romanticism. Here is a romantic selection, whatever that adjective is.
the newest
Discovering a place that no one else knows about is exciting, but discovering it for someone else is even more so. Totem It's only been open for a few days. Almost no one knows him now, so that sense of discovery is real. It is in the Barrio de Salamanca, in a bourgeois street; It is a good urban hotel, with exceptional interior design, with personality, one of those that there are so few in the city. The gray colors, the moldings on its walls, the serenity of its interiors and the black marble bathrooms are a good setting for a getaway. Soon it will open its restaurant and cocktail bar, in two spaces that will be the envy of Madrid. They bear the Fitzgeraldian name of beautiful and cursed . Rereading a few pages in the privacy of the room is a plan that will have to be tested.
The new hotel in the Barrio de Salamanca
the discreet
The AC Santo Mauro which belongs to the category of a-day-is-a-day. Each one chooses the reason, but surely we will find a reason to book in this great hotel, one of the most powerful in Madrid. It is very suitable if our love is clandestine , but it is equally justified if it is transparent. There are stairs here and movie theaters and rooms that some law should prevent leaving.
Classic love never fails
the unexpected
Here we do not recommend a hotel, but a book. A room with a view **(Enrique Recio) ** is a review of various hotel rooms that do not take into account their stars, but what is seen from them. Here there are pensions, hostels and hotels, but above all, there are windows that open on Madrid. This can be the roadmap of a night of kisses. It's not a recent book, but it's still inspiring . It's out of fashion, just like kissing.
TO EAT AND DRINK
Breakfast
There will be a time when we stop talking about how romantic the Garden Cafe , but that time has not yet come. We do not say it but the environment: it is part of the Museum of Romanticism. It's the place to go the morning after. The plants, the collected space, the silence prolong the feeling of intimacy. And if we notice a slight tension in the atmosphere, there is the press, which always encourages the conversation.
Garden Cafe
** Pre-lunch snack**
This praiseworthy custom serves us both at noon and before dinner. Or both times. The proposal is to do it in a hotel, hidden, surrounded by unknown people. Nothing like a hotel to make us feel, at the same time, embraced and anonymous . The Only You Boutique Hotel It has grown and become an even more interesting hotel. Lazaro Rosa Violan It has also been behind this expansion that has given the hotel its packaging. The common areas of this hotel, which is on the border of Chueca and Salesas, continue to be spectacular. In its Lounge YOUnique It works well for an aperitif-date: it's well-lit and the service is great. A hotel always has the virtue of turning you into a traveler and that benefits love.
Lunch
Amazonian, brand new and tropicalist It is for those couples who want to be where everyone is; for those who want to walk our love and, at the same time, be in an environment with good light, impeccable food and very lively. It is advisable to book because Amazónico is the latest adventure of the owners of Ten with Ten and Quintín who, we already know, draw crowds.
have with have
Dinner
Summit moment of every day with romantic aspirations because it gives way to the night. We will divide it into two: dinner and dinner and after dinner.
Sunset dinner included
Okay, there are a lot of people, but we are clear that it is the most powerful terrace in Madrid. We talk about the Roof of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. His restaurant ** Tartán Roof ** is one of the few places on Gran Vía (and on the heights of Madrid) where you eat really well. behind is Javier Munoz-Calero , with his good taste in the kitchen and in the spaces. If we go up at sunset time (now around 9.45 pm) we will add intensity to the dinner. Sitting in this unique restaurant, it is easy to lose sight of the visitors taking photos around you. In addition, if we have a reservation we will not need to queue up every day to go up.
Tartan Roof
post dinner
Japanese cocktail. We have agreed that discovering something to someone is an act of love. There are not many couples who drink Japanese cocktails together (outside of Japan). Ronin47 He prepares them with care and imagination. This restaurant is one of the last to arrive in the Jorge Juan area, resurrected and converted into a place to eat, drink and be. Forgive and love. The cocktails must be taken at the table for two by the window. Details are important.
And, if after all this there is still strength, it will be time to go to the Tony2, steal the microphone and dedicate a bolero.
Sea foie on Sauternes gelée lychee and mushrooms