Madrid is there, and we stole the adjectives from the Pardo Bazan, bolder, reveler and curious than ever. Madrid you do not believe it. You would not believe the number of openings of restaurants, hotels, art galleries and shops. You don't believe the new silhouettes that are growing in the city.
You don't believe the energy fly over the atmosphere, Monday nights that seem like Saturdays, that Alex Katz is in the Thyssen, the Gildas that you are going to find in the bars of the bars, that it be such a people being so great and so great being such a people. Or do you believe it, because you already know this city.
The Madrid Edition, Madrid.
Try to concentrate in 48 hours everything you can do in Madrid It's nonsense but that is a territory in which we move well. Let's go for a walk through Madrid more than today, which is something that It comes from yesterday and goes to tomorrow.
48 HOURS IN MADRID. DAY 1.
Choosing accommodation in Madrid it was easy until five years ago. And boring. Now the decision is complicated. After the opening, in less than two years, of the Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Four Seasons, Rosewood Villa Magna Y The Madrid EDITION, the renewal of Saint Maurus and the consolidation of hotels such as ursus, both only you, Totem Y Cool Rooms Atocha we are left with a hotel-relevant city. It was time.
Of all of them it may be The Madrid EDITION the most unique. That is the one we are going to choose to sleep. Now we travel with intention: everything has its why. In this case, we sleep here because we want good memories and because find in the heart of Madrid, a hotel designed by Ian Schrager and designed by John Pawson it is something extraordinary. Here there is confusion and culture.
Terrace House du Soleil.
This hotel works as an urban resort: you can buy, in his Limited Edition store, a piece of Javier S. Medina or a fragrance of Coqui Coqui; also enjoy a treatment at the spa, so serene, or have a Mexican dinner at Jerome (that guacamole) with the seal of Enrique Olivera. The hotel knows how interesting it offers packs for whoever wants spend the day in your pool. some call him staycation and others enjoy the city itself.
what is this orgy hotel industry that Madrid is experiencing does not prevent us from seeing a reality: graceful small hotels are missing. House du Soleil, in Lavapiés, it is like that. We want more.
We already have a hotel, we already we have taken a hundred photos in the. Now we are going to start this Madrid route that seems intense. We do it from the beginning: specialty coffees dot the city. There the breakfasts dynamite that idea (with some justification) that in Madrid you don't have a good breakfast. Let's choose an area of the city to start the day and sit in one of them.
Alma Nomad Bakery, Madrid.
We give to choose: coffee in Count Duke, Osom, Natif either Golda, in Salesian and Drink Coffee, Caferama, Alma Nomad Bakery either Yard 7 in Chamberi. in them there is handmade pastries and curious and salty breakfasts that we must to enjoy no hurry. Just because we have a lot to do doesn't mean we don't. let's gloat in every moment.
The cities are known walking. Once awake, after coffee, we begin to do it. Let's go to Chamberí, that neighborhood that the locals want to keep that way, local, and they almost are getting. There we find spaces dedicated to crafts and contemporary design such as Done, fetish-like book and magazine stores Paperground.
Paperground, Madrid.
in Olavide, one of its cores, just opened book bar. Independent bookstores define the Madrid we want. This place occupies a bright corner next to Olavide and we don't know if it is more cafe or bar or more bookstore. The window seats invite you to steal a little while a day to finish a book. Have a long hours, book club and something to snack on. Independent bookstores define the Madrid we want. We can also dress up in Zubi, who is now 10 years old giving confidence to many women through clothing and accessories. The prettiest store in the area? Two years after opening, it may still be training, that cheese factory they go to Even those who don't like cheese.
Chamberí is entertaining, but it cannot mislead us from the sacred hour of the aperitif. We're gonna take it in Leaf, which is neither new nor missing what does it do to you In this tavern, opened in 1949 and in the one that cannot be reserved, they eat coquinas and prawns worthy of anywhere on the coast, but in one of the most beautiful streets of the city.
Indeed, Fernando Fernán-Gómez was an illustrious neighbor her. Write down the name: it is called General Álvarez de Castro and it has sidewalks with two rows of acacias. We like La Mina so much that we are going to prolong the appetizer and we are going to turn it into a meal. Madrid is also this: discard the new in favor of the old.
Infinity pool at The Madrid EDITION.
After lunch you have to rest. We propose to return to the hotel and take a bath in your pool, the infinity largest hotel from the city. That dip with views of the most authentic Madrid is part of this 48-hour marathon. Journeys require stops.
After the water break we are back again, ready to hit the streets. let's take a pre dinner cocktail savas, in Lavapies. If you expect a cocktail bar with low chairs and maroon tones, forget it: here the decoration is aseptic, like a white shirt, so that nothing distracts from what is important: the cocktails. its creators, Gintas and Dovi, a Lithuanian couple, have shaken the Madrid scene with a proposal full of charisma. There is only one danger: that we do not want to leave; that's why we'll go early, to savor well drinks and atmosphere
Bar Trafalgar, Madrid.
We say see you soon to Savas, because we will be back, and we go to the area where we will have dinner. We give two options. One is quiet: it is the club 67, a clandestine terrace of the Only You Boutique Hotel It requires a password to enter. If you follow the rules well, you will end up having sushi dinner in a secret environment overlooking the rooftops of Madrid. The other is not so much. Let's go to Trafalgar Bar, in Chamberi.
This is one of those places that They seem easy to find, but they are not. It has it all: stylish decor, good food and drink, and energy. Its owners, connoisseurs of good bars in Madrid, wanted a bar. A bar-bar. And here it is. To Trafalgar you come to drink and eat from one in the afternoon to dawn. Its drinks menu is huge and the food menu is enough to guarantee a rich dinner "There are no fashions here," Juan Tena, one of the partners, tells us. This is that bar that should exist in every city. We have it here.
Nobody here gets tired? Let's go back to the hotel and do it walking, crossing Gran Vía. There is no other city in the world that has such a powerful street.
Club 67, Only YOU Boutique Hotel, Madrid.
48 HOURS IN MADRID. DAY 2.
We start the day, again, walking. We are heading towards a new Madrid that is also a classic Madrid. We will tour the urban project of Spain Square that has changed the city for the better. The Royal Palace and the Sabatini Gardens they are now more accessible, friendly and green. Next year we will see here the Royal Collections Gallery, one of the great cultural projects of the city. We want cities like this, full of culture, vegetation and people strolling.
We keep moving and again we offer two posibilities for this morning.
The first leads us again to Salesas, a neighborhood that has the scale and tone perfect for going in and out of shops and cafes. We can have a second breakfast in the Tea Room at the little duchess and, of course, we will order the chocolate palm tree, that Madrid totem Guernica level.
Table with vegetation on the other side at Mudrá Plant Based, Madrid.
We can buy some piece of Spanish or Portuguese pottery in The official (we will let Toni, the creator of it, guide us), or perhaps we can get lost among the shelves of the new bookstore Antonio Machado. Or if we feel athletic, we can give ourselves a whim in Lamarca, a concept store dedicated to wellness which, although young, is already a street institution.
we'll get into Bourdais delivery note, the art gallery of the creators of only houses, because if they are behind this space, it deserves our attention. Without realizing it, it's time to eat. We crossed Castellana, that physical and mental border of Madrid and we are going to MUDRA Plant Based. This restaurant that comes from Argentina by the hand of matthew kenney to convince us, if we weren't, that food based on floors it can be tasty and entertaining. The decoration of Ailin Malimowka It is quiet: the atmosphere and the dishes are not.
Nuño García, from Clan Obrador, Madrid.
The second option takes us to south from the city. We're going to Arganzuela, that area that is not stepped on on the first trip to Madrid. but you should walk in the later ones. there we can buy one of the best breads and pastries of the city, because traveling now is also going to buy bread. It's in Clan Obrador and it's a project Nuno Garcia that, after gaining experience in Michelin star and gastronomic restaurants decided to open a neighborhood bakery that attracts Madrilenians from all postal codes.
In Arganzuela we also find bookstores like high tide, which, in addition to selling well-chosen books, publishes Italian literature titles. Long live independent bookstores like this one. In the south of Madrid you eat and drink well.
Let's make a stop to confirm it in The Raw, in Legazpi, a place heir to Blessed, the wine and vinyl store in the San Fernando Market. This space specializes in natural wines and in charisma. Or we can stop at an eating house like the ones from before, but now. Is named Bar Bardero and in it there are flavors from here and there, from yesterday and tomorrow.
The Cocktail Party, by Alex Katz (1965).
After lunch you have to keep walking. We already enjoyed the pool yesterday: today it's not time It is time to visit one of the many exhibitions and galleries that make Madrid an important cultural capital. We can opt for classics like Thyssen, in which you can see until September 11 a great retrospective of the forever grateful Alex Katz.
Or we can get closer to Museum of Decorative Arts, so interesting and calm. There you can visit the exhibition "The Modern Eager" that explores the furniture and interiors of Spain in the 1930s. There it can be confirmed that there was a bygone era when this country looked to the future with modern eyes. attention to the furniture from the Carrión building, from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Chicote chair.
Or we can do something out of route: go to Carabanchel, to VEIN. This is the name of the largest art gallery in Madrid (1,200 meters). Its programming is in charge of Ferdinand French and this guarantees that the walk is worthwhile. Every walk in Madrid is worth it.
We will go back to the hotel to change our clothes, because we are going to one of the most beautiful places of the city, the Hotel Santo Mauro, a place that makes us feel highly refined and Frenchified. There is classicism here, but not a hint of nostalgia. We can choose the Red Room or the Chinese, but if time allows it, which will allow it, we should opt for the garden, the jewel in the hotel's crown.
Garden of Santo Mauro, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Madrid.
Not every day you can have dinner surrounded by the landscaping of Fernando Valero In the heart of the city. We'll start with a cocktail and order the bromeliad , which is named after the exotic flower that will be on the terrace tables in summer. Dining there is casual (four plates and four wines, to put it easy) that, in addition, on Thursdays is seasoned with live music. This delicacy is also offered by Madrid. Don't tell too many people.
We don't feel like sleeping. We have strength. We will finish these two days in Madrid taking a pisco in Oroya, the Peruvian bar of The Madrid EDITION, led by Diego Munoz. We will enjoy it under that sky that is in so many pictures of the Prado Museum. Madrid you do not believe it. Believe it.