Where to take visitors when visiting

Having just entered into the last month of my placement, and therefore my last month in Madrid (time goes incredibly fast), I thought that this would be a fantastic opportunity to write a brief article with relation to what do do when you have visitors, in the form of family or friends in Madrid, in my case. First and foremost, when someone asks you 'What is there to do in Madrid?', that question is so drastically vast, and furthermore, it is simply impossible to answer such a broad question in just one or two sentences, so I will attempt to address the subject as best I can in this article. 

What I would also like to add, is that planning your week(end) heavily depends on what type of people are visiting you. For instance, if my group of boys came to visit me for a long weekend, the itinerary that I would plan would be incredibly different from that of if my parents and/or grandparents came to visit me, which in fact, has happened only recently. Evidently, the two aofrementioned groups differ in age, but they share, more or less, the same cultural interests in the form of museums, art galleries, food markets and walking tours, to name a few. 

During the weekend with my parents, we were very lucky because it was literally the last days of summer. In mid Ocotber, 'El Retiro' park in central Madrid was basking in 25 degree sunshine, and it was nothing short of fantastic. It reminded me of being back on summer holidays. As well as the  beautiful sunshine we experienced, we also took advantage of the wonderful and culturally diverse food that Madrid has to offer.

Over a Friday to Sunday stint, we ate in some of Madrid's finest restaurants, experiencing some of their finest cuisine, of which I will list below with a brief description and rating: 

• Friday Lunch - Méson Txistu (Chamartín) - a quintissentially Spanish restaurant with a fun, vibrant atmosphere. I'm also told it is where a lot of the footballers go, due to its close proximity to the 'Santiago Bernabéu'. Highly recommend if you want a traditional culinary experience of Spain. 8/10.

• Friday Dinner - Quenco de Pepa (Chamartín) - a modern European restaurant located in fairly close proximity to 'Méson Txistu' offering a relaxed vibe, perfect for a quiet family dinner filled ith good food and wine. I will add though, that these type of restaurants are not cheap, so be mindful of this. Great service too. 8.5/10.

• Saturday Lunch - on this particular occaision, we were too late to our lunch reservation, hence we didn't make it, but we found a lovely small brunch place called 'Pum Pum café', a very small yet vibrant café with good food and more importantly well priced and good value for money. 7/10 (9 for value).

• Saturday Dinner - Ten con Ten - now this restaurant was a different kettle of fish all together. Also offering a modern European cuisine, the food here was simply outstanding, but I must reiterate that this was an expensive meal. It had a cool, lively  and young vibe (although my parents are 55 and 52 and they loved it). A very trendy place to be seen, one would say, with a very large central bar, prior to entering the main dining room. Great service too. 9/10

• Sunday Lunch - Cafe Quintín - a deceptivly small, but very spacious looking traditional restaurant. It strikes me as the type of restaurant for any occaision (Friday night or Sunday lunch etc). Again, not the cheapest of food, but one doesn't mind paying for an extremely high quality of food.

So that is it with our culinary adventures in Madrid, but one concluding statement I would like to make, is that both the bread, vegetables and olives in Madrid, and probably throughout most regions of Spain,  are simply unbelievable. Being from London, I am used to good quality produce, but given the fact that the produce is grown fresh and locally, you can really differentiate between fresh and something 'less fresh', that you as a consumer are likely to receive more often than not. 

In terms of places to visit, I come from a very culture loving background, yet it seemed to have skipped a generation as I do not share the same love for museums as my family seem to. I had no choice. Saturday morning saw a visit to the 'Reina Sofia' whereby we were assisted by a tour guide in both Spanish and English, along with a group of about 15 people. I must admit, it wasn't as bad as I once feare, but I could have done more interesting things (in my opinion) with our limited time. 

Most of Friday however, was spent browsing the streets of Madrid's finest shopping, most notably in Serrano, which is a bit like the Oxford Street of London, if you will. This type of activity is much more up my street, especially when we were shopping for a birthday present for myself. Don't forget, also, that when you have visitors, you do an obscene amount of walking throughout the weekend, so any time that wasn't spent eating or shopping was spent in bed, reciovering and recuperating until the next inevitably large meal.

There is of course, for the sporting fanatics (me) amongst us, Real and Athletico Madrid. However, obviously there is no guarantee that there will be a home game that coincindes with a visitors arrival, but also tickets for these types of events can be extremely pricey. With that in mind, I would recommend a trip to the 'Estadio de Vallecas', a neighbourhood in Madrid, but also the home of Rayo Vallecano. Whilst the quality of the football will definitely not be as good as Real or Athletico, it is sure to provide you with some cheap tickets, beer and good entertainment, at least.

I hope you have enjoyed my latest post on tips for when you have visitors. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

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