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Today I had a lazy morning before setting out at midday for my lunch date!
My destination was Sobrino de Botin, in the centre of the city. It is in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest restaurant, founded in 1725. It's also very popular. I'd gone on line to book it Friday night. The first available slot had been Monday night at 23:15 - far too late for me. Fortunately there had been an additional slot for today, at 13:00.
The restaurant is spread over three floors in a centuries old building, so lots of lovely nooks and crannies and a place where Mrs Lopsided would've felt right at home! I was shown to the lovely basement with its tunnel like interior (see photo).
For starters I chose Morcilla de Burgos. This is the Spanish variant of Black Pudding and that from Burgos is reputedly the best. It arrived in the shape of 8 thick slices and was, indeed, delicious. It has to be said though that it didn't quite match Stornaway Black Pudding!
For my main course I chose their speciality, Cochinillo Asado (Roast Suckling Pig), which came with lightly roasted potatoes and was delicious. As far as I could see, my fellow diners had chosen the same.
For dessert I was tempted by the Tarta de Queso (Cheesecake with White Chocolate). The final touch was a small, strong black coffee. The location, the staff, the food and the general ambience could not be faulted.
Fully sated, I then headed to the Plaza De Colón, named after Christopher Columbus, his Spanish name being Cristóbal Colón. The three monumental slabs represent the three ships that sailed to America in 1492. There is also a more conventual statue of Columbus, the Monumento a Colón, which is, as seems to be the custom here, located in the middle of a busy traffic intersection. The base represents Queen Isabella I of Castille raising funds for the trip by selling her jewellery.
Round the corner is the Museo Arqueological National, into which I popped for a fascinating couple of hours spent looking at artifacts that makde Botin look positively modern!
The museum is full of many fine examples of ancient archeology. Highlights included:
Dama de Elche - a well preserved and sophisticated bust of a female figure dating from the 4th century BC showing superb quality of carving.
Dama de Baza - another impressive 4th century BC statue, this time of a seated woman.
Puteal Dr la Moncloa - a large Roman marble well carved with figures from Greek myth. There is also a large collection of impressive Roman mosaics and busts.
Husillos Sarcophagus - a richly decorated Roman sarcophagus.
There are countless more amazing artifacts. Like all good museums, the main complaint with this one is that there is simply too much to take in. The 3 euro entrance fee was fantastic value.
Finally, I decided to ride the whole length of Metro Line 3. Why? Well, the nearest station for the Caja Magica, the venue for this week's Davis Cup Finals, is San Fermin-Orcasur, on Line 3. Now, by one of those remarkable and wonderful coincidences, the number of stations on the line exactly matches the number of countries taking part in the Finals. Therefore, each station has been dedicated to one of the teams and I wanted to discover which stations have been matched to which teams. I suspect it's on the internet somewhere, but that would be less fun than riding the line, which only took 30 mins.
Tomorrow I'll be watching Great Britain start their Davis Cup bid against The Netherlands, who lost today to Kazakhstan. We are favourites to win but Robin Haase is returning from injury and is a dangerous player.
So, for your entertainment and education, here is the full list of stations and their associated countries. No idea how they were allocated but it looks pretty random to me so may have been by lots.
Moncloa - France
Arguelles - Argentina
Ventura Rodriguez - Serbia
Plaza De Espana - Great Britain
Callao - Italy
Sol - Spain
Lavapies - Russia
Embajadores - Canada
Palos de la Frontera - Japan
Delicias - Australia
Legazpi - Colombia
Almendrales - Chile
Hospital 12 Dr Octubre - Germany
San Fermin-Orcasur - USA
Ciudad de Los Angeles - Kazakhstan
Villaverde Bajo-Cruce - Netherlands
San Cristobal - Belgium
Villaverde Alto - Croatia
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