On To Madeira

 But first, a late morning visit to The Market San Miguel in Madrid, in its present form, not the food market you would expect but a museum of tapas and the tidbits and well worth seeing.

To get there you walk through the Plaza Major, a gigantic square, now slightly disneyfied by costumed characters such as the large bear barely visible in the center.

On the way back to the hotel for a considerate late checkout at 1PM we saw dresses suitable for young flamenco dancers of the female persuasion.

and a cleverly painted door at the Cervantes Institute.

After paying our respects to the lively tiled bathroom floor of our hotel room we checked out.

We enjoyed the beautiful Terminal 4 at Madrid airport, designed by British architect Richard Rogers et al.

A 2 1/4 hour flight to Madeira, 

a short Mercedes taxi ride to the old section of Funchal, where we had to walk the final few blocks with our suitcases because cars are not allowed on the streets where our Boutique Hotel Se is located. The hotel itself has pluses and minuses which I will go into the next blog entry.

After arrival we made a quick reservation at Kouve, a new vegetarian restaurant by an eminent local chef. That was enjoyable. Except for one meat dish and one fish dish, the menu is all vegetarian and nicely done. Here's a veg beef "tournado" using the stems of mushrooms with a poached egg in the middle. Below that a white wine with a picture of the chef's grandfather on the label - from whose vineyard in southern Portugal the wine came.

P.S. On a short walk after checking in we came upon a Portside local fiesta with scores of food booths and entertainment which unfortunately, though relatively far from our hotel, was audible all over town until 2AM.

END