Last week I attended the Atlantic Ocean Hotel Investors' Summit in Madrid, the European hotel industry's conference season kickoff for the year.
Felicity Black-Roberts, Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s vice president of acquisitions and development for Europe, said her firm will develop a standalone division for lifestyle hotels. The segment's continued development, design, differentiation and demand was one of the major talking points during the event.
The weather was a bit dreary for the two days of the conference. The rain in Spain seemingly does not fall only on the plain, but in urban centers, too.
Fortunately, I arrived on the Sunday and the weather was very nice for that one day, even allowing visitors to sit outside cafés.
I made full use of my hours walking around, armed as I was with suggestions for things to see and visit.
The website Atlas Obscura has become my favored travel tool of late. Billing itself as a repository of “curious and wondrous travel experiences,” it lists quirky, different, hidden and joyous places to visit. Most come with a rich tale to tell that might be historical in nature, or tasty or odd or unique, but always joyous.
Not every reader-written idea in its 28,678 (so far) places to visit is somewhere I'd want to go, but in Madrid I found several I really did want to investigate.
For the first stop, I did not even need to exit the Madrid subway system that took me from Madrid’s international airport to the hotel I stayed in.
At the Paco de Lucía subway station, anyone who walks up the steps to exit but stops before going through the ticket barriers can spot see a huge mural of Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. He was born in Algeciras, where the ferry departs to go to Tangier, Morocco, and who became famous in his own right but also in his collaboration with the most famous Flamenco singer of all, Camarón de la Isla.
I saw Paco de Lucia perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 2007. He died in 2014.
My next stops were in the old center of the city. I had four more to visit, and the joy comes from what might be found when walking between them. There is room also for spontaneity and even more discoveries.
The Centro de Interpretación del Frontón Beti Jai is a large court for the very fast game of jai alai, also known as “pelota,” which could be described as a mix of tennis and squash.
The court was left to rot for many decades, perhaps due to Basque culture from the north of Spain and its different language and traditions being suppressed during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which ended in the mid-1970s.
This is one of those places that if the front door was closed one would have no idea of the glory sitting behind it. Curving rows of iron filigree border the stands where aficionados watch the action below. The court originally was opened in 1893 but reopened only in March of last year.
Next up were two religious sites but with different wonders lying within.
The first was Iglesia de San Antonio de los Alemanes, or the Church of Saint Anthony of the Germans. Its elliptical ceiling is the canvas for a fresco depicting the life of Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of sailors, fisherfolk, priests and travelers. Perhaps he could also be the patron saint of hotel conferences? The art on the ceiling is invariably given a parallel to that of Michelangelo’s on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
I was hungry by now, so the next stop was perfect. The door to it is a little difficult to find, but there is a small sign on the door stating that cookies might be purchased. This is the Monasterio del Corpus Christi in the Plaza del Conde de Miranda, home to cloistered nuns, who have been in residence since the late 16th century but only decided to go into the biscuit business at the turn of this one.
Two heavy doors lead to a passage that turns at 90 degrees to the left and reveals a sign that states “torno.” The “torno” is reached, what is called a lazy Susan. A small menu of biscuit choices and prices is pinned to the wall.
I asked for half a kilo of orange-flavored biscuits, “naranjines,” and placed 13 euros on the lazy Susan. A hidden nun said thank you, the money disappeared and out popped my packaged treats. Debit cards are not an option, and biscuits are not always available.
My last stop was a hotel. The 159-room Hyatt Centric Gran Vía Madrid on one of the city’s major streets hides on its 10th floor an iron girder that was ripped apart during the Spanish Civil War. Its presence in the building was discovered during renovations in 2017. Previously, the site was a telecommunications center, thus it was a target for bombing during those dark days.
The girder now has been mounted on the wall beside the rooftop bar and restaurant and has been augmented by metal doves, symbols of peace, flying as though out of the girder.
The door attendant of the hotel was very amenable for me to take the elevator up to see it, and I am sure he would be for you, too.
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