Miscellaneous Photos of Madrid

Here are a few photos I shot that didn't get put into a post for some reason. I hope they are interesting!

A wall of different plants next to a contemporary art gallery:

Even tapas have tapas (a smoked salmon tapa, with its own little chorizo tapa--a tapa is a little dish of something that comes free with your drink, but it has evolved into a whole bunch of mini-meals that now are charged for, but sometimes they come with their own little tapa):

Bikes you can rent:

Contemporary art exhibit in Retiro Park:

No-nonsense placemat at a restaurant listing their plusses and minuses:

Click to enlarge

The plusses are as you would expect; it is the minuses that are interesting:

• Terramundi is always too full and there is little space between tables and people
• We can't always guarantee that our dishes will last to the end of the day
• We know that our attention to the client isn't always the highest priority, our service is sometimes too hurried and not pleasant enough; we work fast to satisfy the needs of our regular customers

(My attempt at an idiomatic translation.)

A typical Spanish full breakfast: only one egg but lots of bacon--and salad?

The equivalent to Times Square in Madrid might be the Plaza Callao on Gran Via. The big skinny store is FNAC a giant "cultural technology" store which means they sell phones, videogames, but also CDs and DVDs. That's not a poster, that is a giant video screen that changes every few seconds.

And, finally, a lone busker playing the allemande to the Cello Suite No. 1 by Bach, outside the FNAC:

Which gives us our envoi. Here is the allemande played by Mischa Maisky: