Category Archives: Visitor Recommendations

Learn Spanish, Madrid Shopping, Visitor Recommendations

J and J Books and Coffee

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I haven’t done a visitor recommendation for quite some time now so it was nice to receive an email from someone last week. Here’s what Greg had to say:

I recently found your site and saw that the best bookstore in Madrid is actually not listed on your site. It’s a new and used bookstore with a bar/coffee shop attached. It has the best selection of English books in all of Madrid. Over 25,000 books and also different activities throughout the week for meeting new people and hanging out.
The place is called J&J Books and Coffee
It’s located on C/Espiritu Santo, 47 in Madrid’s center.

I seriously hope that you will add them to your site because it’s the best place there.

Thanks for the recommendation Greg and if anyone else has been there, please let me know.

Visitor Recommendations

Comedy Club in Madrid

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I had an email the other day from Stephen Garland who runs the only English language professional comedy club in Madrid in the Teatro Alfil – looks like he started last November. You can find more information on his website – Giggling Guiri. Here is the press release from Stephen:

We have a fantastic American act this week in the powerhouse of political comedy that is Dave Fulton and we have another couple of great shows before we break for the summer.

The season is drawing to a close and what a first season for the Giggling Guiri. By the end we will have had some of the best comedians from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, US, Canada and Australia making it a truly international club and now firmly established as a highly coveted gig on the circuit.

The Giggling Guiri has been invited to take part in FIHUM, Alfil’s annual international comedy festival which this year will run from May
29th to June 4th . We have decided to make this the last date of the season and we have just confirmed a monster signing for those gigs on
June 2nd and 3rd in one *Brendon Burns*.

If anyone knows of these acts or would like to comment on the Giggling Guiri, please drop me a line or add a comment to this article.

Dates
Dave Fulton
April 21st (Friday) Teatro Alfil (c/ Pez 10, Metro: Noviciado) midnight (box office: 11:30pm)
Price: EUR 15

Craig Campbell
May 19th (Friday) Teatro Alfil (c/ Pez 10, Metro: Noviciado) midnight (box office: 11:30pm)
Price: EUR 15

Getting To/Around Madrid, Visitor Recommendations

Segway Tours of Madrid

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Segwaymadrid_1
Following quickly on the trail of my restaurant recommendation, I have received another suggestion from a visitor to Madrid. William Brunnel of Scotland often goes to Madrid and on his last trip he saw something that he had never seen before, a Segway tour of the city. Here’s what he told me:

"On my last trip in Jan 06 I saw a tour like I’ve never
seen before and thought you may
want to have a look at as there is
nothing
about it on your website.
I stopped the chap and asked ….ended up going on a tour of the city
centre on a Segway. Its brilliant, the best expierience I’ve had in a
long
time."

If you don’t know what a Segway is, read this:

The Segway is the world’s first self-balancing transportation device.
Computers and motors in the base keep the Segway upright at all times.
Users lean forward to move forward, and back to move backwards.

The company that he went with is called Mad Segs and they offer tours of some of Madrid’s main tourist sites, like the Plaza Mayor, Royal Palace, the Prado Musem and the Templo de Debod on a Segway. Tours last  2 hours and cost 60 Euros (with a discount for groups over 4 people) – some take  place at night.

Madrid Restaurants, Visitor Recommendations

Restaurante Memento Opens in Madrid

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I quite often get emails from people recommending places to eat, exhibitons to look out for and concerts to go to. Well, I think I’m going to start posting them directly on to the site and placing them into a new category, let’s call it "Visitor Recommendations".

Here’s the first one from Adrienne Smith, who used to run a very popular restaurant called Bluefish and who is now training to be a sommelier in Madrid. 

I wanted to let you know that another American named Karen Bell just opened a new place called Restaurante Memento, on calle Caracas 1.  It is off of Santa Engracia in Alonso Martinez, and I have to say that I have eaten there twice in two days, and it is absolutely fantastic. 

In her latish 20s, (so I have heard) Karen was a chef at quite a few well known restaurants in San Franscisco, studied in culinary school in the states and Paris, and has been working at the also American restaurant TOMA in Conde Duque for the last 2 years.  She is the chef owner of this new place and I have to say that the food is really really out of this world.  California cuisine, seasonal, all fresh, amazing wines and creative cocktails (cucumber cosmo etc.), and just excellent.

If anyone goes there, please let me know what you think.

Read the Update on Restaurante Memento.