Dulcinea's Best of Madrid Exploration Kit: Top 10

1. Best Map of Madrid
Knopf City Map Guides: Madrid. The City in Section-by-Section Maps. After trying several other maps, this one was my favorite. The pocket-sized book contains all the main sights of Madrid, along with useful suggestions for each part of the city. Museums are marked.

The maps are very good, but a compass is my secret weapon.

2. Best Small Museum
Sorolla Museum. The painter Sorolla's 1920s home and studio, with a lovely garden outside. This is a good stop for all ages.

Fountain in Sorolla's garden

3. Best Place for Frugal Travelers to Find a Quick Snack
The cafe chain 100 Montaditos. Dozens of locations in Madrid.  Home of the 1-Euro cafe con leche, the 1-Euro beer, and over 100 types of sandwiches on tiny rolls.  Spaniards flock here as well---price/quality ratio is good.

4. Best Souvenirs 
Saffron...
Football memorabilia... from Real Madrid or Team Spain.
Leather jewelry... from the whimsical store Tierra Madrid, located on calle Gerona, 10 (just off Plaza Mayor).

Jewelry from Tierra (items pictured: 4 to 15 Euros).

Spanish fans... 
Postcards from museum gift stores...
Espadrilles from Antigua Casa Crespo (in business since 1863; calle Divino Pastor, 29; metro: San Bernardo) or Casa Hernanz (since 1845; calle Toledo, 18-20; located one block off Plaza Mayor).

Espadrilles from Spain

5. Best Places to Take Small Children
Railroad Museum.  Room to climb (on antique train cars) and relax (in an elegant dining car from the 1920s).

...or big children.

Retiro Park.  Rowboats, buskers, ice-cream stands, fortune-tellers, fountains, a Crystal Palace, and turtles sunning themselves in a pile nearby. Just a few of the pleasures of this park behind the Prado Museum.

Learning to row in Retiro

6. Best Store for Cheap, Useful, Attractive Odds and Ends
Tiger. Art supplies, toys, kitchen wares, reading glasses, notebooks, greeting cards, and other things you didn't think you needed, all with a hint of Scandinavian design. A cross between Ikea and the five-and-dime.  Various locations around town.

7. Most Intriguing Experience
Buying sweets from the Convent Nuns. (See Adventure in the Cloister)

8. Best Outdoor Running Track in Madrid
Located at Parque de Santander (also known as Green Canal) in the the Chamberi neighborhood of Madrid, at the corner of Avenida de Islas Filipinas and Avenida Pablo Iglesias.  Closest metro: Canal, Rios Rosas. Run past blooming lavender bushes, fountains, wisteria vines, and families out for a stroll.  Restrooms and water fountains provided.  Free access to track and park areas; other sports facilities can be rented on a fee basis. Track open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Rubberized 1200-meter running track in Chamberi district

9. Best Exhibition Space
Sala del Canal de Isabel II.  Located in an old water tower that has been renovated for temporary art exhibitions. Check website for current listings. Don't forget to bring passport. Entry is free, but because the tower is located within the headquarters of the city water utility, there is a security checkpoint. Located at calle de Santa Engracia, 125 (metro: Rios Rosas).  Hours: Tues-Sat: 11-2 & 5-8:30; Sun: 11-2; Closed Monday.

Sala Canal de Isabel II

10. Best Free Art Exhibit Venues in Madrid

Consistently top-notch:
Fundacion Mapfre. Paseo de Recoletas, 23.
Caixa Forum Madrid. Paseo del Prado, 36.
Juan March Foundation. Castelló, 77

Juan March Foundation. Ground floor has exhibit space.

Yves Saint Laurent, Out and About

Fundación Mapfre: Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective
11/20/11 – Paseo de Recoletas, 23

November turns out to be a wet month in Madrid.  Every bar along the street glows invitingly.  It’s not cold by midwestern standards, but dogs are wearing sweaters, and prams navigate the sidewalks like barges, their tiny passengers snug under clear plastic rain shields.  Even on a rainy Sunday there’s plenty to do.  Mapfre—a Spanish insurance company that sponsors cultural exhibits on a regular basis—is hosting a free retrospective on the influential French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008).   

1965

The precocious Saint Laurent took over the House of Dior in Paris at age 21.   He popularized the trapeze dress, safari jacket, tuxedo suit for women, and see-through evening wear.  He scandalized the critics in 1971 with clothes reminiscent of prostitutes in Nazi-occupied Paris.  Saint Laurent was also the first designer to use ethnic models in his runway shows.   

There is little here about Yves the man. His disastrous experience in the French army during the Algerian war of independence, his addictions, and his private life are not on display.  A replica of his modest work-table and studio shows only a few of Saint Laurent’s obsessions—a passion for art, and for his French bulldog “Moujik” (as documented by Andy Warhol, below).

Though he rarely traveled beyond his villa in Morocco, Saint Laurent drew inspiration from world cultures.  I’m old enough to remember the splash he made in 1976 with his Russia-inspired collection.  

When I arrived in Moscow in 1985, I think I expected to see Russian women dressed like that; in reality, the economy dictated a wardrobe of soviet drab—with the exception of fur hats, whose exuberance exceeded anything Saint Laurent could conjure.  The lower floor of the exhibit chronicles the creative process, with four decades of Saint Laurent’s sketches and fabric samples.  How dispiriting to see in detail the rise and fall of 1980s shoulder pads.  During the flower of my youth, styles were so awful.  And now Spain won’t let me forget: the 1980s gem El Coche Fantástico (Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff) plays daily on Spanish television.  

On Sunday evening I saw “The Help” at Cinema Verdi, one of the few theaters in town that shows foreign movies with subtitles instead of dubbing.  The American South has always seemed like another country, and in this film, set on the brink of the Civil Rights era, it’s truly alien.  Ladies of the Junior League wear hometown versions of Dior’s “New Look,” their waists still as girdled as their outlook on life.  I find myself wondering about attitudes toward race in Spain.  During “The Help,” there were sniffles all around. Some things are universal.  

The Yves Saint Laurent Retrospective runs until 8 January 2012.