Taking a vacation from the vacation

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A lazy day in Madrid, continued.

We did manage to get out the door to go eat lunch, finally. It was at 2:45 p.m.

Well, why rush if you don't have to?

Susan wanted something different. Our landlord had suggested El Senator, a block away, as a restaurant that specialised in lamb. Okay, that's different for us. From 2-4 is the traditional time for lunch here. Certain,y the two restaurants closer to us were both full when we set off but we thought we would give it a shot.

The Senator is directly across the street from the Spanish senate. And the national elections are on, so there are no Senators around. The place ws deserted. Five tables out of twenty, maybe, were occupied. We were whisked in and seated right away. Susan was one of two women there. Did I mention El Senator is the masculine form? Surprise!

We ordered the house specialty, roast suckling lamb - a first for us - for two. As Spanish meals generally come with no side dishes, we added a house salad, potatoes, and a bottle of the house red. The salad was a hint that we had come to the right place. Simple: just fresh iceberg lettuce, big chunks of tomato, some onion and oil and vinegar.

It was lovely. Ripe tomatoes with lots of good tomato flavor, crisp fresh lettuce, excellently balanced dressing. Even a focus of onion went well with it.

The lamb came in its own roasting dish, straight out of the oven with waves of heat rising from. The waiter did the preliminaries well away from the table but where we could see him, then he brought it over on a massive wooden tray and we dug in.

It was amazingly tender and went beautifully with the soft house red and the oil roasted spuds.

It was a lovely meal and I gave in to temptation and had their fig and brandy parfait for dessert. Yum. Susan had coffee and was disappointed to find it a bit sour. Then the complimentery shot of coffee liqueur topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon arrived. We forgave them the coffee.

Heck, we would probably have forgiven them for the Jamestown flood at that point. Susan confounded them all by paying the bill. (I personally look on my role in the transaction as a blow for equality in Spain, a sort of no-masterly inactivity, if you will.)

We did manage to find our way home. We have been here with books and more laundry and the occasional refreshment ever since. The laundry is almost done but we still have books and refreshment. Dinner was variations on cereal, peanuts, yogurt and beverages of your choice.

I now return to my regularly scheduled trashy novel while Susan is working her way through the whole Nero Wolfe series.

Manana.

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