Some news from my latest trip to Spain:

I went to Madrid first and then to Barcelona.
Unfortunately I had not enough time, but at least I could visit Café Comercial at the Glorieta de Bilbao in Madrid. This café is great.
It opened on the 21 March 1887.
Once this cafe was a literary meeting point. It became a place for poets, novelists and even painters.
Business meetings in that era gave the café its name. 

Marcial Guareno wrote some lyrics about the cafe which you can see here:  

Quiere usted tomar   
un café rico,
acuda al Comercial
que es exquisito.       

If you want to have
a rich coffee,
go to the Comercial 
which is exquisite

If you go there you should really eat "una tostada con tomate". Its just a grilled slice of good white bread and on top some grated tomateos. You eat it with olive oil and salt. Hmm delicious! (see my Mallorca post).
The croissants aren´t bad there either. And of course "un café con leche".
I love it!
(You can have ´churros con chocolate`, as well, but for this I recommend San Gínes in the city center.)

They have a blog too!

http://elcafecomercial.blogspot.de/


Let´s move on to Barcelona:

I had even less time there. But still enough for some tapas (we had the fantastic "Jamón ibérico de bellota". That´s a ham made out of pigs that eat only acorn) and wine in the evening. There was still a little time for the great "La Boqueria Market" in the morning.

I love markets and this one is wonderful. There is quite an old market history in town. The entrance is nicely decorated with some Art Nouveau artwork.

 http://www.boqueria.info/index.php

But if you go there, try to go early in the morning. Otherwise it´s crowded with tourists (Barcelona is full of tourists!).
I went there at around 9 o ´clock and it was very comfortable to walk around, watch things and people and have some breakfast.
I sat down in an open bar, where people were already eating meat dishes....oofff!
Then I realized that so many people had a beer for breakfast (ok I don´t know at what time they got up, but i still felt the wine form the night before).
And this old man who sat next to me drank schnapps!
I guess spanish people like to drink!

As i visited both cities in a short period of time, it was interesting to compare them. I like both cities, but they are quite different. I think Madrid is rougher, of course it is bigger, and when you look at the architecture it´s impressive. Lots of buildings were built under French influence, and there are some typical fascist buildings (have a look at the Gran Via).
On the contrary, Barcelona more easy going. The scenery of the city is influenced by Gaudí. The best known townsman. The buildings are smaller, and more colourful. And of course, you are close to the sea, so this gives the city the mediterranean atmosphere!

Adíos, Hasta Luego!