Old Postcards from Madrid

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One thing I could not get right in Madrid last year was timing.  The city shuts down between 2 PM to 5 PM for siesta.  The ensuing photographs document the places I attempted to visit within a couple days, some with more success than others.  Thank you to The Fluffy Family (Tom, Pamela, Claire and Fluffy) for walking this New Yorker senseless to take in the sights.


Guitar Shop-apalooza:

 

Places visited not subject to siesta hours for viewing:

 

La Torre del Oro bar Andalu in Plaza Mayor, Madrid.

 

And the last goose chase of them all was to locate where this photograph of My First Guitar interviewee Juan Martin at a flamenco dance school in Madrid, called Amor de Dios.




Flamenco guitarist Juan Martin at Amor de Dios flamenco dance school. Photo courtesy of Helen Martin.
Flamenco guitarist Juan Martin at Amor de Dios flamenco dance school. Photo courtesy of Helen Martin.

The only logical building to fit the address I had looked like a supermarket. I walked further down the block and encountered this theatre but it was too far past the address numbers:

Film revival house that opened at the turn of the century. Has an adjacent national film library. Photo by Julia Crowe.
Film revival house that opened at the turn of the century. Has an adjacent national film library. Photo by Julia Crowe.

Backtracking, this had to be the place:

What? Here? Yes, 2nd floor. Photo by Julia Crowe.
What? Here? Yes, 2nd floor. Photo by Julia Crowe.

Training/teaching ground for Carmen Amaya, Pilar Lopez, Rosario, Juan Quintero, Carmen Mora, La Tati and many others. Amor de Dios offers classes in flamenco dancing, singing, guitar and cajón. A 1-hour long class is roughly ~15 euro.


Brief recording of dancers at practice:

And, of course, if you dash around to the other end of the floor to the market, there is the inevitable cluster of dancers fueling up on snacks between classes, all while garbed in their black Cordova shoes and their hair drawn up into buns stuffed with an elaborately carved peineta–the Spanish equivalent to how one bellydancer in Manhattan can spot another from across the street for wearing tell-tale Melodia pants hiked up and knotted at the shins.

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If you would like to read more about Spain’s history, one great book is: Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past

And on the subject of flamenco: Lives and Legends of Flamenco