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Destination: MADRID, Spain
Hemingway's Madrid
City reflects writer's fascination with Spain
By BILL JORY -- Special to The Sun
MADRID -- Think of Spain and images of Ernest Hemingway come to mind. Few countries are so stamped with the impressions of a foreign writer. From his earliest work, Hemingway's vision of Spain as a land of heroic battles, bullfights and romance was embraced by the international imagination. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, then again in the 1950s, Spain seemed to be his second home and Madrid regularly was a stopoff point. "It was always a good place for working," Hemingway would write of Madrid in the introduction to a short story anthology. Later, in the bullfight classic The Dangerous Summer, he wrote that Spain was "the country that I loved more than any other except my own." Spain was the subject of some of his best writing. Throughout his life Hemingway remained fascinated by the land, its people, food and wine, bullfighting, architecture and the paintings of Velazquez and Goya. A visitor walking the streets of Madrid today can still encounter some of the cafes, hotels and the bull ring depicted in Hemingway's stories, a play, film (The Spanish Earth) and journalism. Not only did Madrid provide fodder for his stories, it was also a stimulating place to write. The Fifth Column, The Killers, Today Is Friday, Ten Indians, parts of The Sun Also Rises and To Have And Have Not were all written here. Gran Via appears repeatedly From his early visits in the 1920s with first wife, Hadley, until his last trips in 1959 and 1960 with fourth wife, Mary, to research The Dangerous Summer, he was constantly drawn to Madrid. He spent his time at the Prado art museum, the bullfight ring portrayed so vividly in Death In The Afternoon and cafes and taverns. After the 1925 trip to Pamplona immortalized in The Sun Also Rises, he and Hadley spent a week in Madrid. They stayed at the Pension Aguilar at 32 Carrera San Jeronimo. The pension is still there, still a low-priced hostel. In the '20s, it cost the Hemingways 10 pesatas a day, just over $1 at the time. A nice hotel room today costs $200 a night. But the setting that appears over and over in his stories is Madrid's main drag -- Gran Via. The Sun Also Rises ends with the famous scene in which Jake and Brett ride down Gran Via in a taxi as Brett laments, "We could have had such a damn good time together." In his stories of the Spanish Civil War, it seems his characters are constantly walking along Gran Via. Some of Hemingway's hangouts along this street still exist. One of his favourites, Chicote's Bar at 12 Gran Via, figures in three short stories -- The Denunciation, The Butterfly And The Tank and Night Before Battle. To Hemingway, Chicote's was a cheerful, friendly place where "the good guys" hung out during the civil war. He described it as "the best bar in Spain, certainly, and I think one of the best bars in the world ..." Today, 75 years after it opened, it exists as a museum bar. Photos of Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Hemingway and other celebrities line the walls, but Chicote's past is more glamorous than its present. It is shabby, smells of decades of cigarette smoke and wine prices are about twice as much as in other Madrid bars. Just down the block, at No. 25, is the Gran Via Hotel, which it boasts is where Hemingway "wrote his best accounts of the civil war." In Night Before Battle, the hotel's basement restaurant is depicted as a place of bad food, questionable wine and snotty waiters. In real life, it was where he dined with Martha Gellhorn (who became his third wife) as their relationship developed during the war. Today, the restaurant is closed, but the second-floor bar is a virtual shrine to Hemingway. Its walls are lined with Hemingway photographs and a collection of his books is available from the bartender. Across the street is the main office of Telefonica. During the civil war, it was the censorship office where his dispatches to the North American Newspaper Alliance were scrutinized. Hemingway visited Spain five times as a reporter during the civil war, living at the Hotel Florida on Plaza de Callao in an open liaison with Gellhorn. It was the setting of his play, The Fifth Column. From there, they ventured into the countryside to cover the war's battlefields. The Hotel Florida is gone, the victim of a wrecking ball in the early 1960s. For 14 years after the war, Hemingway was estranged from Spain for political reasons (he had backed the losing side). But in the 1950s he returned, visiting Madrid four times and writing The Dangerous Summer. On one visit in 1954, he stayed at the luxurious Palace Hotel at Plaza de las Cortes 7, across from the Prado. In The Sun Also Rises he had depicted the Palace as the place where Lady Brett and Jake Barnes got train tickets for Paris and drank a martini cocktail before heading to Restaurante Botin at Calle de Cuchilleros 17. There, they dined on roast pig and drank three bottles of rioja alta wine. Restaurante Botin is a Madrid institution which Hemingway praised as "one of the best restaurants in the world." That may be an exaggeration, but the Guiness Book of World Records recognizes it as the world's oldest, dating back to 1725. Wood-beamed ceilings, tiled walls, shuttered windows, tiny stairways, wood ovens and earthenware platters give a special ambience. Delicacies such as suckling pig, lamb and partridge stew are excellent and prices are reasonable. We paid about US$40 for two with wine. Another favourite in his later years was Cerveceria Alemana in Plaza Santa Ana, a hangout for Spanish writers and bullfighters. The tapas bar still reeks with atmosphere and friendly service. The same can't be said of La Taberna de Principe, across the street. Formerly Cafe Alvarez, it is said to be the setting of the story, A Clean Well-Lighted Place. Sadly, it has been updated and all charm has been eliminated. Hemingway wasn't enamoured of all Madrid cafes, though. Gran Cafe Gijon, at Paseo de Recolete 21, was long the most famous of the city's cafes for intellectual discussion. Among its famous clients have been Orson Welles, Prince Ranier and Princess Grace and bullfighter El Cordobe. Hemingway hated it and called its patrons "windbags." GETTING THERE: Royal Airlines flies from Toronto to Madrid on Wednesdays from May 2 to Sept. 26 and returns Thursdays. Fares range from about $800 to $1,030 return. STAYING THERE: There are a lot of hotels in central Madrid. The Tryp Gran Via, which is mentioned in The Sun Also Rises, is in the heart of the Gran Via shopping area. Rates are about $75 to $80 a night per person for double occupancy. The Tryp Ambassador occupies the old palace of the Duques de Granada with rates from $102 to $115 per night per person double occupancy. It is a cosy place near the Royal Palace and Opera. MORE INFO: Tourist Office of Spain, 2 Bloor St. W., 34th Floor, Toronto, M4W 3E2. Phone: 416-961-3131. The office provides a guidebook to Madrid, which outlines walking tours.
(First featured: April 8, 2001)
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