Post #129514 by thejab on Tue, Dec 7, 2004 4:15 PM

Port Aventura! How strange it was being in a Polynesian theme land watching a tropical bird show spoken in Spanish. Or wandering through the Wild West land hearing old country Christmas songs while in Spain!

Where the Polynesian show is usually held (it was off season so not running):

The other end of the room:

Ice skating by a large tiki wearing a santa's hat and holding a present next to some huge mushrooms. Weird!

On to Madrid. There are so many great bars in Madrid. We only scratched the surface in 3 days. Here is Museo Chicote, a wonderfully preserved Moderne bar:

Light shines out from little star-shaped cutouts in the metal dividers. There are chrome hat and coat racks above each booth.

The Mauno Loa Bar Hawaiiano is on Plaza Santa Ana in the Huertas area. There are loads of great bars in the area. It had some great decor but no real tikis were found (only masks). I guess it's debatable whether or not it's a tiki bar but I think it is since it has tiki mugs for some drinks. The drinks were fair to good, mostly on the sweet side, but served in unique tiki mugs. Free treats offered were plentiful - sandwiches, nuts, and crackers.

When you first walk in the door, this bar is on the right.


There are two alcoves with live birds.




Down the stairs there are other levels with rooms.

At the bottom is this volcano fountain.

My favorite bar in Madrid that we visited was Cuevas de Sesamo at Calle del Principe 7. It's a cellar "beatnik" literary bar from 1950 with quotes by famous people on every wall, pitchers of Sangria, and even a piano player nightly.

One of my other favorites was La Venecia at Calle de Echegaray 7. Six types of sherry is served from barrels, and the wall behind the bar is filled with dusty old booze bottles. The rest of the place has old bullfight posters and a thick brown smokey haze over everything. I wish I got more pictures but the bartender asked that we not take anymore.

I think this is Viva Madrid, which has some great tile work:

But probably the best tiled bar is Los Gabrieles:

A typical Madrid scene: a couple kissing and necking in public (at bottom of picture). Gotcha!

There were many other great bars that I didn't get photos of with the digital camera, like Cerveceria Alemana and Casa Alberto. I heard that these bars get very crowded on weekends but we were there on Monday through Wednesday and in the off season so they were never crowded.

We had to leave Madrid without spending enough time there, but I someday I'll go back as I loved it just as much as, if not more than, Barcelona.

On to London for a 3-day layover. We arrived on Thursday, checked into out tiny hotel room in Bloomsbury that cost 66 pounds (about $120) a night, then headed straight for:

I was a bit disappointed because it was decorated for Christmas with some cheesy decorations that obscured some of the tropical atmosphere, but when I imagined the decorations were gone, it was a spectacular original Vic's, somewhat larger and more tiki'd out than Beverly Hills, but not nearly as big as Chicago.

Some of the decor at the top of the curved stairway:

The manager remembered meeting me in San Francisco (thanks JT!) so he totally set us up with VIP treatment. All the drinks were excellent. We were told that they use Havana Club as the regular rum in the drinks.

I took this pic the next day when we returned in the afternoon for some hot drinks that were flamed at our side.

The weather was in the 30s so I couldn't bring myself to wear an aloha shirt.

One dining room that had less Christmas decor:

We went to a lot of great pubs in London but my favorite was the Black Friar, that martiki told me was his favorite, and I understood why when I walked in. They also have excellent fish and chips and great ales on tap.