We met Andreas at the Plaza de la Villa. Andreau explained to us that this was the "village" that was Madrid. The building to the right is the former town hall which began construction in 1644 and was finally finished in 1696. The building served both as the town hall and a prison.
The statue at the center of the square is of Alvaro de Bazan, the Spanish Admiral who planned the Armada, the fleet that attempted to invade England.
The former city hall.
The building directly behind the statue is the Casa de Cisneros which was built in 1537.
The oldest building at the Plaza de la Villa, the Torre de los Lujanes is also one of the oldest buildings in Madrid.
To the left down the street is a convent. These Catholic nuns live their whole life in a convent without seeing anyone from the outside. It is a very strict order and even though they were popular in medieval times nowadays there are only three countries in Europe with convents, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. They do not have any means of getting financial help except from what they make with their own hands. These sisters in the Monasterio de Corpus Christi spend their lives praying and making cookies and biscuits.
This is the church that is attached to the convent. The nuns attend services here along with other people but sit seperate from the congregation. It is their only contact with the outside world.
The symbol of the Pope on this building.The rather large building on the right is the Bishops home.
Our guide, Andreas is the soul guide for this tapas tour. We found the tour on the Madridcitytours website (+34 9112 31177) Andreas loves wine and although we didn't know this until near the end of our tour, he provides the wine that the group drinks to the various bars and restaurants and just pays the corkage fee and pairs it with the food served. We had wonderful wines. I highly recommend this tour if you visit Madrid. Andreas does his research and we had such good food and wine all evening!
A beautiful apartment building in a prime location.
We finally got to our fist tapas bar. We arrived about 7:45 or so and were the only ones in the bar. A little early for the Spanish. If you notice the street sign here marks the place of one of the gates of the old city wall.
Again the plaque that is given to businesses that have been in existence over a century.
A lot of famous people have eaten here and had their pictures taken with Poco. That's Robert Mitchum.
My former dinner partner, Omar Sharf. He was a lot younger in this photo then when I dined with him.
Our first drink was not provided by Andreas but is a spanish drink called vermut de grifo. It's a little like sangria but made with white wine and herbs. It's very refreshing and very good! Vermut can vary depending on the recipe that the establishment uses. This one was especially delicious!
Thie vermut was paired with bread, some cheese, and a Tortilla Espanola, or Spanish Omelette. It was fresh out of the skillet - perfect. Should you get one and you're not sure hot to eat it - here's how it's done. Cut the Omelette into litle squares and then you can eat it with your fingers. 
Maybe Sharon's picture will be on the wall of the restaurant. Oh, he probablhy doesn't know that she is a famous blogger. We forgot to tell him. 
Standing outside ready to greet us and seat us at our table.
This wine is made from raisins. It tasted of melon which went perfect with the Iberian ham and chorizo.
This was the best ham and chorizo. They make their own chorizo. The ham is again from a black Iberian big which eats acorns and is free range. Usually Sharon isn't crazy about the Spanish ham but she had to admit that this particular one was very, very good
Muscatel: Muscat Alexdandria Victoria 2 by Jorge Ordonez - chosen the best wine in Spain by Gourmet Wine Guide and was served at the Nobel Awards banquet in December of 2012
Cava Baja is a street filled with tapas bars. The street follows the outline of the original old city wall.
Andreas pointed out a few notable tapas bars to us as we passed them by. This one was known has "the best fried pork"!
This one serves the best oxtail.
There is one restaurant on the street and according to Andreas one of the two best in the city. I looked it up on trip advisor and its rated number 550 out of 7121. I'd say that's pretty good . It doesn't open until 8:30 though - guess we won't go back.
Our next stop was at wine bar. 
This was a white wine and was served with our shrimp and mushroom tapas. Great wine if you can find it!
This wine is a blend of the Godello and Treixadura grape made by Rafael Palacios in Valdeorras. 
Almost forgot to get a picture of our food I was so busy drinking the wine :-)!
Andreas informed us not to eat the olives with the wine because they are a wine killer. Here Sharon and I have been loving the olives that are generally served complimentary at the various restaurants where we've been eating. LIttle did we know!
We left Cava Baja and walked past some beauitful streets and buildings on our way to the next location.
The restaurant was located in a lovely square and we looked out on some beautiful apartment buildings. Would be a lovely place to live.
The Bahiana Club on Calle Conde,4 - in the Latina neighborhood of Madrid. This is an 18th century mansion and it is surrounded by lovely old buildings. It was such a beautiful night we elected to eat outdoors. 
Andreas tasted this wine and thought it was so good he immediately bought up all he could find in Madrid. Finca Espolla 2009 (Monastrell - Syrah) Gourmet 97 points
It was paired perfectly with this pork la presa iberica (perfect cut for grillinh), potatoes, and pearl onions. This came piping hot and the platter was hot so as you took your piece of pork you could continue to cook it on the platter to your preferred temperature.
OUr friendly waiters.
After dinner we enjoyed this wine which again was made from raisins, I believe. It almost tasted like prune juice except this was really, really good. It was thick and syrupy.
This was served after and was a lighter after dinner wine which has a 99 rating.
Pedro Ximenez 2010 a 99 Gourmet rating
It was a wonderful evening of wine and food and we enjoyed Andreas so very much. We were originally scheduled to be a group of 7 but the family of five who were to join us had gotten food poisoning and were not up to coming out with us. It would have been fun to have been a bigger group but we enjoyed ourselves immensely as it was.
Other red wines in Andreas celler include : Gran Reserva 904 (Robert Parker 96 points), San Roman 2010 (Gourmets 97 points), etc. Very nice indeed.
Now we had to maneuver these stairs after all that wine to get ourselves home. I'm happy to report - no problem.
We even resisted buying these 'knock offs".
It was a busy day but we have nothing pressing on our calendar for tomorrow so we can take it easy.
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