Felipe VI and Queen Letizia enjoyed a night out on the streets of Madrid on Thursday. The kings strolled quietly through the centre of the capital, smiling, friendly to passers-by and showing off the tan they topped up during their private holiday. While their eldest daughter, Princess Leonor, was in Malaga, they took advantage of returning to one of their favourite places, The Sea Marketa seafood restaurant located opposite the Royal Palace and with an extensive menu dedicated to haute seafood cuisine with a creative touch.
For the occasion, Letizia chose an Ibizan look, ideal for summer nights. She wore a shirt and flowing trousers which she combined with a youthful crochet bag. The monarch, on the other hand, opted for a shirt and chinos. They were always friendly with the people who, stunned, did not expect to see them in the area.
The restaurant they went to offers a gastronomic proposal based on “products of extraordinary quality, prepared with great care and respect to highlight their freshness and flavour”explains the website of La Lonja del Mar, a place well known among food lovers for its exquisite fish dishes.
Here you can choose from clams (€14.00/100g) to oysters (€5.90 each) or white shrimp from Huelva (€16.00/100g).as well as their famous XXL monster langoustine (22 €/100g). They have vegetables from the mountains, such as asparagus, artichokes, tomatoes, gazpachos. And free range eggs in elaborate recipes such as ‘Benedictine’, Boreal Shrimp in Hollandaise sauce (for a price of 15.50), ‘Al punto’ with salmorejo cordobés with flakes of Iberian ham (13.50 €) or ‘Fritos con puntilla’ and Cantabrian Txangurro meat (2 units 18.50 €).
The Kings could opt for these seafood dishes or go for the ‘classics of the Lonja’ such as their famous tuna tartar, crab lasagna from the estuarytheir grilled ‘Cádiz’ carabinero with brioche and memorable sherry sauce or one of the most expensive dishes on the menu: their caviar. They offer SCHRENCKI caviar (30g tin for €48.00) and BAERII caviar (30g tin for €52.00).
Say goodbye to your private vacation
This meeting takes place just three weeks after they set off with their daughters on their private holiday. After their traditional stop in Marivent, they spent a few days relaxing in a destination that is never made official to enjoy some quality time off, away from the spotlight and in the strictest privacy. It should be said that Mariángel Alcázar announced a short time ago that the destination chosen by the royal family was Greece. It was later reported that the kings received an invitation from Máxima of the Netherlands, who has a mansion in Doroufi, in the south of the country, with views of the Aegean Sea.
Felipe VI had to interrupt his vacation to travel to the Dominican Republic, where Luis Abinader’s presidential inauguration took place. However, neither he nor his wife traveled to Madrid, where the funeral of his cousin Juan Gómez-Acebo, who died on Monday, August 12, at the age of 54 from cancer, was scheduled for the same Thursday. The funeral, by decision of the deceased’s siblings, was finally postponed to September, when schedules are clearer and not marked by the difficulties of summer.
A different summer
On the occasion of the celebration of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which concluded last Sunday, August 11, the kings and their daughters lived a somewhat atypical summer. They traveled ‘in shifts’, interrupting their traditional vacations in Marivent. And with August already in its second half, Leonor has begun the countdown to begin the second part of her military training in Marín (Pontevedra). Sofía, for her part, counts the days to start the second year of the International Baccalaureate at the Atlantic College of Wales. In her new student stage, Sofía will be able to choose between Language and Literature Studies, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies, Science, Mathematics and Arts, beyond the common classes. A decision that will reveal the young woman’s tastes, as well as her next academic steps.