I was wondering if there are many bookstores with English reading material and grocery stores with typical things like peanut butter and cheddar cheese from England, for those times when I might want to take a mental trip to the States, once we are living there.

You could try El Corte Ingles, they seem to have everything.

Hi Gang, jer here.

Well Gail, the Corte Ingl�s is good for last resort type stuff on the food subject since they do carry specialty items but it is not the best choice since it is rather expensive.

Warning, I bought some cheddar cheese last week called "Irish Cheddar" from a stand at a local market in the city center. and it was not very tasty. It is very hard to find good cheddar here (sharp cheddar), for this I would recommend El Corte Ingl�s. In all fairness, I was later told by an Irish friend and restaurant manager (cheese expert) that Irish Cheddar is generally crappola :(

There is an ideal American supermarket here called "Taste of America" and while they used to be on the Paseo de la Castellana, they moved about a year ago to the Calle Hermosilla, near the corner of Calle Serrano and just past the big Marks & Spencer dept. store. I guess the best Metro stop would be either Serrano or Velazquez (both on line #4). I am not sure of the exact street # but the last e-mail I have for them is taste@empresarial.com . Write them and see what happens.

There are plenty of great English (and other) language bookshops in Madrid. Try my resource on this type of service at www.multimadrid.com/mm_interactive/links/madrid_booksellers.htm as it is chock-full of ideas.

I especially recommend the International Bookshop (first link on that page) here in Madrid.

It is a great little bookshop in the center of the city, the "IBS" has become quite the little subculture for ex-pats and tourists alike. Owned and operated by Jenny (an American in love with Madrid), the bookshop specializes in inexpensive second hand English, French, German and other foreign language books. Jenny also finds the time to sell postcards, gifts and even organize language classes and tertulias.

Where: Calle Campoamanes N� 13.
Metro - Santo Domingo or Opera (line 2). Tel.: (+34) 91 541 72 91.
website = www.oleidiomas.com/interbookshop
e-mail = interbookshop@yahoo.com

Saludos and happy hunting !
jer...

p.d. For those Englishmen and women who are living in Spain and just can not live without their home cuisine (god knows why ), there is also an online British supermarket at www.britbuys.com that seems to have a large array of English food products available for shipping anywhere in Spain.

Just the answers I was looking for. Many thanks. Forgot to ask about movies in English. At the theaters, that is. Are there certain ones that will always offer VO movies or do all in the Madrid area, including suburbs sometimes have them and you just check the papers or is there a rhyme and reason to this subject.

Hey Gail, jer again.

Glad the food and book advice helped out .

The Original Version movie scene is well organized here in Madrid, there are theatres that put on the flicks in V.O.("Versi�n Original") and they are spread around the city.

Yes indeedy, all the newspapers here have the listings for the V.O. movie theatres.

You can also get a good list of them online at the InMadrid (popular and cool monthly newspaper in English) website at www.in-madrid.com/entertain and the direct link to the list is www.in-madrid.com/pags/entertain/cinemas.htm

Have fun,
jer...

p.d. Saw Moulin Rouge this weekend at Cine Ideal (best V.O. theatre in town ) on Calle Doctor Cortezo, #6 (just off of the Plaza de Jacinto Benavente). GOod flick, I recommend it, very funny and original to say the least.

website: www.clubmoulinrouge.com