El Corte Inglés S.A. (English: The English Cut as in tailor's cut) is Spain's only remaining…read moredepartment store chain, as well as owner of several associated businesses. The primary flagship store for the chain is located in Madrid at 79, Raimundo Fernández Villaverde Street. It encompasses several buildings and carries the most comprehensive collection of designers of any large store in Spain.
I briefly coaxed Gayle into one building of the Madrid Complex sometime during the evening before Día de la Hispanidad. El Corte Inglés was also close to the Hotel, so why not? I don't recall what I was looking for, but I remember the entire place to be packed with people. We walked and shopped around, but left relatively quickly. After all, we didn't come to Spain to spend too much time in a large equivalent of Macy's. And as Gayle and I later traveled through Bilboa, San Sebastian, Girona, or Barcelona, there was a El Corte Inglés around just in case we changed our mind.
Yet, there's a grocery store in the basement and one always needs wine and nibbles on the road......