Adios Madrid, hola Barcelona

Sunday May 15, 2011                                  Day 319

We were up this morning looking for an early breakfast. We found a wonderful restaurant/upscale deli (for those of you with New Orleans connections, it reminded me of Martin’s Wine Cellar in Metairie) which offered delicious pastries for breakfast, so we had chocolate croissants and another pastry and a cup of café con leche each. Afterward we selected some lunch delicacies - Roger got a ham sandwich and some short sections of sausage wrapped in pastry - sort of a mini-pig-in-the-blanket. We added a chocolate bar to that and took it all away in a lovely carry bag for the train.

We returned to the hotel, packed, paid our bill and walked out for the last time. We made our way through subway to the train station and kissed Madrid goodbye. 

On the train we heard a couple of young guys behind us speaking English, so I leaned back and asked where they are from. They are from Canada but have been living in Tuscany within walking distance of the house where Frances Mayes, of Under the Tuscan Sun fame, lives. 

We arrived in Barcelona and made our way to the Barceloneta subway stop and headed for the apartment Jamie rented for five of us. Alicia called while we were on the subway, just to check on our whereabouts. It took us ten or fifteen extra minutes to find the apartmnet once we got into the area, but we finally managed. 

An odd thing happened on the way from the metro to the apartment – we were walking along and a guy behind us called out to us and pointed out that there was something spilled on my back and on the suitcase I was pulling. He offered a mouchoire and some water to help clean it off, but I pulled a tissue out of my own pocket and we indicated that we had water ourselves. It was too much to clean up in the street anyway, so we thanked him and moved on. I wondered if this was one of those tourist scams, where strangers move in to help us out, then lift my purse in the confusion of cleaning up. If it was, it didn’t succeed, as we declined all help and moved on. There did not seem to be anyone else around to help the guy out, so I don’t know for sure.

It turned out that someone had thrown some of the contents of a bottle of makeup onto me, sloshing it onto my sweater, my purse and the small rolling suitcase I was pulling. It cleaned out of the suitcase and the purse quite well. I will not wash the sweater until I return home. The more I think about it, the more I believe we were the target of a tourist scam. Why else would someone toss liquid makeup onto my back?

It was great seeing Alicia, Peter and Jamie. We relaxed a bit, then walked through lower Barcelona to a funicular which took us up trhe side of a mountain. It terminated at a gondola called Telefuerico Barcelona, but it closed about 15 minutes before we arrived, so we explored the area instead. Alicia checked on a geocache site and we located it. She logged it, then we enjoyed the view out over Barcelona, then returned to the funicular and back to the harbor area of the city. 

A huge brass cat in the street

Alicia, with Barcelona spread out behind her

View of Barcelona from an olympic venue - note Sagrada Familia to the left in the back.

 We settled on a dinner location and took the subway to get there. It is Sunday evening, however, and the place was closed. We settled on a small nearby restaurant, which turned out to be better than we expected. Then it was back to the apartment and to bed.

We had a struggle getting our computers connected to the internet. Alicia and Peter brought my new computer, but we never got it connected. We did manage to get my small one connected, and Alicia got her cell phone to connect, but Jamie had a struggle with her cell phone, and Roger never did get his computer connected.

Impressions of Madrid:

Ice! They have ice and serve cold drinks. Pardon-moi - I earlier stated that there are no cold drinks in Europe. I was wrong - there are in Spain!!

Warm weather - beautiful weather. Even the rain did not spoil our trip, as we did not get wet from it, and our day’s excursions were already over by the time it hit.

Three or four Spanish languages, including Castillan, Catalonian, and a couple of others. Most signs were in two or three languages.

An Egyptian temple in Spain??

Saturday May 14, 2011                               Day 318

I did my back exercises before we left the hotel, then we left for breakfast, and the metro. We arrived at Plaza del España, then walked to an Egyptian temple. The temple was donated to Spain because that country sent its master stonecutters and masons to Egypt to help rescue several archeological sites which were otherwise doomed to be flooded by rising waters behind the Aswan dam. This particular temple was one of the doomed artifacts. It constitutes one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture which can be seen outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.

Hieroglyphics inside the temple.

View from the rear of the temple west across the countryside beyond Madrid

Near the temple was a splendid rose garden, and we spent an hour or so educating ourselves about the difference between hybrid tea roses, floribundas, and other varieties. There was a lagniappe of an orchid show inside an atrium in the garden, so we strolled through it enjoying the vast variety of orchids as well.

An amazing pair of trees in the park near the rose garden

Water lilies in the rose garden

View of the rose garden

An arbor ran about half way around the garden

Near the gardens was a gondola called the Telefuerico Madrid, which took us across the river to nowhere – the terminus was in a wilderness area at the edge of a park, a kilometer or two from an amusement park, but there was no transport. We bought a round trip ticket, so after wandering around a bit, we returned to the origin. When we got on near the rose garden, we told the operator we wanted an English version of the narration, but we didn’t get it. On the way back, however, we did. It was actually pretty stupid – I wish we hadn’t bothered, as it is easier to tune out the foreing language than English.

We ate lunch, then took the metro to Royal Palace, where the king does not live, but which is used for state occasions. We wandered the area a bit, and bought Roger a hat pin. As we were checking them out, we saw another tourist about our age, also wearing a hat, admiring the pins. His wife rolled her eyes at us, or perhaps just at me!

Rain had been threatening all afternoon, so we returned to hotel, arriving just as the first drops of rain began to fall. We spent the latter part of the afternoon in the hotel, dozing and surfing and writing and reading. I was not as tired as yesterday, probably because we did no museums today.

In the subway were several women and a few men
 dressed in some sort of native costume

The rain really served to cool things down – we made sure we had our sweaters on as we left the room for dinner, although during the day it had been quite hot. We ate dinner down the street, where we shared a pitcher of sangria and had to stagger home. In the restaurant, we met a couple in the restaurant from Toronto - he is a native of that city and speaks French, she is a native of Mexico. They are in Spain for 10 days’ vacation. Obviously they had no trouble with the language.

The Prado and beyond

Friday May 13, 2011                                        Day 317

We had breakfast at a little bakery/teashop a few blocks from our hotel, where Roger had a mini empanada and we each had a croissant stuffed with dulce leche. They were both quite good - Roger shared a bit of his empanadailla with me and I found it to be quite tasty - it was filled with spicy meat. My back was bothering me, so we returned to the hotel so that I could do back exercises before we went on to tackle the Prado.

The Prado contains art from about the 16^th century to the 19^th century. We saw lots of Valasquez paintings - they are proud of their native son. There were a number of Van Dykes and a large collection of Reubens works. Later works have all been moved to the Reina Sophia museum which we visited yesterday. The Prado really wore me out. It was probably the cumulative effect of two days in a row of museuming. 

At the Prado we saw several groups of students with their teachers. Often
the whole group had colored paint or chalk on their noses - even the teachers -
apparently so they could be identified with their group if they got separated.
It is unfortunate that this photo is so blurry, but you can see two children with blue noses.

Roger and I continued our interesting discussions about what constitutes art. I asked myself several times in the museum why these pieces are good art. I have determined that I like plebian art the best - that of the common man, by the common man, for the common man. I have only a limited appreciation for mythical and allegorical art, religious art, and the paintings of kings and queens and aristocracy. Give me a good Van Gogh any day.

Lunch was at an outdoor café across the street from the Prado, where we were serenaded by street musicians. I spent 20 Euros on a CD which was so bad that we later abandoned it when we left France! From there we retreated up the street to the subway and returned to our hotel, quite worn out. I napped for an hour or so while Roger read. This is an unusual turn of events for us - usually I read or work on the computer while Roger naps.

Our luncheon serenaders

Someone painted a "shadow" of this post on the sidewalk -
note that it does not match the post!!

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant, and it was quite good. We waited until almost 9:00 to even leave the hotel, and when we arrived shortly after the hour, they were seating patrons for dinner. Among my choices were a tomato soup with roquette sorbet, which was quite interesting. The combination of tomato soup with a scoop of slightly sweet, roquette-flavored ice cream, was unexpected, to say the least. As always in European restaurants, we had trouble getting our bill so we could pay and leave. Indeed, it took us 20 minutes from the time we finished our dessert and began looking for our waiter until we were able to walk out after paying the bill. Apparently most of the restaurants do not expect to turn their tables over in an evening, and the patrons kick back and take their time to enjoy their meals and each other’s company.

We did not get back to the hotel until after 11:00, and we stayed up only a little longer before dropping into bed. Unfortunately, the walls of room were too thin - at 4:00 a.m. we could still hear a couple of guys talking.

Queen Sofia Museum and other treats

Thursday May 12, 2011                                       Day 316

We breakfasted at a street café which served fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was good, but room temperature, so I approached the waitress and asked her for some ice, which she obligingly put into the juice. It was delicious.

Our first stop was the Queen Sofia Museum, where we saw some wonderful exhibits. There was Guernica, which was Picasso’s protest against the bombing of the town by the same name. We also saw several Dali paintings, which were mystical and enigmatic.

Joan Miro's Pájaro lunar, or Moon Parrot, in the garden outside the Museum

There was a temporary exhibit at the museum by a Japanese artist named Yayoi Kusama. Part of the exhibit was a wonderful magical mirror experience examining infinity, which consisted of a room filled with mirrors and small hanging lights of different colors. The lights blinked on and off via a computer control, and sometimes the viewer could see to infinity with red lights, sometimes with varicolored lights, sometimes with green or blue lights. It was quite fascinating and, along with her other works, gave rise to more discussion about what art is. There were her red monster tails in one room, which were truly a delight. Then there was the old suitcase onto which she fastened pasta and painted the entire work with gold paint; and the coat onto which she fastened plastic flowers and painted the whole thing a drab brown. Is this art? Why? Because the artist says it is? By the way, the exhibit indicated that the artist entered a mental institution several years ago and does most of her work from there.

See below for a close-up - hundreds of airmail stickers! Is this art??

Detail of picture above

After the museum, we ate a lunch of shrimp poorboys in street café. They were fried shrimp with the tails left on them, served on dry bread, totally naked. We would have enjoyed some mayonnaise or tomatoes or pickles with them.

After lunch, we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were truly splendid. 

We had a mediocre dinner at tea shop, mostly because we wanted to eat early. It was the first time since I came to Europe that I have had iceburg lettuce. I do not think it exists in France. Thank you, France!!!

When we went out this morning, Roger put our computers into the room safe, using the same combination he always uses. When we got back, we were unable to open the safe. He tried again and again, and even used an alternate combination, thinking perhaps he had used that one instead. No luck. We finally had to call the desk, who sent up a maintenance man to override our combination and get the safe open.

Madrid

Wednesday May 11, 2011                             Day 315

We took an early train this morning for Barcelona, and after a short layover there, traveled on to Madrid. There was a movie on the Barcelona-to-Madrid leg, but it was in French, with French subtitles, so we forwent it in favor of sleep. We passed through the plain in Spain about which Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle sang.

A field of poppies on that Plain in Spain

We arrived in Madrid without incident and located the correct subway line to get us to our hotel. The subway car was very crowded, but we managed to squeeze in nevertheless. After one stop, when the crowding had eased just a bit, a young man moved between me and the door, placing himself so that he was facing me. He had his jacket draped casually over his arm so that it covered his hand. I became aware that it felt as if he was feeling along my purse. I backed away and turned so that my purse was against Roger. After two more stops, we got off. I shared with Roger that I was not certain, but I believed the guy was trying to pick my purse. Roger said that the guy had stood by him and he thought the guy was feeling along his pocket. He said he put his hand down alongside his pocket, and that is when the guy moved away, then selected me as his next target. Welcome to Madrid. I wore my purse turned inward in most of the rest of Madrid, so that the zippers and the openings of the purse were next to my body rather than facing outward. 

At about 7:30, we went out to find dinner. We were surprised to learn that Madrid does not open for evening dining until 9:00! We returned to our hotel room and spent some time on the computer, then shortly before 9:00, we set out again. Our goal was a restaurant not far from our hotel which offers live piano and opera music. When we arrived, we were asked if we had reservations. When we said no, we were next asked for our address. We told the hostess that we were staying at a hotel down the street, and she made a note, then took us to a table. We were not able to determine why she asked for our address.  

I resent that they bring us bread, as is the case in many U.S. restaurants, but then they charge extra for the bread. There is not even the opportunity to refuse it. They just plop it on the table and add 3€to the bill. It is not that would we refuse the bread if we knew we would be charged for it separately, but I just feel it is a backdoor way to get a little more money out of our pockets. 

Our starter came, and we ate it pretty quickly - we were tired and hungry after our travels. Our waiter then approached us and told us that the program of opera singing started at 10:00, and gave us the option of dragging out the meal so we could hear the program, or bringing out the food more quickly. We chose the latter, with some astonishment and slight disapproval from her. She could not believe we would not stay for the program! We did get to hear the first opera piece by a young lady with a fine voice, and some pop tunes played by the pianist. Neither of us cares particularly for opera, however, and were not persuaded to stay and enjoy the entire program. We did share a whole bottle of wine - unusual for us. We had to stagger back to the hotel, which was fortunately on the same street as the restaurant.

Hair cut for Roger

Tuesday May 10, 2011                              Day 314

Market day again. Roger got a haircut today - it was rather a drastic shearing, and Roger suggested that the barber was getting revenge for bin Laden’s death.

I am not sure whether this is a didgeriedoo or something else, but it was intriguing.
I paid my 2 Euros and snapped some photos.

These two mannequins were in the window of a hair salon. Interesting, to say the least!

Innovative use of a clothes dryer vent!!

Celeste again

Monday May 9, 2011                               Day 313
I am getting around better with my injured knee - mostly it is stiff.

In the evening, Celeste came to call again. We kept her for a good half hour or more before Mara came to collect here. She is a sweet cat, just about a year old. 

Roger spent part of the day getting our travel arrangements in line for our next trip. This one will be to Spain – Madrid and Barcelona. We leave on Wednesday.

Happy Mother's Day

Sunday May 8, 2011                                Day 312

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there! We celebrated by going for a walk around the historic city center, then buying artisanal ice cream in the middle of the afternoon. I had a delightful flavor called cactus lime and Roger got salted caramel. 

Alicia called this afternoon, and while I was on the phone with her, I got a call-waiting beep which I am sure was either Shelli or Eric. I ignored it - in all our eight months at this apartment, we have never gotten two calls at one time until today. As a result of my ignoring the call, I did not get to speak to Shelli for Mother’s Day, because she did not call back.

Later we went out to a creperie for dinner, where we had savory crepes for our meal and sweet crepes for dessert. Delicious!

Saturday May 7, 2011                      Day 311

I woke this morning stiff and sore in both hips and my right knee. Bummer! I am going to have to do a lot of stretching and walking in the next few days. I am sure I will be limping for a couple of those days.

Despite my stiff joints, we went to the Market today, and I felt that the walk was good for my knee. Cherries are coming into season here - yum! As is often the case, we saw Anne and paused to speak to her for a few moments.

As we were returning to the apartment, I heard someone on the street call my name. I turned and looked and it was our downstairs neighbor, Mara. She introduced us to her daughter, Alexandria, who is probably about the age of my daughters. Mara said she had just returned from a 5-day walking pilgrimage to Spain. She looked quite fit and a bit tanned and said she had a really good walk. She recommended it to us. She said she would like me to see her patchwork, and I agreed to come down to her apartment. In exchange, I shall show off some of my paintings. At about 4:00, she knocked on my door and asked me down to tea. I picked up my portfolio and carried it down with me. She began by showing me a beautiful quilt in pinks and violets - rather small - more the size of a baby quilt. She plans to hang it on a wall and we discussed which one. She had some cute pieces she had done using applique for animals, then she hand-quilted around the animals - very cute.

I had met her cat Celeste another time, and Celeste made herself comfortable with me. She is a young cat, although no longer a kitten. She played with us and frolicked around the apartment the entire time of my visit.

After we looked at her handiwork, we sat down for tea and I pulled out my artwork. We talked a bit more then I departed.

Roger came home from chess and we were both sitting around when I heard a “meow.” I got up and opened the door and Celeste entered and made herself at home, checking out the nooks and crannies of our apartment. A few moments later, I heard someone coming up the stairs, and I was sure it would be Mara. I opened the door and invited her in. I had to coax Celeste out from under our bed and Mara took her back home. I told Mara we would be happy to keep her some time while Mara was at work.

A view of a pond at the botanical gardens near our apartment

The end is coming!

Friday May 6, 2011             Day 310

I started out my day rather badly - I fell down the stairs. They are narrow and rather slippery and I went upstairs stocking-footed. As I came down, I apparently stepped too far out on a step and my foot slipped. I only fell about 4 steps - didn’t bump my head. Roger was standing quite near the stairs and was able to help keep me from sliding or falling all the way down. I ripped my left pinkie open, wrenched my left hip and my right knee and generally banged myself up. Sigh. This happened just before we were planning to leave the apartment, so we delayed that by half an hour while I collected myself and put a bandage on the pinkie.

Yesterday when Roger returned from chess, there was a notice on the interior door of our building telling us that the building tenants should pick up their badges from the building manager by May 13. So this morning after hitting up the grocery store, we stopped into the real estate management office which manages our building. We entered and I told them in French that we live at 13 boulevard du Jeu de Paume and that we were here for our badges. The clerk checked something in the computer, and another clerk said something about “Stephenson,” who is our landlord., and I replied “oui.” The first clerk then pulled out two small electronic tags, noted the numbers on them - #14 and #15 - and handed them over to us. We thanked them and left. The amazing thing is that we conducted the entire conversation in French, but even more amazing, they did not ask us our names or for any ID. Hm - isn’t that secure!

The upshot of it all is that they are changing our lock from an old-fashioned key-in-the-door to an electronic swipe system, and these “badges” are our electronic keys. We will be gone to Spain on the 13^th, and will not return until the 18^th. I hope there are no glitches in the system and that we can get in when we return!

The prospective tenants called this morning and made an appointment to come by at 2:00. Roger left a little early to go to chess as he didn’t want to have to deal with trying to get away for chess if they came early. They did not - they arrived right at 2:00 and trudged up the three flights of stairs. I opened our door as I heard them on the stairs - there are two doors on our landing and I wanted them to know which was ours. They were a couple about our age - the guy looked older. He is a professor of Jewish studies and genocide studies - not sure where, but in Israel, I suppose. I gave them a brief tour of the apartment and they seemed happy with it overall except for the street noise. Unfortunately there is a lot in the main living area of the apartment. There is construction ongoing out on the street, and constant traffic. There are double-glazed windows which shut out a lot of noise, but in the summer, it will be necessary to have the windows open, as there is no air conditioning in the flat. I don’t know if they will take it or not.

Unfortunately, right in the middle of their visit, the phone rang, and it was Alicia! Regrettably, I had to tell her I could not talk right now. Why did she have to pick this time to call – one of the few times in our whole stay here that I could not take the time to talk!

By the time evening rolled around, my knee was quite sore and stiff. I took a hot bath and that seemed to help a bit. I will need to get out and walk tomorrow to start working some of the stiffness out. Some modern-day prophets have declared that the world is going to end on May 21. Perhaps they are right - two baths in one week, three in 10 days! Surely the world will end soon!

Another painting

Thursday May 5, 2011              Day 309

Happy Cinco de Mayo. Roger suggests that the French probably do not celebrate this as a holiday, since it is celebrated in Mexico as a victory over the French back in the 1860s. Hmmm.

I finished another painting. This one I am quite pleased with. I think it is one of my best paintings yet.

See my blog entry of Sunday, May 1, for the photo from which I worked.

Computer ordering glitches

Wednesday May 4, 2011               Day 308

We went for an hour walk this morning. While we were moving through the Peyrou, we saw a gentleman doing some killer ab work – he raised his hands, put one foot onto a bench, then steadily and gracefully brought the other leg up, paused, and lowered it to the ground. He repeated this several times, then switched to the other leg. I hurt just watching him.

Roger tried out a sundial at the Peyrou.
Although you cannot tell it here, it was off by two hours.

Here is a view of St. Anne's Church through the Peyrou fence.

We bought salmon and asparagus at the grocery store and had that for supper. Roger is getting more tolerant of asparagus, but I don’t think he will ever come to love it. 

We Skyped with Shelli and Brennan in the evening. Shelli got an interesting call from Dell earlier in the day. She described it as a little dance between two people, neither of whom wanted to reveal too much information. The Dell representative wanted to know why someone in France with a Texas address was ordering a computer to be sent to Atlanta. Shelli on the other hand, didn’t know I had ordered the computer, so she was running blind, not wanting to reveal too much and yet wanting to help the woman out. Apparently she did a good enough job, because later in the day we got the confirmation from Dell.

I told Alicia I was ordering the computer, because I needed her agreement to bring it, and also because I needed to verify where to have the computer shipped. There have been a number of instances of packages disappearing off of neighborhood porches in the area around Alicia’s and Peter’s house, and she told us some time ago that if we wanted to deliver a package, to have it sent to Peter’s work address, which I did not have. But I didn’t bother to tell Shelli, simply because I did not think of it as a high-priority need-to-know item for her. Thanks, Shelli, for stumbling through that for me.

New Computer

Tuesday May 3, 2011  Day 307

I finally ordered a new computer today. I have been increasingly frustrated with the limitations of this computer I like having lots of windows open and multi-tasking both on and off the web, and this computer gets slower and slower as I open more things. Even with only the internet open, however, it runs at about 75% of capacity, which does not allow for much else to be open. I decided to upgrade and have Alicia and Peter bring it to me when they come.

My African violet has bloomed. I guess I should move it out of the half-milk-bottle pot I fixed for it and give it a bit more dignified residence.