Category Archives: 2024

8th August 2024: The Museums in Moncloa (Madrid, Spain)

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It’s quite hot out there, but I decided to hit a couple of museums in Madrid. A few months back, I got a card for the national museums, thinking I was getting a better deal than I did. Though it is true that you can get enter (most of) the national museums for free, you have to ID yourself, so you still have to queue, which is what I was expecting to avoid. However, it has at least pushed me to try and see a couple of museums I would not really visit (or even be aware of!) otherwise.

There are two museums in the district of Moncloa-Aravaca, an area I’m not usually around. One, I was curious about. The other is one I would not have even considered without the card: the Costume or Fashion Museum and Ethnographic Heritage Research Centre Museo del traje. Centro de Investigación del Patrimonio Etnológico (CIPE). It is a collection of pieces of clothing, textiles and accessories from the 17th century onwards, and I’m sure it is amazing if you know anything about fashion… which I don’t. The museum is organised chronologically, with a few pieces from the Middle Ages, then fabrics, costumes and complements since they became a thing.

There is also a collection of traditional outfits from different regions throughout Spain. The visit finishes with some of the big names in fashion, including Coco Chanel, Balenciaga, or Christian Dior. There was also an area for visually-impaired visitors, which allowed them to touch mannequins and fabrics from different style periods in history.

Costume and Fashion Museum Madrid

They were running a temporary exhibition called Vistiendo un jardín (Wearing a garden). It deals with the nature and flowers in fabric and costumes from the Baroque period onwards. They were in the middle of a guided visit so there was a big group, and I could only have a quick walk.

Wearing a garden Temporary exhibition

I walked over to the museum of the Americas Museo de América. The institution exhibits archaeological and ethnographical artefacts from the Americas, alongside art from the Palaeolithic period to the present, with a strong presence of Colonial art.

The origin of the collection was the Royal Cabinet of Natural history that Charles III had established in 1771. The collection increased with objects brought from discovery expeditions and Spanish colonies in America, especially those unearthed during archaeological excavations. In 1815, the science artefacts from the cabinet were integrated into what became the National Museum of Natural Sciences, and in 1868 the antiquities, ethnography, and art were transferred to the Museum of Archaeology. In 1941, the American artefacts were transferred to the newly formed museum. A more recent source has been that of donation and legacies.

Nowadays, the collection comprises around 25,000 artefacts and about 2,500 of them are exhibited – though the most important ones are copies due to “conservation issues”. The archaeological artefacts include Mayan, Inca, Aztec, Nazca, Amazonian, and even from North American native cultures who lived in what we now call the Great Plains or Alaska. The Colonial art pieces mostly include religious art and what is called pintura de castas, which tries to represent the appearance and daily life of the peoples of mixed race, descendants of European, African and Indigenous inhabitants of the colonies. There is also a ward dedicated to modern art and social criticism against colonisation. I found the organisation of the museum a bit strange, by theme areas instead of time-and-place.

Artefacts from the Museum of the Americas

Arguably, the most important group of pieces that the museum exhibits is the so-called Tesoro de los Quimbayas (Quimbaya Treasure). The Quimbayas were a small indigenous group from precolonial America, who lived south of what is now Medellín, Colombia. They were known for their works in gold and an alloy of copper and gold called tumbaga. The treasure comprises 122 pieces, which represent about one fifth of the original findings. It is believed that the belonged to two sets of grave goods, and dates from the 5th or 6th centuries CE. The treasure was dug up during the Colombian gold fever, when archaeological items were sold for their weight in gold. The artefacts include figures, crowns, jewellery (nose- and ear-ornament, necklace beads, pins, pendants), containers, ceremonial vessels and poporos (used to keep coca leaves for religious ceremonies), and musical items such as bells.

Quimbaya treasure

I actually had been thinking about staying in Madrid and do something else, like the observatory known as Faro de Moncloa, which is literally next to the Museum of the Americas. Or a nice themed restaurant or something. But it was ridiculously hot and I just did not feel like it. It was early for lunch too, but by the time I got anywhere cool, it would be right in the middle of the rush. So I just went back into the transport system. Of course, the train was delayed. I need to stop planning around the official train schedules, especially around food times…

27th July 2024: Staying inside in Madrid’s heat (Spain)

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I was so excited when I found tickets for the historical hall at Pacífico station that I did not stop to think I had booked for late July, at 16:00, in Madrid. The heat wave was an extra, but even without it, the Spanish central plateau is not precisely known for its mild summers. However, the hall only opens once a month, and not every month, and I had never been able to find a ticket on a weekend I could go, so honestly – when I saw these tickets, I did not think about the weather, just… that I could come.

The day came, and Madrid had a heat alert. It was around 37 ºC, and I thought I would stay inside, and just head out for the visit. Unfortunately, since trains are being horrible, I needed to take one with at least an hour’s berth to make sure I reached the underground station Estación de Pacífico. When I arrived, I looked around to finally realise that the hall was at the actual platform, warded off by a very modern nondescript door. I had brought a book to pass the time, because I knew I would either have a lot of time, or I would be stressed because the train was late. I found a bench and settled down to wait somewhere I could keep an eye on the door. Visitors are not directly admitted into the hall, but they are cleared at ticket control on the other side of the platform, then go back all the way to the entrance. In our case, we waited for a bit, and the guide decided to head through the platform right as a train arrived, so everything was full. Spanish logic.

The former hall Vestíbulo de Pacífico is part of the network of Underground museums Museos de Metro de Madrid. Until it was walled off in 1966, it was the entrance to the station Estación de Pacífico, built in 1923 when the underground Line 1 was extended towards the south-west. The passengers climbed down a now-disappeared staircase and crossed the hall, which still had natural light. On the other side, there was some sort of metallic bridge with another set of stairs to access the platforms.

The station used to be part of a huge complex owned by Metro, which also comprised offices, control rooms, and the warehouse that housed the engines that created energy for the trains to run on. At the time, it was an unpopulated area, so land was cheaper. Today, most everything has been replaced by apartment buildings and only the station and the nearby Nave de Motores remain.

The whole complex was designed by architect Antonio Palacios, and the hall was built in white tiles with blue decoration – a homage to the Pacific Ocean, which gives the station its name. The hall is tiny by today’s standards, barely 119 square metres. It has three vaults that used to have skylights for the sun to light up the hall – now those are closed off as the street above them is busy. The station was renovated in the 60s so it could accommodate the longer trains, new accesses were built, and the hall closed down. That renovation was the same that made the station Estación de Chamberí close, and apparently another hall that has been uncovered in Ventas.

The hall was bricked away for almost half a century, until restoration work started in 2007. It took ten years, as budget was low and the process was labour intense – 60% of the hall had to be rebuilt. However, the final product is really good, you can see the newer tiles if you look for them, but the whole thing feels extremely well preserved. Even the staircase, which was built to access the hall after the iron bridge was destroyed, feels time-appropriate. A replica of the original doors was put up.

Pacífico Booking Hall

And right when I have seen all the five Underground museums that require appointment… I find out there is a passport of them – Pasaporte de Pasaporte de los Museos de Metro. Just my luck! Then again, maybe Metro will take these articles as proof of visit and backstamp me for them?

The visit took about one hour, then I rode the underground back towards Atocha, and bypassed it to the next station. I had decided to try my luck with the queue at modern art museum Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, part of the national network of museums covered by my card. To be honest, I do not enjoy modern art that much, so I have been putting off this one visit. However, the museum holds a piece by Pablo Picasso that has become quite socially loaded – Picasso’s Guernica, which I have always thought I ought to see at least once.

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He was co-inventor of collage, co-founder of Cubism, and inventor of the assemblage (basically, collage in 3D). He painted, sculpted, and made prints, ceramics and theatre sets. I have never connected much, if at all, with the kind of art he was making. I do not really understand the limits he broke, nor whatever he wanted to express. That is why I wanted to see this artwork in particular – to try to understand.

Arguably Picasso’s most famous painting is Guernica (1937). During the Spanish Civil War, German planes bombed the Basque town of Guernica, in the north of Spain, to aid the Nationalist army. The town was destroyed, and up to 300 people lost their lives – the raid opened the northern front for Franco to reach Bilbao. British reporter George Steer wrote a scoop on the event after he witnessed the destruction, and his reports made waves internationally. Picasso, who lived in France at the time, had been commissioned a piece of artwork for the Paris World’s Fair by the Republicans (at the time the rightful government of Spain). Upon reading the news, he scrapped his original idea and painted the Guernica instead.

The painting is one of the most important artworks that the museum has. It is a huge piece, in black and white, showing the carnage. As most men were out in the battleground, the majority of victims were women and children – along with a dead soldier, a horse and a bull, most of the figures in the pairing represent women and horror. I honestly find the description of the painting more chilly that the artwork itself.

One kind of feels that the museum itself as built as a huge sarcophagus for the Guernica, and other pieces are there just to fill up the space. A sculpture by Eduardo Chillida is exhibited in the gardens. There is also a space about architecture, with blueprints and photographs, including artwork by Le Corbusier. Other artists whose work is shown include Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Alexander Calder… Actually, I enjoyed the museum more than I thought, as I expected only abstract art that I would not understand. I enjoyed the blueprints and photographs of buildings, and the actual building too.

Exhibits at Museum Reina Sofía

I then headed up Paseo del Prado to find one of the local cultural centres. I was ridiculously amused when I reached the corner where CaixaForum stands. I was on my phone, and when I looked up, I saw the Patagotitan “looking” at me. It gave me a laugh.

Patagotiatan at Caixaforum

The cultural centre Serrería Belga is running a Japan-themed exhibit, divided in parts:

  • Kinpaku. Naturaleza, poder e imaginación en el arte japonés (Kinpaku: Nature, power and imagination in Japanese art): Kinpaku [金箔] refers to gold leaf artwork, often used in decoration in classical Japanese culture. A private collector has lent their items to exhibit – windscreens and fans, all painted in gold, so they can be enjoyed by everyone.
  • Kimono, identidad cambiante: un siglo a pie de calle (Kimono, changing identities: a century on the streets): Kimono [着物] is the traditional Japanese clothing – one that unlike many others is still common wear. There were twenty of these, including accessories.
  • Expokon: A series of panels discussing different hits in sports manga and derivatives.
  • Japan International Manga Award: Panels drawn by the Spanish artists who have won the awards in different years.
  • Kamishibai: Kamishibai [紙芝居] is (was) a form of Japanese street theatre using a small paper theatre with pictures to tell the stories. There were several sets of stories, some classical, some more modern.
  • Manga Kids Academy: A few panels showing Japanese school life through manga and anime.
  • Itadakimanga!: A series of panels showing different foods popular in manga and anime.
  • Gêmu: cultura visual y videojuego japonés (Gēmu: visual culture and Japanese video games): Some items regarding video games, and even a few arcade machines for playing.

Japanese exhibits at Serrería Belga

The exhibits were part of Madrid’s summer cultural program, which has named Japan “Guest Country”. They were a few cute little exhibits, and they were free too, so a good way to complete half a day trip. I headed back to the station afterwards, to wait for whichever train came, and I was lucky enough that one was there in a couple of minutes – I even found a good seat on my way back.

And I have finally seen the hall at Pacífico, which has been a goal since April 2023. Now I just have to figure out a way to obtain the passport and have it stamped…

21st July 2024: From the Sea to the Butterfly (Madrid, Spain)

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When planning for the day, the one thing I did not count on was the heat wave. I did take into account problems with trains, but apparently a half-hour delay is a non-issue by now and not worth mentioning. I reached Madrid around 12:30, and I had a reservation at 13:00 for a themed restaurant which had caught my eye when I saw it online. It was honestly a big disappointment, though I refused to let it ruin my day.

The restaurant is called Bestial, and it is ocean-themed. The pictures were awesome, it looked super cool, and I was pretty excited to go there. However, the experience was mediocre at best – I guess solo travellers are not their target audience, and it showed. As I was mainly ignored, I could watch how the restaurant worked. The waiters got the tables mixed up a few times, and they allowed others to take pictures with cocktails that were not theirs – that was weird, and I am pretty sure that against health code. I ordered a lemonade – the best thing – a tuna tartar and a crab bao without coriander, after checking that the coriander could be taken out. The tuna was tasteless, and the bao did have taste… coriander. All in all, I was not impressed by the food, even less by the service. Between the two dishes there were about 35 minutes waiting, and after an hour I just gave up and asked for the check, which was brought in a little book… and dropped halfway, then picked up from the floor… I just paid – the meal was not cheap – and left without dessert. A pity, really, but I really did not care any more.

Restaurante Bestial by Rosi La Loca

It was ridiculously early for my 16:00 visit, but I wanted to try my luck. I had chosen that day because CaixaForum Madrid was running two exhibitions that I wanted to see – Patagonian dinosaurs (which had just opened) and The Science of Pixar (which would end soon). The exhibition centre was booked out, so I could not sneak in before my time slot, but I managed to get my most burning question answered – how on earth were they going to fit a Patagotitan inside CaixaForum? Answer: they did not. They placed it outside, which was a fun surprise!

Patagotitan skeleton in front of CaixaForum Madrid

Since I had about an hour and a half, I decided to trot over to the painting museum Museo del Prado, part of the national network of museums, which I can access with my one-year card. I thought I might be luckier and the queue to enter without a reservation would work better. Indeed, I did not have to wait indeed, and I could have a look at a few of the masterpieces the collection holds (though not take photographs) – Francisco de Goya, Joaquín Sorolla, Diego Velázquez, Esteban Murillo, Fra Angelico, Hieronymus Bosch… Of course, not all the masters, because El Prado is enormous. It is also air-conditioned, and surprisingly, not as full as I half-expected. There was a queue when I came out, so I guess it worked out well!

I walked back to CaixaForum Madrid to see the two exhibitions I had booked. It was a bit before 16:00, but this time I did not ask, and just walked into the first exhibition – “Patagonian Dinosaurs”: Dinosaurios de la Patagonia, which had very little new information, and even fewer actual fossils, but a lot of dinosaur reconstructions. Those were cool. Aside from the Patagotitan mayorum placed outside, there were full skeleton replicas of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, Eoabelisaurus mefi, Leonerasaurus taquetrensis, Eoraptor lunensis, Condorraptor currumili, Brachytrachelopan mesai, Amargasaurus cazaui, Tyrannotitan chubutensis, Neuquensaurus australis, Carnotaurus sastrei, Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis and Manidens condorensis. There was also a Giganotosaurus carolinii skull. As for the real thing, a femur, a shoulder plate and a forelimb of Patagotitan, some teeth and vertebrae and a few invertebrates and leaves. It was really cool, and not extremely crowded for a dinosaur exhibit in summer. It was only the third day of the exhibit, so maybe it was not that well publicised yet? Out of the new species I discovered, Amargasaurus was my favourite – with the neck spikes it looked exactly like I would have imagined a dragon.

Patagonian Dinosaurs

Patagotitan front and back legs, along with a huge shoulderblade

The other exhibition that ran at the time was “The Science of Pixar”: La Ciencia de Pixar. It felt like a nerdy companion to Mundo Pixar, focusing on the maths and the process to create a Pixar film. Unfortunately, it was bustling with kids who – understandably – just wanted to smash buttons and make things light up. The exhibition had a lot of cool machines which simulate the different steps of creating a computer-animated film – rigging, modelling, lighting, rendering… The most interesting was an analysis called “What colour is this pixel?” taking into account movement, lights, shadows… It must be amazing to be able to visit the exhibit alone and be able to play with all the computers. I did find one where you get to simulate crowds using shoals of fish (from Finding Nemo) and I played with that for a while. There were also a few life-sized models from several films, miniatures and 3D mini-sculptures.

La Ciencia de Pixar

I left the venue after browsing the shop, and I walked down towards the theatre. It was still early, and I wanted to hit a couple of shops. Actually, I wanted to go to what is commonly known as the Primark flagship shop. The building Edificio Gran Vía 32 was originally erected in the 1920s to host the first department store in Madrid, Almacenes Madrid-París. It was designed by architect Teodoro de Anasagasti and used the most modern technology and materials at the time – reinforced concrete in the avant-garde style. The whole interior is built around an octagonal lightwell with a central staircase, and today the lowest four floors have been turned into the Primark shop, which has fitted screens and lightings while keeping the previous structures and railings. The modernisation project was undertaken by architectural studio RCCyP and it took three years until the shop opened in 2015.

Interior of Edificio Gran Vía 32

I continued off towards the theatre Teatro Real. I had a bit of time and some unspent calorie budget, so I decided to splurge at Starbucks with a whipped-cream Frappe for my pre-show snack. For the same price I had awesome third floor for Carmina Burana, I had a fifth-floor-in-the-back paradise ticket now. However, it was a lone seat with a great view, so I am not going to complain. I was going to watch the opera Madama Butterfly by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini – and sometimes I think that the better the singers are, the worse time I have with this show.

Madama Butterfly Promo

The main character is Cio-cio, a name that when pronounced in Italian sounds similar to 蝶々, [Choucho], butterfly in Japanese. When she is 15 years old, in 1904, Cio-cio marries an American navy man, Pinkerton, who intends to leave her and find a ‘decent’ American wife. Cio-cio is repudiated by her whole family when she converts to Christianity for her marriage. Three years later, she is alone, almost bankrupt, the mother of Pinkerton’s child, and a marriage broker is trying to sell her off to another prospective husband. Pinkerton returns to Japan with his American wife, who agrees to raise the child, but he cannot face Cio-cio because he is a coward. She (spoiler alert) prepares their son to go with him, then commits seppuku.

And even a bigger spoiler alert, I hate Pinkerton. Viscerally. My parents tried to start me into opera way too young to understand plots, I feel, and I did not want to do anything to do with it for a long time. However, at one point I wanted to see Madama Butterfly due to it taking place in Japan – being older helps, and I slowly learnt to appreciate the musical genre. Basically, by hating on Pinkerton.

Apparently, Teatro Real is known for its alternative settings and takes on classical operas. In this case, they let go of the old Japanese cottage in order to use… a modern-ish undisclosed Asian country. There was an overpass with Chinese signage, a billboard with McDonald’s and Bailey’s spoofs in Japanese (that did not make any sense), and the traditional cottage was exchanged for a greenhouse of sorts. There is a scene in the traditional opera in which the characters fill the house with flowers. In this case, they coloured the glass panes with hand paint. It was a great show.

Cast:

  • Cio-Cio-san: Ailyn Pérez
  • Suzuki: Nino Surguladze
  • F.B. Pinkerton: Charles Castronovo
  • Sharpless: Lucas Meachem
  • Goro: Moisés Marín

Artistic team:

  • Musical conductor: Nicola Luisotti
  • Stage direction: Damiano Michieletto
  • Set design: Paolo Fantin

Madama Butterfly Teatro Real

The show finished around 22:20. I walked up Arenal Street towards Sol. While I missed my first train because some people love to take up space while walking slowly, I made it for a good connection at Atocha, and I was actually home before midnight.

6th July 2024: O fortuna! (Madrid, Spain)

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A couple of days before going to London to see Kamijo, I found out that a local music non-profit was staging Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in Madrid. Buying tickets (for that, and the upcoming opera Madama Butterfly) broke havoc with my credit cards, but everything was eventually fixed – I think. It had me stressed at the beginning of that trip, but it seems to be finally fixed. Again. I did have to miss Swan Lake in London because the credit cards would not go through.

Anyway, I had my ticket and though I would have loved to spend the day out, I was too ridiculously tired to take a whole day of sightseeing. Furthermore, the place I wanted to have lunch out was not taking reservations since they broadcast sports, and there was some big match or another. Yes, I want to go somewhere that defines itself as a sports bar, but that’s a story for another day (like the time I thought I could go to a sports bar during the Olympics because “Oh, well, there’s nothing sporty going on, right?”).

I thus decided to head off with a small pre-show plan, which turned out to be a great idea. When I alighted from the train station, the streets were clear for the Pride parade – I do not think I have ever seen the area surrounding Estación de Atocha so empty. I walked towards the theatre Teatro Real, but my first stop was the underground station of Opera, home to one of the Underground museums Museos de Metro de Madrid. Unlike the others, this is only tangentially related to the underground system itself – it is an archaeological museum, hosting an ancient fountain, part of an aqueduct, and the remains of a sewer.

King Felipe II made Madrid the capital of Spain in 1561, and aside of some brief periods of strife, it remains so to the present day. That has implied a lot of changes through history – among them, the destruction of the city walls, and the construction of an aqueduct to provide the city with water. When the court moved there, the villa of Madrid was little more than a village whose population skyrocketed in a couple of years. The new city needed services as it grew.

One of these was the fountain called Caños del Peral (literally something like “Peartree faucets”). The fountain was 34 metres long and it channelled water from the stream that ran down what is now Arenal Street. It was built in local limestone, had six faucets, and it probably was the largest fountain in the area where it was built in the late 1500s – the outskirts. Ironically, today it is quite close to the centre of the city, even the middle of Spain, the so-called “Zero Kilometre” in the square Puerta del Sol.

Fountain Caños del Peral

The fountain was destroyed during the reign of José I (Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, who was installed as king of Spain between 1808 and 1813). Caños del Peral, along with the buildings around the square, were demolished and used to fill the gorge that until then had separated Madrid in two. And in that filled gorge it was discovered in the early 2000s during works to refurbish the underground station of Ópera. Further works uncovered the sewer from the same period, a structure that channelled black waters away from the drinking streams for sanitation.

Sewer at el Arenal

The aqueduct Viaje de Amaniel was built around 1615 century to bring clean water to the Royal Palace, and with time it also supplied other properties. The infrastructure was heavily remodelled in the 18th century, after the Royal Palace was rebuilt into its current form after the fire that destroyed the original alcázar.

Section: Viaje de Amaniel

As I was coming out from the little museum and the underground system, I noticed a display reading that the underground / train station that I needed after the show was closed “until end of service”. Which was good to know beforehand, since I had time to replan my route – the trains were a mess in the evening due to Pride, and a few stations being closed off for crowd control. I grabbed a snack at the local Starbucks and headed into the theatre.

The Royal Opera of Madrid Teatro Real opened in 1850. It was originally designed by José Manuel González-Valcárcel, though it has been widely renovated, with the latest iteration dating from 1997. It is considered the most important venue for performing and musical arts in Spain – despite having been closed for decades at a time. Curiously, the theatre has the shape of a coffin – at first, I really thought that was my imagination, but apparently it is not only real but intentional.

Teatro Real: stairs and interior

I had found really good tickets, first floor next to the Royal Booth – for the same price, I would later get a fifth / sixth floor ticket for Madama Butterfly. The repertory had been put together by Fundación Excelentia, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promote and divulge lyrical heritage and musical values.

Carmina Burana Promo

Programme:
  First part:
  1. Beethoven: Egmont. Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo – Allegro
  2. Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
  Second Part:
  3. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

The show was conducted by Juan Pablo Valencia and interpreted by the orchestra Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, the choir Sociedad Coral Excelentia de Madrid, soprano Rocío Martínez, baritone Manuel Mas and countertenor David Miranda.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770? – 1827) is considered one of the most important figures in Western music. Born in Germany, his works bridged the classical and romantic periods in classical music. His works are amongst the most performed in the world, even though he began losing his hearing halfway through his career. He composed Egmont around 1810 for a full symphonic orchestra, and Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 in 1812. The Symphony has four movements: Allegro vivace e con brio (F major), Allegretto scherzando (B flat major), Tempo di menuetto (F major), and Allegro vivace (F major). I am not the biggest Beethoven fan, to be honest, but it was good. The conductor had a great time.

My main reason to be there was the second part of the show: Carmina Burana (Officially Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis which translates from Latin as “Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images”, quite a mouthful). German author Carl Orff (1895 – 1982) composed the cantata between 1935 and 1936. Most of the lyrics are in Latin, though there is a bit of old German and even old French. The cantata has 25 movements based on 24 Medieval poems, with the first and last movements being the same: O fortuna, which happens to be one of my favourite choir pieces ever. There is one instrumental-only piece, and all the others have vocals – for choir, soprano, baritone and countertenor.

The twenty-five movements are organised in sections, which are officially five, but divided as:

  • Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, empress of the world): 1. O fortuna (Oh, fortune), as I mentioned, I love this choir; 2. Fortune plango vulnera (Regret for the wounds of fortune).
  • I. Primo vere (In spring): 3. Veris leta facies (The joyous face of Spring); 4. Omnia Sol temperat (All the things are warmed by the sun); 5. Ecce gratum (Behold the welcome)
  • Uf dem anger (In the meadow): 6. Tanz (Dance), the only instrumental movement in the cantata; 7. Floret silva nobilis (The noble woods bloom); 8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir (Monger, give me a coloured paint); 9a Reie (Round dance); 9b Swaz hie gat umbe (Those who dance around); 9c Chume, chum, geselle min (Come my dear companion); 9d: Swaz hie gat umbe reprise; 10. Were diu werlt alle min (If the whole world were mine)
  • II. In taberna (In the tavern): 11. Estuans interius (Seething internally); 12. Olim lacus colueram (I once swam in lakes) – this is the piece the countertenor sang, and I am not completely sure the guy was drunk, or playing drunk. 13. Ego sum abbas (I am the abbot); 14. In taberna quando sumus (When we are in the tavern)
  • III. Cour d’amour: 15. Amor volat undique (Love flies everywhere) I have to admit that I did not love the soprano, who sang for the first time at this piece – she sang well, but too low, it was difficult to hear her at times; 16. Dies, nox et omnia (Day, night and everything); 17. Stetit puella (There stood a girl); 18. Circa mea pectora (Inside my chest). 19. Si puer cum puellula (If a boy with a girl). 20. Veni, veni, venias (Come, come, please come) – these are the same lyrics that Final Fantasy VII’s theme for Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel has, and looking at the translation, now I understand why it was never intended to be the psychotic mass-murderer theme… 21. In trutina (On the scales); 22. Tempus est iocundum (Time to jest); 23. Dulcissime (Sweetest lad)
  • Blanziflor et Helena (Blancheflour and Helen); this refers to the romance story of Blancheflour and to Helen of Troy. 24. Ave formosissima (Hail to the loveliest)
  • Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: 25. O fortuna (Oh, fortune)

All in all, it was a great experience, and I had a privileged seat. I really enjoyed the show, as it was expected from something at the Teatro Real. The gentleman next to me slept through the first part and hummed along the second, which was weird. The soprano’s voice was too faint and she tended to sing towards the other side of the theatre, making it hard to hear her, but the baritone was good. The choir was fantastic, and the percussion musicians had a perfectly choreographed exchange of positions to play all the small parts which was really amusing to watch. Especially one who hugged the gong to quiet down the reverberations.

Artists after the Carmina Burana Show

When I came out the theatre, I headed off towards the underground system and reached the train station, which took over 20 minutes – normally, I would have just walked to Sol and take the first train there to connect faster, and stay within the same system. As Sol was closed, this was not an option. When I arrived at Atocha, the platform was almost overflowing as the trains were running with long delays. I think I took a train that should have passed through around 22:30… at 23:00. I was not sure everyone would fit in the train, to be honest. Good thing that they announced a second one for a few minutes later. I made it home past midnight, took a shower and crashed because it was hot – Spain in July. What else is new?

30th June 2024: Engines, illusions, history and tea (Madrid, Spain)

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Since finding about my tea time outings, my sibling had been wanting to tag along to one. I was asked to organise something for the weekend that involved either Chinese hotpot or afternoon tea in Madrid. The hotpot place was booked out both days, but I found an afternoon tea opening on Sunday the 30th. I am too lazy to move out just for tea, so I organised a bit of a day out.

After an uneventful train ride, our first stop was at noon: Nave de Motores de Pacífico, the former energy centre that fed electricity to the original underground lines. Today, it is not in use and it has become part of the network of museums Museos Metro de Madrid. The warehouse was built by Antonio Palacios between 1922 and 1923 to home the diesel engines, transformers and fuel that single-handedly powered the underground system before the Spanish Civil War. The system was actually in place until 1972.

Warehouse containing the old underground engines

The building was erected in red brick, with white tiles inside, decorated with Palacio’s typical metallic green. The floors are ceramic tiles, and the engines are three monstrous vessel-powering pieces of engineering. These diesel engines created electricity, which then entered the transformers, and was sent to the power lines to feed the trains. At night, the excess was sold to the local street-light network.

Since we were going for afternoon tea to El Jardín de Orfila, where I have been before, I knew lunch was out of the question. However, we needed a snack. I planned that at Yatai Market, an… Asian food court of sorts. A number of stands come together to offer different cuisines and snacks, even full-sized meals. We tried a Chinese bao each and a couple of dim sums. I ordered a hoisin duck bao which was extremely yummy. I will definitely come back to try other stuff.

HotBao Yatai Market Cortezo

Afterwards, we headed off to the so-called Museum of Illusions. This museum is a compendium of optical illusion and installations designed to fool the brain into believing things that are either wrong or just not there: a distorted room so you look big in one corner but small in the other (Ames room), a vortex where you seem unable to walk straight, a rotated room, a room full of mirrors – there were a lot of illusions with mirrors actually – stereograms with hidden images, turntables, holograms…

We had a reservation for 14:00, and I was surprised at how chaotic entry was. I mean, they’ve been running the thing for a while now, someone should have figured out how to do crowd management, but no. Then, there were kids running and screeching all around, but it calmed down after a while. I had really hoped that the museum would be calm and half-empty at lunch time, but it was not so, not by a long shot. It was interesting though, and pretty fun.

Museum of Illusions Madrid

However, the experience was shorter than I had calculated, so I had to improvise an extra stop. Thus, we entered the local history museum Museo de Historia de Madrid, which tells the city’s history since Madrid became the capital of Spain. There are paintings, models, typical costumes, plans, maps, and Playmobil sets depicting of the uprising against the French in 1808. The museum is hosted in a former palace-like building which was actually built as a hospice. To the side stands the original Baroque chapel. It also has a lovely garden with a monumental fountain, which was relocated from its original place for conservation.

Museo de Madrid exhibits

Museo de Madrid - chapel and fountain

We spent some time there and then headed off to the building that now holds the office of the Copyright Owners’ association, a manor known as Palacio de Longoria. It was designed by José Grases Riera and built between 1902 and 1904. It is one of the few actual Art Nouveau buildings in Madrid, possibly the most important one. The façades were made in artificial stone, with sculptures and shapes resembling vegetation. I’ve wanted to visit it for a long time, but it is only open when there is an exhibition, and the stars had never aligned – until this time. There was an exhibition about urban music, and I was not going to let go of the chance to see the monumental staircase and the skylight.

Longoria Palace

We finally set off for afternoon tea at El Jardín de Orfila. Out of the several places I’ve tried afternoon tea in Madrid, this has been my favourite to date. The outside garden is lovely, but mostly, their scones are the best around.

We ordered green tea, and the snacks were finger sandwiches – smoked salmon and cheese cream, classic cucumber and cheese, pastrami – pastries – carrot cake, macarons, lemon curd – and the scones. This time round, I decided to eat the scones after the sandwiches in order not to be full when it was their time. The afternoon was pleasant, but we shared the terrace with another table, and later a loud lady who wanted a smoke. That broke the magic a little, but the tea was fantastic and the scones were great.

El Jardínde Orfila: tea serving for two

Afterwards, we just headed for the train station to get back to our places. Of course we missed the correct one since they run whenever they like. What else is new? But the fun part was being able to pull a fun day out from my sleeve, and it was not stupidly expensive either, so good fun, all in all!

22nd June 2024: Roman ruins in the Cuenca region (Spain)

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This was actually the second try for this road trip. We (read: my parents) chickened out the first time because there was a slight storm chance. Since they were organising the day, I did not complain either time. I just stayed home when it was cancelled, and happily tagged along when it was carried out.

My parent’s curiosity was piqued upon learning that a bunch of archaeological sites were free until the end of 2024. I might have been responsible for that information, but to be honest I thought nothing of it at first. They randomly asked if I knew Recópolis, and I mentioned having visited it as it was free for the year. Thus, on the 22nd of June – a few weeks later, and on the second try – with a forecast temperature at noon of 31 °C and sunny, we set off around 7:30 towards the Roman villa Villa Romana de Noheda. The villa belongs to the hamlet Villar de Domingo García, and it was discovered in agricultural land by sheer chance, as it often happens. The complex was a farm and noble residence in use between the 1st century BCE and the 4th century CE, but it had been abandoned by the 6th. While most of the villa is gone, and not even half-excavated, the floor of the main house has been dug-up. It is covered by what is said to be the largest figurative Roman mosaic in the world, and it can only be visited with a guided tour.

The mosaic would have been in the room used to receive guests, the atrium. Right in front of the main door, the mosaic tells the story of Pelops and Hippodamia. In this mythological tale, the oracle told King Oenomaus that he would be killed by his son-in-law. Thus, whenever a suitor came to ask for his daughter Hippodamia’s hand in marriage, he would challenge them to a chariot race. If they lost, they would die – this happened 18 times until Pelops came along and Hippodamia fell in love with him. For his race, Pelops received a chariot drawn by winged horses from the god Poseidon. He then offered Oenomaus’ charioteer, Myrtilus, half of the kingdom, and a night with the princess, in exchange for his help to win the challenge. Myrtilus sabotaged Oenomaus’ chariot, and the king was killed during the race. When Myrtilus tried to collect, Pelops threw him off a cliff, and before dying, Myrtilus cursed the couple’s lineage. Several of their descendants were protagonists in myths of disgrace, madness and war – such as Agamemnon, Menelaus and Orestes.

Noheda mosaic

In the middle of the room there would have been a fountain or a pool, and the mosaic surrounding it has water fauna motifs. To the sides, there are representations of male and female actors of charades. On the final side there’s a double mosaic, meaning there was a refurbishing project and a new layer of tiles was laid over a previous one, both showing different geometrical designs. There is also a parade of gods and goddesses, and the representation of the myth of Paris. Paris was chosen to judge who among the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite or Athena was the most beautiful by giving her the Apple of Discord. Each goddess promised him a reward, and he chose Aphrodite, who offered him the most beautiful mortal woman: Helen of Sparta, King Menelaus’s wife. Paris and Helen ran away, Menelaus tried to recover his wife, and the whole episode lead to the Trojan War – Menelaus was one of Pelops and Hippodamia’s descendants, so one could say that Myrtilus’ curse was at work, and the mosaic was in continuity.

Noheda Mosaic

The villa really has nothing to see besides the mosaic, so we moved on. The trip to the next spot should have been around 20 minutes, but I do not know whether we got lost, or the Sat-Nav really, really overestimated the quality of the roads. Almost an hour later, we finally made it to Ercávica, a former Roman city in the tiny municipality of Cañaveruelas that overlooks the reservoir Pantano de Buendía. It clicked then that I had been thinking about getting there before but eventually dropped it in favour of other plans.

Before the tour through the ruins, we were shown a cave where a hermit-abbot, Donato ‘The African’, lived and died, and some graves excavated in the rock. The abbot lived in the 6th century, and after he died, his followers wanted to be buried around him. He actually managed to build a monastery, but everything is gone – and excavations cannot be carried out as it is in private property.

Ercavica cemetery

The Roman city of Ercávica was built around the year 179 BCE, as a new settlement after the Romans defeated the Celtiberian tribes in the area. The new dwellers were granted citizenship of the Empire, which made the city grow as neighbouring towns were abandoned and people moved there. The city reached its greatest splendour during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, but it declined after the 3rd until it was abandoned in the 5th century CE.

There is not much left of the city but its foundations, a few centimetres of wall above ground, and some of the underground structures, such as cisterns and a small sauna – where a number of bats had made its home. The guided visit took about two hours, from noon to 14:00. It was hot and sunny, and besides the layout of the town, there was not much to appreciate – or did I get too picky after Pompeii? There were some remains of painting left, which was cool until the guide said they were printed reproductions glued on top the real ones. Bummer.

Snapshots of Ercávica ruins

There is what they call a volumetric reconstruction of one of the houses, to give you an idea of how big it would have been, and a lot of walking around up and down the hill. There are also some good views of the reservoir. Nice seeing the whole thing at least once, but I would not put it on my to-repeat-when-possible list. I could have done without the sunburn though.

Buendía Reservoir from Ercavica forum

However, my parent had planned the road trip this way because it could be combined with lunch in a famous restaurant, Casa Goyo in the village of Alcocer. It is not a particularly good place, but it has made a name for itself by serving enormous portions. The most famous dish is the sanjacobo – a type of schnitzel cordon bleu with two fillets of pork wrapped around slices of cheese and Spanish ham, then breaded and fried. It is actually better than it sounds. Casa Goyo’s sanjacobo is 2.5 kg of meat. Quite a lot. I tried to tell my parent that combining it with a salad was too much, but they did not want to listen – which in the end it meant that I came back home with about half of the sanjacobo to consume at a later time. Unfortunately, that meant cutting the time to explore Alcocer short – to none. It was probably too hot anyway.

Sanjacobo at Casa Goyo

All in all, three experiences unlocked that I don’t think I ever need to repeat again. The best one was the mosaic, but I do not think Ercávica was worth the heat nor the roads. Nevertheless, I am glad that I could see both Roman ruins at least once. I however stand behind the idea that the cloudy day would have been better…

17th June 2024: Horniman Museum and Gardens {London, England, June 2024}

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I woke up early-ish and got ready to leave. I stopped by the local supermarket to grab a coffee and got on my way towards the closest Overground station – this being London, it was not far. This was an easy commute since there were no changes, and I could just relax on the train. I got off on Forest Hill and walked up the… well, the aforementioned hill, until I reached the Horniman Museum and Gardens, in the Borough of Lewisham around 9:00 – passing a Costa Coffee on the way. I filed this information for later reference.

Normally, I would not have gone to a museum which had a Natural History Gallery closed for renovations, but they were running a dinosaur exhibit that created the perfect excuse to go there, even if it was a bit out of the way. Frederick Horniman was the heir to his family’s tea emporium in the 19th century. He started travelling the world around 1860, collecting artefacts from his travels, and developed the museum to exhibit them. The original museum opened in 1890, and the gardens in 1895.

The gardens are almost 6.5 hectares (16 acres), divided in different areas, including a bee garden, a sound garden where you can make music with metal tubes, a grassland garden, a prehistoric garden, a grassland garden… I wandered around a little and was surprised to catch a glimpse of City of London by the 1903 bandstand. I knew the gardens were a bit far out, but I had not realised how much.

Horniman Gardens with the City in the background

I explored for about an hour, then I headed towards the Victorian Conservatory, built in 1894 in Horniman’s private residence. A century later, it was transported to the gardens and restored by British Heritage. It is a quaint little greenhouse in white iron and glass, with pressed tiles on the floor. Next to it stands a little café that I would have stayed at if I had not wanted to see some of the themed flowerbeds.

The Horniman Conservatory

At 10:00, when the museum opened, I entered to see the exhibition Dinosaur rEvolution, which looked at the evolution of Dinosauria into birds. The travelling exhibition has five animatronics, a couple dozen cast fossils, several plushies and beautiful palaeoart. The T-Rex animatronic had some feathers, and the information notice asked the reader if they would find the Jurassic Park tyrannosaur less scary with them. I honestly would find a feathered Rexy even more terrifying. The exhibition was all right, with plenty of information, but there was nothing real, which was a bit of a bummer. But since it is a travelling exhibition, it makes sense they would not be moving around the real thing. However, given the ticket price, I expected something a bit larger.

Dinosaur revolution

After I was done, I decided to check out the rest of the museum. First, I saw the anthropological galleries, which had the most bizarre array of artefacts – from an Egyptian mummy to a Spanish inquisition chair, along Inuit costumes, European masks, African religious items, Indian masks, Easter eggs, prehistoric items from all around the UK… There was a wish tree, where you can write something on a colourful paper and hang it from the branches.

Horniman athropology museum

In the basement of the museum there is a small aquarium, which was full of schoolchildren on a day trip. I could have got the tickets online for that. However, I did not know how big the dinosaur exhibition would be, and I did not want to rush over. When I seemed to have the time, I decided to go down to the aquarium. It had a handful of tanks – jellyfish, coral reefs, Amazon rainforests, a lot of clownfish and a handful of poisonous frogs, mostly colourful stuff to grab attention. I managed not to get run over by the kids, which was a good thing.

Horniman Aquarium

After I had seen the aquarium, I considered checking out the Butterfly House, because those are always beautiful. However, since I knew I’d want to go back to the museum and gardens in a couple of years, when the natural history gallery reopens, I decided to head towards the train station. I would see the butterflies another time. That way I could be on my way to the airport with some buffer time without rushing my way through and stressed over connection. Instead, I checked the museum’s tea gallery, which summarised the history of tea and how it ties with colonialism, not pulling any punches towards the Horniman tea emporium itself. Funnily enough, the tea brand still exists in some Mediterranean and South American countries, but not in the UK.

On my way back to the station, I stopped at the Costa Coffee I had seen before for a drink and a snack. Unfortunately, the nice barista forgot to put the vanilla syrup into my vanilla latte – oh, the drama. Since the coffee was hot, I did not really notice until I was already on the Overground, and turning around was not worth it.

I had to change at Whitechapel into Hammersmith & City, but since I had the extra time, I decided to walk a little and go down into the Elizabeth Line, which, believe it or not, I had never used before. The commute time was the same anyway. The platforms felt so new and clean, lacking the grit that other stations have – not that they are dirty, really. They’re just… not that new or aseptic.

Even with the little detour, I reached Liverpool Street with time to take an earlier train than I had originally given myself as ideal – which is a couple of trains earlier than the one I would need to be right on time, but since that time the train just did not reach the airport, I’ve lost some faith in the Stansted Express. I went to the end of the platform, and sat down in the first carriage of the train. I was the only person there, even after the conductor announced that “the first carriage was almost empty, please move forward for comfort so the rear of the train is less crowded.” Happy to be an “almost”, I guess – and good that the carriage did not become anything close to full during the trip.

There were no issues reaching the airport, but security was crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many queues, and so long ever. When my backpack was flagged for secondary inspection I understood why – the person in front of me was told he was carrying “too many contact lenses”, and my tiny handcuffs key chain was apparently extremely threatening. Then they needed to check aaaall the electronics, and my boots. However, the security guard said that he was sorry and that I should not have been pulled over because of the key chain. I’ve never had a security officer apologise to me for pulling me over for secondary inspection – and honestly, that was the key chain I bought for my first apartment… in 2001? I’ve flown with it before countless of times… Hilarious…

I put on my boots, and headed off to buy some sushi at the Stansted Itsu. Sadly, the quiet area has stopped being so – they have closed the upstairs toilets and now they send everyone downstairs, so it was packed with holidaymakers and people hyping up toddlers, which I find a horrid mistake to make just before jumping on a plane. Thus, I drank my miso soup, ate my sushi, and buggered off to wander the airport – better than the cacophony of kiddos running, squealing and acting up. The airport was full, and while I am usually better at dealing with other travellers, I had been looking forward to the “quiet area”. Either that or I was a bit tired and everyone was rubbing me off the wrong way, I guess.

When it was time to board, queue went extremely slowly. The airline line personnel were being extremely picky with the luggage, measuring every backpack and trolley. Eventually, the slow process made departure late, so the end of the queue was rushed. They barely eyed my backpack, though I was asked to turn around to show it to the check-in agent.

The plane was full and way too many people were not aware of “boarding from the rear door” when their seat number was high, causing a bit of a jam. I found my seat, huddled in, and shut off for a while. I woke up with 40 minutes to land. When we did, we took a bus which conveniently left us right in front of passport control. The only problem on arrival? It was 31 ºC and sunny, and I was wearing clothes chosen for the 13 ºC and rain in London. I guess the order of digits is… important when you’re wearing longs sleeves, layers, and knee-high boots – which by the way I think have seen their last concert trip. RIP. You will be missed, cool concert boots.

16th June 2024: Southwark, the National Gallery and Kamijo at The Garage {London, England, June 2024}

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According to the weather forecast, there was a chance of rain in London in the morning. When I got up and drew the curtains open, it was actually pouring, so I decided to wait the rain out. When I left the hotel around 9:00 to head to the queue, there was still a bit of drizzle which cleared as I was walking. However, when I reached the venue, I was surprised to find a notice on the door “We reserve the right to refuse entry. Anyone queueing before 16:00 will be refused entry.” Ho-kay, that sign had not been there the evening before – or I would have planned accordingly. I shrugged it off and resolved to make the most out of the morning and early afternoon, and be back at 16:00 sharp. I mean, what else could I do, mope at the hotel?

I took the Underground to the London Bridge stop, in Southwark. The first thing I came across was Borough Market, which had never even been in my radar before – I tend to stay on the other bank of the Thames. The market is an Art Decó building designed by Henry Rose in 1851. As a business, it had been in operation for centuries at the time though, and the building would get many refurbishments in the following years. Borough Market claims to be place for sustainable products with a short supply chain. There were wholesalers, coffee brewers, tapas bars and for some reason a bunch of guys yelling that everyone should try their mushroom risotto. The area was packed, and it was almost impossible to get a good picture.

Borough Market

Next to the market, stands Southwark Cathedral, officially Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie. London has four cathedrals: St. Paul and Southwark are Anglican, and Westminster and St. George are Catholic. Southwark Cathedral has stood in place for at least a thousand years. However, there is a legend that places its foundation in the early 600s, and there is archaeological evidence of a Roman road dating even further in time. The current structure is gothic, erected after the previous building was damaged in an area-wide fire in 1212, then transformed with the passing centuries. In the 19th century it was “remedievalised”, and in the 20th it became damaged by the Blitz and requited restoration. Today, it prides itself in being LGTB-friendly and having a resident cat, Hodge. It is also common that a fox, nicknamed Richard, visits the garden. Not sure either keeps the cathedral mouse- or rat-free, or they are too full with treats from the congregation.

Southwark cathedral - outside and nave

Southwark Cathedral details

After the cathedral, I headed to the actual reason I was in Southwark, The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. The museum is located in the attic of a former church – in other to access it, you have to climb up a spiral staircase with 52 steps, up the bell tower. The church was attached to a medieval hospital, in whose attic (or garret) the apothecaries dried medicinal herbs and stored medicines. In 1822, this garret became an operating theatre, with a huge skylight built in order to let light in – we are talking about a time when surgery was performed without anaesthetics, painkillers or antibiotics. The hospital was abandoned some 40 years later, and the theatre was lost to time, until it was rediscovered in 1952 – it is considered the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe.

The museum has a small collection of pathology specimens, a bigger one of nightmarish medical tools, and a reconstruction of an apothecary shop, with a counter and a lot of herbs, and informative panels. Funnily enough, it also runs through the history of medicine, and the great London epidemics using… rubber duckies. Not collecting rubber duckies is becoming more and more difficult… Anyway, these particular rubber duckies have been painted and modelled over, and next to them there is a list of symptoms. From those, you need to diagnose the duckie with “silent killers of the past” – measles, tuberculosis, cholera…

The duckies were a good comic relief of sorts from the pathology collection and specimens, the pre-science artefacts, and the history underlying at the theatre itself. The theatre had several rows of stands where people watched / learnt from the operation while the patients were awake – allowing the procedures to be public was the only way poor people had access to medical treatment and the good surgeons. Honestly, the idea of surgery is scary enough, but just thinking about amputation without anaesthetics makes me shiver. Especially when you see what was used for it – basically a handsaw – with spectators.

The Old Operating Theatre and apothecary

It was still early afternoon, so I hopped onto the Underground towards Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. I had not seen The National Gallery London since I was a child, and I remembered next to nothing of it, so I wanted to revisit it. The National Gallery, in the City of Westminster borough, dates back from 1824, when the government bought 38 paintings from a private collector – and it has been continuously expanding since then. The current building was designed by William Wilkings in 1832, and opened in 1838. the collection comprises over 2,000 paintings by 750 artists, among them Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Tintoretto, Veronesse, El Greco, Caravaggio, Velázquez, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Canaletto, Goya, Constable, Delacroix, Degas, Monet, van Gogh…

Here’s the fun thing, I always thought I liked the impressionists, but it turns out that seeing Monet’s Water Lilies myself was rather underwhelming. Conversely, I found myself enjoying British landscapers a lot, especially Constable. I spent a few hours in here, looking for the masterpieces, but a lot of them were on loan to other sites.

National Gallery London

At one point I was taking a photograph and a gentleman thought he was on my way. When I reassured him he was not bothering me, he said something akin to “That’s because you’re a professional”. I wonder, a professional what? I was not carrying a camera or anything, just the phone…

I did a run throughout the whole gallery, and I was considering staying at the café for a bite, but… I was rather close to Leicester Square… so I thought I could walk there and check if I could have lunch at Coco Curry or somewhere in Chinatown. The line at Coco was rather short – surprisingly, since the Chinatown Coco is always pretty full. Thus, I decided to wait it out and have lunch there – after all, it is the “iconic” one, and the previous time I had only visited the Bond Street shop. I’m not sure when Coco became the feeling of a taste of Japan, but it is one of my favourite food places.

Coco Curry Leicester Square

I had a bit of extra time. Not much for exploring, too long to just stay at the restaurant. I wandered Chinatown a little, and then got to Leicester Square. I’ve been to the Lego store, and the M&Ms place, but there is also a tea boutique, the TWG Tea Shop which I had never stepped into. I did it this time, and I was really tempted by a few of the green teas in pretty tins. I however talked myself out of buying any, since it would be silly to take them to the concert, and if a water bottle is a hazard, I cannot imagine what would be thought of a metal box.

Instead, I headed back to Trafalgar Square and stepped into the church Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. This ancient church was rebuilt in the 1720s by James Gibbs – though it was originally “in the fields”, in the outskirts, by this time it was already part of the city. It is a simple rectangular nave with Corinthian columns and a vaulted ceiling. The church holds choir concerts every Sunday afternoon, and I sat there listening to the music for a bit. I then I headed off to Charing Cross to take the underground towards the venue and the surprise of my life.

The church of St Martin in the Fields

I arrived at The Garage for Kamijo’s Europa Tour 2024 “The Anthem” at 16:00 sharp thinking the queue would be assembling, but no. Apparently there was some “secret parallel queue” going on somewhere – there were between 40 and 50 people there already, so I only got the 18th place due to my type of ticket. I was a bit disappointed, but oh well, what can you do? Nothing any more, so I did not dwell on it. The promoter had actually sent a schedule in advance, saying that doors would be at 19:00 for the VVIPs and showtime at 20:30. Of course, it would not be followed, but it was good having an approximate timetable.

Queuing was okay, not extremely long since we actually went in around 18:30. There was a lady organising the line and giving out the numbers, and the venue staff were willing to go along that, so even if there was a “secondary queue”, there were no issues that I know of. The venue was a bit weird. There were a couple of stairs and a small hall before the actual concert hall. In that tiny hall, all painted black and stuck between the two fire doors, and under horrible lighting, stood Kamijo and his dazzling smile, ready for the meet and greets and pictures for the VVIPs and handshakes for the VIPs.

Kamijo The Anthem poster

I walked in, he gave me a warm smile, and said ‘bonjour’. I smiled back. I don’t know whether I’m getting old, or that sitting on the floor with Yoshiki was a game changer for my brain. And despite the fact that I’ve been neglecting my Japanese, I was able to convey my message. He was adorable. I said something like “There is no ‘I’ve missed you’ in Japanese, but it’s really been a long time.” A staff took our picture, he said thank you again, I said thank you back, then walked into the venue. I received my signed poster – a grey A4 signed in black. Apparently, gold or silver markers were out of the budget…

The barrier was almost completely full, but I was able to squeeze on the left, amongst the people I had queued with, closer to the centre of the stage than I had even hoped. Truth is that Kamijo tends to go to the right more often than to the left than the right, but since he holds his microphone with the left hand, you don’t see his face, so I was happy with my place. However, the hour and a half until concert started felt pretty long, since I was quite squeezed in. Maybe I should have sat, I don’t know. The concert started around 20:00, and it was no pictures of videos allowed.

The supporting musicians were Hiro on guitar – Hiro was also the guitar in La’cryma Christi, one of the most important V-kei bands in the 90s. Also on guitar came Yohio, a Swedish artist who managed to break into the Japanese scene a few years back – he actually got a lot of hate at the beginning, so good that he received some love. On bass came Ikuo (Bykk Zeichen 88, Rayflower), and on drums Ushi (Vorchaos). I’m not sure who the sound tech was, but he or she deserves to be yelled at – for about the first third of the concert Kamijo’s microphone was powerless, to the point that his voices was inaudible at times. There were a few songs I did not know (or was unable to identify due to the noise), amongst them the song that gives the tour its name: The Anthem.

Sound was so bad that at times I could not hear what Kamijo was saying, much less understand it. However, he sang two of my favourite songs, Moulin Rouge and Eye of Providence, and I was lucky enough that he repeated my favourite line twice. Despite my being amused by his idealisation of Napoleon, there is a line in Sang I (it took me stupidly long to realise that sang is French for ‘blood’) that resonates a lot with me: ‘Just like flying with the wind: no pain, only gain’. He started the song and interrupted himself halfway to make the musicians greet the audience in English. He either forgot he was going to do an emcee, or since he said it was his favourite song, he wanted to sing it twice.

He had fun, and unlike other times I’ve seen him, he indulged in a lot of “fan service” with the musicians, which sent the crowd screaming. Aside from the sound issue, there was one other hiccup during the concert. At one point Kamijo tripped over a wire, stumbled and ended up almost sitting down on the drums, but he did not fall, which was good.

Setlist:
  1. 闇夜のライオン (Yamiyo no lion)
  2. Conspiracy
emcee, with Kamijo saying he was glad to be back in London, and inviting the audience to go to Paris with him.
  3. Moulin Rouge
  4. The Anthem
  5. Louis 〜艶血のラヴィアンローズ〜 (Louis ~Enketsu no la vie en rose)
  6. 運命 (Unmei)
  7. Eye of Providence
  8. Habsburg
  9. mademoiselle
  10. CRIMSON FAMILY
  11. Castrato
  12. Beautiful Rock’n Roll
  13. 薔薇は美しく散る (Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru; song by Lareine, Kamijo’s first band)
  14. Sang I & emcee, where the musicians said what the tour had meant for them
  15. Sang II
  16. Nosferatu
emcee
  17. Avec toi〜君と共に〜
  18. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 1
  19. Throne
  20. NOBLESS OBLIGE part 2
  21. Vampire Rock Star

During the emcees Kamijo said that he was glad to be back to Europe / the UK, and that he was especially happy to be in London. He talked about how great the tour had been, and how amazing an audience we were – though he tells that to everyone anyway. All in all, I had a lot of fun, enjoyed myself, clapped during mademoiselle and even jumped (once, I’m not that crazy) during Vampire Rockstar. Whenever his musicians or himself sing / yell the chorus, the words ‘vampire rockstar’ come out as ‘vampire lobster’. This time, he made the audience yell them all, so considering this was London, it sounded correctly for once.

Snippets pre and post Kamijo's The Anthem concert

After the concert, which lasted a bit over two hours, I bought a sandwich at the open-late supermarket next to The Garage, and headed to the hotel for a shower and sleep. I kind of… forgot to go to bed though. God, I love concert highs, as short as they are. It is always hard to come back to reality, but there was still half a day before that.

15th June 2024: The Old Naval College, and a mishap {London, England, June 2024}

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I am getting weirdly used to 5:00 wake-up calls. I drove to the airport and arrived at the long-stay parking lot just before 6:00, with the exact time to catch the bus at the nearest stop. I might be getting too comfortable with timings – either that, or the flights have started taking off a bit later, because I remember having to leave by 3:45 for the first Ryanair flight a few years back. Anyway, security was nice and smooth, but passport control was maddeningly slow – the shiny brand-new machines the airport has spent a fortune on were not working, and there were only two agents, and three flights leaving around the same time.

We left on time and landed on time too, and since works at London Stansted have been finished, I was fast out of immigration. I considered going to the hotel first thing in the morning in order to make sure the credit card went through – and have time to find an exchange office if it did not. When I was able to buy my usual breakfast in the Costa at the arrival area without an issue, I decided I should be all right. Thus, I just headed off towards the centre, reached Liverpool Street station, and transferred to the TfL system. I got a bit confused at the DLR. London’s railway is divided in the Underground, the Overground and the Docklands Light Railway or DLR, which are mostly automatic trains which involve more transfers than I had expected. I needed to backtrack a station or two before I got to my final destination, the area know as Isle of Dogs in the borough of Tower Hamlets. I’ve recently found out that there is a footpath under River Thames which connects the Isle of Dogs with Greenwich. The footpath, the Greenwich foot tunnel, was built from 1899 onwards, and it opened in 1902. You can literally walk from one bank of the Thames to the other in just a few minutes!

Old Royal Naval College from across River Thames

The tunnel was damaged during World War II, and there is a section which is held together by an inner steel lining. The whole tunnel is lit and either painted or tiled in white, so it does not give off any kind of claustrophobic feeling. Something cool that happened to me was that I could actually feel the water running above me, similarly to how I feel when I’m standing on a bridge and look at the river underneath. That was unexpected. Though there are lifts – the original ones were installed in 1904, but there are new ones from 2012 – I took the stairs.

Greenwich foot tunnel

I stepped out of the tunnel and into Greenwich, next to the Cutty Sark. I have already visited the museum inside the ship. This time around, I was going to try to see the Old Royal Naval College, which has been closed whenever I’ve tried to see it – they film rather often there. This time it was actually open to visitors.

The Old Royal Naval College, today part of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, was originally designed as a veteran home and hospital. The current iteration of the building was designed by Christopher Wren – also responsible for St Paul’s Cathedral. The complex has two complexes or courts, Queen Mary Court on the left from the river, King William Court on the right. William III (reigned 1689 – 1702) and Mary II (reigned 1689 – 1694) were offered the throne as joint monarchs when their predecessor James VII and II was declared unfit because he became a Catholic. The building served as hospital and hospice until 1869; later, in 1873 it became a training academy for the Royal Nay until 1998.

I first went into the Chapel of St Peter & St Paul in Queen Mary Court. It was reconstructed after a fire by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart in the neoclassical style. It has one nave, and a wood ceiling decorated with naval themes. The altar piece was painted by Benjamin West. I found the chapel quite beautiful, it gave off a warm feeling. The security personnel were also very nice.

Old Royal Naval College chapel

Then, I headed off to King William Court, to the pièce de résistance of the building. The Painted Hall is a huge ward decorated with Baroque paintings by Sir James Thornhill. The ceiling and walls are painted to honour the kings and queens who gave their patronage to the “Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich”, depicting them surrounded by mythological and allegoric figures. The art was impressive, and the volunteer who explained it was a former teacher who made the whole tour really informative. While I usually avoid guided visits as much as I can, I found the painting too complex to interpret on my own.

Old Royal Naval College - Painted hall

I backtracked through the Greenwich foot tunnel and took the Underground towards the Victoria & Albert Museum. Last time I was over they were running an exhibition I wanted to see… only this time around they had moved to another of their sites. I shrugged it off and decided to have a scone instead – any scone. I mention this because the couple before me wanted two particular scones from the basket. Afterwards, I went to see a gallery within the museum which I missed in 2023, which turned out to have bronze sculptures by French artist Auguste Rodin, considered the initiator of modern sculpture.

Snapshots at the V&A museum

After that, I hopped back onto the Underground and headed off towards the Royal Academy of Arts, located in Burlington House. I was… surprised, to say the least, about the current display in the courtyard, but I was there to see oldest surviving red telephone box – Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott’s original prototype “K2” kiosk, made in wood in 1924.

Burlington house

I then snooped around three of the high-class shopping centres along the Oxford Street area, all of them out of my price range, of course – Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly Arcade and Quadrant Arcade. I walked past Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, and headed off to Forbidden Planet to check out if they by any chance had a copy of a comic I’ve been looking for (Alligator Loki, if you ever find it, give me a shout?). I did not find the comic but I did see some stuff by Stjepan Šejić in the wild.

High-end London shopping arcades

Finally, I headed off towards the hotel / venue area, I found the venue – just outside the station. I bought some snacks for dinner and breakfast, then headed off to get to my hotel. The credit card thankfully went through and I got my room. I spent the rest of the evening watching films and snacking on salt and vinegar crisps. Truth be told, the weather was not that nice, but most of the rain happened when I was inside the buildings in the Old Royal Navy College. It’s been a long time since I was in London and there was not a heat wave, so I am not going to complain.

15th – 17th June 2024: London for Kamijo’s “The Anthem” {London, England, June 2024}

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I first saw Kamijo in Barcelona in 2018. The reason for that was that tickets came through around my birthday and neither them nor the upgrades were expensive, it was easy to get there, and I thought I would support a V-kei artist in the country. I was not expecting to like him as much as I did – it probably had to do with the brief interaction we had when he “sang” to me. The next year, I joined the fanclub and attended two shows of the Persona Grata Japan tour with a fanclub ticket. Then Covid struck and I just let membership lapse, because there was little disposable income and even less chances to make anything out of it.

At the end of 2023, Kamijo announced a new Europe tour, and I weighed out France or England. I decided on London due to easier language, worry about the Olympics creating issues – price gauging, controllers’ strikes – and because the French fandom can be too intense for me. In February, I rejoined the fanclub with a cheaper “four-month web membership” so I was able to access the pre-sales on the 19th. I managed to buy a “VVIP” ticket, which included first priority entrance, a meet & greet, a solo photo and a signed poster for 152 €.

I checked for planes and accommodation. Flights were okay, but hotels were stupidly expensive. In the end, I could not find anything reasonable in my usual areas, so I decided to just book two nights at the closest hotel I found near the venue. It was still stupidly expensive, but I thought it would be convenient. When I had time, I checked for stuff to do, bought a few tickets, and just a couple of days before leaving, I had a credit-card scare. Because what would a trip be without a hiccup? But I needed a mental break, and this long weekend was it…

Thus, I was off to London.

31st May 2024: Santa María de Huerta & Medinaceli (Spain)

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For the last few years, I’ve tried to do (or visit) something cool on my birthday, especially when it fell on a long weekend. In 2024 I could not plan anything big despite the long weekend,. Instead, I broke it off into a small outing with my sibling and a little road trip. There are a couple of places not too far away that I wanted to see, but the roads are not so great. One of my parents is keen on driving anyway, so they were happy to oblige, and I could get away with not driving the curves myself.

Our first stop was the Cistercian monastery Monasterio de Santa María de Huerta. The Order of Cistercians are a Catholic religious order. A group of Benedictine monks founded the new order in 1098, as they wanted to strictly adhere to Rule of St. Benedict, and felt that the other had “relaxed” too much. Cistercian monks are credited with creating very “pure” churches as they believed that ornamentation was superfluous and distracting from prayer.

The monastery is located in the village of Santa María de Huerta, which actually grew around its walls at the side of Jalón River. The building dates back from 1162, though the order had been in Spain for two decades at the time. Most of the building was erected halfway between Romanesque and Gothic styles, with some add-ons from more recent times, mostly the Herrerian cloister and a Baroque altarpiece – which distorts a little the idea of the “pure Cistercian lines” and no extra decoration. But then again, I am not a fan of Baroque decoration.

Entry is from the side of the church to the Gothic cloister Claustro de los Caballeros, around which all the dependences can be accessed. The first one is the church, the first area to be built. There are still some of the original paintings, and a baroque organ. The monks’ refectory is the most important room, built from 1215. It has large pointed-arched windows which allow light to come in, and it is communicated with the kitchen. There is a second refectory, more Romanesque, for the lay brothers who took religious vows but were not actual monks. The last cloister, in the Herrerian style, is severe and impressive. As we were leaving, there was a black out, not sure what that could have meant…

Santa María de Huerta Monastery

We went back to the car and we drove towards the town of Medinaceli, which has a couple of monuments I wanted to see. Reputed for dating back to Roman times, it has a free-standing arch Arco Romano de Medinaceli, the only one in Spain with three arches. It is a triumphal arch built in reddish sandstone during the first century, at an altitude of 1200 m, where it rains, snows, and so. It feels like a miracle that a small structure (around 13 metres long, eight metres high and two metres wide) has withstood two thousand years.

Medinaceli: Roman triumphal arch

We saw the collegiate church Colegiata de Santa María de la Asunción, built in a late Gothic style. Artistically, the most important item is the iron grating in front of the altar. Religiously, there is a figure of Christ, which is called Cristo de Medinaceli, a wooden sculpture from the 16th century (though the most famous sculpture with that name is in Madrid). It was a little underwhelming, and most of the sculptures were not pretty.

Medinaceli: Collegiate Church

Afterwards we visited the main square of the village Plaza Mayor de Medinaceli. To one side stands a 16th-century building called La Alhóndiga, current town hall and former prison, with rounded arches on the ground floor and a balcony all along the façade on the first floor.

16th Century commercial building turned into town hall

To another side, the palace of the former dukes Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli, which was saved from the ruin turning it into a semi-private art gallery. Inside, the most important part is the Roman mosaic. The palace was built around 1430, and today only the Renaissance yard stays undisturbed. I am not a big fan of modern art, so I just can say that some of it was colourful and pretty. The entry ticket included entrance to a rural-house-turned-erotic-art-exhibition which… was weird. The whole house was painted pink, and the works were neither interesting and nor felt artistic at all. So 10 bucks to in the end see a Roman mosaic was a bit steep.

Medinaceli Duchate Palace

We decided not to stay in town for lunch, but – almost in a bit of a joke – we drove off to have lunch at what is probably the most iconic roadside restaurant in the centre of Spain – Área 103, a brasserie that is over 125 years old. It includes a small hermit-church built for truckers, Capilla de los Conductores.

Drivers' chapel, Area 103

It might have not been a glamorous birthday, but hey, along with the escapade on Tuesday, I guess I spent it doing what I like – discovering new things.

28th May 2024: Architecture and a niche restaurant (Madrid, Spain)

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I was talking to an acquaintance whose child likes superheroes – so does the acquaintance, actually – about Comic Planet. After exchanging experiences, they mentioned that their spouse also enjoyed another thematic restaurant, and I decided that it could be a fun thing to do – and since they don’t take reservations for one, I roped my sibling into tagging along. And of course, since we were braving the horribly-working trains, I felt we should fill the day out. We could not leave early in the morning as I would have liked because I had this stupid bureaucracy appointment I had to get out of the way first.

We arrived in Madrid around 12:30, and our first stop was the Casa de Correos, an iconic building in the middle of the square Puerta del Sol. I did not even know you could just visit that building, nor that they ran exhibitions. It was a cool opportunity to check it out. Furthermore, the exhibition was actually something that I was quite keen on – the architect Antonio Palacios, commemorating the 150th anniversary of his birth. The exhibition, called “the Metro architect” Antonio Palacios, el arquitecto de Metro, is part of the network of museums managed by the underground company Metro. It consists mostly of photographs, a few of them by photographer Luis Lladó, an original model of Palacio’s project to renovate Puerta del Sol, and a modern model of a now-lost station, including lifts. It was a bit underwhelming, but still worth it – and free, so it was good either way.

Exhibition Antonio Palacios El Arquitecto de Metro

Afterwards, we headed out to the restaurant for our 13:30 reservation. The place is called Los Secretos de Lola (Lola’s Secrets ). It used to be just another bistro-grill in a street full of them, but some time after the pandemic, it reinvented itself. The restaurant has slowly turned into a Mecca of childhood mementos – Disney princesses, teddy bears, Harry Potter, Funko Pops… and crazy fun references like a Möet&Chandon spray to clean the tables. A lot of the food comes in a special piece of dishware – most of it Disney, but I can’t tell whether it’s actually licenced or a bunch of knock-offs. It was hilarious anyway. Though I am not much of a Disney person (my sibling is), my favourite film of theirs would be Mulan, and I just about lost it laughing when I checked the menu beforehand – I saw that they served gyoza in a Mushu-like dish, and decided we needed to order that. I was open to negotiation about anything else, really, but not the gyoza. The pasta in the Lady and the Tramp dish was also hysterical, but I could do without.

We reached the restaurant on point, and the owner directed us inside. We got a really cute Stitch table, but my sibling was not comfortable on high chairs, so we were accommodated at a Harry Potter one. We shared the non-negotiable teriyaki prawn-and-vegetable gyoza with wakame and bean sprouts, served on a Mushu-plate: Gyozas de gambas y vegetables al teriyaki, a plate of cheese Tabla de quesos variados (Blue cheese, Havarti, Mimolette, Emmental, Basilio, butter and breadsticks, on a Ratatouille’s Remy plate, which I had also found adorable) and a bluefin tuna tartar Tartar De Atún Rojo (on a little boat – I asked for no mango, and it was honoured; this was probably the weakest dish though). Finally, I tricked my sibling into a dessert called “Snowhite magic apple” Manzana Encantada Blanca Nieves: red chocolate capsule with white Kinder and a heart of caramel sauce, which came in an adorable “present box”.

Decoration: Los Secretos de Lola

Food Los Secretos de Lola

The food was good, and I really like themed restaurants, I guess, even if they are not “my” theme. We did not stay for the two hours, I think we were on our way after an hour and a half – and when we asked for the check, it came in a Frozen music box. Then, we left towards Palacio de Cibeles, the old “communication palace” of Madrid, designed by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi, and erected between 1907 and 1919. It is considered one of the first and most important Modernist buildings in Spain, constructed in biocalcarenite, with three stained-glass skylights, catwalks on the third floor, and a magnificent lookout on the rooftop. Part of the building is being used by the town hall, the other by the public entity CentroCentro, which runs cultural activities in the open spaces – mostly conferences and exhibitions.

Palacio de Cibeles

We arrived a bit before 16:00. Since we had a ticket for one of the exhibitions at 17:30, we checked whether we could find a ticket for the rooftop. We found available slots at 16:30, which was great. Before the viewpoint access, we had time to wander around. Most of the free exhibitions were of modern art, and not that interesting, and I was more focused on the building itself. There is one dedicated to the World Heritage site Paisaje de la Luz, explaining why the area deserves its UNESCO place.

We found the staircase to one of the towers and we used it to move it through the different floors. It is a spiral staircase around the lift, with Palacios’ typical green tiles similar to the ones he used at Maudes hospital and Chamberí station. The catwalks were paved with glass tiles, and it was quite impressive above all. I loved the building, but after all, Palacios is one of my favourite architects, so it was to be expected.

Inside Palacio de Cibeles

Then, we went up to the rooftop, where we could have a view of all of Madrid around us, most interestingly one of the main arteries of the city – Gran Vía. The weather was great, maybe a bit too bright. The turns were 30 minutes, but we were done in about half the time, after taking two walks around the middle tower.

Lookout on the rooftop of Palacio Cibeles

We went down and sat for a little before we headed down to the basement to see “Notre-Dame of Paris: The Augmented Exhibition” Notre-Dame de Paris: l’Exposition Augmentée. It was only 3€, so I was not expecting much, but it actually blew my mind.

The experience was created by the company Histovery, which specialises in “virtual exhibitions” through an interactive tablet called “HistoPad”. The Public Entity in Charge of the Conservation and Restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cooperates with the event, and the beauty company l’Oreal is a sponsor. The exhibition (which is simultaneously running in several parts of the world) follows the history of the Parisian cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris – it starts with the 2019 fire, which is a bit heart-wrenching, and then it covers a few key moments in the history of the cathedral, using a mixture of written information, videographs and a “treasure hunt” where you have to find pieces of a puzzle hidden within the virtual information. This is done using the tablet to scan 21 “time portals” that take you to a particular point in history.

Around 1160. The Dream of a Builder. At that time, Bishop Maurice de Sully came up with the idea to build a new, better, cathedral in Paris. The previous one was a smaller, Romanesque building, but the goal was a larger, architecturally impressive building. In this room (the second, actually, but the first chronologically), you find out about the “treasure hunt” – you need to find a number of hidden “light spots” to build a “stained glass window”.

Around 1180. The Gothic choir. This makes a small overview of the kinds of workers that helped in the construction, the kinds of stones, building materials – quarries, forests. I was extremely disappointed at this point when I came across a dog in the virtual quarry, but the program did not let you pet it.

1241. The Holy Relics: Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, bought the Crown of Thrones in Jerusalem and brought it to Paris. There was a great procession into Notre-Dame, where the relics were to be kept. Here there’s a spectacular recreation of the gates with the original polychrome sculptures and decoration.

1645. The Royal Promise: Widowed Queen of France explained to her son, future Louis XIV, that he was to renovate the choir of the cathedral and build a new altar, dedicated to the virgin Mary. This was the original splendour of Notre-Dame, before the French revolution broke out – the church was one of the targets of the revolutionaries, and a lot of the art was damaged and / or destroyed.

1804. The Imperial Coronation. After the French Revolution, Napoleon crowned himself “Emperor”, but a very “equal and revolutionary” Emperor. He held a ceremony for himself in Notre-Dame, with the presence of the Pope and everyone who was anyone in the totally equal new society.

1857. The Spire. Enter Viollet-Le-Duc, a major architect and restorer in France’s 19th century, whose theories influenced countless others. He revalorised gothic style in the country, managing to turn it into a “national style”. The man had the goal to restore and create buildings in “the gothic style that would have been if the Medieval workers had had the technology he had access to”. Historians have not been kind to him, accusing him of “inventing” stuff instead of “restoring” but kudos to him, he managed to make a lot of buildings survive to our time. In Notre-Dame, he is responsible for putting back a lot of the sculptures that were destroyed during the French Revolution. He also built the spire that famously collapsed in the 2019 fire.

2019-2021 (first and last rooms). A description of the restoration works that have been happening in and outside the cathedral since the fire, with special attention to the Paris firefighters who worked the incident. There is a very interesting part about safely removing debris and the original scaffolding, and the fact that there was a lot of lead in the cathedral that the workers had to be safe around. They also homage the “vertical workers” who had to remove collapsed pieces from the ground… hanging from ropes.

Notre-Dame the Augmented Exhibition

We completed the stained-glass window and signed up to get a diploma. The fun part is that most of the exhibition was not really… even physical. There were a few posters, a reproduction of one of the chimaeras, some small models… Nevertheless, it was extremely interesting – possibly the best “virtual exhibition” I’ve seen to date. The length of the experience is said to be 60-90 minutes… we stayed from 17:30 to 19:45, much longer than I had anticipated! Thus, we had to forfeit the last plan of the day to go back to the train system – which of course was experimenting delays. It took forever to get home. Because what else is new?

Time-traveller diploma after completing the treasure hunt in Notre-Dame the Augmented Exhibition

14th May 2024: Three Museums and Tea, Madrid (Spain)

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On a whim, I put together a plan for Tuesday, as it is currently my free day. I was too lazy to drive, so I decided to catch a train to Madrid. There was a temporary exhibition I wanted to check out, and it was close to several museums and eateries.

My first idea – breakfast at a French crêperie – went bust, because the place was still closed when I arrived in town – I swear, this is like the fourth time I try to have something there, and it just won’t work. Instead, I ended up at a Starbucks for breakfast, before heading out to my first destination – the exhibition The Art of Manga, held in the Architecture Bar Association building Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, COAM. The Art of Manga is a small exhibit that runs through the history of manga – Japanese comics – with a few snippets of what it was and what it has become, especially in Spain.

The entrance was a sort of tunnel with manga sheets hanging from the ceiling. It ended at a traditional scroll with animals acting like people – Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga 鳥獣人物戯画, which translates to “Animal-person Caricatures”. Some people consider that this is the origin of manga (note the “ga” at the end), though if there is one thing that the exhibition makes clear, it’s that nobody knows when manga actually started. Thus, it just runs through all the possible theories and important names. From the Edo Period, there were a few wood prints (ukiyo-e) – which are claimed to be original – among them two by Katsushika Hokusai [葛飾 北斎], The Great Wave off Kanagawa [神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa oki nami-ura] and Fine Wind, Clear Morning [凱風快晴, Gaifū kaisei]. Hokusai is another of the supposed starts (“the father”) of manga. There were also a few toba-e [鳥羽絵], similar to the first scrolls – for the first time in the evolution of drawings, there was text alongside the art. Then came the books, where texts dominated – though there were still drawings – and they became extremely popular during the period.

With the end of the isolation of Japan, Western influences – mainly comics – influenced local artists, and “speech bubbles” appeared. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kitazawa Rakuten [北澤 楽天]’s works were published in newspapers. He is (also) considered the father of modern manga, and several of his works are displayed. There are also early 20th-century scrolls, painted in a style similar to toba-e depicting the Tokaido Road, which separated Edo (old Tokyo) and Kyoto, and its checkpoints. There were also kamishibai [紙芝居] cards – kamishibai is a traditional form of theatre involving telling a story using a narrator and different “postcards” with images drawn on it.

In the middle, the exhibit had a rock garden, and a torii gate with a lot of lanterns gave way to the second part – modern manga. Here there were pieces and mementos from famous artists and works – Osamu Tezuka [手塚 治虫], known as “The god of manga”, and one of the driving forces of anime. According to the exhibition, they were showing all of his works. There was a bit about Shigeru Mizuki [水木 しげる], and big international hits like Sailor Moon, Naruto, Dragon Ball and One Piece. After a screen showing a video about a cosplayer – which I did not care much about – there was a section on manga magazines, some of the early manga published in Spain, and a stand where you could get some stamps.

Snaps from The Art of Manga Madrid

Finally, there was a bit on merchandising and figurines. The shop did not even have a catalogue, which I would have bought. All in all, it was all right, smaller than I had expected.

Then, I went to the nearby museum of the Romantic period, where I got a national museums card – I’ve been wanting one for a while, but unfortunately you still have to queue to use it. I had hoped you could just walk into museums with it, but I guess crowd control is a thing since Covid. Anyway. The Romanticism museum, Museo del Romanticismo is a small palatial residence which tries to recreate the ambience and atmosphere of the dwellings of the bourgeois families at the time. It had a lot of nice furniture, similar to the one in Riofrío, but I found it lacked on the landscape paintings I like. The museum is currently exhibiting an early painting by painter Francisco de Goya, a Pietà.

Museo del Romanticismo Madrid

Afterwards, I headed out to line for the Sorolla Museum Museo Sorolla. I had to queue for nearly 40 minutes, but I was finally admitted in. Joaquín Sorolla (1863 – 1923) was a generally-impresionist painter (impressionist, post-impressionist and luminist) from Valencia. The museum was built in the artist’s own house, completed with some of his iconic artworks, including Paseo a orillas del mar, Walk on the Beach, and El baño del caballo, The Horse’s Bath. Sorolla excelled in portraits and landscapes, especially the sea side, and social criticism. He was a master depicting light, water, and the combination of both. He became one of the most important Spanish artists of his time – and probably the most famous. He participated in the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, and was invited to exhibit his art in New York City.

Furthermore, there was a current exhibition called Sorolla in 100 objetos – Sorolla in one hundred objects – which had just opened to the public. It included personal items the artist collected, – some a bit bizarre–, photographies, his passport, the last painting he worked on, the medal he received from the US president, a photograph of his studio in Italy…

Snaps from Museo Sorolla

I then went off towards the archaeological museum Museo Arqueológico Nacional. I used to love this museum – when they remodelled it and they made it all modern and aseptic, it lost most of its allure. Of course, I still enjoy it, as the important items are the exhibits, and the museum has a lot of important items from the Celtiberian cultures – Celts and Iberians inhabited Spain before the Roman conquest, which started in the 2nd century BCE. Iberians were prevalent in the east and south of Spain before their arrival. The north and west were populated by the Celts, and there was a vague area in-between whose people have been called Celtiberian. the Talaiotic culture flourished in the Balearic Islands, and it has recently been declared World Heritage. These cultures were eventually assimilate by Romans, but Celts lived on elsewhere. Iberian and Talaiotic cultures, however, diffused with time. Today, there is little known about it, and most is just interpretation from archaeologists, even less about the more ancient tribes that lived in the areas during the Bronze Age.

Among the objects from pre-Roman Spain, there are mysterious steles from the late Prehistory. However, it is the Iberian funerary art which stands out the most – such as the bust called the Lady of Elche, La Dama de Elche, found in the town of the same name, and the full sculpture named the Lady of Baza La Dama de Baza. Both are fantastic, to the point that it was thought they were Hellenic for some time. Other items include bulls – both metal cattle heads with wide eyes, and vaguely-shaped stone sculptures, verracos. I remember going to the museum when I was little, and the importance of these bulls, called “Bulls from Guisando” Toros de Guisando was drilled into my head, to the point that I thought that the ones exhibited there were the only ones – it also made me sad that they were in the museum and not in the field where they had been found. I was petrified when I learnt, years later, that there are a bunch more…

The museum also hosts a nice collection of Moorish art, and what apparently is a special Egyptian exhibit, as Spain worked with Egypt during the 20th century, and got a lot of objects from that excavation from the Egyptians “in the split of the new discoveries”. I am not sure whether that’s accurate, or the story has a lot of make-up on. I had to leave around 16:15, but as this museum is also covered by the national museums card, I can come back any time within the year for free. I skipped most of the Medieval period.

Museo Arqueologico Nacional Madrid

I had a reservation for afternoon tea a few minutes away from the museum, at 16:30 – I might be doing a bit of a rally around all the places in Madrid which have it. This time around, I went to El Jardín de Orfila – and good thing I had decided to only have breakfast and skip lunch and go straight from breakfast to tea. I was seated in a lovely outward area and I chose a delicious green tea with cherry. The food was plenty – finger sandwiches: pastrami, salmon and cucumber and cheese cream; macarons, carrot cake, meringue, and scones, along with clotted cream and berries jam. It has probably been the best afternoon tea I’ve had in Madrid up to date. The scones were a bit under-baked though.

Afternoon tea at El Jardín de Orfila

I was alone in the outer area for most of the experience, the waiter checked on me once after bringing my tea. It was actually so calm and quiet that I had a visitor – a little house sparrow (Passer domesticus) was very interested on the remains of my scone, so I shared with her. She was happy after two crumbs, and left – or maybe it was because another couple walked into the area.

Sparrow hopping towards a scone crumb

I left a bit before the two-hour timeslot was up so I could catch a timely train home – and because the couple came in, talking loudly, and kind of broke the spell.

7th May 2024: “Dragon Hunters” in Alcalá de Henares (Spain)

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The Archaeology and Palaeontology museum in Alcalá de Henares is running a temporary exhibition on the history of digging dinosaur bones, called “Dragon Hunters”. I was drawn to it because well… dinosaurs. Driving in the city centre is a nightmare, so I left the car in an easy-to-park area a bit away, and walked downtown.

I had been trying to see the cathedral of the Magistral Cathedral of Saint Justus and Saint Pastor Santa e Insigne Catedral-Magistral de los Santos Justo y Pastor, but it was always either locked, booked for events, or “closed to visitors”. This time around, I was able to finally see it – and it was honestly a bit underwhelming. Though I generally enjoy Gothic buildings, I guess I was so hyped after trying so many times, that reality did not live up to expectations. Furthermore, I dislike when places do not advertise that part of the visit is closed / unavailable, so I guess I’m still pretty out of luck with this one cathedral. I missed the chance to climb up the tower and see the views of the town due to construction, but oh well.

Legend has it that catholic Saints Justus and Pastor were martyrized in the year 304, near the Roman city of Complutum. In the year 414, a chapel was built to keep their remains in the place where the martyrdom happened. The current building was erected by architects Antón Egas and Enrique Egas in late Gothic and Renaissance styles around 1446. The tower, by Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón and Rodrigo Argüello, is Herrerian. The interior has three naves with pointed arches, and to one side stands the cloister, with access to the museum, and – when it is open – the tower. It was a bit of a bummer not to even be able to step into the open part of the cloister. Underneath the altar there is a crypt with a gold-and-silver urn with the remains of the Saints, and the stone where they were killed.

Afterwards, I continued on towards my real destination, the local Archaeology and Palaeontology museum Museo Arqueológico y Paleontológico de la Comunidad de Madrid, MARPA. They are currently running the exhibition Cazadores de Dragones (Dragon Hunters). The exhibit summarises the historical hits of palaeontology, starting with prehistoric and classical references and theories about them, such as a the phoenix having been inspired by Protoceratops skeletons, or the bones of giants being actually dinosaur fossils. This area has a few replicas and small statuettes – running from the originally-made ones to the newest reconstructions.

Exhibit entrance, protoceratops, corridor

The exhibit name-drops a few of the big figures in dinosaur-digging history such as William Buckland, the man who described Megalosaurus as an antediluvian creature; Gideon Mantell, who tried to reconstruct an Iguanodon from a tooth (now in the Natural History Museum in London); Georges Cuvier, who proposed the idea of extinction, and named animals such as Megatherium, Pterodactyl or Mosasaurus; and Richard Owen, who “invented” the word “dinosaur”, meaning “terrible lizard” – though today we know that a lot of dinosaurs had more in common with birds than with reptiles, down to protofeathers and even feathers.

Archaeopteryx, titanosaur

The following section follows the “Bone Wars” – Charles Marsh and Edward Cope were two palaeontologists who raced through the Morrison Formation (Montana, USA) to discover up to 30 species of dinosaurs – they were not always honest in their competition, and it did not help that Cope messed up a reconstruction of an Elasmosaurus, placing the skull at the end of the tail. The Morrison formation was (is) in the middle of nowhere, and digging during the 19th century had its risks. This concept ties with the idea of “the adventurer” à la Indiana Jones, mentioning Roy Chapman Andrews and Barnum Brown, the man who excavated the first Tyrannosaurus. And then you turn a corner and are greeted by a replica of a T-Rex. Of course, I stayed a while here – trying to take pictures without the security guard in them.

Tyrannosaurus rex replica

After World War II, palaeontology hits moved from the USA to Mongolia and the Gobi desert, with new species being discovered every so often. Later, in the last years of the 20th century, the idea of “the avian dinosaur” arrived, and there is a replica of a Deinonychus, with screens showing recreations of the creature looking “like a lizard” and looking “like a bird”, feathered and all.

Titanosaur, therizinosaurus, eggs, deinonychus

Finally, there are the local dinosaurs: a tail and part of a foot from Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra, a nest from the Poyos Site (Guadalajara), and the star of the show – the original fossil holotype of Concavenator (Concavenator corcovatus), a theropod found in Cuenca. The fun part? The museum which holds the holotype, Museo de Paleontología de Castilla-La Mancha, bans pictures – so I took my sweet time with this. There is also a life-size reproduction, with colours tuned down to more realistic than the originally proposed blue and red.

Concavenator fossil and reproduction

Afterwards, I wandered around MARPA, mostly to go to the palaeontology room, as I have explored the museum extensively before. The palaeontology ward is relatively new, and it has quite a few nice reproductions and… even if I have explored that one too. I also dropped by the shop to get the exhibition book. Finally, I went back to run through the Dinosaur exhibit again, just because I could, before I headed home. I had thought I’d look for a nice restaurant for lunch, but nothing drew my attention.

27th & 28th April 2024: Paris & the Fan Festival (France)

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27th April 2024: From the Fan Fest to Les Invalides

My grandmother used to say that nothing good happens before sunrise, and to be honest, when the alarm clock rang at 4:40 on Saturday, I was very tempted to believe so. However, there were planes to catch, and red-eye flights are called so for a reason. My sibling and I had tickets for Paris on a 7:25 flight, which required us to be at the airport with enough time to board ± 30 minutes in case we had to get to the Satellite Terminal. Since I started planning with time – back in January – I had booked a parking spot in the actual terminal parking lot, for just a couple quid more than the long-stay one, and I activated a service the airport has so your card is billed automatically when your licence plate is detected, for convenience.

We reached the terminal with plenty of time (± 30 minutes) but recent problems with French air controllers going on strike, I was anything but calm. However, we took off on time and I just huddled off to nap. Arrival in Orly was early, and we did not taxi much, nor need buses. We just stepped off at the gate, and headed towards the Orlyval. We bought a Paris Visit card each, in order to be able to ride the public transport system as much as we needed for the weekend, and hopped on the shuttle. After a couple of transfers and a short walk, we arrived at the exhibition centre Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, where Paris Fan Festival took place.

Paris Fan Festival is a yearly convention that focuses on everything geek / nerd / niche, whatever you want to call it: video games (and retro video games), Star Wars, TV series, Ghostbusters, manga, comics, K-pop, there’s something just for everyone. I think it’s a bit of what Japan Weekend aims to be, but openly. It felt a little like that Funko slogan “Everyone is a fan of something”.

My reason to be there was European comic, actually. Authors (and married couple) Stjepan Šejić and Linda Lukšić Šejić, whom I’ve been following for a few years now, were in attendance. Stjepan Šejić has worked for DC in works such as Aquaman, Harley Quinn, and Suicide Squad, but he has gone independent, focusing on his own content creation. So has Linda Šejić, who started off at Image Comics and currently works on her own web comics. I’m currently buying his works Sunstone, Fine Print and my favourite Death Vigil, and her Blood Stain and Punderworld, the latter based on the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. I also have the Aquaman hardcover that compiles all of Stjepan’s issues, and the Batman-character self-conclusive Harleen.

Of course, I wore an appropriate “Velocirapture” T-shirt to the event. The goal was to get an issue of each collection signed, and maybe a commission and some merch. In the end, we could only get a commission from Linda – we almost got one from Stjepan too, but things did not work too well on that front. I hope to get one next time they’re reachable – I actually wanted to go and meet him a while back, but I was in the middle of a weekend in Cuenca back in 2017.

Paris Fan Festival: Stjepan Šejić and Linda Lukšić Šejić

My sibling and I wandered through Paris Fan Festival for a few hours. We had something to eat at a Paul’s bakery, which I had discovered in Toulouse, and whose prices were not stupidly inflated by being inside the convention. Unfortunately though, I had followed the instructions of the venue and I was not carrying any water, and just a small backpack. I could’ve completely ignored the rules though, just like… most everybody else did. I did learn a valiable lesson though – when travelling to conventions for people, you buy tickets for both days. Just in case.

One of the most interesting vendors at Paris Fan Festival was the Lyon Cinema and Miniature Museum Musée Cinéma et Miniature, which had brought many sci-fi props from their permanent exhibition. They had the tip of a pyramid, a hieroglyph stone and a mask from the original Stargate film, ), a compsognathus animatronic, and the velociraptor claws from the Jurassic Park saga (), Loki’s mask from The Mask, a xenomorph head from Alien, suits from one of the older Batman films and Armageddon, prosthetics from X-Men…

Samples of the Lyon Cinema and Miniature Museum at the Paris Fan Festival

As every other niche convention, were tons shops with merchandise, books and comics, not all of them legal. They held an exhibit of figures and statuettes. There were also a number of conferences – pity that the one about Jurassic Park was in French, too. Also, I discovered that France has a lot of “replica” culture – there was an actual “Imperial Army” (Star Wars), someone who had customised a car into the Ectomobile from Ghostbusters (2016), even people impersonating Tolkien’s orcs… It goes a little beyond cosplay… Supposedly, there was someone walking around with a dragon, but we did not run into them.

Paris Fan Festival snippets

Eventually, we left the convention to find our way to the hotel and drop the luggage, since comics are heavy, and Paris is on high alert and most places won’t let you through with backpacks. We wasted some time finding the hotel as it was raining cats and dogs – and they were remodelling, so the outer signal was not there. After check-in, we headed out again, and when we reached our next destination, it had literally stopped selling tickets – it was one hour and four minutes to closing time, and the recommended time is one hour and five minutes, so sadly, we could not get in.

It was a bit disappointing, but we moved on towards Arènes de Lutèce. Lutetia (Lutèce) was the Latin name for Paris when it was part of the Roman Empire, and the amphitheatre is one of the most important remains from that period. Built during the first century CE, it would have seated 15,000 spectators. It was restored and open to the public at the end of the 19th century. Today, it is the centre of a park.

Lutetia Amphitheatre

After that, we took the underground towards the high-end department store Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann. In 1894, two Parisian businessmen opened a shop that would eventually become the biggest department store chain in Europe. Through the following decades, the businessmen bought buildings around the shop in order to grow their emporium. In 1907, architect Georges Chedanne carried out the first main renovation in the Art Déco style, and Ferdinand Chanut completed it with a Neo-Byzantine dome, built in 1912. Today, the galleries focus heavily on luxury products, and not that we could afford any, but I wanted to see the dome.

When we arrived, we snooped around – it was packed, full with high-end tourists, mostly Asians. The brands selling their products were the most expensive ones – from Chanel to Cartier. As we were admiring the dome, we saw there was a glass walk hanging from the balcony on the htird floor. Of course, we had to investigate. It was around 17:30. We found the end of the queue, and saw that there was a QR to reserve a spot. I was able to book us in for 19:20 – surprising, considering it was the same day, and access is free – maybe it was a language barrier or something? I’m not going to complain.

There was a nearby gallery I also wanted to see, Passage du Havre, a typical Parisian shopping passage. It was less impressive than the Lafayette, but also surprisingly cosy – as my sibling put it “the other guys have Chanel, they’ve got Sephora”. It had some nice decoration and quite a different crowd. Furthermore, we had been up since 4:00, and ate quite early, so when we found a Pret a Manger, we decided to buy dinner there.

Passage Du Havre escalators

We went back to Galeries Lafayette for our “Glasswalk” experience, and it was really, really cool. The staff were also impressively friendly and we enjoyed ourselves immensely for the whole… five minutes of it. I really loved the dome.

Upper floor of the Galerie Lafayette

We finally headed off towards Napoleon’s tomb, the Dôme des Invalides in the complex Hôtel des Invalides. Hôtel des Invalids was originally commissioned by Louis XIV in 1670 as a hospital for disabled soldiers. The church-and-chapel complex was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in several iterations from 1676 on. The complex is considered one of the most iconic examples of the French absolute monarchy Baroque style. When Napoleon’s remains were repatriated in 1840, a state funeral was held, and a mausoleum projected in the crypt under the Dome. Construction of the grave extended until 1861, when the former Emperor was finally entombed there.

We were going to see the light mapping event Aura Invalides, a spin off of sorts from the display in the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal (Canada). The show highlights the history, architecture and meaning of the monument through light and orchestral music. The event lasts about 45 minutes, and it comprises three parts: First Movement: Creation, which focuses on the architecture of the monument; Second Movement: Collective Memory, through which you get to wander, seeing different effects in the chapels; and finally Third Movement: Universal Elevation, more spiritual and ethereal.

Projections inside the Invalides church

Les Invalides church by night

Afterwards, we headed towards the hotel to have a shower and sleep.

28th April 2024: No plans, really

After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we tried our luck at the Paris Fan Festival again. We got our drawings from Linda Šejić, but Stjepan Šejić had brought all the wrong markers and was not doing any more commissions. I offered my own pen, just to test the waters, and it was unfortunate that he did not take the bait.

Oh, well. You can’t win all the time. Instead of wallowing in our bad luck, we decided to get going and do something cool. For me that meant the park known as Jardin des Plantes, to visit two sites of the French Natural History Museum Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The day had started weirdly, with my underground ticket not working, but my sibling’s doing so. A lady who did not seem to enjoy being stuck at work Sunday morning waved us through without exchanging it. As the ticket was still not working when we left Paris Expo, another employee exchanged it.

The first site we visited was the Great Gallery of Evolution, Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, the biggest site of the French Natural History Museum. It has four visitable levels – the upper balcony (third floor), focused on “Evolution of life”, the second floor “Impact of man in life”, and the first and ground floors that deal “Diversity of life” (terrestrial on the first, marine on the ground floor). The way it is arranged makes it, in my view, a companion to the Gallery of Compared Anatomy – (which I still like best, to be honest).

The collection finds its core in the disappeared Zoology Gallery, whose building dates back from 1877. Designed by architect Jules André, the interior was a cast-iron structure with a central nave and a skylight. Although the original project was never completed, the Galerie de Zoologie was inaugurated in 1889. It closed down in 1966 for restoration, although works were actually only carried out between 1991 and 1994. During this time, taxidermist also took care of about a thousand animals. Today, the gallery holds a cavalcade of savannah animals on the ground floor, and more conservative vitrines and glass cases on the upper floors. The museum still keeps the 19th century allure and entertaining aura – we did not go into any of the VR experiences, as they were sold out (and, you know, in French), so we did not see the more modern area of the museum.

Great Gallery of Evolution

We started off on the third floor and made our way down to the ground level. There were a ton of taxidermy animals, collections of insects and shells, even a wool one, and some bizarre specimens such as a tiger attacking an elephant with a chair on top… To be honest, though, I think it is more of a regular zoology gallery, just arranged in a surprising way. I found the evolution angle better developed at Brussel’s Natural History Museum. The classical design is extremely cool, though, and it would have given a great feeling had it not for all the free-range kids wildly running around…

Afterwards, we headed off to the geology and mineralogy gallery, Galerie de Géologie et de Minéralogie, which had a really nice collection of gemstones, crystals and jewellery. And of course, fluorescent rocks which kept my attention for a very long while.

Mineral and geology gallery

It was almost lunchtime and we decided to head out towards a busier area to grab a bite. My Paris Visit ticket was not working again, and I exchanged it yet once more. I went through, but my sibling did not, so they had to wait in queue again to exchange that too. Apparently, I was keeping the tickets too close to my phone – even if it was the one without internet? I deemed my sibling responsible for the tickets from then on.

We stepped out at Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre, hoping there were places to eat, and we were right – there were a bunch of them along the street. The one that grabbed our attention was Café Brasserie Ragueneau, a small eatery close to the Louvre. There, I splurged on a Tartare de boeuf poêlé au foie gras (Pan-fried beef tartare with foie gras) just to be a snob. It was delicious. The foie gras version came slightly cooked, though the raw version would have been fantastic. Our waiters were extremely friendly too, and tolerated my poor French with a smile.

Pan-fried beef tartare with foie gras

After lunch, we walked to the last place on my list for the trip – the church Église Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois de Paris, which mixes elements of Romanesque, Flamboyant Gothic, Rayonnant, and Renaissance styles, though the tower – my favourite – was only added in 1860 as part of Baron Haussmann’s plan to reconstruct the city. The base of the church dates from the 12th century, and during the 14th and 15th centuries it was decorated with a balustrade by Jean Gaussel, multiple sculptures, and gargoyles. The interior is lighter than usual gothic churches, and there is a monumental set of carved wooden seats for the royal family. There are multiple windows with stained glass, although not all of them are the original Medieval ones, since they were destroyed during the French Revolution and replaced in the 19th century.

Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois

The Louvre was not selling same-day tickets, so our idea to spend a couple of hours there went bust. Then, we decided to walk towards Île de la Cité to check on the cathedral’s progress, as it is supposed to reopen this year, when reconstruction from the 2019 fire has been completed. I wanted to check something called Tunnel des Tuileries, but I misunderstood – I thought it crossed underneath the Seine to get to the Isle of France; apparently I mixed it with a pedestrian tunnel under the Thames – it turned out to be a place of modern art, and it did not feel too safe. Thus, we continued under the sun, and reached the flower market Marché aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II.

We found out that a sort of stage has been built for visitors to sit in front of Notre Dame, and we saw a lot of people taking pictures of the pictures on the wall, which was a bit weird. We sat for a while, but not long because there was a guy singing really badly at the square.

Notre Dame under reconstruction

We went on and saw the park Square René Viviani, where the oldest tree in Paris stands. Next to the park is the church Église Saint-Julien le Pauvre and close to Église Saint-Séverin. We could not enter any of them, so instead we decided to sit down to have a coffee – in my case a “detox smoothie” because the orange-and-carrot blend reminded me of one in Japan I really like.

We finally set off to collect our things, and this is when I usually say I got home without an incident. Not this time. The public-transport tickets worked fine to get to the airport, we bought dinner and settled to wait. There was nothing much too strange, we were late – forty, forty-five minutes? I’m not sure, but not an obscene amount of time – the crew announced connections over the PA system, I thought that was nice of them. When we landed… I had a moment that I did not know where we were, which is strange, because the terminal is pretty straight forward. It turns out that in order for the travellers who had connections to South America to make it, we had landed at the Satellite Terminal, not the main building! Which meant over thirty minutes of “commute” back to the parking lot… I had taken a leeway of around an hour and a half after landing to get out, but we barely made it!!

A nice weekend to break out the routine, a lot of comics signed, and a lovely piece of artwork were achieved. Unfortunately, I caught a stupid, stupid cold, my first since the whole Covid thing started, and my immune system freaked out. It seems it’s back to facemasks on planes for me.

22nd March 2024: Trail of the 1808 Uprising, Comic Planet and Genesis (Madrid, Spain)

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Among the activities organised by the Pasea Madrid program (Walk Madrid), there was one about painter Francisco de Goya. Goya was probably the most important painter towards the end of the 18th century. He was born in 1746 and died in 1828, having lived through four Bourbon Kings, the Peninsular War, the postwar and the Bourbon restoration.

Goya started his career in Madrid drawing bucolic cartons to be woven into tapestries. He eventually became popular painting portraits for the aristocracy first, the royal family later, until he was appointed court painter. Sometime along his career he contracted an illness that left him deaf, and his character soured. He started experimenting with other media besides canvas and mural paintings, and started creating prints, which are darker and fantastical. During the Peninsular War against Napoleon’s forces, he created paintings about the uprising, and prints showing the most awful part of human condition during armed conflict – the horrors of war. He did not become any more cheerful after the conflict, depicting famine and illness. His last set of art pieces are called the black paintings, black-and-ocre coloured nightmarish pieces which contrast with the life of his initial bucolic scenes and one of his most famous painted – the naked lady La maja desnuda.

In 1807, Napoleon tricked the Spanish king into abdicating and allowing his troops to march towards Portugal. Instead, the French just… stayed in Spain. Madrid was occupied on the 23rd of March 1808. On the 2nd of May, there was an uprising in town, carried out by plain citizens and a very small percentage of the Spanish soldiers. The rebellion was squashed and the rebels shot to death – where “rebel” meant “everyone caught with a weapon”, and weapons had been stones, knives and even plant pots. While the uprising was unsuccessful, it sparkled the Peninsular War, known in Spanish as the War of Independence. Goya, originally open to the French ideas of Illustration, painted two canvasses about the events. The first was “The charge of the Mamelukes” El dos de mayo de 1808 o La carga de los Mamelucos depicting one of the French units charging Madrid’s people; the second was “The third of May Shootings” El tres de mayo de 1808 o Los fusilamientos del tres de mayo, showing the executions in central Madrid.

After I arrived in Madrid, I started off the day with a Starbucks’ Iced Strawberry Matcha Tea Latte, a new flavour introduced this month. I had plans for a nicer breakfast, but my train was delayed so I had to get something to go, so it was this and a cookie. I really liked the drink, I hope it stays. I grabbed both and went towards the meeting point.

Starbucks' Iced Strawberry Matcha Tea Latte

The visit I attended was called “Goya and La Florida” (La Florida being a small hermit church the painter did murals for), but it was more of an exaltation of the May 1808 uprising. We met the guide next to the Royal Palace, where she summarised Goya’s life. Then, we moved on to a placard next to the palace that memorialises the uprising, and she described the event. We continued on towards the area of Príncipe Pío, saw yet another memorial to the uprising Monumento al Pueblo del dos de Mayo de 1808 and the archaeological remains of one of the forts.

Monument to the second of May

We went up the park Príncipe Pío – next to the Temple of Debod – and the guide explained the military shootings, and read a document. We continued towards the graveyard where the rebels were buried Cementerio de La Florida, next to which stands a monument to Goya Monumento a Goya: four stones, each one with a letter to form the word “Goya.”

Monument to Goya

We finally reached the hermit church Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, where Goya painted the ceiling frescoes. Over time, they became so degraded that an identical second hermit was built to be used religiously, and the original one kept as a museum and the painter’s pantheon. The ceiling has a dome in which the artist painted St. Anthony’s miracle – as his father had been accused of murder, he resurrected the victim, who could identify the real criminal. The murals are done in al fresco technique, painted on fresh plaster, directly on the walls.

Hermit church of St Anthony

After I left the hermit church, I headed off towards Príncipe Pío station, where I met my relative. There’s this restaurant that I’d been wanting to try for a while, but I needed two other people to tag along in order to get the table I wanted – yes, I wanted a specific table in the restaurant, more on that later. We had a reservation for a late lunch at 15:00, since my guided visit finished at 13:00. We took the underground and alighted at the area of Cuzco, with still some time left.

While checking out how to get to the restaurant, I had came across an Asian supermarket nearby – and that led me to discover Calle General Margallo, a little cluster of Asian supermarkets and stores. We went into Ibero China Madrid and I was happy to buy a bunch of things at a very decent price, mostly Japanese (curry and miso), but I also bought some Filipino Sky Flakes Crackers that I used to get from an acquaintance and had not found for years. Afterwards, we headed to the restaurant.

Comic Planet is an American-food eatery set around the superhero theme – murals on the walls, actual-size figures from DC and Marvel films, and even some prop reproductions. The dishes are “inspired by” superheroes and villains, with a lot of colourful additions.

When making the reservation, I was luckily able to book the table I wanted – and lacking any John Constantine decoration, who is my favourite “almost mainstream” comic character, the table I aimed for was the Aquaman one; I liked Aquaman before Jason Momoa made him officially cool. To be honest, even if I really wanted to check the restaurant out, I was a bit limited on what I could order – way too much coriander. I wanted a burger and a dessert – and a coke chilled with vanilla ice-cream (Coke & Vainilla Ice 1923). Unfortunately, our third party member was almost forty minutes late, so in order to keep the table we needed to exchange desserts for a starter. When the three of us were there, we ordered our mains.

Our starter (for two) was the “Infinity Gauntlet”: cheese sticks wrapped in dough (tequeños) with five sauces – tartar, spicy, mango, BBQ and comic special “cocktail”. The name of the dish refers a weapon created by Thanos, villain in the Marvel comics Avengers, made famous by the films.

My main was a Cat Burger (a reference to Batman’s Catwoman) – a “snobbish” beef patty with caramelised onion, duck foie gras and melted Brie cheese, with regular chips. My relatives ordered a Super Comic Burger (Grilled beef with egg, Oldenburger cheese, fried plantain, guanciale and “kryptonite” – whatever that is. The bread was… blue, and the chips red) and a Hellboy brioche (smoked and spiced pork, natural tomato, Edam cheese, egg, red onion pickled in lime, coriander, mustard and sugar), a reference to Dark Horse Comics’ Hellboy, one of the few creator-owned characters out there.

Comic Planet Madrid Food

One of the greatest things of the restaurant is that you get to hang around and take pictures with and of everything. The restaurant has two floors, and you are free to explore them. Aside from the murals and real-life figures, there are busts of bad guys, and even a homage to one of the most prolific comic-creators in history, Stan Lee. They also have a store with a bunch of merch (surprisingly… no actual… comics).

Comic Planet Madrid decoration

Afterwards, because the weather was nice and the forecast was rain all the following week, we walked down to the Comunidad Evangélica de Habla Alemana – Friedenskirche (German-Speaking Evangelical Community – Church of Peace), who were running a video mapping show in their church, Genesis.

The show follows the first three days described in the Christian Bible’s Book of Genesis, as God creates the earth. On the first day, God separated light from darkness; on the second day, God created Heaven (the sky in some versions), and on the third, he created the lands, seas and vegetation (nature in some translations). The church is a Neoromanesque building with mosaics which helps the otherworldly aura of the experience.

The show, designed by the company Enoarium has five parts: First Day: Light; Second Day: Sky; Third Day, first part: Water and Land; Third Day, second part: Nature; Meditation. When we went in, there were already lights on, a pretty universe-like lighting. There were pouffes to sit / lean on the floors and chairs. I chose a pouffe, thinking that it would be hard to stand up later, but oh well. I had about an hour to get round to it. It was a really good idea, because watching the ceiling was much more comfortable than having to look up.

It was a bit difficult to notice when the one day became the next, because the lights flowed really nicely and one theme faded into another. First, the whole church went dark, and there was a bit of light in the centre of the ceiling that became wider and wider. The white light started mixing with blue, which first was the sky and eventually turned into the sea. Gold / brown bits after a while represented the land, then more blue / purple as more sea, and when it turned green we had reached the creation of vegetation, which exploded in tons of colourful flowers. Eventually, everything dissolved into candles and lamps. The music was nice, too, mostly coral in Latin, I think.

Genesis Madrid stills

Genesis Madrid stills

Afterwards, we separated and I headed off to the train which – what else is new – was stupidly delayed, so I was stuck at the station for almost 40 minutes until my train came. The only good thing was that another in the same general direction came three minutes before, so most people got onto that, and mine was pretty empty.

20th March 2024: Mundo Pixar (Madrid, Spain)

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Due to some kind of weird… extended family thing, we ended up with some vouchers for Pixar World Spain Mundo Pixar, happening in IFEMA in Madrid. It would have been a pity to waste all of the tickets, so there we went, on a Wednesday morning, to at least redeem a couple of them. This immersive exhibit comprises several rooms with life-sized scenarios and characters based on Pixar films.

Mundo Pixar Madrid - outside

Pixar is an American animation studio which started off as part of the Lucasfilm computer division back in 1979. For over a decade, the group collaborated with graphic design and CGIas a third-party, until it was properly founded as an independent company in 1986. Pixar collaborated with Disney creating computer animations, and kept developing the technology, until it was finally able to pitch its first feature film to Disney – Toy Story, which was also the first-ever completely computer-animated film. Released for the 1995 Christmas season, it was a world-wide hit. Pixar became part of Disney in 2006.

The studio’s films have received 23 Academy Awards, eleven times for Best Animated Feature (a category added in 2001). One of the characteristics of Pixar films is their layering – though they are marketed as children’s entertainment, they tend to have a deeper, more adult-oriented subtext that… kids don’t even grasp. Something weird is that despite its successes, Pixar always seems on the brink of bankruptcy…

We had tickets for 11:00, and thought we had plenty of time until we got caught in a huge traffic jam due to a fair in another part of IFEMA. We had over 45 minutes of leeway, and ended up taking half an hour just to be able to get into the parking lot from the roundabout 650 metres away. That was wild.

We finally got into the queue around 10:50, and it took a while to get in. Mundo Pixar is organised in a U-shaped circuit, so that you can get round to the shop before or after seeing the exhibit. For a weekday, it was packed – not only by families, a bunch of random friend groups and tourists, too. Interesting.

We accessed through a tunnel to the first space, which is a bit of a self-promotion video mixed with the rules of the game – mostly, the one that people seemed unable to follow: do not touch. The immersive experience takes you to recreated scenarios from several films by the studio, to the slightest detail. The rooms are supposed to have different smells, but we only perceived a few. And of course, people kept touching.

Rooms 1 & 2: Up. This films tells the story of an old widower who goes on a last “adventure” to Paradise Falls, where his late wife would have loved to live. To do this he… floats his house away with thousands of balloons. He meets kid Russel and dog Dug. The rooms include a view of the whole house, and one of the interior. The living room is a perfect reconstruction of the one in the film, down to the pictures and the armchairs where Ellie and Carl sit, and the device Carl builds to steer the house while it flies.

Room 3: Monsters Inc.. This is a take on a widespread childhood obsession, the monster in the closet. In another dimension, energy is powered by the screams of frightened children from our world – thus, monsters sneak into kids’ rooms using magic doors to their wardrobes. Sully and Mike are the top-scary team until they run into a toddler who turns their lives upside down. The room has different bits from the film, including the scream factory doors and the two main characters waving awkwardly, recreating a scene where Mike and Sully are made to pose for a picture – I kinda expected them to move.

Pixar World Spain: Entrance, Up, Monster Inc.

Room 4: Toy Story. A bunch of toys which / who become sentient when they are not being played with get a new companion, who does not know he’s actually a toy. Enter a house-move, a bully neighbour, and a nasty dog. Chaos (and a trio of sequels) ensues. The fun part of this room is that it’s built so you see the room from one of the toys’ perspective, everything is high up, and the toys themselves are scaled.

Room 5: Elemental. This is a coming-of-age romantic comedy which focuses on overcoming differences. You walk into a train car with the two characters – a water element and a fire element, awkwardly sitting next to each other.

Room 6: Inside Out. In this coming-of-age comedy-drama, every person (and cat) has five basic feelings: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. They control a person’s life using a big console, and they collect “core memories” to help with their job. A young girl’s Joy and Sadness must learn to work together to overcome moving to another city. The room shows a perfect life-size reproduction of Sadness and Joy at the console and all the core memories.

Room 7: Ratatouille. This films follows the adventures and misadventures of the rat Remy, struggling to become a chef – to do this he hides in the hat of a young man and “guides” his cooking. The title is a pun between the word rat and a French recipe. The room is a huge kitchen, and you see Remy cooking inside a huge chef hat.

Pixar World Spain: Toy Story, Elemental, Inside Out, Ratatouille

Room 8 & 9: Coco. Set around Mexico’s Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos), this film sees a young boy, Miguel, explore his family roots and his love of music. The first room shows Miguel and his grandmother, and the second area holds skeleton Héctor, a dead musician who accompanies Miguel in his adventures.

Room 10: Luca. This film tells the story of two sea-monster children (Luca and Alberto) and a human child (Giulia), and deals with friendship and acceptance in the Italian Riviera in 1959. The room hosts the size-appropriate children, with Giulia – and her cat – getting the most prominent set.

Room 11: Cars. The film is set in a world populated only by anthropomorphic vehicles. Arrogant young racing car Lightning McQueen learns about humility, sportsmanship and friendship. There was a nice staff member taking pictures of visitors in this room, with the film’s main character.

Pixar World Spain: Coco, Luca and Cars

Room 12: Finding Nemo. Nemo is a little clownfish, the only survivor from a barracuda attack in which his overprotective father, Marlin, lost his wife and all their other fertilised eggs. When Nemo gets “fished”, Marlin embarks on a crazy journey to find him, meeting amnesic surgeon fish Dory, wannabe-vegetarian shark Bruce, and surfer turtle Crush. To be honest, finding Nemo in this room was easy. He was in the middle of it, surrounded by marine mist, with jellyfish and the rest of the characters on a screen behind him. I was severely disappointed there was no Bruce whatsoever in the room.

This was the last room; afterwards there was the shop, and a small photocall with a giant Luxo (a yellow bouncing ball with a blue band and a red star), back at the beginning. I am not sure this area actually counted as a room, because we were told there were thirteen rooms? No clue.

Pixar World Spain: Finding Nemo, photocall, Pixar ball

Fortunately, when we left, the traffic jam had dissipated. Unfortunately, I had to go work in the evening, which did not feel great. I obviously enjoyed the rooms dedicated of films I had watched (and liked) more than the others – I personally find the first ten minutes of Up heart-wrenching, but Finding Nemo was my favourite (both as a film and a room). I still uphold my protests about shark discrimination though!

17th March 2024: Council Houses & Royal Collections (Madrid, Spain)

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Madrid’s town hall opened a new season of their “walking Madrid” Pasea Madrid to show off some of the usually closed-off monuments in the greater area of the city. I’ve signed up for a few before (also under the name of open for restoration); while I am not a fan of guided visits, the program grants access to otherwise closed off places. This time I was lucky enough to get a spot for the old town hall Casas Consistoriales.

The original council house was built around 1645, following the plans by Juan Gómez de Mora, in the Herrerian style – the exterior is sober and barely decorated, erected in bare brick, with towers in the corners. The interior used to host a square courtyard, around which the whole dependences were designed. Subsequent remodellings closed off that patio, gave the construction a balcony overlooking Main Street, and exchanged the wooden roof for black slate. Even later, the structure was connected to the nearby palace Casa de Cisneros, a Plateresque palace built round 1537, by a passageway on the second floor. The two buildings were the main site of the town hall until 2011. Nowadays, the complex hosts some offices and is used for special events.

After going through the metal detector / X ray machine, we gathered at the entrance. The visit took one hour, and we were shown some of the most important points in both buildings, permanently followed by an armed security guard. In the actual Casa Consistorial, we saw the monumental staircase, the “royal room” with a fantastic glass lamp and frescoed ceilings, the so-called “crystal courtyard”, whose ceilings is a stained glass window, and the room where the council meetings used to take place, now used for formal events.

Old council Houses, Madrid

We crossed over to the palace Casa de Cisneros, where we saw the library, several meeting rooms and the “Andalusian staircase” with ceramic tiles, until we finally reached the actual yard, built in brick, but with some original decorations similar to those found in the palaces of Guadalajara (Infantado and Condesa de la Vega del Pozo).

Old council houses, Madrid

The whole thing took about 50 minutes, including checking in, security and introductory explanation. It was extremely rushed, and I still find being followed by a guard a bit unnerving. However, I got to see the two buildings, which is what I wanted.

Afterwards, I went to a new museum recently opened by the Spanish Heritage service Patrimonio Nacional, called the “Royal Galleries” – Galería de las Colecciones Reales. The massive space was built into the ground of the terraces that separate the upper area of the Royal palace from its gardens (Jardines del Campo del Moro), and consists of three floors. The building is completely accessible by wheelchair, having ramps instead of stairs. The collection comprises part of the art pieces owned by the State that were originally purchased by the Royal Families before the 1975 Constitution and the 1982 Law. The uppermost floor contains the pieces collected by the early monarchs, especially the Catholic Monarchs and the Habsburg Dynasty. There are a lot of tapestries, armours and so on, as we are talking the Middle Ages. I also found some Last Wills and Testaments, and the first ever Spanish Grammar, by Antonio de Nebrija (1492). During construction of the building, the archaeological remains of the foundations of the first Royal Palace in Madrid were found, so those have been incorporated into the exhibit.

Royal Collection Galleries - Hausburg collection

The second underground floor, deeper below, holds the Bourbon collection, from Felipe V (king 1700 – 1746, he abdicated on his son, who died, and he had to go back to the throne) to Alfonso XIII (king 1886 – 1931, when went into exile upon the start of the Second Republic). This is more… French-style, of course, with paintings, decorative items, chariots, and actual objects of everyday use. Here are exhibited works by Goya and Velázquez, musical instruments, and the first photographs.

Royal Collection Galleries - Bourbon collection

The third floor is a temporary exhibition of royal chariots and cars, including a Rolls Royce, a couple of sleighs, and a sedan chair. It kind of looks that it’s going to be a forever temporary exhibitions though…

Royal Collection Galleries - chariots and cars

The Galleries were rather… underwhelming. After all, there are quite a few royal palaces and sites in Spain, all lavishly decorated, and most of the paintings are in the museum Museo del Prado, one of the largest painting galleries in the world. This felt a bit of a haphazard collection of “stuff we did not know where to host”. I really struggled to find any link or logic beyond “this king bought this”. And even if it was chaotic of sorts, it felt quite short of other places like the Victoria & Albert museum in London. I am not sure they will “fill it up” eventually, or if the main items will remain in their dedicated locations.

Oh, and in case you are wondering why I did not check out St. Patrick’s parade… It was the day before…

12th March 2024: A free afternoon – the bullring & Pompeii Exhibition (Madrid, Spain)

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Due to life being weird sometimes, I was summoned to a work-related event in Madrid on the morning of the 12th. The event took place in one of the buildings erected by Antonio Palacios, the cultural centre Círculo de Bellas Artes (CBA). The centre hires out its facilities for conventions, gatherings and theatre plays. In our case, we were there for the presentation of a new product in the Column Hall Sala de Columnas on the fourth floor.

Interior of the Círculo de Bellas Artes

After all the necessary chatting, networking, and a disappointing (and rather questionable) choice of canapés, the event was over at 14:30. I ditched my companion then and headed out to Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, the local bullring. I am not a bullfighting fan – my personal view is that it is not an art, nor a “fair fight” as it is presented, and I hope we humans evolve to phase it out. And while I would not attend an event, I was curious to get to know the building and its architecture.

Las Ventas bullring, outside

The ring is the largest of its kind in Spain. It was designed by José Espelius in the neo-mudéjar style and erected between 1919 and 1931. The central ring is just over 60 m in diameter, with a metallic structure holding the stands around it, and a façade of reddish brick and porcelain tiles. Aside from bullfighting, it is also used for concerts and other events.

I took a self-guided tour with an audio-guide Las Ventas Tour Experience, because I actually know nothing about bullfighting – I learnt that it actually has “rules”, I thought it was just taunting and hurting the bull. The passes have names, and there is a whole colour code of handkerchiefs – I had no idea. The tour takes you past the “Great Gate” through which bullfighters come out through when they are deemed to have done a great job. Then you climb up to the first floor balconies, and you can even go up to the highest point to have a panoramic view. You see the outside of the Royal Box, the gate through which the dead bull is brought out through, and then you walk down to the ring itself. There you can stand in the areas where the bullfighters and their helpers wait, and peer towards the stables, the closed door to the infirmity and finally the chapel. There are two VR experiences too that I did not care for, so instead of the expected 75 minutes, I took a bit less than an hour to do the whole tour.

Inside the bullring of LasVentas

Afterwards, I was curious to check out an immersive exhibition regarding Pompeii called “the last days of Pompeii” Los Últimos Días de Pompeya in the cultural hub Matadero Madrid. It was designed by Madrid Artes Digitales, the same company which organised the Tutankhamun one. At first I was not overly interested in it, but when I went to Recópolis the guide mentioned an actual VR tour, and I became curious (read: it was totally FOMO in the end).

The exhibit has a couple of replicas of archaeological artefacts, but it’s mostly a digital display. The first time I went to the Madrid Artes Digitales building I thought they had rented the place, but now I saw that they might actually own the warehouse and design the exhibits into it. There is a huge room where they project a sort-of film on the walls, a small circuit that you walk doing different activities, and a sitting VR ward, where you get to see a fictional world in 3D.

Of course, there were replicas of the Pompeii casts, and a copy of the novel The Last Days of Pompeii, written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, which has inspired the exhibit. The novel, in turn, was sparkled by the painting The Last Day of Pompeii. The projection recreated a few passages from the book, then Mount Vesuvius erupted and you were taken “into” the crater, seeing lava bubbling and lightning bolts. Then one was back in the city as the pyroclastic cloud rolled into the city, along with volcanic bombs falling into buildings.

Last Days of Pompeii exhibition

The circuit was a VR walk-through that took you though a house, both in ruins and reconstructed, as a woman led you through it. Walking with the VR glasses was a new experience, I have to admit, but going through doors was strange. Unfortunately, my set had a finger print in one of the lenses which spoiled the view a little. In the final ward, there was a representation of a circus fight with gladiators and tigers that turned into a naumachia (ship games in the amphitheatre) while Mount Vesuvius erupted in the background. All in all, it was a bit weird, and maybe… a tad on the morbid side, if you ask me.

Afterwards I just headed off, and I was lucky to make it into the train, it was so full! The car emptied out enough to sit down after a few stops, but just wow.

9th March 2024: Minerals, fossils & trains (Madrid, Spain)

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I might not be the most people-person ever, but if there is something that makes conventions extra fun, it is seeing attendees unapologetically geek out about what they love – in the case of Expominerales, that would be… rocks. Of course, this is an over-simplification. Expominerales is held yearly in the mine and energy engineering school Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas y Energía (ETSIME) in Madrid. The year 2024 marks the 43rd edition of the event, which is considered one of the most important fairs in Spain in the topic of Earth Sciences – minerals, fossils, gems, and meteorites are widely available to the public. Aside from the small historical museum Museo Histórico-Minero Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, there were dozens of exhibitors with all kinds of items for sale, ranging from a few euro to several thousands. These year there were a few lectures, too, and coincidentally, the two of them I was most interested in happened on Saturday, one after the other.

I arrived at the ETSIME around 11:00, and I walked around the stands a couple of times. I have to say that I wanted everything, but I set a budget and I was able to stay around it, after shopping and lunch. At noon, I settled to listen to the lectures – one about the rehabilitation of an ancient gypsum mine in a hamlet called Hornillos de Cerrato, in the area of León. The other one versed about the uses of an already-rehabilitated one in the south of Spain, home to a huge geode. Both of them were pretty interesting, though the conference room was freezing. Someone had forgotten to turn on the heater there, it seemed…

Expominerales 2024 at ETSIME

After the two conferences, I had a last round to buy a last thing, so in the end I bought an iron-meteorite pendant, a fossilised shark tooth pendant, a plesiosaur tooth, and a soil sample of the K–T boundary. A plesiosaur was a marine reptile with flippers, a short tail and a long neck. The K–T boundary (now named the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) boundary) is the theoretical layer of iridium-rich black sand that was formed by the meteorite that caused the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs – and basically most life at the time, in one of the great world-wide extinctions in the history of Earth.

Shopping from Expominerales

At 14:30, I had a reservation for lunch at a Japanese franchise called Ramen Shifu. While I had originally been looking forward to trying the ramen (and I got my hopes pumped up when I read that they were Hakata ramen style), the noodles were rather disappointing. Fortunately, the okonomiyaki – Japanese pizza of sorts, made with a base of cabbage and topped with sauce and bonito flakes, was all right. On top of everything, paying was stupidly difficult because they did not have change.

Shifu Ramen ponzano - okonomiyaki and ramen

When I came out of the restaurant though, it was raining like crazy. I pulled out my umbrella and hopped towards the closest underground station, as my next destination was inside the metro system – one of the Underground’s museum network Museos de Metro de Madrid the collection of classic trains Estación de Chamartín: Exposición trenes históricos, inside the Chamartín stop. The exhibition displays four historical trains, restored from among the first ones that ran under the city, and some memorabilia. It was a bit underwhelming – more like false advertisement. I hoped I would be able to snoop inside the trains, since that was the photograph that opened the webpage, but unfortunately they were cordoned off. There was however a map with the works by Antonio Palacios in Madrid, which will become handy eventually.

Classical Train Exhibition Madrid

Afterwards, I just headed off towards the train station and got back home.