Category Archives: Spain [España]

31st August 2023: Blue Supermoon 2023

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The blue supermoon happened the night of the 30th, but it slipped my mind and I was only out just before midnight, therefore I saw the moon already on the 31st. A full moon occurs when the earth does not block the moon getting light from the sun, so it reflects sunlight with all its visible surface. A blue moon is a second full moon within the same month. A super moon means that the moon is closer to earth than usual. The night between 30th and 31st made everything come together at the same time. Even more, it was the closest full moon to earth in the whole year. According to the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, the moon looked about 8% larger and 15% brighter than a normal full moon.

Blue Supermoon 2023

My town is horrible to catch moonrise, but during the evening of the 31st I was also able to observe it, about three times bigger than the usual size, and with a bright gold-orange colour.

Moon rising behind buildings

Moon rising

Note to self: be in a better position in 2037 to see the next blue supermoon rising.

5th August 2023: Prints, Sharks, Mice and Neon (Madrid, Spain)

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I won’t say that the Southern Italy trip was a bad one, but due to the planning blunder, the heatwave and the general not-so-relaxing atmosphere, I kind of needed a low-stakes day out. And what can be lower-stakes than a silly giant shark film? I got myself a ticket to watch Meg 2: The Trench at noon – I’ve found out that my non-dubbed cinema has started doing matinée shows at a reduced price – and planned my day in Madrid around that.

I took the train and arrived in Madrid on time for my ideal connection. Unfortunately the local public transport is chaotic this summer, with both the train system and the underground going through construction, outages and closed stations. As fortunately the city was between heat waves, I decided to walk for 20 minutes instead of waiting for 17 for a train that might or might not come to take me to where I wanted to go.

My first stop was Imprenta Municipal – Artes del Libro, a local free museum dedicated to the history of book printing and binding. The exhibition is hosted in a dedicated building with two levels. The ground floor focuses on the invention and development of the print, both for text and images, and the art of binding and decorating books. There are printing “machines” from the 16th century on, for copying books and texts, and the whole thing gives off a retro feeling – a video actually shows how the machines work even today.

Collage Imprenta Municipal Artes del Libro

The second floor held an exhibition about “Asian Writings” Trazos de Oriente: imágenes, objetos y caligrafías de Asia. It hosts Arabic documents, Mongolian drawings, Chinese writing instruments and Myanma and Hindu praying books, along with items like ex libris and schoolbooks. All very cool.

Exhibition about writing in Asia

I had a little bit of time before the film, so I got a snack, then headed to the nearby Yelmo Cines Ideal to watch my film. Something I’ve learnt is that matinées attract a weird crowd – when I went to watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, I sat next to someone who narrated the whole film, and this time there was a lady who would tut whenever any of the sharks was on screen. I read the Meg: a novel of deep terror by Steve Alten a lifetime ago, and I enjoyed its albeit-very-liberal adaptation to film, especially because it did have a self-parody tone. It was fun because it was implausible, and it knew it was so. The second and current film, Meg 2: The Trench, has tried to become more of an action-like blockbuster and it takes itself way too seriously in my opinion. But there are three giant prehistoric sharks on screen at times, and I’m simple in that regard. Bigger and more teeth, I’m all for that.

The film finished around 14:00. I was not hungry, so I just grabbed myself a drink at Starbucks. I had a ticket at 15:00 at the Nomad Museo Inmersivo (and it was bad timing I guess, because just a couple of days later they opened a new exhibit). When I first read about it, the idea reminded me of Mori TeamLab Museum, since the art is all digital. The museum is staged in two floors. The lower one hosts the immersive projection ward and the shop. The upper one hosts the entrance and the “activities”. I thought that I’d ask if I could come in early, and they had absolutely no problem with that, so I entered around 14:35.

As you climb down the stairs, you have a very cool corridor with mirrors and lights that lead to the projection area. I had a ticket with entrance and “iris picture”, so an employee took me to get that one (I guess because the photographer was about to go on a break). We had to try a couple of times as it was hard to force my eyelid open under the bright light of the flash. The photographer was very patient with me and we were done in a few minutes.

Interactive Museum Nomad access corridor

I found my way back to the beginning – the museum is surprisingly small. The immersive projection is shown on the four walls and the floor. The projection I watched was called Utopia 1.0, where millions of digital blocks work as a tridimensional Lego set that sort of “build” a surreal world with dragons, deer, sculptures, whales, high rises, dinosaurs… The whole thing takes around 20 minutes and you can watch sprawled on the floor, or sitting up on a pouf – I chose this last option as it allowed me to turn around.

Interative Museum Nomad: Utopia projection

Following the projection, I went upstairs to do the activities. There’s a virtual reality experience where you get to travel the cosmos and see a lot of “space cetaceans”. I wonder why digital artists are so keen on whales… Another of the activities consists on “painting” planets with a giant brush as they float on a wall, and when you colour them all, you get to see penguins on a rocket or something… I did not catch it well because a bunch of kids burst in and took over. On another wall, there is a bunch of neons that you can play with using an app that you download on your phone, and blast music so they pulsate with that. Finally, the nice attendant is at the ready to take your picture at some stairs photo call (I think it is the glorified emergency exit), and you can go back down using a spiral slide.

There is finally a last corridor with lights and you end up at the shop, where you can start all over again, as there is no limit about how long you can stay in the museum. I really liked the first corridor, so I went back there for a while. Then I walked into the projection area again just in time to watch the dinosaurs roam once more. A fun detail is that even the toilets are “in character” with neon and messages.

Interactive Museum Nomad exhibits

On my way out, I bought myself a shark glass at the shop. There was also a very fun pufferfish cocktail glass, but I thought it would be awful to clean after use – not that the shark one is going to be much easier though… I left and headed off to a place I’ve always tangentially felt curious about, even if I’m not really the target public for it – it’s called Casita-Museo del Ratón Pérez.

Ratón Pérez or Mouse Pérez (also called Ratoncito Pérez, Little Mouse Pérez) is the equivalent of the Tooth Fairy in Spanish-speaking tradition. In 1894, writer Luis Coloma was commissioned with writing a tale for the future King Alfonso XIII, who had lost his first tooth. This tale penned the folklore mouse into print. According to the story, Mouse Pérez lived in central Madrid, in a biscuit box in the patisserie Prast, situated in number 8 of Madrid’s Calle Arenal. The town hall installed a plaque to commemorate the place and when the shopping centre in that building became almost empty, someone came up with the idea of building a “museum-house” dedicated to the mouse.

Museum-House of Mouse Pérez

The kids had a blast for sure, the visit is a forty-minute activity 100% dedicated to them . The guide has them running round looking for stuff and going into small doors. I snooped around and found it an interesting business model – though it falters when you pay a bit of attention to detail: books like 1984 or anatomy guides may very well be interesting, but a bit out of place in a children’s museum. At the end of the visit, the guided asked me what I was doing there and I told him I… wanted to see what the fuss was about, what kind of things they did in such “alternative” museums. We chatted away for a bit before I left.

To end the day, I did some shopping and I headed back home – the trains were delayed, but I eventually made it home and had a pizza dinner, because I suck at staying fed on day trips. Truth be told, I wanted to step by a famous bar to eat a calamari sandwich, but it… was complicated, with lots of signage on where to stand and wait to be seated, but there was nobody around, so in the end I decided I did not care enough for the calamari. Some other day – I’ve been saying that for months now though…

11th July 2023: Museum of Dreamers in Madrid (Spain)

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After I had so much fun in the Balloon Museum, I decided that I also wanted to see the Museum of Dreamers, which is something similar. Furthermore, it Madrid exhibit will close down at the end of July, too.

After I finished French school in Madrid, I headed headed off to the Japanese fusion restaurant Nomo Braganza, part of the Nomo Group. Nomo was established in 2007 under the culinary direction of Japanese chef Naoyuki Haginoya. I have to say that I don’t really trust the Spanish-Japanese fusion too much, but in this case, it really panned out. I met my sibling for a late lunch, because I was curious about the chef’s menu, what in Japanese would be called omakase [お任せ], which means leaving the choice of food to the chef. The menu was was a whooping 12 small-sized courses for 50€ – drinks not included, and considering it was 39 ºC outside, we ended up ordering a few rounds of water.

The menu, which changes periodically, comprised in July 2023:

  • Age Edamame Truffle – fermented edamame beans fried with white truffle scent. I personally prefer my edamame boiled, but the truffle scent was a nice touch.
  • Sukiyaki Croquette – oxtail croquette breaded with panko breadcrumbs. This was surprisingly good – and the actual flavour was strong.
  • Maguro Taco – mini taco of tuna tartar with wasabi and shiso (the “taco” was weirdly… not taco-shaped, more like cracker-shaped). The tuna was really good, albeit the base was a bit strange.
  • Gyu Niku Gyoza – aged beef dumplings with caramelised onion and yuzu, two of them per person. It was all right.
  • Ebi Chili – spicy king prawns and fried egg on kataifi noodles, mixed at the table. When we are talking spicy, it means… really spicy. The prawn bits were sizeable, but this was really something I would not miss should it disappear from the menu.
  • Toro Tartar No Temaki – tuna tartar prepared at the table: raw tuna belly mixed with Japanese onion, turnip, egg yolk, chilli pepper and wasabi on a bed of nori and rice so you can roll it yourself (spoiler: you really can’t). This was probably one of my favourite items – but I guess that after all I am a raw tuna fan.
  • Brie Nigiri – flamed Brie cheese nigiri with honey and walnuts. This was probably the weakest sushi bite, but it was still good.
  • Butter Fish Nigiri – butterfish nigiri with kimchi and chilli peppers. Butterfish is only good raw anyway.
  • Aburi Salmon Nigiri – flamed Norwegian salmon nigiri, with Japanese mayonnaise, salmon roe and onion. I still prefer raw salmon, but the flame was light so it was barely perceptible.
  • Maguro Tataki No Nigiri Trufa Nose – tuna tataki nigiri with soy and black truffle sauce. This was also really good.
  • Gyu Niku No Tataki – aged beef tataki with caramelised mushrooms and miso sauce. The combination of meat and the mushroom was strange, but when taken separately it was all good.
  • Caramel dorayaki – two halves of a dorayaki filled with salty caramel paste. Unexpected, because the menu listed something else, but it is not as if it was bad at all!

Chef's choice menu at Nomo Madrid

My sibling ordered some green tea out of the menu, and in the end, the drinks did not add as much to the price as I expected. Also, I have to give a shout-out to the pickled ginger we got. Really good.

After having lunch, we took a train towards the Museum of Dreamers, which is stands in Espacio Ibercaja Delicias, a place that seems to always look somewhat abandoned, even when it is stupidly hot and sunny. The exhibit was designed by sisters Elena and Giulia Sella, founders of Postology, an agency specialised in “phygigal” experiences. This concept merges the words “physical” and “digital”, allowing for a number of immersive and surreal experiences. The Museum of Dreamers is one of those things that you have to see with an open mind to have some fun. It comprises sixteen interactive installations which are basically photo-ops – after all, the word instagrammable has been officially accepted on dictionaries. I guess it is a new niche that can be exploited, and to be honest, I can get behind that, because some of these activities are hilarious.

Entry is timed, but they do not hold a very strict waiting policy – at least not on a Tuesday at 17:00 and 39 ºC. There were no timed exhibits or performances either. The first installation is a dark room with a starry sky of sorts, designed maybe to isolate the rest of the exhibition from the outside, maybe as a metaphor (100 Dreamers). Then you get to a semi open space that opens to the smaller installations that allow for fun pictures. All through the space there are motivational sentences and “rules” for safety in the different installation.

There is some kind of cosmic tube with mirror that was dizzying to walk into (Free your power), a tunnel made of hearts with an encouraging message at the end (Do what you love), an upside down room (Change perspective), an downside down bedroom with a giant plush and fun bed covers (Never stop dreaming), one full of disco lamps (Sparkle more), and a neon staircase flanked by colourful palm trees (Step by Step).

Museum of Dreamers exhibits

Afterwards, there is a ball pit – you know, it’s not like I had ever stepped into one before Friday, and now that’s twice in one week – with a “relaxing island” in the middle (Enjoy Today). In front of that, a tunnel made of fake pink flowers with a long table, set for a tea party (Believe in Magic). That managed to make you think of Alice in Wonderland imprint on your brain. Thus, you are in the right mindset for the following room, full of giant mushrooms and flowers that open up at will – theirs, for sure, not the visitors – whole giant butterflies hang around with their wings made out of lights (Wonder).

Museum of Dreamers exhibits

The final part of the exhibit consists on a second row of booths – a colour wheel, a door that opens to a fantasy scenery, a VR experience (Choose your Way), a stage (The stage is yours), some pink telephones (Your Dreams are Calling you), bright lights commanding you to DREAM (Be Bright)… There were two more rooms, one with a sky background and swings (Sky is not the limit), and the other with punching bags reading FEAR, STRESS, ANXIETY and so on (Never Give Up). I can’t punch, but I can strangle, so I choked the hell out of these last two.

Museum of Dreamers exhibits

That was the end of the escapade. It was a fun half-day out.

7th July 2023: Balloon Museum “Pop Air” in Madrid (Spain)

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Part of this summer’s plans involved a three-week French course-and-stay in Montpellier, but I ended up changing my mind – too many hidden costs on top of the already-steep price, and a generalised bad feeling that I could not really define. I decided to take a course in Madrid and use up the evenings to do some exploring in town.

After class, I booked a table at the Chueca shop of the Japanese restaurant chain Sibuya Sushi Bar, which claims to offer a new concept of sushi. Most of what they offer felt pretty normal to me, except some random baos and the desserts. I browsed the website before booking, so when I arrived I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. Somehow, the waiter did not expect that and was thrown off track. I ordered some ebi furai and a sashimi mix – I have to admit that the size of the sashimi portion did surprise me a little, as I did not expect such a generous serving. Luckily, I had hold on ordering dessert, because the two dishes were more than enough.

Lunch at Sibuya Madrid

There were two temporary exhibits I wanted to check out, and I chose the one that closed down earlier. I checked as I had lunch, and there were tickets available online. I decided to take the underground and buy the tickets in person instead of stressing about making it on time for a particular timeslot. I reached the Balloon Museum on time for the 15:45 entry. The exhibition Pop Air runs from March to July 2023 in the Escenario Puerta del Ángel in Madrid’s Casa de Campo.

Still considered a noon slot, the exhibition was not too crowded at the time I entered, I even had a couple of rooms for myself before I reached a point in which you had to be admitted because the performance was timed. The Ballon Museum‘s Pop Air exhibit is a collection of art pieces that use air and light as their main vehicle.

Artworks:

  • The Goof by Filthy Luker (2021). They are a bunch of “friendly monsters” that observer the world feeding off surprise and happiness. They look… just adorable, as if they were made of giant inflated latex gloves in different colours with huge eyes.
  • Aria, The Breath Immersive Experience by Pepper’s Ghost (2022). A room full of mirrors and digitally-created colourful spheres that spreads to infinite and beyond.
  • Airship Orchestra by Eness (2020). More adorable creatures made out of air, some resembling Japanese peaches, other bunnies, or cacti.

    • Ballon Museum exhibits. The Goof, Aria, Airship orchestra

  • Hypercosmo by Hyperstudio (2021), which is basically a huge ball pit with a show of music and lights.
  • A Quiet Storm by Quiet Ensemble (2022). A dark room where cannons shoot bubbles.
  • Silenus by Max Streicher (2002). A giant, breathing… person… sleeping. It’s a bit creepy, to be honest.
  • Knot by Cyril Lancelin (2017). It is an inflatable… knot, literally a 3D knot made out of a tube.

    • Balloon Museum exhibits: Hypercosmo, A quiet storm, Silenis, Knot

  • Polyheadra by Karina Smigla-Bobinski (2022). It is a room full of balloons with small magnets which you can stick to the wall and the ceiling, and even to each other.
  • Never Ending Story by Motorefisico (2021). Music: Gentle Music by Plume (Netlabel). A lot of decorative balls in a small room full of mirrors and light.
  • Tholos by Plastique Fantastique (2022). A giant black ball surrounded by a plastic structure that imitates the archaeological tholos tombs.
  • Canopy by Pneuhaus & Bike Powered Events (2019). Four palm-tree-like structures that open up and glow if you bike them into life.

    • Balloon Museum Exhibits. Polyheadra, Never ending story, Tholos, Canopy

  • Cloud Swing by Lindsay Glatz with Curious Form (2019). Cute swings held by colourful “clouds” of light.
  • The GINJOS by Rub Kandy (2022). They’re blobs of air with eyes. When I saw them my first impression was “they’re squishy and unstable. I have found my people”. I also found the song hilarious, especially the reference that “GINJOS are not Barbapapa”.
  • Into the Rainbow by Ultravioletto. A VR experience out of which one cannot really take pictures. A white sphere travels through the colours of the rainbow and its symbols – orange candy, yellow rubber duckies, green trees, blue whales, purple… cows(?) and amethyst crystals
  • A number of cute photo booths for picture opportunities, without credit to any particular artist.
  • Parcobaleno by Stefano Rossetti (2020), is a large “inflatable park” for “all the family” (i.e. for kids), which was empty as it was way too hot for any playing.

Ballon Museum exhibits. The swings, the Ginjos, Parcobaleno

All in all, it was a really silly but fun experience. I headed back home afterwards, because even if exploring Casa de Campo is on my list, it was way too hot and I did not have any cold drinks on me. I made an amazing underground-train connection though, which was great because the Casa de Campo stop is pretty far away by public transport – and rather horrible to drive to.

24th June 2023: Abierto por Restauración. La Puerta de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain)

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There is a Spanish adage that calls King Carlos III (1716 – 1788) “the best mayor Madrid ever had”. The truth is that when Fernando VI died, his brother, King of Naples and Sicily ascended the Spanish throne. He started a number of reforms in the Spanish capital that today conform the so-called “Way of the Light” – Unesco Heritage Site Paisaje de la Luz since 2021.

Madrid had at the time a surrounding wall for administrative reasons, in order to control trade. The different gates were named according to the main city they lead to. Carlos III decided to remodel one of the gates, the one that lead north-west – first to Alcalá de Henares and then to the rest of Europe. To carry out the task he called for a contest, which was “coincidentally” won by the Court’s architect Francesco Sabatini. It took ten years (from 1769 to 1779) to be completed, in typical Neoclassical style.

Today, this gate is still known as Puerta de Alcalá, and it stands in the central district of Salamanca in Madrid. The wall, however, long gone so the structure remains as a triumph arch more than a gate, in the middle of a roundabout in the Square Plaza de la Independencia.

The gate measures almost 24 metres high, 43 metres wide and 12 metres deep. It was built in solid stone with five arches, and decorated with sculptures depicting the cardinal virtues (Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance) and allegories of war victories.

Puerta de Alcalá under the protective cover

Restoration studies started in 2022, and the works began in 2023. In March 2023, it was announced that the gate would be “open for restoration” Abierto por Restauración, and that about 6,500 tickets would be offered for guided visits to the monument throughout summer. I had a free morning when the tickets went live and I managed to secure one, despite them being “sold out” in minutes. The Abierto for Restauración project, financed by the Madrid Town Hall, aims to raise awareness of the heritage that Madrid holds.

Though I had originally planned for a day out, I was not feeling too well . Nevertheless, I really did not want to give up the chance and I decided to just head over, attend the visit. and just take the train back home, making it a half-day out.

The gate is covered with a huge billboard showing a hyper-realistic photograph, which also hides part of the scaffolding and protective messes that cover the structure. The restoration aims to repair the mistakes of previous attempts at conservation, counteract the effects of pollution and weather, and secure the sculptures at the top of the gate.

We were supposed to meet at 10:45 at the gate of the park on one side of the square, for the 11:00 visit. The guide arrived at 11:00 sharp and started “taking attendance” – since the gate is technically a “construction site” you are insured, and you have to wear a security helmet and all. Then she took us to the base of the gate and told us the history of the construction. The previous group started coming down at 11:00 and we climbed at 11:15. By noon, we were down.

We climbed the inner scaffolding to the top of the gate, where we got to see the work first-hand. Not that there was much to see, because the works cover most everything. There are giant staples that have been taken off the sculptures in order to repair the damage and secure their placement.

Scaffolding supporting the Puerta de Alcalá

The upper platform allowed for snooping along the sculptures there and the views around the gate, along with a bit of the work being done – huge metal supports for the sculptures, filling up cracks, insulation…

Sculptures at the top of Puerta de Alcalá

Views from the top of Puerta de Alcalá

Though the experience was short, and I did not see as much as I hoped, I was lucky to grab a ticket – 6,500 of them, with 13,000 in the waiting list – but it looks like the reforms won’t be over for a while, so it might still be open next summer. It might be an interesting experience to try again and compare the progress.

11th June 2023: Cuevas del Cerro del Águila {WNW Spain, with a splash of Portugal, June 2023}

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We had decided to split the way back, so we booked tickets for the natural cave known as Cuevas del Cerro del Águila. They are located in the mountain range Sierra de Gredos, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. They were discovered by accident in 1963, and have been open to the public since 1964.

The geological construction dates back 500 million years, from the time when the area was a dolomite-filled marine platform. When Spain emerged as dry land, rivers started flowing, dissolving part of the rocks, and created de underground halls. Mineral-saturated water dripping creates a wide variety of speleothems – stalactites, stalagmites, columns or stalagnates, flowstones…

Caves Cueva del Águila

Caves Cueva del Águila

It was a really cool thing to see – I’ve been to caves before but this one was the most impressing I’ve visited in a while.

Afterwards we just drove off back home for a late lunch, a nap, and getting ready for the work week.

10th June 2023: La Alberca & Plasencia {WNW Spain, with a splash of Portugal, June 2023}

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We left off the castle to have breakfast at the village of La Alberca, a municipality known for two things. The first one is the timber framing of its houses. The buildings have a stony ground floor and a lime-white second floor with the post-and-beam style in dark wood.

La Alberca

The second one is the tradition of the whole village raising a piglet together. The swine is freed mid-June (we missed it by a couple of days) and everybody in the village keeps track of it – feeding and sheltering the animal – until it is auctioned for charity when the time for slaughter draws near, in January. There is a sculpture as homage to the animal in the middle of the church square, yielding to what I’d say is the most iconic sight. However, the amount of butcher and delicatessen shops makes the whole thing a little… weird.

Monument La Alberca pig

We drove through the natural area of Sierra de Francia, and stopped over at the viewpoint Mirador del Madroñal. From there we could see the abundant vegetation – oaks, chestnuts, and vine-fields. A bit further, we reached a second viewpoint Mirador Las Juntas.

Viewpoint Mirador del Madroño

Viewpoint Mirador de las Juntas

Our road was closed, so we had to take a detour, but we eventually reached Plasencia with a lot of big plans. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the Parador de Plasencia, built in the former convent Convento de Santo Domingo, we learnt that the town was in the middle of the local festival. Such thing meant outdoor bars and music – almost rave-like, and most monuments being closed. It had never even crossed our minds that we might run into such a thing, and it was a bit of a bummer that not even the cathedral Catedral de Plasencia was open.

Former convent turned Parador in Plasencia

Cathedral in Plasencia

We walked around for a while, and eventually we found the walls and their mini-museum Centro de Interpretación de la Ciudad Medieval de Plasencia. They reminded me of the wall in Ávila, but in a much-smaller scale.

Buildings in Plasencia

Wall in Plasencia

Plasencia

Plasencia is also a bird-protection area and nestling zone of the lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), so that is what I guess we got to see (but it could totally have been an eagle…). We had lunch and dinner at the Parador as it was the least busy place, and they took forever both times. We did not feel like going out to check out the town in the evening considering how busy everything was even in the afternoon. Probably it was the first full-blown post-COVID festival, but it was a tad disappointing for me.

Krestel

9th June 2023: Arribes del Duero & Ciudad Rodrigo {WNW Spain, with a splash of Portugal, June 2023}

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We set off from Zamora in order to drive up towards the Portuguese town of Miranda do Douro, though we were not due to reach the town itself. We were heading to the International Biological Station, which organises environmentally-friendly cruises up River Douro.

The drive was to take around one hour, and we stopped at the reservoir Embalse de Ricobayo, which has a dam and a hydroelectric central. We stumbled upon a nice little outlook above the reservoir to see both the dam and the meandering river. It was not long before we noticed the vultures – a kettle of Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), and even some solitary birds that showed off (or were trying to find breakfast, who knows?).

Meander and Dam of Ricobayo

We reached the International Biological Station Estación Biológica Internacional | Estação Biológica Internacional (EBI) in time to swap our 12:00 tickets for 11:00 tickets, and the little boat took off. The cruise runs up the area of River Douro Río Duero called Arribes del Duero, a gorge nor dissimilar to the Galician gorge of River Sil. It was an hour-long course where we got to see some more birds of prey, a few nests, lychens and local flora, but none of the wild otters that are supposed to swim on the river. The guide collected some water to observe under the microscope and show us copepods and water fleas. At the end of the boat ride, we saw the “emotional therapy otters” (Lutra lutra) that the EBI keeps at the entrance. Oh, and had a sip of Porto wine. I was not too keen on the whole thing though, despite the pretty landscapes.

Arribes del Duero

Otter playing in the water

We “boycotted” Miranda do Douro as the ascent road from the river to the town looked horrible and full of curves. Thus, we headed off to Ciudad Rodrigo, in the Spanish region of Salamanca. We had booked at the local Parador Parador de Ciudad Rodrigo, Castillo de Enrique II de Trastámara. It is a really cool building – a castle from the 14th century, commissioned by the King . The main feature of the building is the keep, which you cannot climb (technically you can, but you have to know that you need to ask beforehand), but you can walk around the walls to have a look at the skyline. In front of the Parador stands a pre-Roman sculpture of a verraco – a granite animal, maybe a pig or a boar, dating back from the Vettones (3rd century BCE – 1st century CE).

Parador of Ciudad Rodrigo

There was a mishap with our reservation, so instead of getting a three-person room, we got the doggy-friendly room. I’ve been long-supporting of pet-friendly travel, but this made me rethink my stance. The room did have a pull-out sofa bed, but the layout made it awkward to share it among three people. Furthermore, it smelt and there were a bunch of flies and fruit-flies at the windows. That was a bit of a bummer.

We went to walk around town and found the tourist office in the mansion called Palacio de los Águilas, a 16th century Renaissance building erected by the family in charge of the castle upkeep. It has two patios with arches, and an exhibition area about the role that the town had in the war against Napoleon’s armies in the 19th century.

Palacio de los Aguila

We wandered around the town for a little, but then it started pouring. Thus, we hurried towards the cathedral Catedral de Santa María de Ciudad Rodrigo. The original building dates back from the early 12th century, and it was in construction and reconstruction until the 18th century. The main building was finished in the 14th century, but the tower collapsed after the Lisbon Earthquake in 1755. One of the most important features of the cathedral is the Romanesque portico Pórtico del Perdón, similar to the one in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The gothic cloister is really nice, and it holds frescoes from the Romanesque period.

Cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo

Cloister in the Cathedral at Ciudad Rodrigo

By the time we finished, the storm was over. I climbed up the remains of the town’s defensive walls Adarve Juan Martín Zermeño.

Ciudad Rodrigo: wall

We ditched the chamberpot museum (yes, it is really a thing) and to end the day we walked around the town for a little to find the traditional buildings – the manors Casa de la Marquesa de Cartago and Palacio de los Miranda, the square Plaza del Buen Alcalde, the old army HQ Antiguo Cuartel de Artillería,–the churches Iglesia de Cerralbo and Capilla de la Venerable Orden Tercera, and the main square Plaza Mayor.

Ciudad Rodrigo typical buildings

8th June 2023: Tordesillas & Zamora {WNW Spain, with a splash of Portugal, June 2023}

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Tordesillas used to be one of the Spanish Crown’s strongholds throughout the Middle Ages, starting around 1340 when Alfonso XI ordered the construction of a palace. In 1494, the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs signed a Treaty which divided the lands “discovered” by Columbus among them – of course, this Treaty was largely ignored by any other European powers which wanted to explore America, and never acknowledged by any indigenous people. In 1519, the town was part of the rebellion against Carlos I, naming his mother – and daughter of the Catholic Monarchs – Juana as queen, despite the rumours that she was insane. After the defeat of the revolts – and beheading of the instigators – the town lost importance.

We left early in the morning to try and ditch the traffic, but we were not successful – driving around Madrid, we ran into a couple of jams traffic caused only in part by the intermittent storms, which made the beginning of the road trip stressful. Thankfully, we parked at the outskirts of Tordesillas and the sun was shining again, as we had to cross the village on foot. Our first stopover was the Main Square Plaza Mayor. In the Castilian Main Square fashion, it is actually square in shape, with the main buildings supported by columns, where cafés and shops stand today. The current plaza dates back from the 16th century, and has been painted in a questionable bright mustard colour.

Main Square in Tordesillas

In the end, most of the history in Tordesillas is linked to Alfonso XI’s palace, known today as the Convent of Saint Clare Convento de Santa Clara, which stands a few minutes’ walk from the square. It was home, and later prison, to royal women, both loved and unwanted ones. It became a convent of the Order of Saint Clare in 1363, and the nuns living there were tasked with praying for the health and salvation of the Royal Family. Today, it is managed by the Spanish National Heritage Foundation Patrimonio Nacional. It can only be visited under supervision – seriously, aside from the guide, you get a security guard following you around – and photography is forbidden in all the interior areas.

The castle-convent was built throughout the 13th to 18th centuries. The oldest part of the building is a chapel dating from the 11th century, and the bulk of the construction was carried out in the 14th century. The monarchs employed Mudejar builders, a fact that yielded to multifoil arches, ceramic decorations, and Quran verses (officially “decorative nonsense”) in some of the chapels and the façade of the building.

Inside the palace there is a Baroque cloister and the gothic church, with a wooden ceiling painted gold and the emblem dragons of Carlos I’s shield. Truth be told, the church had been pretty much hyped up on me, so I found it a bit underwhelming.

Santa Clara convenent in Tordesillas

The party separated for a bit so I could explore on my own for a while. I got to the stone bridge over the River Douro Río Duero, just called “the bridge” el Puente, right at whose ends stands a monument to the fighting bull Toro de Tordesillas. The associated bullfighting festivity was one of the oldest in Spain until it was vetoed by the regional government – the fighting bull was set loose in the meadow, chased by horsemen and lanced to death. Today, the festivity is controversial and it’s trying to find its place in the midst of new sensitivities.

Tordesillas

I climbed up the medieval wall Muralla de Tordesillas to the park where the monument to Queen Juana Monumento a la Reina Juana I de Castilla stands, in front of the museum dedicated to the Treaty Casas del Tratado, and the church Iglesia de San Antolín.

Monuments in Tordesillas

We walked back to the car to drive off to the next spot in the route, and Tordesillas became the first spot where we spotted birds of prey during this trip, maybe a golden eagle Aquila chresaetos. Or, you know. Anything else.

Eagle

We drove off towards the municipality of Zamora, a Medieval town and villa by the Douro, known for its Romanesque churches. We reached the Parador de Zamora in the middle of a horrible downpour that was over as quickly as it had started. The Parador hotel is a former noble family’s Renaissance palace, with a military style and a middle patio with a glass-window gallery

Parador in Zamora

We had a late lunch and walked to the manor Palacio de los Momos, near the Main Square Plaza Mayor, home to a church Iglesia de San Juan de Puerta Nueva which has a sculpture representing two figures of the local Holy Week celebrations Monumento al Merlú. Other buildings include the old and new town halls Ayuntamiento Viejo and Nueva Casa Consistorial, and blocks of colonnaded buildings.

Buildings in Zamora

The first Romanesque building we came across was the church Iglesia de Santa María Magdalena, which contrary to many other places has got rid of the Baroque add-ons, and stands severe and naked in its stony glory. It is considered one of the most important and pure Romanesque constructions in Europe, sparsely decorated save for the tomb to the side.

Church of Saint Mary

From a side stop I overlooked the river Río Duero and the medieval bridge Puente de Piedra.

Zamora Medieval Bridge

We continued off to the cathedral Catedral del Salvador de Zamora. It is considered the first cathedral in the “Douro Romanesque” style. After the original cathedral was destroyed during the Muslim conquest of Spain, the reconstruction began around 1151. It must have been finished towards the beginning of the 13th century. The building has two particularities – the thick tower, and the umbrella dome, in a style that travelled from Byzantium to the Islamic architecture and reached Spain with the Nasrid artists. The inside holds a cloister and two small museum – one of religious art and the other of archaeology.

Zamora Cathedral

Afterwards, we visited the ruined castle Castillo de Zamora – a purely-defensive Romanesque fortress built around the 11th century. The castle has a moat, and you can wander up the walls and defensive towers. The interior is ruined, but the ancient structure can be guessed by the arches and different walls that would have separated the fortress’ halls.

Castle in Zamora

Finally, we explored a few more religious Romanesque buildings: Iglesia de San Pedro y San Ildefonso, Convento de Clarisas El Tránsito and Iglesia de San Cipriano. From the viewpoint next to this last church, we got to see a stork nest with a baby chick in it.

Zamora churches

Stork nest

We had dinner at a restaurant called El Horno, a traditional places that offers tablas – wooden trays full of treats to share. We shared a serving of tabla de fiambres – Iberian sausages (ham, loin, chorizo…) and cheese on a bed of crisps.

Zamora at night

31st May 2023: Birthday in Madrid (Spain)

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I was lucky enough to be able to combine my 2022 birthday with a holiday that happens around the end of May / beginning of June, so I took off to Tenerife. I could not do that this year, but the stars aligned for a half-day in Madrid – actually, what aligned was a lot of website-hopping, to be honest. It all started when we were booking tickets for the visit to the Royal Palace of La Granja. At that time, I discovered that the collection of Stradivarius instruments in the Madrid Royal Palace are brought out so they can be played every now and then. I had to work on the dates of all the upcoming 2023 concerts where they were used, but I managed to secure tickets for a side gig, which also gave access to a usually closed-off area of the Palace anyway.

Conversely, I have been obsessed with a London experience in which you get to have afternoon tea on a 60’s double-decker bus – but unfortunately, it does not take reservations for one. I was browsing the Internet , looking at similar experiences, and I stumbled upn the fact that the Mandarin Oriental Ritz runs afternoon tea in Madrid. They actually claim that their tea is the same as the London Hyde Park Ritz. I signed up for the Fan of M.O program – not that I’m ever going to be able to afford a stay there, but oh well – before making the reservation, and the system asked if there was a special occasion going on. I ticked “birthday”.

Plans thus built, we arrived in Madrid for the 16:00 booking of afternoon tea at the Palm Court restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid hotel.

The Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid opened in 1910, after King Alfonso XIII decided that Madrid needed a luxury hotel to host European nobility. The king himself became an investor, wanting the city to have lodgings comparable to Paris or London. The building was commissioned to French architect Charles Frédéric Mewes and the construction was directed by Luis de Landecho y Lorenzo Gallego. Surrounded by a metalwork wall, it has 153 rooms and suites, and a wide variety of dining options with different levels of formality.

Through the 20th century, the original Ritz became a piece of history. Its rooms and bars hosted a wide range of personalities – WWI spy Mata Hari, artist Salvador Dalí, writer Ernest Hemingway, scientist Alexander Fleming, and more recent celebrities such as Ava Gardner, Michelle Pfeiffer or Madonna. In 2015, the hotel was acquired by Mandarin Oriental, and in 2018 renovation was tackled. The Covid pandemic delayed its reopening until 2021. Part of the restoration focused on the inner court, with an iron-and-glass ceiling. This is the area where the restaurant Palm Court is located.

When we arrived, they confused my reservation with someone else’s with the same first name – I had to correct the lady, it was a reservation for three not for two. Then they asked if we were celebrating something, to which I replied that it was my birthday – again. As we sat down, the pianist was playing the OST of Aquaman. Cognitive dissonance? Check.

A nice gentleman brought out the tea menu – while the food is fixed, you can choose from a wide variety of tea. I had of course studied the options beforehand, and ordered sencha meicha, because it is one of my favourite teas, even if it is Japanese. I mean, I can get Earl Grey more easily – and affordably.

The booking confusion continued when we got our food – once more they brought out a three-tier tray for two, and when they brought out the third one, they had mistakenly brought out one of the dietary-restriction trays – easy to spot because the sandwiches had different colours. When the correct tray was brought out, the order of the different tiers was incorrect.

The tea itself was delicious. The food included has been designed to Quique Dacosta, mixing the “best afternoon tea tradition” with Spanish confectioneries. The classic mini sandwiches included a cucumber and cheese cream, Spanish ham, potato omelette, seafood and mayonnaise, and a salmon cracker, shaped as a rose. The sweets included chocolate mousses, lilac sponges and citrus pastries.

Afterwards came the scones, which were a bit too small and I was slightly disappointed that the promised clotted cream was merely butter. But the scones – two types of them – were warm and well done. Afterwards, as we were finished, the pianist played the notes to the traditional happy birthday song and I was brought a small mousse with “congrats” written on the plate – though they served it to someone else in the party!

Afternoon Tea: sandwiches, pastries, scones and the actual tea

Felicidades dessert

I loved the tea party. However, even if all the staff was extremely nice, it gave me the feeling that they were overwhelmed and nervous – almost improvising – as they made a few mistakes. Afterwards, we walked to the Royal Palace Palacio Real de Madrid. Even if it was an hour to the recital, we were allowed into the courtyard, and not much later into the royal chapel Real Capilla. The recital was called Afectos Amantes (Loving affections), and it mostly comprised music by José de Torres. Torres was the main composer of religious music for the Spanish 17th-century court, though the majority of his music was lost when the original Madrid alcazar burnt down – however, a few pieces were preserved in El Escorial, Salamanca, and Guatemala. There were also a couple of pieces by Händel.

Royal Palace and Chapel

The music was performed by Al Ayre Español, a classically-trained ensemble that focuses on Spanish Baroque Music. Its members are Eduardo López Banzo, (harpsichord, and director); Jacobo Díaz Giráldez (oboe); Alexis Aguado (violin); Kepa Arteche (violin); Aldo Mata (cello); Xisco Aguiló (double bass); Juan Carlos de Mulder (archilaúd and guitar); and finally Maite Beaumont (mezzo-soprano singer).

The program included:

  1. Pasacalles I & II (Passacaglia), Anonymous
  2. Divino Hijo de Adán (Divine Son of Adam), José de Torres
  3. Sonata Op.5 No.4 in G Major, Georg Friedrich Händel
  4. ¡Oh, quien pudiera alcanzar! (Whomever could reach), José de Torres
  5. Sonata Op.5 No.5 in G Minor, Georg Friedrich Händel
  6. Afectos amantes (Loving affections), José de Torres
  7. Grave (Low), José de Torres

Al Ayre Español bowing to the audience after the recital

The recital lasted a bit over an hour and a half. It was something really interesting to do once in your lifetime, and surprisingly not pricey at all. Even if Baroque music is not usually my thing, the event felt very appropriate in the chapel. We did not feel like any more food, so we just headed home, braving the thunderstom on the highway.

27th May 2023: Mammoths and Knights in Madrid (Spain)

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I headed off to Madrid to watch the Knights of the Zodiac film, the Hollywood remake of the 80s anime Saint Seiya – I’m not making any excuses (I mean, I still went to the Symphonic Adventure after it got cancelled trice), I just wanted to see it, even if I did not have much faith in it. I wanted to combine it with another activity, and I thought I lucked out when I found that Caixa Forum Madrid was running an exhibition on mammoths – Mamut, el Gigante de la Edad del Hielo (Mammoth, the Ice-Age Giant). I allocated about an hour and a half for the exhibition, which hosted an almost-complete fossilised skeleton and a hyperrealist sculpture “among other pieces”. Truth be told, there was not much else to see.

The exhibit has some molars from different species, some fur, a tusk and a few pieces of prehistoric art. There was also an evolutionary timeline and little models comparing the sizes of different mammoth species to the average human size. The pièce de résistance is indeed the complete mammoth skeleton that was the literal centre of the exhibit – hugely-tusked specimen of wholly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). It was a truly magnificent piece, but I was a little disappointed by how few pieces were actually on display. It’s not like there is not any material around – there used to be a Mammoth Museum in Barcelona that had actual tusks for sale. I had also seen another one in Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique in Belgium a couple of months back, which diminished the awe factor a little.

Mammoth - The Ice Age Giant exhibit featuring the giant skeleton with huge curved tusks, the smaller sculpture, a lone tusk, some hair and a piece of Paleolithic art engraved on the ivory of a tusk.

I was done in a bit over 30 minutes, so I had time to walk to the cinema – there was another exhibition in the same floor, but I had already seen it in Barcelona, and the Museum shop did not have anything interesting. I had planned to walk to the cinema, as public transit was only slightly shorter. The weather was not so nice, and there was a small storm. I did duck into a couple of shops but to be honest I ended up at the cinema 40 minutes before the session started while it poured outside. I found myself a seat to wait – I had got my ticket online the day the release was announced. This was my first time in a cinema since Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018, and it was a weird feeling, being so close to strangers again. It was also extremely cold, and the previews were felt eternal.

The reason I sometimes choose Yelmo Cines Ideal is that some of their films are shown in their original language, and I tend to enjoy subs more than the dubbed versions. The Knights of the Zodiac film was… a choice, I guess. It is based on the newest remake – which I have not seen because I’m not a streaming-service person – and it changed a lot of the lore. Except for the main character (Seiya in the original material), all the names had been changed, but I noticed that the subs stuck to the original ones.

Knights of The Zodiac movie poster

It was not a bad film, all things considered. Entertaining, wannabe Marvel-like, tapping a little into mixing the cosmic magic and newer technology that was unimaginable in the 80s when the manga was made. It lacked on the music department though – considering how powerful the anime music is, that was disappointing, though here and there there are a few chords of the original song Pegasus Fantasy. That was cool.

But then again, I was half-expecting a disaster, so anything was an improvement, and the film made itself watchable. Sean Bean’s character died, but considering that in the original material his character is already dead at the end, I guess it could be considered some kind of record…

15th April 2023: Madrid for Sweet Space Museum (Spain)

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My friend D****e and I met for a fast day packed with activities. We reached Madrid at 10:40 and had tickets to visit an interactive museum called Sweet Space. It markets itself as a “colourful experience which mixes sweets and modern art”. I just thought it would be a fun thing to do with a friend that would give into quirky pictures and a couple of hours of giggles. It actually fulfilled both. If you take the place seriously, it’s plainly not worth the visit – modern art in general is questionable at best, and this could be seen like a bit on the childish side – and regular tickets are 18 €. The place’s best-selling point is “get cool pics for your social media”, and we had decided to just be silly about it and enjoy ourselves.

The “museum”, located in the ABC Serrano shopping centre, gives the vibes of an oversized (maybe overpriced) playground, and just like Monasterio de Piedra, the number of people you encounter weighs a hugely in your experience. Although we had an 11:30 ticket, we were lucky enough to be admitted at 11:15 with a family that lost us on the third room, so we had quite a lot of time on our own, until the group that came afterwards caught up. We did take a lot of pictures, to be honest, and missed no opportunity to fool around – which was the mindset we had.

Since the museum’s flagship idea is mixing sweets and modern art, when you enter some of the rooms you are given a treat – a gummy or a piece of chocolate or a tiny bit of ice-cream. You cannot backtrack, so the route gets a bit weird at points – you go up to the second floor on stairs, but down using a slide… The museum has nine different rooms and a few of them are refurbished over time. Unfortunately, I forgot to track down the artists because it was stupidly fun – I mean, at one point I got to ride a carousel-style flamingo. Back in the day in the day, I would have never dared do such a thing, but I guess I’ve changed a little in the last ten years.

  • Room 1: Palm trees with marshmallow trunks (Antonyo Marest). This was a fun way to start the whole thing and set the mood. It is literally a room with tree trunks that look like colourful marshmallows, with leaves on top.
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  • Room 2 (corridor): Flowers in the dark – a dark room with bright plastic flowers. It was pretty, but probably the less surprising room.
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  • Room 3: Mirrors and hanging pink balloons, inspired by Tokyo’s TeamLab. It was hard to take a good picture that did not catch anyone’s reflection!
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  • Room 4 (corridor): Mirrors and neon graffiti (Álvaro Linares) with Star Wars inspired references. This was one of the coolest areas (though I’m not sure how… legal that Darth Vader painting would be). One of the sides had a throne-like chair you could sit on and feel like an evil mastermind.

Collage. Sweet Space museum. Palm trees whose trunks resemble marshmellows, neon-coloured flowers and grafitti, pink balloon-like lamps hanging in a mirror-wall room

  • Room 5: Ice-cream parlour “Töto Ice Cream”, including little kart and refrigerator you can step into, giving off a strong 1950’s aura. A lot of pink, I’d say – I did not dare walk into the fridge (for some reason it gave me the creeps), but D****e did; I “drove” the little kart instead. We took silly pictures there with the installed iPad camera, just for the hell of it.
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  • Room 6: Fairytale landscape (Christian Escribá and Patricia Schmidt), a-la Hansel and Gretel or Alice in Wonderland (though it was officially inspired by Wizard of Oz), with a swing and flamingo that you can ride. When I saw that one online, I really, really hoped that it was not only one of those things that only influencers get to do. I got to ride the flamingo. I don’t know why it drew me so much, maybe it was the pure surrealism of it all, but it made me giddy. The rest of the room was fun too – oversized mushrooms, teddy-bears, and colourful decoration.
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  • Room 7 (upstairs): Sky with clouds (Agatha Ruiz de la Prada) painted and carved into sliding doors, a starry rocket (Ivanna Gautier), a bouncing area, a mural where you could take a 3D video for TikTok, and a “planetarium”, with tiny lamp-robots and tons of stars made from light dots. I liked this last one a lot, too. In order to leave the floor and go back to the lower floor, you have to go down a spiral slide, which I was not a fan of – it was difficult to get into it without putting weight on my bad wrist. However, I managed to go down unscathed.
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  • Room 8 (Misterpiro): It held a ball pit with a “staircase to heaven” (or to nowhere). We did not go into the pit, but we climbed the stairs for pictures too.

Collage - fantasy worlds from Sweet Space museum. Overgrown mushrooms, a flamingo, a cloud, a universe made out of green neon dots with a little robot peering out, a cartoonish rocket in front of a starry background, a colourful ballpit full of white balls.

Finally, we reached the shop, where we purchased the pictures we had taken at the ice parlour (8 € for two magnets with four photographs, the downloadable version, and a gif). We were supposed to get a sweet in each room, and we ended up with three or four gummies, a chocolate, and a tiny scoop of ice cream. My favourite was the skull-shaped sweet&sour gummy we got upstairs, but they did not have it at the shop (though it is advertised online). The whole experience was a bit on the expensive side, but I had a discount that helped knock 10 € off the official price. The recommended time I had seen recommended for the museum was an hour and a half, but even if we took a long time, we were done in about an hour.

I had reserved lunch at 14:30 based on the time I expected us to be in the museum (and the availability of the restaurant), so we had some time to kill. We walked by the open-air museum of modern sculpture Museo de Escultura al Aire Libre de La Castellana, but it did not catch our fancy. Too much modern art in one day?

The place we would invest most of that extra time was the museum of Natural History Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales to see some dinosaurs and the gabinete de curiosidades, the 18th and 19th century collection of taxidermy specimens. I’d been there before, and it mostly has replicas (and holy molly, prices have gone up). This time there was an exhibit on the Moon landing, and the gardens had been open. The taxidermy collection is not as good as other museums, but at least it got us out of the heat.

Collage. Dinosaur fossil casts and reconstructions, both carnivores and long-neck herbivores. A flying reptile with some mammooth fossils in the background. Rocks. The old collection dating from the 19th century - a number of glass cases with people looking at them and a painting of king Carlos III overlooking the place.

We left the museum and headed for lunch at one of the franchised establishments of New York Burger, which markets itself as a “gourmet burger” place. It was all right, and the servings were huge. After lunch, we hung around the area known as Nuevos Ministerios, a complex originally designed by Secundino Zuazo Ugalde around 1930. We hung out under the eastern archway for a while.

The archway in Nuevos Ministerios, built in reddish brick and white plaster

Afterwards, we took the train to Alcalá de Henares. We stopped at one of the shopping centres just outside town, Quadernillos, where the comic event Krunch! 2023 was taking place. We did not stay for long as most stands sold bootleg and plagiarised stuff, and I did not find any legit shop, but we had ice cream and D****e did take the chance to do some shopping in the mall before we headed home for the evening.

7th April 2023: Monasterio de Piedra (Nuévalos, Spain)

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There are many things to consider when visiting the so-called Monasterio de Piedra, a tourist complex in Nuévalos, in the area of Aragón. One of the most important ones is the weather – as most of the complex is outside. The second is probably people. Just the online bookings are 2,000 tickets in a day – and some more go on sale throughout the day as visitors leave, or it is calculated that they do. A third factor is getting there, because it is literally in the middle of nowhere. This year, Easter break has peaked at an almost 100% occupancy rate since it seems that Covid is dwindling down, and the weather is superb – these facts have implied crazy traffic, too.

I had been mulling the trip for a while, checking weather and traffic warnings, and considering all the driving around that would be take place. I thought that the 7th would be a good date for a day trip – fewer cars out within the break period, and I was busy on the 8th, the other calm day. When I finally decided that the 170-km-each-way drive was going to be worth it and safe as the traffic authority had not updated its warning on the late-afternoon of the 6th of April, there were around 30 left for the 7th, and it was already sold out for the 8th. I got worried about traffic again, decided to leave the tickets for later, and by the time I definitely made up my mind, the day had been sold out!

I was disappointed, but I noticed that some tickets had become available for the 8th when previously there had been none. Thus, I kept checking throughout the evening, and finally around 23:00, I was able to purchase the 2000th ticket for the complex. Good thing that while I was wondering whether to go or not, I had prepared a backpack with whatever I might need, because if I wanted to beat the crowds, I had to leave by 7:30.

I did, and I made it to the complex around 9:10, after driving on almost-empty roads. I had planed to park in the outer lot, but as I reached the area, there were a number of workers directing cars and I ended up in the inner area. All the visitors who were already there – maybe I was the 30th car or so – stepped out of their vehicles commenting “oh, I thought there would not be so many people so early”. I thought the same… I had no idea of what “many people” meant in this place yet.

The Monasterio de Piedra complex has two distinct parts – the historical garden Parque-Jardín Histórico del Monasterio de Piedra and the monastery-turned-hotel. I decided to visit the park first, which would later be proven a good idea.

Río Piedra is mainly a pluvial-regime river (a fancy term to say that its flow depends on rain), also fed by various underground springs. The water has a high concentration of calcium carbonate, which for centuries has been key in creating the landscape that characterises the park, with a large number of waterfalls and caves – calcium carbonate dissolves and precipitates depending on how much water the river carries at any given time. Along the fertile soil from the river banks, the precipitates feed a very green landscape which in turns yields to a rich and varied fauna that lives there.

The park was established as a Romantic garden during the 19th century by Juan Federico Muntadas when he inherited the area. He also built the first Spanish fish farm there to breed river trouts. The garden is organised in two trails, a main one and an “extra” one – I decided to take the main trail, which runs around 5 km. The park prohibits food inside, but it does not really enforce it. I took a bottle of water, and an energy bar just in case, without the intention to eat it unless it was an emergency.

I walked in, got my print-at-home ticket scanned, and I was surprised that a few steps in, someone was holding an owl for people to take pictures with it. At 9:00. That was bizarre – I knew that the park used to hold birds of prey shows, but I thought it was a thing of the past. I got to my first intersection, and a park employee directed me towards the route. I was a bit disoriented for a minute or two, and I later realised that they were flushing the first visitors towards the big bottleneck area in order to try to control people, capacity, and waiting times. In this garden, the amount of people you run into can indeed make or break your experience – and I am happy to say that I made the right choices most of the time. The biggest problem I ran into were families with small children being loud, which was annoying but bearable.

Because of the redirection, I started off at what would have been number 16 on the route – the most famous waterfall, called the “ponytail”, Cascada de la Cola de Caballo. From there, you walk into one of the karstic caves (Gruta Iris) and pass under another waterfall, which even creates a small underground lake. It was cool, but I was really not prepared for how splashy it was! I continued off, I saw the and walked around a backwater called “mirror lake” Lago del Espejo for obvious reasons – it reflects absolutely everything. Although the route is only 5 km, it goes through areas that feel and look completely different, and it feels much, much longer without being tiring.

Monasterio de Piedra garden - waterfalls, karstic caves and the underground lake. Everything looks green with the vegetation and reddish with the karst deposits.

A 15-metre waterall, water splashing, flows into a river. The land around it is reddish-grey

A reddish hill perfectly reflects on a lake.

As I “finished” the route, I got to the intersection where the bottleneck is created and I saw all the people waiting – hundreds, probably. That was unexpected, because it had not felt that it was so crowded – it turned out, arriving early had been a great idea. The amount of people waiting was shocking, but understandable as most of the cave passages are only wide enough for one person – now I understood the reviews that claimed hours to see the waterfall and the cave.

I got a bit disoriented at this point – as I said, the route feels long since the landscape is so varied. However, instead of going for the exit, I decided to continue exploring a bit more – that is how I arrived at the lower numbers of the route again – number four, that was a bit more on the crowded side. I did the first part of the route, climbing up the hill slopes to see a dozen or so more waterfalls. Then had to backtrack again, until I finally saw everything that there was to see, even if in a strange order (on the map: sixteen to end, four to fifteen, then three to one. Not confusing at all, I know).

Monasterio de Piedra garden - fountain, and waterfalls and a cave. Everything looks green with the vegetation and reddish with the karst deposits.

Unfortunately, loud people scared most of the wildlife away, so aside from a few fish, there was nothing around in that respect. There were dogs around, but well-trained, so they did not cause a problem. The area is really nice, the waterfalls and caves are beautiful, but I can see how the number of people you visit it with might make it a good or bad experience. I am sure that I would have quit had I needed to wait hours to cross a cave and see one of the waterfalls.

When I left, there was a huge queue to get a picture with the owl. Furthermore, there were several huts with more birds of prey or other animals, and the pictures were sold at the exit. I’m not sure I approve of that, no matter how trained the animals are – there actually used to be exhibitions with the birds of prey, which is not happening these days. After I left the historical garden, I went into the former monastery. Today, most of the building has been turned into a hotel, but part of the historical site can be visited.

The monastery Monasterio de Piedra was established in the 12th century by Cistercian monks sponsored by king Alfonso II of Aragón. The building was erected in the years when Romanesque was turning into Gothic, so it mixes both styles along with some extra Baroque. Between the late 18th century and the early 20th century, the Spanish government carried out several programs to seize and sale property deemed “unproductive” – mostly belonging to religious orders and municipalities. These properties were auctioned to convert them into cash so the government could pay off its debt. The whole process is known as the Spanish confiscation (desamortizaciones).

In the 19th century, Monasterio de Piedra was confiscated. Everything it contained was auctioned in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1843, the buildings were also sold and acquired by the Muntadas family. It was soon afterwards that Juan Federico Muntadas became the owner. He turned the orchards into the now historical garden, and the convent itself into a hotel and… what today would be called a “wellness spa”. He also established the fish farm.

I would have really liked to stay at the hotel, but it’s a bit on the expensive side and there is really nothing else around, so you have to pay for meals on top of the stay. But it would have been cool to wander the monastery building at night. Not being a hotel guest, the ticket includes access to the cloister and the old church. Some rooms around the cloister have been dedicated to host exhibits about regional or historical products and items: carriages, wine, and even chocolate – the monastery was reportedly pioneer in the preparation of chocolate in Spain. The cloister itself has a few chapels, the early-Gothic chapter house with decorated columns and ambience music, and a small garden-like centre. You can also visit a monk’s cell, and there are mannequins spread through the different rooms – startling if you are not paying attention and suddenly see one.

I am not a wine person, so the museum on the topic did not impress me much despite having a bunch of traditional wine-making artefacts. The chocolate exhibit was just a succession of panels with pictures, and thus a bit underwhelming. Within the monastery, what I enjoyed the most was the architecture itself I guess. I loved the cloister and the chapter house most.

I also visited the adjacent ruined church. Like the cloister, it’s early Gothic. It has a Baroque chapel to the side which keeps the wall paintings. Although most of the ceiling is gone, the church still looks pretty – then again we all know that I like the architectural style anyway. It’s nice how the building is somehow ruined but at the same time it’s not, as it has been restored and preserved. However, underneath the altar, there is a small crypt, where a small window has been made to peer at someone’s bones – that was… huh… unnecessary. The nave is now open to the sky and covered with grass, all the figures have gone, and only one of the sides holds a few architectonic remains and capitals.

Inside the monastery - the cloister and the ruined gothic church

I left the inner area and I walked around the outside of the building – what has become the picnic area since you can’t eat inside the garden. Once I left that behind, the area was deserted. I reached the former main square, where the Baroque façade of the monastery still stands. I walked a bit further and found the walls that used to enclose the area, along with a small tower that is called the keep, but it looks more like a defensive tower.

The baroque main entrance to the monastery

Finally, I checked out the gift shop, bought a book and some chocolate. I headed back a bit after 13:00, but instead of driving directly home, I made a stop at a couple of viewpoints over the reservoir Embalse La Tranquera. On the way out, I had crossed several tunnels and seen viewpoints, so since I had time and I was not hungry yet, I decided to snoop around. After a while, I just drove back – though I might just have made a stop for a late fast food lunch, because guilty pleasures happen sometimes. And by 15:00 I was hungry indeed.

A reservoir with turquoise water, nestled in a reddish gorge

5th April 2023: The ghost station of Chamberí (Madrid, Spain)

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Perusing the web for something – I can’t even remember what – I came across one of those things that I had discovered a long time ago, then forgotten because life is hectic and so (read: Covid happened). In Madrid, there an underground ghost station, one that has not changed since the 1960s. Well, sort of – it was closed, then restored, and finally turned into a museum. Anyway, somehow accidentally, I ended up securing a free ticket to visit it during Easter break, so there I went. I decided to round up the trip with a fancy lunch in a place I also wanted to visit.

The Madrid underground system Metro de Madrid was the third underground line to open in Europe, after Moscow and London. It ran a little short of 3.5 km, with eight stations, when King Alfonso XIII inaugurated it in October 1919. Subsequent ampliations and renovations of the line were carried out until it reached its current 24 km and 33 stations (plus twelve more lines). The city expanded, its population increased, and underground trains grew with both, going from four to six carriages in the 1960s. The stations were renovated to fit the new, longer trains. Most of them. The ampliations of the stations of Bilbao and Iglesia made it inefficient to do the same with the stop that lay in-between – Chamberí. Thus, this station was locked down – and bricked off – in 1966.

The city forgot about the station’s existence for decades, until in the early 2000s, it was turned into part of the Underground’s museum network Museos de Metro de Madrid or Andén 0. Today, Estación de Chamberí can be visited for free, but only under reservation. Pre-pandemic, I looked into it a few times, and never found a spot, then the whole thing slipped my mind, until I relearnt about it, and lucked out.

I took the train to Madrid and walked from Recoletos to the square where the station was built Plaza de Chamberí. The original entrance has long disappeared, so the underground area is accessed through an ugly metal kiosk and a spiral staircase. However, the original station looks completely different. It was designed by Antonio Palacios (1878 – 1945), a Spanish urbanist and architect with a very recognisable style, whose most important works still stand in Madrid (such as the Círculo de Bellas Artes and Palacio de Comunicaciones). My entry slot was 11:30, and I arrived with plenty of time – trains have been unreliable lately so I gave myself a wide margin. When most of the group had arrived, we went down the modern stairs that yields to the old hall. Characteristic white tiles are laid along the access tunnel that leads to the original ticketing stands and the exit control. The station used to have a skylight, now closed off. The original stairs and maps still stand, along the Metro logo – though everything has been adapted for wheelchair-users.

Ghost Station of Chamberí. Entrance corridor and old ticketing booths

The group comprised 25 people, with a surprising amount of non-Spanish speakers – at least seven, who of course did not care about the guide’s explanation, which was little more than the Wikipedia page (so I guess anyone can take the visit. Print out the wiki and read along). There were families with kids who tried to yell over anything the guide said. Furthermore, underground trains still run through the station, which make for cool pictures, but their six-minute frequency drowns all the given explanations. It was hard to actually get into the “ghost station” mood.

Estación de Chamberí does look really cool though. Unfortunately, glass panels separate the platform from the tracks – they are dirty and get in the way of pictures of the other side of the platform. However, it was interesting to see the old advertisement mosaics – they used to be painted on tiles, and built into the walls themselves, and surrounded by very cool darker slabs with metallic tint. The visit takes about 40 minutes, and on the way out, you get to go through the old ticket gates, which have a very ingenious way of opening – you step on the little platform in front of them, which triggers a latch, and you can push the gate open. Really fun.

Ghost Station of Chamberí. Collage showing details - the name of the station on the old logo, tiles, the platform, and a train coming through

Truth be told, I had booked another free visit before lunch, but I realised I had messed up the location. I cancelled that one before entering the ghost station so the ticket would be available for someone else to use. And thus, I had a bit of time before my lunch reservation at 14:00. Since the weather was nice, I decided to walk to my next spot, and I spent the extra time – and some not-extra money – in one of the big bookshops in the centre of Madrid. At 13:50, I arrived at the back entrance of the hotel Hotel Riu Plaza España. This hotel opened in 2019 in a mid-20th century skyscraper (Edificio España) designed and engineered by brothers Julián and Jose María Otamendi. It is a 26-floor tower which was the highest building in the city at the time of its construction. Situated in the square called Plaza de España, it is close to the Royal Palace and Main Square.

Edificio España - tower like building in reddish and white brick, spanning 26 floors. It is the Riu hotel now.

The hotel has a large terrace on what would be the 27th floor, a rooftop bar and a restaurant or “gastro bar”, whatever the current buzz word means. Entry to the terrace is 10 € (5 € on a weekday), and food is not on the cheap side (everything around that area is stupidly expensive), but I found a deal at their Edén Gastro Bar: one-course lunch + drink + entry to the rooftop terrace for 30€ which allowed me to skip the queue.

I did skip the “ticket-buying” line, but there is only one lift to go to the rooftop, so that queue I had to wait. I ended up reaching the restaurant around 14:10 or 14:15, and snagged a counter-with-a-view seat. I ordered a salmon poké and a drink, and got a few complimentary snacks and breadsticks to complete the meal.

Rooftop picture showing Madrid's Plaza de España and Royal Palace. Blurred in the foreground, lunch

Afterwards, I climbed the stairs to the terrace, officially called 360º Rooftop Bar, on the 27th floor. Music was blaring and there were tons of people drinking overpriced cocktails. The views were cool, sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing that I don’t think I’d need again. The terrace has a small all-glass balcony that I did not wait the queue for, and a glass platform that would probably impress a bit more if the glass under your feet were clean(er). The terrace was completed by a tacky bull sculpture with metallic-gold testicles.

Madrid rooftop view - low houses with red brick roofs, and in the very background a few highrises

I walked around a couple of times, and then I headed back to the train station after calling it a day. I killed time reading one of the books I had just got, and time flew on the train. It was a nice little outing, but I did mess up with one of the locations, so it could have been more efficient. I guess not every little trip can work flawlessly…

4th April 2023: La Granja and Riofrío (Spain)

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King Felipe V of Spain was born Philippe, Duke of Anjou, in France. He was appointed successor to the throne by his great-uncle Carlos II, who died childless. He was never very interested in being a monarch, or at least King of Spain, which he became in 1700. Around 1718, he fell in love with a hunting area and decided to buy it. Today, this area has become the municipality of Real Sitio de San Ildenfonso (Spain), the Royal Site of Saint Ildephonse. He ordered a palace be built “without disturbing what was already built”. The result was the palace known as Palacio de La Granja de San Ildefonso (The Farm at San Ildefonso), in honour of the hermit church and farm that were there when the King bought the hunting grounds.

Legend has it that the palace is extremely uneven because the King ordered that no parts of the church were demolished, so the walls were built around the old construction – however, it is such a massive building that seeing the irregularities from the inside is hard. The palace, built between 1721 and 1724, was commissioned to Spanish architect Teodoro Ardemans. Later, the garden façade was remodelled by Italians Filippo Juvarra and Giambattista Sacchetti. A fire destroyed part of the building in the 20th century and a lot of the paintings were lost. The gardens – the most famours feature of the site – were designed by Frenchman René Carlier in 1721 and finished by Étienne Boutelou when the former died in 1722.

Today, the palace is managed by the Spanish Heritage Network Patrimonio Nacional – which means that photography is not permitted inside. It is technically one of the royal residences, so of course you have to go through security and X-rays and whatnot. We headed there on what was technically a working day before Easter break, so we were not sure how much traffic we would find, or how many visitors there would be. Thus, we had booked our tickets online for 11:00, anticipating a two-hour-and-a-half drive. In the end, we were in front of the palace around 10:15 and were able to enter at 10:30. Before that, we saw some impressive trees, including a sequoia, which I don’t think I had ever seen before.

Baroque Palace of La Granja peering behind a few large trees

The palace is Baroque, showing the likings of the time in which it was built. A monumental staircase gives access to the first ward, rebuilt after the fire into an area to display part of the royal tapestry collection – Museo de Tapices. The oldest tapestries date from the 16th century, before the Spanish tapestry school was founded. Tapestries are not my favourite form of art, but these were pretty impressive. A collection of nine pieces allegorise some of the virtues, mixing classical mythology with Christianity and historical figures.

The interior of the palace displays the private rooms of the monarchs, on the first floor, and the different ballrooms and social rooms on the ground floor. The private areas are decorated with paintings, and the public ones try to emulate the Palace of Versailles (France). They are furnished with marble and mirrors, and decorated with sculptures and statues.

La Granja: Dizzingly-decorated large hall in golden and white marble, with large open wooden doors

The ground floor opens to the well-known gardens Jardines de La Granja. These are considered the best “French gardens” in Spain. They cover almost twenty thousand square metres. Sprinkled throughout paths, hedges, parterres and trees, there are 21 fountains, most inspired by characters taken from classic mythology. The fountains are made out of lead, painted in bronze colour, and even if built 300 years ago, they still work and are indeed turned on during the summer season, fed from local reservoirs. They were not running during our visit – except for one dragon which leaked a bit. Spring seemed not to have arrived in the gardens yet, and it looked strangely like autumn.

La Granja: Italaian façade of the pakace from the top of the waterfall fountain, which was turned off. A number of bronze statues representing mythology characters line the waterfall

From the top of one of the fountains, called “the waterfall” Fuente de la Cascada Nueva, there is a good view of the Italian façade of the palace. Other fountains include “The Fame” Fuente de la Fama and “Diana’s bath” Fuente de los Baños de Diana. One of the most complex fountains is Fuente de las Ocho Calles (Fountain of the Eight Streets), a complex of eight fountains in a sort of “square” created by the intersection of eight garden paths. The fountains were built to only run when the King approached them, and today they are turned on in a rolling schedule, and very rarely all at the same time. This is to take care of the pipe system, still the original one, and because some of them need a lot of water to function.

La Granja, outside. Two large fountains crammed with bronze figures representing mythological beings. Both are turned off.

After we were done with the palace, we continued off to what I found the highlight of the day, the Royal Factory of Glass and Crystal of La Granja Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja. It was also established by Felipe V in 1727, and even today people use the old techniques to make glass items there! Even though it is called a “factory”, the process is completely artisan. The place also doubles as a museum to explain the how glass is (and was) made, exhibiting different traditional instruments. Of course, it has a shop. However, the coolest thing is that you can visit the furnace workshop to see how glass is blown, and the decoration workshop to see the engraving process. We hung around the furnace area and the experts can make a whole goblet in three minutes and a half, from incandescent blob to ready-to-engrave product.

Glass museum: diferent machines used to process glass in the 20th century, and a reproduction of the original glass furnace

Workers at the Glass factory: making and engraving a glass

After the factory, we headed towards the Parador de La Granja, a mix of a modern and historical building where we were to have lunch. We shared some cured beef cecina de León, and I tried the local speciality judiones de La Granja, a hearty bean-and-pork stew.

Collage of the inner patio of the Parador building + lunch: dried meat and a bean stew

When we finished lunch, we took the car to the secondary palace in the area, called Palacio Real de Riofrío, a hunting pavilion also managed by Patrimonio Nacional (though apparently, pictures are okay here, which is cool). The building is surrounded by 600 hectares of forest and hunting grounds. It was originally commissioned by Felipe V’s wife Isabel de Farnesio, who actually never got to live there since when she became “queen mother”, her son Carlos III had her move to Madrid.

We drove past the forest, where some storks were happily wandering around. The SatNav flipped on us because it could not find the correct gate, but we managed to make it on time to spend an hour or so there. Also, the entrance was weird – it is actually closed, and there is a guard inside. If we had not arrived just as another car was exiting, we would have thought it was closed and left.
Baroque palace of Riofrío. It's large and pink, with lots of archeways

The palace is also Baroque, and the areas which can be visited include some bedrooms, dining rooms, and the areas where the servants waited to be called. The palace has been organised as a Romantic museum Museo Alfonsino, that honours King Alfonso XII, who mourned his first wife there. It was actually decorated by his father, King Consort Francisco, Isabel II’s husband, and later “enriched” with paintings from other Royal Sites. The most interesting item was the billiard room, because it actually felt rather unexpected.

Another area of the palace has been transformed into a “hunting museum” Museo de la Caza, to honour the fact that these were the King’s hunting grounds. It mostly hosts taxidermy representations and a collection of pelts and skulls. To be honest, some exhibits were a bit unsettling.

Collage showing the inside of Riofrío: the hyper-decorated rooms, the staircase and taxidermy of local deer

As we left, the SatNav warned us of a 40-minute jam on the way back, so we forgave its previous flop. The warning allowed us to take a detour to avoid it – we had to pay the toll but it shaved off almost an hour.

11th March 2023: Rocks from the land and fish from the sea (Madrid, Spain)

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Back in 2018, when going to Madrid’s Geomineral Museum (Museo Geominero), I stumbled upon an event in the Mining Engineering University – something called Expominerales. At the time, I did not have time to explore it, and only later did I realise what I had missed – an international fair for the trade of minerals, rocks and fossils. I made a mental note to check the event out the following year, but something came up and I completely forgot about the whole thing. In 2020 the pandemic struck, and finally in 2023, almost five years to the day, I went back to this event held in Madrid.

Expominerales is held yearly at the working engineering school Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas y Energía (ETSIME), which offers the bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering, and the one in Energy Engineering (whatever this last one is). The first weekend of every month, the school organises a “mineral-world flea market”, and the second weekend of March, it hosts an international mineral, gem and fossil fair, with shopping stands and different workshops and activities. After a few cancellations due to Covid, it returned in 2022 and it’s back to its former glory in 2023 – Expominerales XLII, the 42th edition of the fair.

The ETSIME in Madrid. Pink-and-white building from the 19th century, accessible through stairs, with flags hanging over the door

Mining Engineering became a formal education path in Spain in 1777, originally in the town of Almadén, a mercury hub. The school was moved to Madrid in 1835 and a two-building campus was ordered. The historical building in the ETSIME (M1) was designed by architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, and decorated by ceramist Daniel Zuloaga between 1884 and 1893. The second building (M2) was damaged during the Civil War, and has suffered several modifications to accommodate classrooms and laboratories. The premises also include a reproduction of a mine, Mina Museo Marcelo Jorissen, however this one is closed for renovation – a lot of that seems to be going on around the university, since part of the decorations of the buildings are also covered.

The M1 historical building has a central cloister with an ironwork colonnade. The building is rectangular, and on the short sides there are two symmetrical wards. One holds the historical mining museum, the other one the historical library. The central cloister is the main area where Expominerales is held, on the ground and first floor. On Saturday, the exhibit opened at 10:00, and we were there a bit later in order to sign up for the first guided visit at 11:00 (3€) – we wanted to take it so we had access to several rooms that would otherwise be closed to us. The idea was being there before families with kids started arriving and the activities became overcrowded – it turned out in the end that most the activities were indeed organised for children, so it did not really make a difference. Furthermore, the visit we feared full only had 6 attendees.

We had one hour before the guided visit that we spent looking at the stands on the ground floor on the M1 building. The guide was a student who might have been partying the previous night, because he sounded a little out of it – forgetting info and words, even things related to his own degree.

First, we went to see the mineral collection, the origin of the historical museum in the M1 building, Museo Histórico-Minero Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia. The mineral collection was started in 1831, and throughout the years it was increased with new minerals donated by different institutions. It was later expanded to cover palaeontology and historical artefacts related to mining and other earth sciences. Though a lot of the displays are scattered throughout he building, the original museum dates from the 19th century, and it has four sections: the mineral collection, the fossil collection, the cave bear collection and the mining archaeology section, totalling over 10,000 items.

The historical mining museum at ETSIME Madrid. It is a large ward with cedar wood shelves from floor to ceiling, filled with rocks and fossils. The picture also shows some close-ups of rocks, two cave bear skulls, and a cluster of fossilised snail-like animals

Today, the museum is named after King Felipe VI, who visited the museum in the late 1980s after the university reached out to him to propose the name. The then prince came to visit then, and the name “the king’s stairs” was given to the set of side stairs he used – Escaleras del Rey.

We also visited the small hall where candidates read their theses, a little hall with spectacular ceramic tiles by Zuloaga, and finally the historical library, with obsolete but cool volumes. The library also dates back from the 19th century, with the walls covered in wooden shelves, with a small metal staircase to access the upper balcony. Unfortunately both this one and the one in the museum were cordoned off.

Library in ETSIME. It is a large room with cedar wood shelves from floor to ceiling, and a spiral staircase.

The visit ended at the lecture hall on building M2, one of the few remaining areas of the original design. It is a marble room with wooden benches and decorated windows that represent the original subjects taught to Mining Engineers. After we were left off, we sat down at the cafeteria for a drink.

Lecture hall in ETSIME (Madrid). It's a marble room, rather dark, with smoked windows representing different subjects of the Mining Engineering Degree

We recharged batteries, and then we had a look at the stands on the first floor of the M1 building, alongside the collection of apparatus that they had. Afterwards, we decided to separate in order to do shopping. Expominerales hosted over 30 stands, national and international.

Expominerales. A view of the ETSIME cloister from the second floor, showing different stands and lots of people peering curiously

I, being the nerd that I am, got myself a tiny slice of iron meteorite (from Geoterra Minerals), a mosasaur fossilised tooth (from Carlos Hammann, who also had amazing megalodon teeth that I will never be able to afford), a decent-sized of recrystallised bismuth (from Rossell Minerals), and a small piece of black tourmaline (from The MineralShop) – all for 51€.

Collage: a fossilised tooth, a bit of mineral in metallic colours, a slice of meteorite with silver orthogonal markings, and a bit of shiny black rock

When we met again, it was a bit past 13:30. There were too many people by then – families had started arriving, so we decided to leave. We had booked at a nearby restaurant for lunch, and they did not mind accommodating us a little earlier. The restaurant, called DeAtún Ponzano specialises in tuna dishes – particularly Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), sustainably caught in the Straight of Gibraltar.

Before overfishing was even a thing, Phoenicians settled in the south-west of Spain somewhere between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE – the city of Cádiz, credited as being the longest-standing city in Europe, may have been the first port. The Phoenicians observed that the bluefin tuna migrated from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean every year around the same dates, and later they came back to the ocean. These guys came up with a very simple technique – that was later developed further by the Romans and perfected in the Islamic period: the almadraba.

An almadraba is a portable but complex net which is lowered for the migration period. The bigger fish are funnelled into a box-like construction, and the smaller ones swim right through it. Once the almadraba is full, a number of fishing boats lift it in a process called levantada (raising). Expert fishermen walk onto the nets, discard any small specimen that might have been trapped, and choose the tuna that will be sold, generally individuals heavier than 200 kg.

Since the fish are selected on a case by case basis, the amount of both the catch and by-catch is small in comparison to other fishing methods. Both the seasonality and craftsmanship of the whole process make it much more sustainable than others – of course, this also causes fewer pieces in the market, which in turn increases the price. Furthermore, all the fish are wild, hand-picked, and only bled out when they are loaded onto the ship. Thus, the quality is extremely high. Another factor that makes almadraba-caught tuna more expensive is the fact that walking onto the levantada is dangerous. Fishermen have been seriously hurt by struggling tuna, as some of the fish might weigh up to 500 kg.

Working almost exclusively high-quality tuna means that DeAtún is not a restaurant on the cheap side of things. I’ve actually traced down their tuna provider and the prices are rather cost-adjusted for almadraba-caught tuna. There’s another thing to consider, too, which is that the Spanish law forces restaurants to freeze fish that is going to be served either raw or quasi-raw, at least for 24 hours at a temperature under -20 ºC – this is done to destroy a fish parasite called Anisakis, which can cause stomach distress and serious allergic reactions. Apparently, the perfect temperature to keep the tuna properties is -60 ºC. So yay Anisakis-safe almadraba-caught tuna all year round (though it’s true that the freezing law makes it impossible to eat fresh tuna raw).

We got a welcome tapa of boiled potatoes with olive oil and herbs (“papas aliñás”), a favourite from southwestern of Spain, the same area where the almadraba tuna are caught. We shared some European anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus) “anchoas del Cantábrico” with tomato and toasted bread. These anchovies are salted for at least six months, cleaned, and stored in olive oil. They have a strong flavour, and are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I adore them. We also shared a portion of “ortiguillas” (Mediterranean snakelocks sea anemone Anemonia sulcata, battered and fried), also typical of the south-west – I’ve never been much of a fan though.

Lunch at DeAtún. Collage with a potato salad, anchovies and battered seafood balls

Finally, as my tuna preference is raw, I was wondering whether I wanted sashimi or tartar. In the end, I decided to try a combo (“trio DeAtún”): tuna sashimi (slices), tuna tartar (dice) and tuna tataki (heat-sealed slices), with a side taste of different sauce emulsions – wasabi, kimchi and curry. The tuna cuts used for these preparations (descargamento and tarantelo) would be the otoro or toro Japanese cuts, which are appropriate for raw preparations – technically the best ones, fatty or very fatty meat. I don’t love tataki, thus my original reticence to try this combo, but it was good. My favourite bit was the sashimi though, the tartar was missing a bit of spice.

I was offered chopsticks to eat the dish, and I accepted – easier to handle the fish. That apparently made the maître think that I had been the one choosing the restaurant, because in his words I “seemed to be an expert, chopsticks and all”. That was hilarious – I mean, why offer chopsticks if you don’t expect them to be accepted? For the record, although I booked the table, I did not choose the restaurant – it would have been a little on the “too fancy” side for me. The truth is, there were a bunch of very-elaborated dishes that we decided to give a miss, and we went for the raw tuna.

Lunch at DeAtún. A plate with three tuna cuts. The centre is round, and rose-like, and the sides are extended on a line. The fish is uncooked and it looks dark red. There's a similar dish in the background, with more cuts

Desserts were okay, but not the reason we had chosen this place. The point was eating tuna – raw tuna in my case – and the restaurant delivered. I was however amused by tables around us refusing the raw options even when the chef himself came out to greet them and recommend the dishes (someone over there must have been an acquittance, I don’t really know). Finally, we set back home to compare treasures and plot going back to Expominerales in its 2024 edition – at a time where we can snatch some discounted rocks.

25th February 2023: Feria de las Mercaderías de San Matías 2023 (Tendilla, Spain)

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In 2022, some relatives who spend the weekends there talked me into visiting the Medieval fair in Tendilla – Feria de las Mercaderías de San Matías. It recovers the tradition of the cattle fair around St. Matthew’s day, and today it is one of the yearly highlights of the village. The historical roots of the municipality as an important villa in Medieval times can be traced to the Second Count of Tendilla, Don Íñigo López de Mendoza (1442 – 1515). He accompanied the Catholic Monarchs in their conquest of Andalusia and was later named “governor” (of sorts) of Granada once it was won for the Kingdom of Castile.

I once more arranged to attend the fair in 2023, and I drove off early in order to secure a decent parking spot as the core of the village gets closed off to traffic. Tendilla is laid out along a former main road, which used to work as a separating axis. Today, traffic has been diverted and circumvents the whole village, and the axis has been renamed as two streets: Calle del General Muñoz y Muñoz from the beginning of the village to the town hall square, Plaza de la Constitución, and Calle del Alférez Agudo to the end of the village and the “former fair square”, today the square Plaza de Vicente Mariño. Along this axis, rows of stands on both sides of the street, selling crafts, trinkets, traditional products and foods, and so on. Tendilla is known for its torreznos, processed pork lard snacks, so there are many of them on offer.

The typical food at the fair is migas, a dish made out of toasted breadcrumbs and several toppings. Traditionally, migas were made from stale bread by semi-nomadic shepherds back when it was common to move livestocks from one area of Spain to the other according to the season (transhumance). The town hall organises a collective cook-out of a simplified version for the attendants, just the fried breadcrumbs with paprika and garlic, topped with the famous torreznos. Though there are endless variations of the dish, the local tradition calls for breadcrumbs, paprika, garlic, and minced pork, topped with a fried egg, and sometimes some fruit.

We were going to prepare our own complete version of the migas, so the first goal was securing some minced chorizo, called picadillo from the butcher’s. We also bought some torreznos for later. Then, we started wandering the village – literally up and down from one square to the other – to see the stands and catch all the events. Although it was rather cold, it was sunny and not windy, quite pleasant once you were wearing enough layers – I had actually brought some extra ones that I did not end up needing.

At 11:00 the “farm” opened at Plaza de Vicente Mariño – this is the closest activity related to the origin of the fair, a cattle trade event. There were horses, ponies, donkeys, cows, goats, sheep, piglets, and fowls… I might have remembered a little too late that hay causes an allergic reaction these days. Across the street from the farm stood a huge BBQ grill and some watering holes – I guess that to place the roasting pork just in front of the living piglets is part of the village’s twisted sense of humour. Desensitising kids, or what? One of the funniest things around this area is hearing people squealing at the animals, especially at the piglets – there are a lot of “urban people” in the fairs wanting to “experience country life”, who have never really seen a farm animal in their life and are thoroughly impressed – and end up saying hilarious things.

Farm animals - pony, rabbits, white-and-brown cow, small piglets, sheep, a cheeky goat

At 11:10, we caught the Opening Parade took place, described as musicians, jugglers and knights walking along the streets. It featured a dancer, a small group of musicians, and the members of the horse riding school Caballeros del Alarde.

Collage showing a female dancer followed by three Medieval musicians; two horse riders, one in full armour and the other one dressed as a nobleman from the Middle ages.

After the parade ended at Plaza de Vicente Mariño, we went to check on the communal migas, and say hi to the guys preparing them. They had prepared a bonfire and a huge pot to toast the breadcrumbs, and fought off the cold with beer and wine.

A huge pot with orange breadcrumbs being cooked

There was a second parade at 12:10, this time the official inauguration one. Aside from the musicians, dancers and horse riders, walkers included the authorities, ladies in Medieval clothing, and giants. They walked from the town hall square Plaza de la Constitución to the migas cook-out. With this, the festival officially kicked off.

Parade. Three musicians playing Medieval instruments. Three giant puppet-like giant costumes; men and women dressed as Medieval nobles. A moorish-like kight on a white horse.

I followed the horse riders Caballeros del Alarde back to Plaza de la Constitución where they started practising for their later show. They are part of a horse riding school which carries out several activities, Medieval riding is one of them, along with horse training, archery, and shows in Medieval fairs and markets. For this event in particular, there were six riders – five men and one woman – with two bay and two white horses. One of the bay horses was not in the mood to cooperate though, and got easily spooked.

The show happened from 13:30 to 14:30. It was an exhibition of Medieval horse-riding – while horses galloped through, different different tests carried out – spearing a bale of hay, hitting a metal shield, catching a metal loop with the sword, then cutting off a carrot… There was also a bit of a staged scuffle, swashbuckler-style. The emcee made it sound like the whole show was an exhibit to train for an upcoming jousting contest (in the evening) and the riders would later compete for a pouch full of gold maravedis – Medieval Spanish coins. The show itself was pretty fun and impressive to be honest – the riders had to control the horse in a crowded and small area, full of bystanders and noise, and do the activities with a very high level of success.

Shots from the horse riding exhibit - one of the riders galloping, another spearing the bale of hay, two riders sword-fighting; The female rider, wearing bright blue, with a long spear.

After the horse show, we went home to prepare the traditional version of migas – we fried some minced chorizo, garlic and paprika, then worked the bread on the stove. Finally, we fried the eggs (sunny side up) and the food was ready! Not that we stayed down for long, soon after finishing our late lunch we went out again to find a good spot to watch the jousting at Plaza de la Constitución.

Preparing the migas - frying mincedmeat, then the garlic, then the paprika. Breadcrumbs just poured, still white, then cooked and looking bright orange. Finally, a dish with a sunny-side-up egg on top of the migas.

We walked around the square and realised that there was not really a good spot though because the square was too small and set in a way that anything the riders did, their right hand would be towards the inner area of the square. So whatever they did, the view would be obstructed by flags and décor. And the best viewpoint was actually taken by the sound equipment – which ended up malfunctioning anyway…

Before the tournament started, a sword was brought in as a present to the village. Because the sound was so horrible, I did not completely get the significance of it – it was supposed to have been donated by Queen Isabel of Castile to the village. The program said that there was going to be a forged sword at some point, so I thought it was that one.

A woman parading a Medieval sword, and a group of horsement behind her

This time there were only five riders, apparently one of them had been hurt at a previous exhibition and was not ready for the whole competition. The show itself was all right though – the emcee presented the best rider as a bit (or a lot) of a cheater, and he hyped a lot of “girl power” vibe around the female rider. The riders competed on tests in pairs, again spearing, loop catching and carrot-cutting. The “cheater” won in the end and the maravedis were distributed among attending children, as apparently the coins were not legal Medieval currency but plain old chocolate. They tried to do an archery exhibition too, but the square was too small.

Scenes from the jousting, showing horses and riders as they take the different tests with swords, spears and the to-be-cut carrot.

There were much fewer people for this exhibition since it was later in the evening (17:00) and because the evil-looking storm cloud just above our heads. Thus, this time, when the riders offered if someone wanted to take a picture on one of the horses, I got myself up a white Pure Spanish Breed warhorse, which was really cool. Then, the group asked if someone would take a picture of them, and I offered to do so.

All the horse-riding school performers, in character, both on horses and on foot, pose for the picture. They are all dressed in Medieval clothes and smiling.

We went to see the campsite afterwards, with different things that could have existed in Medieval times. One of the most interesting things was the forge, with the blacksmith at the ready. I hung out around the smithy for a while and as night fell, the sword started to take shape. I realised later that this was the sword that was going to be forged for the village, and not the one I had seen before the jousting.

A blacksmith hammering down metal to forge a sword and a guard.

I don’t know whatever happened to it, because I eventually moved away to find the final parade, in which a group of villagers dressed up as Moors from Granada, either friends or foes of the Count. The parade was lit with torches, and ended at main square Plaza de la Constitución again. There were also jugglers, fire-dancers, and some more swashbuckling. They also made a queimada, a distilled spirit with “magical powers” flavoured with herbs, cinnamon, sugar, herbs and coffee beans. A spell is usually requires an extra spell as it is prepared. While I would have wanted to try it, I did not dare do so before driving…

Collage of the final parade. A group of people wearing flashy red and gold clothes carrying torches. A woman dancing with fire torches in her hands. A man and a woman fighting with swords on fire. Two men dressed in Medieval attire on war horses.

A bit after 21:00, after roughly 12 hours of “fairing”, I got back on the car to drive home with a basketful of food and good memories to drive home before the temperature went below zero again. Only when I was home I realised I had not even taken my scarf off, and that it still had straw on it from the farm – which quite probably did not help with the allergies.

12th & 13th February 2023. The Epic Apocalypse Tour in Madrid (Spain)

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The year 2020 was going to be so amazing that I actually would have had to choose the things I wanted to do and sacrifice others. It didn’t turn out that great in the end, with lots of rescheduling and cancellations. I was eventually able to budget time and money for one of those rescheduled events – the joint concert by the metal bands Epica and Apocalyptica in their Epic Apocalypse Tour. For a while, however, there was a bit of uncertainty with dates, as they bounced between Sunday 12th and Monday 13th of February, so I needed to juggle work dates in order to make sure I’d be free on Monday. In the end, I was all clear, all the concert-related activities were set for Sunday evening, and I decided to make a two-day trip out of it – I needed to take a hotel for Sunday anyway.

I arrived in Madrid around 9:30 in the morning. I had some time before my first appointment so I walked into one of the large parks of the city Parque del Buen Retiro, which is part of the Unesco World Heritage Site Paisaje de la Luz (Light Landscape), officially called Paseo del Prado y el Buen Retiro, paisaje de las artes y las ciencias, declared in 2021.

Parque del Buen Retiro was built in the 17th century for one of Felipe IV’s palaces, and it was opened in the late 18th century as public park. The park was almost destroyed during the war against Napoleon’s troops in the early 19th century, so most of it has been rebuilt. Aside from the obvious flora, it features sculptures, fountains, buildings… It is home to a lot of birds, and unfortunately a large number of invasive and fearless monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), whose culling has been controversial in recent years. I got to see common blackbirds (Turdus merula), a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis) and a European robin (Erithacus rubecula).

One of the most important features of the park is the sculpture Monumento al Ángel Caído, which represents an angel falling from grace. It was originally designed by Ricardo Bellber, who made it in plaster in 1877. It was later cast in bronze and the original plaster destroyed, and eventually the sculpture was made into a part of a fountain in 1885. Around the area, there is also an ancient water mill, and to my surprise, the almond trees (Prunus amygdalus) had started blossoming.

Retiro Park collage: a pathway with trees and bushes on both sides, ducks, and a robin.

Retiro Park collage: a water mill, blossoming almond trees, and the fallen angel fountain

At 10:15 I had a guided visit to the Real Observatorio de Madrid (ROM), commissioned around 1785 by Carlos III, as an centre to develop and study astronomy, geodesy, geophysics and cartography. The main building is the astronomical observatory, built by Juan de Villanueva in what then was the outskirts of the city. Today, ROM belongs to the National Geographical Institute (IGN), and it is home to the National Astronomical Observatory, the Central Geophysics Observatory, and the data gathering division of the National Volcanic Service, though no measurements are taken there. The main astronomy measurements are carried out in the Centro Astronómico de Yebes, in a town around 80 km north-west of Madrid. The observatory is also part of the Unesco World Heritage Site.

The visit comprises three stops. The first one is the main building, called Edificio Villanueva, which has three rooms – the main rotunda with a Foucault pendulum, the library, with the spot where gravity was first measured in Spain, and the “Time room”, where the sun used to be traced to determine the hour.

ROM collage. A small Neoclassical building, an inner room with a pendulum and telescopes, a telescope and a 19th century library.

The second stop is the Great Telescope, a replica of one that William Herschel built in the 18th century – Hershchel was one of the greatest telescope makers of the time, and is credited with discovering the planet Uranus, two of its moons, and two moons of Saturn. The telescope was destroyed during the war against the French, but later rebuilt thanks to the number of laminates that had been preserved – the original had a focal distance of 7.6 m and a 61-cm diameter mirror (which is displayed in the main building), and Herschel himself considered it the best he ever built.

Herschel grand telescope: a wooden scaffolding structure keeping a huge black tube pointing at the stas

The final stop, the little museum of “Earth and Universe Sciences” has a small collection of ancient instruments used for astronomy, navigation, and geophysics. There are also a couple of seismographs – one of them new, which is up and running – and material retrieved from the volcanic eruptions of El Hierro in 2011 and La Palma in 2021.

Collage. Ancient telescope, old tide measuring device, an old globe, and lava bombs

I had planned for a typical sandwich at an iconic bar afterwards, but I ran into a political demonstration. Thus, I scratched that idea and took the underground westwards. When I was in Egypt, one of the places I visited was Lake Nasser, created by the Aswan High dam. The lake swallowed a lot of villages and monuments, but a few of them, such as Abu Simbel and the Temple of Philae were saved by Unesco. Between 1960 and 1980, a total of 24 monuments were saved, and five out of these were presented as “grants-in-return” to five countries which had offered exceptional technical and financial assistance to the campaign – Germany, Italy, Netherlands, the United States and Spain, the latter being impressive as Spain was in the middle of the dictatorship, and pretty shunned by the international community at the time.

The monument was a small and ruined temple in the now-flooded town of Debod, to which it owns its name Templo de Debod (Temple of Debod). Dedicated to the god Amun, it was built around the location of the First Cataract of the Nile, some 15 km south of Aswan, about 2200 years ago, though the core of the building may have been older. The monument was actually affected by the original dam at the beginning of the 20th century, and it was covered in water for most of the year, which destroyed its colours and damaged the reliefs.

During the Unesco salvage mission, it was dismantled, and eventually granted and taken to Spain, and “freely” reconstructed – a lot of information had been lost, and there were missing blocks. National stone was used to fill in the gaps, and the gates (remains of the pylons) were built in the wrong order, according to some old pictures. The restorers built an air-conditioning system, a wooden roof, and the main hall was closed off with a glass door and window panes. Today, the temple is open to the public at weekends, but unprotected from the Spanish weather – rather different from the Egyptian one – and pollution, it is rapidly deteriorating.

I went inside the temple once when I was a child, and I had a clear memory of it that kept surfacing when I was in Egypt – so I wanted to go back. The entry is free, but capacity is reduced, so I had to queue for almost an hour to enter. I finally matched my memory to reality. The interior of the sanctuary has a small chapel and some carved stones had been taken to a makeshift second floor to display them as a little museum.

A collage of a small Egyptian temple - it has two floating gates that lead up to the main building, which is small with four columns. One picture shows a tiny and dark inside room with an altar.

After the temple, I got lunch on the go, then walked towards the hotel to check in and change clothes. Around 16:15, I set off to La Riviera for the concert. I had a Meet and Greet ticket and had to be there before 17:00. Personnel from the venue were extremely nice, and there was no chaos at all, even if things had been a little disorganised and some fans were lacking M&G confirmation emails. Everything was well-handed and everyone who had paid for an upgrade got through. There were about 30 people to meet and greet Epica and we were ten for Apocalyptica.

Apocalyptica is a Finnish four-man band – Eicca Toppinen, Perttu Kivilaakso, Paavo Lötjönen and Mikko Sirén – founded in 1993. They are “semi-officially” a symphonic metal band, but they’ve ventured into everything from Metallica covers (which was their origin) to pure classical works. They have a very specific style heavily using classical cellos and combining them with modern drums. They currently collaborate with American – self-identified as Cuban in the concert – singer Franky Perez for vocals.

Meeting the four of them was really fun. I got autographs and took the most epic picture I’ve ever taken with a band or artist before. As we were only ten, after it was over, I had time to buy some merchandising and still be the second person to settle on first row – despite having decided that I was going to sit back and relax.

Apocalyptica white and black poster, signed by the four members

General admission started at 18:00, and the crowd was surprisingly tame throughout the whole thing. The venue filled up and the supporting band, Wheel, came up at 18:30. Wheel is a Finnish progressive metal band that consists of James Lascelles (Vocals/Guitar), Santeri Saksala (Drums), Aki ‘Conan’ Virta (Bass) and Jussi Turunen (Lead Guitar).

Wheel Setlist

  1. Hyperion
  2. Blood drinker
  3. Movement
  4. Vultures
  5. Wheel

Wheel playing, each member at his insturment: bass, guitar, singer and drummer

The second band was Epica, which I remember having listening to back when the world was young. They are a Dutch symphonic metal band currently composed by Simone Simons (lead vocals), Mark Jansen (rhythm guitar, vocals), Coen Janssen (keyboards, synthesizer), Ariën van Weesenbeek (drums), Isaac Delahaye (lead guitar) and Rob van der Loo (bass). Simone can go insanely high with her voice, and she has an amazing presence on stage, and the whole band has an immense amount of energy – she also reminded me of a comic character. The keyboardist had a lot of personality too, and he was extremely fun.

Epica Setlist

  1. Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity (recording)
  2. The essence of silence
  3. Victims of contingency
  4. Unleashed
  5. The final lullaby
  6. The obsessive devotion
  7. The skeleton key
  8. Rivers
  9. Code of life
  10. Cry for the moon
  11. Beyond the Matrix
  12. Consign to oblivion

Collage of Epica playing, showing different members at their choice of insturment - singer, bassist, guitarist, and keyboardist with a portable keyboard

Finally Apocalyptica came on stage, and it was extremely fun. The things those guys do to their classical cellos would make some classical musicians cry, but the sound is super-powerful. We had Franky Perez for vocals, and a very fun moment regarding “listen to our classical music album at home, because we still feel like death metal”. They interacted a lot with the public, and it felt somehow very friendly / warm – yes, I’m talking about metal here. It was really that fantastically weird.

Apocalyptica Setlist

  1. Ashes of the Modern World
  2. Grace
  3. I’m not Jesus
  4. Not strong enough
  5. Rise
  6. En route to mayhem
  7. Shadowmaker
  8. I don’t care
  9. Nothing else matters
  10. Inquisition Symphony
  11. Seek & Destroy
  12. Farewell
  13. In the Hall of the Mountain King

Apocalyptica playing with Franky Perez. Perez is in the foreground, dressed in black. The thee cello-playing members are in the frame, playing. The drums peek behind them, but you can't spot the drummer

Apocalyptica playing at La Riviera. They have classical cellos. Two of the members stand on the sides, playing their cellos. Another one is walking swinging his as if it weighed nothing, The final one is slamming drums in the background.

We finished off just short of 23:00, I bought off some fast food for dinner, and headed back to the hotel to have a shower and get some sleep. I was woken up early in the morning due to the cleaning crew and the garbage mini-vans noises, but I did not leave bed until 9:00, then set off at 9:30. I bought some cold coffee on the way and walked into the former royal palace gardens, now public park Jardines del Campo del Moro.

Though I’d seen the gardens a few times before, this was the first time I actually walked into them. Despite the frost covering everything, I got a nice view of the palace and different fountains and buildings sprinkled throughout the green – Chalet de Corcho, is a small hut with coloured windows; and Chalecito de la Reina a wooden house that is currently closed. I was insanely amused by a little grass-cutting robot.

Jardines del Campo del Moro. Collage. It's winter and most trees are grey and bare. At the end of the walkway stands the Neoclassical Royal Palace. Two smaller buildings - one of them is white with brown beams, reminscing of German architecture; another one is a small kiosk with colourful windows - red, green...

I wandered around for an hour or so, then headed off via underground to the National library of Spain Biblioteca Nacional de España for the absolutely worst guided visit of my life. Like… it’s true that it’s free, but tickets run out within hours of coming out – on the 20th of the month, for the following month. I’d actually been trying to do this since Covid lockdowns ended… It turns out, we did not see any real books, we could not even peer into the reading area, the book and reading museum is closed and the only information we got was… that the guide did not like the Library. We did not get to see anything interesting or that we could not see on our own, and we did not get to learn anything, so this was a huge blunder. Live and learn – but it was one of the few things that was open on a Monday. The library is a huge Neoclassical building with a fantastic marble staircase inside. The doors and gates are protected by intrincate ironwork fences.

Biblioteca Nacional de España. A Neoclassical building in white and grey tones. The exterior has columns and statues of writers. The interior showcases a pair of twin staircases with the statue of one of the most important library directors between both.

I met with family for a quick lunch and then we went for a walk. We had thought about going to one of the terraces to see the cityscape, but it was closed because it was a Monday. We ended up at the Parque del Retiro park again to make some time and walk. We sat in the sun for a while, then went to see the Palacio de Velázquez there. Currently, it’s part of the modern art museum Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, and I did not really care much about the exhibits, but I like the building. Architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco built it in brick (with ceramic tiles by Daniel Zuloaga) for the Mining Exhibit in 1883, inspired by London’s Crystal Palace, now gone. The interior is pristine white with hints of iron architecture, but the building’s official style is “neorenaissance historicism” whatever that means.

Palacio de Velazquez: A brick building with large windows and tile decoration. The inside is all white with bits of iron architecture.

Velázquez Bosco and Zuloaga also came together when they designed another building I really like, the glass-and-iron greenhouse Palacio de Cristal, which was built to home tropical flora and fauna from the Philippines in an exhibit in 1887. In front of the palace, there’s a small pond home to some cheeky ducks and geese.

Palacio de cristal. A huge greenhouse with a dome, and two wings. A white duck wanders in the foreground. Between the greenhouse and the duck there's a small pond.

Then, we went to have a snack. Trying to find something on the map before the trip, I’d come across a place called La Mejor Tarta de Chocolate del Mundo, which translates to “The best chocolate cake in the world” and that had to be tried! It was really nice, even if the place was pretty small and felt a bit cramped.

A slice of chocolate cake in front of mugs and teapots

We finally took a stroll down towards the sunset, and I took the train back without much of a hitch, then drove home

3rd & 4th February 2023: Final Fantasy Distant Worlds 35th Anniversary – Coral – in Barcelona (Spain)

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3rd February 2023: Mummies, fish, and music

Though I would not have minded to become a gamer back in the day, my joint issues discouraged this. Thus, my relation with the Final Fantasy saga is tangential. However, my sibling is a big fan of one of the instalments, and last year I accompanied them to Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour in Barcelona in 2021. Having had more time to prepare for this one, we got VIP tickets, and I planned a two-day outing.

Our arrival in Barcelona happened right on schedule, and we walked from the station to Caixa Forum Barcelona to see the exhibit Momias de Egipto. Redescubriendo seis vidas – Egyptian mummies; Rediscovering six lives, in collaboration with the British Museum. I am not sure whether the items are part of the actual collection over there or are in the archives, because I don’t really remember seeing any of the mummies. The Barcelona exhibits focus around six mummies and how they lives could have been before their deaths. Aside from the actual mummies and their sarcophagi or coffins, there are objects that they may have used in life, and images of what the bodies look like inside the wrappings.

It was at the very same time interesting and creepy, everything we can get to know through technology about these poor souls who passed away millennia ago. There was information about their age, illnesses, and objects they had been buried with – god statuettes, jewellery, funerary miniatures… One of the mummies in display was that of a small child with his face painted on the wrapping, that was more than a bit creepy, to be honest.

A collage showing a a mummy and a turquoise wrapping; a sarcophagus; four canope jars; three statuettes: Horus, an ibis, Thoth; close-up of a sarcophagus, with bright colours; a mummy and a plain wooden casket.

We took the underground towards the waterfront to visit L’Aquàrium de Barcelona, located in the harbour. With more than 11,000 animals and 450 species, it is the largest aquarium dedicated to the Mediterranean Sea. It was inaugurated in 1995 and it holds 35 aquariums, including an oceanarium with capacity for almost four million litres of water (36 metres diameter, five metres high) with two tunnels at the bottom. Species-wise, the aquarium does not have anything out of the ordinary, but the size of the tiger sand sharks is impressive. There are a few sharks, some tropical fish, axolotls, frogs… and a very fun sperm-whale room to keep the jellyfish in darkness.

A collage of the aquarium. Seahorse; swimming sharks; anaemone; baby dogfish shark; tiny crustacean similar to a prawn; sand tiger shark; octopus trying to eat the viewers; penguin showing off; fabulous tiny jellyfish

We grabbed an expensive-but-convenient bite to eat at the aquarium itself during some of the feeding events to make sure the cafeteria was empty. AFter we had finished viewing all the exhibits, we went on towards the hotel, which was well-placed between the auditorium and the shopping centre. Since check in had been so bad when we went to the previous Final Fantasy concert, this time we had booked different accommodation, and it was a total 180 – everyone in the hotel was super friendly, and we had zero issues. We procured some sandwiches for dinner, then got ready for the concert.

The Final Fantasy Distant Worlds 35th Anniversary – Coral – directed by Arnie Roth is a compilation of the background pieces from all the Final Fantasy games, from the first (1987) to the latest to date not counting the remakes (Final Fantasy XV, 2016). The concert was held at the CCIB – Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona. We had no idea what time doors would open, but I calculated that an hour should be good for queuing for merch and then get to our seats.

By the time we got to the queue, the concert booklet had already been sold out. When we reached the front, my favourite plush toys were also gone. I decided to get the previous year’s CD in order to get it signed later at the meet & greet event that was included in the ticket we had bought. Looking back, maybe I should have asked for the autographs on the tote bag we got for the spending.

The concert had two halves and an encore, and was… strangely not very coral, for something called so. The choir was placed over to one side, and only did three or four songs – they actually did not show up for the whole first half. The set list was accompanied by projected images on the screen and it was super-impessive to see the first 8-bit games at first compared to what the technology of the latest Advent Children (movie from Final Fantasy VII) managed to create.

    First half

  1. Final Fantasy I~III: Medley 2002
  2. Final Fantasy III: Eternal Wind
  3. Final Fantasy IV: The Red Wings ~ Kingdom of Baron
  4. Final Fantasy IV: Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV
  5. Final Fantasy V: Home, Sweet Home ~ Music Box
  6. Final Fantasy V: A New World
  7. Final Fantasy VI: Phantom Forest ~ Phantom Train ~ The Veldt
  8. Final Fantasy VI: Kids Run Through the City
  9. Final Fantasy I~VI: Battle Medley 2022

    Second half

  10. Final Fantasy VIII: Liberi Fatali
  11. Final Fantasy XI: Ragnarok
  12. Final Fantasy XII: Flash of Steel
  13. Final Fantasy VII: Aerith’s Theme
  14. Final Fantasy XIV: Torn from the Heavens
  15. Final Fantasy XV: Apocalypsis Noctis
  16. Final Fantasy IX: Not Alone
  17. Final Fantasy X: 素敵だね [Suteki da ne] (Isn’t it wonderful?)
  18. Final Fantasy Main Theme with Choir ~ The Definitive Orchestral Arrangement ~

    Encore

  19. Final Fantasy X: Zanarkand
  20. Final Fantasy VII: One-Winged Angel

The concert was all right. I did not feel the general chill I had through the previous one. I really liked Liberi Fatali and One-Winged Angel, but I guess I don’t have enough of an emotional connection with most of the games. Aside from the conductor Arnie Roth, we had composer Yoko Shimomura present, and vocalist RIKKI, who is the original singer of 素敵だね in Japanese, and did the live version.

Collage. Three pictures show a classical orchestra with different things projected on the screen behind them - the logo of Distant worlds, several 8-bit screenshots of games, a very realistic depiction of a blond man with a very unrealistic sword. The last picture shows singer RIKKI, composer Yoko Shimomura and conductor Arnie Roth

The M&G was fun, and I got to tell Roth that when I grow up I want to have as much fun as he does at work. They signed autographs and took pictures with people – it was much less stiff than the usual, too. We headed off afterwards for a sandwich, a shower and a good night’s sleep. In general though, not much value for money considering how much more expensive the VIP tickets were, even though the seats were good. Also, the fact that most merchandising sold out showed poor planning.

Collage. The ticket reading the name of the concert, the autographs of the three main artists, and a plush of a Final Fantasy imaginary being, it looks like a white teddy bear with a huge pink nose, a red ball on top of it and cute wings

4th February 2023: Ramen with Friends

We had bed and breakfast at the hotel, and the latter was fantastic. The buffet had both a juice bar and a milk bar – both of which I sampled, of course. I overdid it with the fried egg, I fear, but they were just cooked and it looked just too appetizing not to fall for one. After breakfast, we packed up, vacated the room, and asked the hotel to keep our bags for a couple of hours. We went to the science museum Museu de Ciències Naturals NAT, where we spent a couple of hours. This is the only place where they refused to speak Spanish to us.

The museum is divided in several areas. The first one is “history of the Earth”, where you can see a few interactive exhibits, fossils and reproductions. The second one is the collection of living animals, most of the stuffed, some of them just skeletons. There was another one about fungi – with the edible ones exhibited in tins. Then there was one on plants, and finally rocks and minerals. Not a bad place to spend a couple of hours, but it is just one of those places that takes itself much more seriously than it should, to the point that it felt pretentious. Some items were exhibited over and over again, as if they just wanted to use up the room – I counted at least eight elbaite specimens in different locations, and there were a bunch of reproductions taking up important spaces, you would believe they were originals if not paying lots of attention to the writing, and the blue light made for horrid photographs.

Collage. Four pictures show prehistoric animals in blue light, stuffed animals, a tin of mushrooms along real specimens, a red algae and some shiny rocks.

We transited to Sants train station to drop off my sibling’s bag at the cloakroom there and went on to meet my Barcelona friends E**** and P***o who had offered to take us to eat really-real Japanese ramen. Since I had a feeling that the restaurant would be on the small-ish side, and my sibling’s luggage was a bit oversized since they had cosplayed for the concert, I decided on the Sants detour for convenience.

The restaurant is called KOBUTA ramen i més (Kobuta Ramen and More) and I was amused when all of us made the same choice – tonkotsu miso ramen with an extra of half an egg, and water; then we shared some gyoza (dumplings) and karaage (fried chicken). The restaurant is not cheap, but the food makes up for that, it is very authentic Japanese food.

Collage. A dish of breaded fried chicken, some dumplings, and a bowl of ramen, with the ingredients floating - algae, half an egg, noodles, pork meat and spring onion

Though P***o had to leave early, the rest of us headed off towards the bullfighting-ring-turned shopping centre Arenas de Barcelona. There, we climbed up the terrace for views, then sat down for drinks and a long chat. We also popped into the local comic store, since it was convenient, and eventually we headed off to the station.

Collage. Shopping centre las Arenas, a round building that used to be a bullfighting ring, there are two pictures, one by daylight and another one at night, lit up. There's a picture of the views- two clock towers leading to a palace; finally three glasses together showing brightly coloured drinks - yellow, orange and dark pink

The train ride home was surreal. People playing music on their phones, yelling, talking loudly and making the footrests squeak – apparently there had been some kind of sporting event for kids and a lot of families were coming back home. All in all, not a bad couple of days, lots of laughs, I got to see dear friends and eat nice food, and listen to cool music – in the CCIB, not on the train.