Category Archives: length: day trip

19th December 2024: Themed visits at Madrid’s Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Spain)

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There have been a lot of witches dripping into mainstream pop culture these last couple of months, what with Disney + / Marvel’s Agatha all Along and (half of) the musical Wicked released as a film. So when I read that the National Museum of Archaeology was running a special guided visit to the exhibition “Between Chaos and Cosmos: Nature in Ancient Greece” Entre Caos y Cosmos. Naturaleza en la Antigua Grecia and part of the permanent exhibition called “Nature, Magic and Witchcraft” Naturaleza, magia y brujería I thought “hey, the Heritage people are catching up with the times!” That day there actually were two guided visits, and the second one was centred around the sculpture Il Pugilatore. One was at 12:00, and the other one at 17:00, so they could be combined – hey, they were free, I just had to find something to do in-between.

Thus, I booked both visits and headed out to Madrid. I got to the archaeological museum Museo Arqueológico Nacional with ample time due to my distrust of trains. As I have the museum card, I decided to just walk in and wait for the time safe from the cold and the rain – and since it had just opened, from the crowds too. Though the ticket said to wait at the meeting point, the museum staff directed me somewhere else, and that is where I sat to wait ten minutes before the starting time. Apparently, a bunch of people did not get the information so when the time came we were few… and promptly joined by about half of the group once we had started.

The first visit was “Nature, Magic and Witchcraft” Naturaleza, magia y brujería. It started at the exhibition Entre Caos y Cosmos. Naturaleza en la Antigua Grecia – “Between Chaos and Cosmos. Nature in Ancient Greece”. As we walked in, the staff scanned a ticket and gave it to us.

The guide made a small introduction to Greek mythology with an emphasis on pre-Olympian “Chaos”. He mostly spoke about hybrids, such as satyrs or harpies, psychopomps (creatures that take souls to the afterlife after death), like Echidna, Cerberus, and the sirens. He also seemed to like the deity Achelous a lot. Achelous [Ἀχελώϊος] was the personification of one of the Greek rivers, a son to the Titans Tethys and Oceanus, and father of the sirens. He was able to shape-shift and would often be represented with small horns as he could turn in to a bull.

Regarding witchcraft, there is a small room in the exhibit about it, and the guide pointed out the concept of sisterhood, and some of the small artefacts and glass carafes. He mentioned the figure of Medea as the greatest witch in Greek mythology. That surprised me, because I had never associated her primarily with magic – I knew her from the Jason and the Argonauts myth, in which she originally helped Jason find the Golden Fleece, but she eventually killed the children they had together when Jason dumped her. Glad to know there was more from her than just being a “crazy lady”.

Afterwards, we moved onto the permanent exhibition. Unfortunately, the tickets we had been issued would not work any more because… reasons. Apparently, they could only be scanned once, and they had already been scanned at the exhibition. However, the person guarding the gates would not let us through without having a ticket beep – despite being with a member of the museum. It was solved quite quickly, but it gave off the feeling of everything being very disorganised.

In the permanent exhibition we mostly saw Talayotic and Iberian talismans and jewellery, then we moved onto the Roman area, where he mentioned the laws regulating the Augurs (people predicting the future), and some small curse tablets that the Romans slipped into each other houses when they were vexed – curses. All in all, the visit did not feel very on topic, just a number of objects vaguely connected together by a weak narrative. And witchcraft was the weakest topic, so it seems that the heritage people have not really caught up with the times. Oh, well.

Artefacts from Naturaleza Magia y Brujería MAN

Before I left the archaeological museum, I dropped by the new “archaeological news” room (Sala de Novedades Arqueológicas). Currently, it holds the exhibit Rostros del Turuñuelo. Los relieves de Casas del Turuñuelo. Guareña, Badajoz – a name larger than the exhibit itself: “The Turuñuelo faces. The reliefs from Casas del Turuñuelo, Guareña, Badajoz”. The Turuñuelo, or Casas del Turuñuelo, archaeological site corresponds to the Tartessian culture – a mix of Palaeohispanic and Phoenician traits which flourished in the south and east of modern Spain (and a bit of Portugal) between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE.

The exhibit is a collection of five faces dating from the late period, found within the ruins of a two-storied building. It seems that the building and everything within were destroyed, set on fire, and buried intentionally. It is possible that the faces found belong to sculptures that can be recovered amongst all that material. The faces, discovered in April 2023, are the first and only human representations associated to the Tartessian culture.

The faces from Turuñuelo

After the visit, I went to have lunch. There is this place I have wanted to visit for a while and it has never panned out. I would have actually wanted to have breakfast there, but whatever – this was doable and convenient. Located near the French Institute, it is a crêperie called Prep’ La Crêpe – it would make sense to think they’re French, but in reality they belong to an English franchise. I ordered a basil crêpe classique (melted cheese, mozzarella, tomato, basil and Mediterranean sauce), a Kick-start smoothie (orange, carrot and ginger), and a Belgian (black) chocolate crêpe sucrée for dessert. All in all, it scratched an itch that I had had for a long time, and it was not bad. A bit on the pricey side, I’d say, but what is not expensive these days?

Prep' la Crêpe lunch

Afterwards, I still had a bit of time so I decided to go into the National Library Biblioteca Nacional de España, where they had transformed the book museum into something called “Hell and Marvels” El Infierno y las Maravillas, which runs through the history of printing and knowledge (marvels), then the history of book banning (hell). The exhibition continues with thoughts on how information is preserved, in books and other formats. Finally, the museum is hosting two special exhibits, one around the writer Gonzalo Torrente Ballester Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, la travesía de un creador, and a collection of historical documents belonging a noble family El archivo del Conde de Orgaz. Una ventana a la historia. The archive was really interesting, with a lot of privileges given to the family by successive kings of Spain. The former count was a member of the Friends of the Library, and the exhibition is a homage to him, aside from showing documents dating back from as far as 1220.

Hell and Marvels, National Library

I then went back to the archaeological museum Museo Arqueológico Nacional for the second visit, with another long title Il Pugilatore y la escultura monumental en el Mediterráneo Occidental Antiguo: Cerdeña, Baleares y la Península Ibérica “The Boxer and monumental sculptures in the ancient Western Mediterranean Sea”. The sculpture Il Pugilatore, one of of the Nuragic giants found in the Mont’e Prama archaeological site in Sardinia, Italy. This ambassador giant, who travels the world to introduce people to his culture, is called Manneddu, and he is the statue in best conditions. He would have had a glove in his hand, and a dagger pointing forward, and his chest would have been painted red.

Il Pugilatore

The guide explained that these sculptures – archers, warriors, wrestlers and boxers – were supposed to be armed, but no weapons from either the period or the culture have ever been found. The giants were found, purposely moved and destroyed, in a necropolis for young men. The sculpture also had “little brothers” with the same poses, made in bronze, which have been preserved. That is how the archaeologists know the different weapons and stances they had. The giants are considered the first monumental anthropomorphic sculptures in the coasts of the western Mediterranean Sea, and the only ones in Sardinia.

We also heard about the similarities between the Nuragic towers, which were used for water management and as meeting points, and Talayotic ones in the Balearic Islands. Then, the guide ended up talking about the bronze bull heads that represent Talayotic cultures, and insinuating that they might have been brought from somewhere else…

Talayotic bull heads

The visit ended there. I then wandered around the museum for a little longer, then checked the Christmas market – and a classical merry-go-round similar to what I rode the previous week. Since it was dark already, the lights were on, but it was raining on and off, so the weather was not nice enough to wander around for long. Thus, I headed to the train to get home.

Classic Merry-go-round in a winter night

11th December 2024: CBA, hotpot and lights (Madrid, Spain)

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Since I was meeting my sibling for the yearly event of Naturaleza Encendida in Madrid in the evening, I decided get there early and make the most out of the day. As I arrived, I headed to the Círculo de Bellas Artes (literally “Fine Arts Circle”). The CBA is a sort of NGO dedicated to culture and the arts. Its headquarters host many activities such as exhibitions, theatre plays, concerts, lectures… The building was designed by Antonio Palacios, one of my favourite architects. It has seven floors, some of them used for events, others for offices. There is even a small theatre.

The CBA was running an exhibition called “Messenger Species” Especies Mensajeras, by artist Álvaro Soler-Arpa. It is a collection of pieces created from animal bones and items found in dumps. Born in Gerona in 1974, Soler-Arpa is a multifaceted artist who does publicity illustration and creates distressing sculptures using animal bones as its medium to make the viewer to think about waste and pollution. This exhibition of modern art is described as “ecological art for reflection”. I thought that it could be either really good or a holier-than-thou approach, but my curiosity was piqued.

The exhibit collects selected pieces from four series of sculptures: “Toxic Evolution” (Evolución tóxica), “Devastated Nature” (Naturaleza devastada), “Design-methastasis” (Diseño-metástasis) and “Sculptures from the End of the World” (Esculturas del fin del mundo). It was… disturbing, but in a good way. It did not feel preachy. The idea is that nature is affected by the consumerism in current society, but not dying – adapting to it. The imagined futuristic animals are a warning sent through time – nature is resilient and it will survive. Us humans? Maybe not if we do not get any better.

Álvaro Soler-Arpa's Especies Mensajeras

There was another exhibition in the building about the consequences of war, but I decided I could not stomach that one. However, I had the access ticket, so I could take the glass lift to the famous terrace of the building – the one that kicked off a trend of opening terraces in Madrid to watch the skyline while having a drink. It was too cold and too closed to have anything, but I did get a nice view, especially of the Palacio de Telecomunicaciones and the Spanish language Institute Instituto Cervantes, both designed by Antonio Palacios too. The terrace is mostly flat, with a bar and an impressive sculpture of Minerva made in bronze by Juan Luis Vassallo. Minerva – Roman goddess of wisdom and art – is the symbol of the CBA. There is also a smaller and higher structure that looks like it could hold an even better view, but that was closed off.

Skyline from Azotea Círculo Bellas Artes

The CBA building has many cool spaces, such as the ball room (Salón de Baile) or the colonnade room (Sala de Columnas). However, my favourite part of the building are.. the stairs. They are designed as a double staircase with mirrors at the landings, and coloured windows alongside the steps. One of the sides is less bright now, because a building was erected and blocks the sun. I still find the staircase superb, so I hung around there for a while until the security guard gave me a weird look.

Stairs Círculo Bellas Artes

I left the CBA and walked down the street Calle Alcalá and stopped at Galerías Canalejas just to see what kind of decorations they had. It turned out to nutcrackers and elves inside and a huge Christmas tree outside. I still cannot afford anything they sell there.

Chrismas at Galerías Canalejas

I continued down towards the square Plaza de Oriente, where there was a classic merry-go-round – empty and ready to be ridden. Thus, since I have no shame, I went on it. The salesperson was incredibly kind, since I was the only rider – and an adult at that – and yet they directed me to a horse which moved up and down and showed me how to climb on it.

Then, I backtracked to the shop Turrones Casa 1880 in the street Calle Arenal, which hosts a small Museo del Turrón. Turrón is a typical Spanish confectionery eaten mostly at Christmas. It is mainly made out of processed almonds, and 1880 is probably the most famous brand – and it prides itself on the most expensive one. I am not a fan of turrón, to be honest, but it was almost Christmas, and if I was ever going to do it, that was the right time frame. The museum is mostly an audiovisual in a decorated cellar, with a photo-op, but the staff was really nice.

At 14:30 sharp, I met up with my sibling for a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for a while 壹锅火锅 Hotpot de Sichuan. Hotpot [火锅, huǒguō] is a Chinese type of stew based on a stock or soup that is kept simmering in the table itself, and you just grab the raw ingredients and dip them in the broth to cook them – imagine a fondue with broth instead of cheese. We ordered a menu for two, a pot with two broths, one mushroom-based and one meat-based. The dips were spring onion, coriander (which was not used, because I hid it), shrimp mince, thin beef slices, tofu stripes, Chinese black mushrooms, cabbage, and rice noodles, along with two sauces – one slightly spicy, and my beloved sesame and peanut sauce. The food was great, but at 15:40, the waiters popped up to tell us that they wanted to close the restaurant, and then stood up next to us until we finished and left. It was more than a bit awkward, so we hurried up to do so. While the food was great, the situation spoilt our experience a little, I think. We were still eating, not slouching around. I am not sure I would want to go back…

Afterwards, my sibling had to do some shopping, so we spent a while going up and down some shops and a department store, before we headed out to Naturaleza Encendida in the park Parque Enrique Tierno Galván. This is a yearly light show organised in Madrid parks – it used to take place in the Botanical Gardens, before it was moved to a larger area. The 2024 edition is titled Naturaleza Encendida: Life.

Naturaleza Encendida Life

To be fair, I was a little bit disappointed, as “Life” turned out to have mostly figures reused from the last few events. Though the organisers tried to build a narrative of water, land and air topics, the novelty had worn off. It was not bad, but the show keeps getting more and more expensive every year, with fewer and fewer perks for the VIP tiers. Furthermore, the new larger location does not imply more light sculptures – they’re just spread farther apart so they can fit more people without it feeling crowded, so it simply takes longer to walk it through. This has its advantages and disadvantages – it was good last year when we had to go on a weekend but this time around it just felt… colder. They also tried to give the whole thing an ecologist spin, and this time it did come out preachy… I mean, it is a show of lights, which technically could count as light pollution, without any actual… purpose… but charging you to watch pretty lights.

Naturaleza Encendida Life

Naturaleza Encendida Life

That was the end of the day, and we just headed home afterwards, but aside having to wait for the train for over half an hour, nothing to report on that end.

28th November 2024: Parallel Universes (Madrid, Spain)

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Whenever a Marvel film comes out, my parent always comments on how they used to read the comics when they were young – probably they belonged to the first generation of comic readers in this country (and I have to confess over the years I salvaged quite a few “relics” from the attic at the old house). Thus, when the exhibition Marvel: Universe of Superheroes opened, I thought I would bring them along. I booked us tickets on the 28th of November at 10:00 for the event, which was happening in the convention centre IFEMA in Madrid.

By pure chance, my parents received an invitation to Feriarte, a collectionism fair – that is what we thought at that moment. They were not particularly into it, so I asked if I could have the invitation. When I checked it out, I realised that we could visit Feriarte on the same day as Marvel: Universe of Superheroes, since the dates overlapped, and it was also at IFEMA, just a couple of pavilions down. My parent agreed after some coaxing. Finally, I offered to take them to a “fun place” for lunch, and we had a plan.

Marvel has traditionally been one of the most important comic publishing houses in the US. Its key writer / creator was Stan Lee, who came up with some of the most iconic characters in the medium – Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man… It is true that the first superheroes to succeed on the big screen belonged to Marvel’s competition, DC – Christopher Reeve’s Superman in the 1970s and Michael Keaton’s Batman the following decade. However, Marvel kicked off a golden age of cinema superheroes. While DC festered in the darkest, more depressed Batman, Marvel released Iron Man, which took superhero films in a new direction – they turned from fun-for-fans to funny-for-all (of course, purists would never be satisfied, but what are you going to do?). Robert Downing Jr. had a lot to do with this boom, dominating the scene whether the film carried the name of his character – Iron Man – or not. For about a decade, Marvel dominated the blockbuster season, with explosions, one-liners and good-triumphs-over-evil plots. Eventually the bubble burst, as they always do, and things went downhill. However, companies are still willing to milk out any cash cow, and as long as Marvel makes money, it will be producing stuff.

Less known than the film boom is the fact that with the launching of Marvel Studios, the parent company also became a transmedia master. The idea of transmedia is not new, and refers to tying stories in different publishing methods (Hasbro was doing this with GI Joe back in the 80s already). However, Marvel has it down to an art. Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury because a comic artist based the revamped character on him, so now Nick Fury statuettes look like Samuel L. Jackson. Since Disney acquired Marvel Studios, the so-called MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is so interwoven with the Disney+ shows that neither can be followed on its own. Funnily enough, this has not washed over to the comics that much, save for the special Alligator Loki that I kept looking for in London earlier in 2024.

Well, one of the many facets of Marvel’s outreach octopus is organising exhibitions. I suspect that they are all the same under different names though. The one which took place in the IFEMA convention centre in Madrid was Marvel: Universe of Superheroes. The exhibition runs through the history of Marvel from its beginning, hailing the works of Stan Lee and running through the influence of the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which censored the content of the media – and made the evolution of American and European comics diverge forever. The pages from that time are mostly lost, so elements like the first issue of a Marvel comic ever, or original Spiderman and Fantastic Four dating back from the 60s are kind of amazing – and belong to private collectors who have lent (or rented out, one guesses) them to the organisers. Most of the exhibition, however, focuses on the MCU, with quite a few costumes and items from the films and Disney+ series. There were life-sized statues, too – or at least to scale for characters like The Thing or Hulk. There was an interactive game where an on-screen you would wear Iron Man’s suit and practice-shoot with it.

We hilariously ran into a preschool day trip, with the teacher completely made things up as she went and kept trying to keep a bunch of rowdy kids in line – without much success.

The first area ran through the history of American comics and Marvel itself, purely as a comic publisher. Then, it moved into the film area, starting with Black Panther, revindicating his status as the first black superhero. Then there was a room on Spiderman, one of the most beloved characters, even if he was almost not made because editors thought a spider-related superhero would not sell. This was probably the last room focusing heavily on comics. Hulk got a small room to share with She-Hulk. Afterwards, the MCU took over, with film memorabilia of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. The following area was a bit of a mix, with Wandavision, X-Men, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider… which ended in a very psychedelic room for Doctor Strange. The final room was “Marvel in Space”, with The Marvels (Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel) and Guardians of the Galaxy. Considering the huge hit that Agatha All Along was, I was surprised not to find any references to it, but then I realised that the exhibition predates the series.

Marvel Universe of Superheroes

Marvel Universe of Superheroes: Black Panther, Spiderman, Iron Man

Marvel Universe of Superheroes: Doctor Strange, Mighty Thor, Groot

I would have wanted a memento, but none of the items in the shop appealed to me. Besides, everything was too expensive, I thought. I had no idea. We left the exhibit and marched into the inner pavilion where Feriarte took place. Feriarte is way more than the collectionism event I had originally thought – it is an antiques and art fair, with items that range from archaeological artefacts to the most modern pieces. Our minds were blown. There were 64 art galleries and archaeology specialists from all over the world carrying prehistoric items, Egyptian mortuary artefacts (including a whole sarcophagus), Grecian sculptures and vases, Japanese samurai armours and weapons, paintings, contemporary art (Miró, Dalí, Chillida, Sorolla…), furniture, jewellery and watches, reproductions of Medieval manuscripts… And I thought that the Marvel shop was expensive! I could have afforded… a tiny Egyptian scarab smaller than the nail on my little finger. I was shocked when I saw the first three paintings by Miró (a surrealist painter from the beginning of the 20th century), but it turns out they sell like doughnuts among the collectors…

There was a “collectionism for beginners” area, with tips to “start collecting with pieces under 5,000 €”. When thinking about private collections, I’ve often gone with Indiana Jones’ line “it belongs in a museum”, but lately, with the attacks on art by climate activists, and the fact that most of Marvel’s memorabilia was recovered from private collectors… I’m not so sure. I might have started changing my mind. Then again, not really, because when the original fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex Stan was auctioned and I was sad it would end up in private hands and I would never seen it – good news, it was sold to a museum, though I’m not sure I’ll ever make it to the soon-to-open Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. Needless to say, we left Feriarte empty-handed, and very amused that you go through security and X-ray when you go out, not when you go in. A couple of days after, I read that an organised gang had stolen jewels and watches worth 390,000 €…

Feriarte 2024

Feriarte 2024

We retrieved the car, and got lost trying to get to the shopping centre La Vaguada to have lunch at Runni In Market, the first of the Running Sushi franchise I visited (and got lost trying to get there too, so… maybe it’s just difficult). My parent loved the concept. However, I was peeved that the table before us kept getting all the lychee and mochi when the time came for dessert. Mean!

Runni Sushi In Market

We left afterwards to head home, having caught a glimpse of the secret life of superheroes and what kind of décor rich people have in their houses. Parallel universes indeed…

7th November 2024: The Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute (Madrid, Spain)

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I know you do not believe me when I say I don’t like guided visits, but they are the only way to do some stuff – such as stepping into the Stonehenge circle, or basically anything managed by the Madrid city hall. The Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España IPCE is a governmental organisation whose functions are preservation and conservation of cultural items, research, communication, and safekeeping of the documents in its archive. It can only be visited on certain dates, by appointment, and with a guided visit. I managed to secure a free Thursday visit at noon, so I headed out to Madrid. Surprisingly, neither trains nor underground had issues, so I was over an hour early on site. The IPCE is located in its own building in the area known as “University City” (Ciudad Universitaria), close to the Fine Arts faculty – by design – and the President’s official residence – by chance.

The headquarters building was commissioned in 1965 to architects Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró. The architects’ original project had to be severely modified, but it became a very different structure. Construction was stalled for years, and the building was not usable until 1985 – when new remodelling was tackled. The building is circular, nicknamed the “Crown of Thorns” (La Corona de Espinas) because at the top there are “spikes” of sorts. Top-view, the structure is divided in 30 sectors, with 56 semi-sectors and four empty ones for the main access staircase and gate. It has four floors and at least one basement. It was built in concrete and glass, with some cork floors, but lacking plaster or any kind of concealment for the structural items. The centre of the building is an open space with a glass dome, and serves as reception. Unlike the original project, this space is covered with a glass vault. The interior has a lot of plants, even three small “gardens” mainly with hanging plants. The building is considered an important cultural asset BIC (Bien de Interés Cultural), and these plants are protected along with the structure.

Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute building

The visit consisted of an introduction to the building and the work which is carried out there. We saw the model of the original project – the only similarity is that it was also vaguely circular. We climbed the stairs to the upper floors to snoop at the rooftop and the “thorns”, and then rode the lifts down to the basements to see some X-rays of paintings and sculptures. Back on the main floor, we were shown into painting restoration workshop – they were working on Maerten de Vos’ Abundance, having repaired the work and erased some extra (puritan) clothing to make the goddess Ceres look less… naked. Finally, we were invited into the library, which is round and has three levels. It has natural light due to its own skylight, a decorative glass dome in the middle of the main open area.

Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute inside

The visit started at noon, and it lasted two hours. Heading out to the centre of Madrid would take around half an hour of walking and underground. Thus, it gave me the opportunity to book a late 15:00 lunch. Since I was lucky with my connections, I was in the Cuzco neighbourhood almost half an hour in advance.

It was the perfect opportunity to go get some groceries at the Chinese supermarket Ibero China Madrid in the street Calle General Margallo. While I needed some items, I was distracted as I walked the “geek” fizzy drink aisle. There is a company called Ocean Bomb which makes sodas – sparking water, yoghurt drinks and bubble milk tea with “creative packaging”. I was aware of them because a friend collects the Sailor Moon ones and we checked for them in London in 2023. Well, now I went and found myself some Saint Seiya sodas – Gemini Saga (grape yoghurt flavour) Aries Mu (apple yoghurt flavour) and Virgo Shaka (peach yoghurt flavour). They were out in 2023, but I had not heard about them, it is the first time I saw them. And of course, I bought them (I have no idea if they are official or not, but the publicity I found afterwards has the Toei stamp on it, so I’m hoping they are).

For lunch, I had a reservation at Comic Planet. Last time I was there, a member of the party was late, so in order to keep the table, we ordered appetizers. They were great, but afterwards there was no stomach-space for dessert. And dammit, I wanted some dessert – particularly, I wanted pancakes. I had been looking at coming back to Comic Planet for a while just to have them, but it never worked out. This was finally my moment. I had a lemonade, some nachos – which were delicious – and I finally got to eat my pancakes – which are green and called Hulkcakes, and come with whipped cream, brownie and shortcake crumbles , and around ¾ of a strawberry. I ended up extremely full, but happy.

Comic Planet lunch

Oh, and I was confused because it was early November but… already Christmas in Comic Planet!

Comic Planet Christmas decoration

I left the restaurant and headed towards the archaeological museum Museo Arqueológico Nacional, which is running a temporal exhibit regarding Nature in Ancient Greece “Between Chaos and Cosmos: Nature in Ancient Greece” Entre Caos y Cosmos. Naturaleza en la Antigua Grecia. It hosts over one hundred pieces of classical Grecian art. Most belong to the museum’s own collection, acquired from the 19th century collector Marquis of Salamanca, and some are national and international loans. Since a large percentage of items were original and not replicas, it was really cool. Then again, I have to admit I have a thing for Grecian vases, especially with mythological motifs.

Entre Caos y Cosmos. Naturaleza en la Antigua Grecia

The exhibition was not big, so later I used my National Museums card Tarjeta de Museos Estatales to go and take a walk around the permanent exhibition. There is a loaned exhibit from the Mont’e Prama archaeological site in Sardinia, Italy. Mont’e Prama was discovered in 1974, unearthing remains from the Nuragic culture (1800 – 700 BC). This Bronze Age civilisation created large sculptures called the Giants if Mont’e Parma (Giganti di Mont’e Prama), depicting wrestlers, archers, warriors and boxers. One of these colossi Il Pugilatore (The Boxer) has been brought to the MAN for display for a few months. Boxers were characterised for having a glove with metal reinforcements on their right hands. Il Pugilatore is the largest sculpture, two metres tall and 300 kilograms heavy – which has been travelling across the world to promote the archaeological site. There was… something imposing about the whole thing, and not even its size. Some kind of… presence there. It made me want to visit Sardinia, to be honest (and it is much, much affordable than Easter Island…), so I guess the promotion… worked?

Il Pugilatore

I took a stroll through the permanent collection afterwards, especially the Iberian and Talayotic areas, because I am fascinated with them these days – and I shall make the most out of my pass for as long as I can. It was getting dark though, and the commute to the IPCE had taken long, so I headed back.

Museo Arqueológico Nacional

20th August 2024: The VIP treatment in Tendilla (Spain)

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The catholic church in Tendilla is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, thus the name Iglesia de la Asunción. It was designed in the 14th century CE, financed with money from the Mendoza family, one of the most important clans at the moment. It was projected as a great work, possibly the biggest church in the area – though Tendilla is a tiny hamlet now, it was an important villa during the Middle Ages, and the counts that ruled the enclave were very invested in it.

Church of the Assumption of Mary in Tendilla

The church was never finished – construction went on and off until the 19th century, when it was finally given up. Only one tower was erected, though two were projected, and this bell tower is separated from the building by a patio. The open area is actually a part of the nave that was not built in the end. The interior was decorated with a Baroque altarpiece, which still stands today.

Though still in use, the church has been gravely affected by time. The façade has greatly deteriorated in the last thirty years or so. The false floors have started collapsing and the roof is in dire need of repairs. The village is working on raising funds for a renovation.

A couple of relatives are very involved in the process, and at some point they offered to show me the inner areas of the church. I accepted, and was given the real VIP tour – they opened the church just for me too!

The temple is mostly Romanesque in style, aside from the Baroque altarpiece. The modern altar has been refurbished in marble. The altarpiece is golden wood, Baroque with columns, paintings and sculptures. To both sides of the altar, there are small rooms, connected to each other underneath the altar stairs. One of them has been transformed into the sacristy, the other one used to be an office, but now it is not in use because the floor is collapsing. Behind the altar, these two rooms give way to spiral staircases that ascend to the upper spaces, called La Gloria – Glory – and El Infierno – Hell – both of them unfortunately very abandoned and covered with pigeon excrement, feathers, rest of nests, and even dead pigeons. We climbed up to the Glory, but the Hell staircase is a bit unstable and crumbly, so we did not get far on that one. I scared the hell out of a pigeon though – it was mutual.

Church of the Assumption of Mary in Tendilla

Church of the Assumption of Mary in Tendilla

I climbed to the choir for a couple of pictures, and then we went up the bell tower together. It was a bit thrilling to do so, because I’ve seen that tower very often, but never gone up. It was all in all really cool – especially being alone and allowed complete freedom of pictures, including lightning and flash.

Afterwards, we went to the family home and had lunch. Later, in the yard, we “hunted” for the local fauna, including wasps, damselflies and wall lizards.

Wall lizard

Damselfly

11th August 2024: A road trip with three stops around Madrid (Spain)

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Just like I kept trying to book a visit to the hall at Pacífico, I had been after a Burrolandia timeslot for a while. Burrolandia reservations are free, and the “tickets” are released around 9:00 on Monday mornings. I did not want to go in the middle of the winter as it is an open place, but when the weather became nicer, I was never around to book a spot before they ran out. Nevertheless, the Madrid area gets rather empty in August, so I could finally secure a visit. Once that was taken care of, I found myself facing another issue – after the pandemic, I developed a literal hay-fever, and straw makes me feel rather miserable. I’ve got tablets for that, but I should not drive after taking one.

Thus, I roped my sibling into driving for the day, because they are a fan of everything equine.

The non-profit Burrolandia – “Donkeyland” – is an animal protection organisation. It was founded in 1996 as a sanctuary / rescue for retired donkeys, mules (offspring of a donkey stallion and a horse mare) and hinnies (offspring of a horse stallion and a donkey mare, or jenny). Donkeys (Equus asinus) were domesticated from the African wild ass some 6, 000 years ago. There are millions of donkeys in the world, most of them kept as working animals in developing countries – however, as machinery substituted them, the number of donkeys in Europe plummeted. Burrolandia is involved in maintaining the species and the different Spanish sub-breeds.

The rescue is located at the end of a pretty run-down road in Tres Cantos, a municipality so close to Madrid that it could be a neighbourhood. The venue itself is mostly an open area where the resident animals get to interact with visitors, many of them freely. Besides the donkeys, mules and hinnies that the association has taken in, there are horses, a pony, goats, sheep, pot-bellied pigs, hens, geese, ducks, peafowl, helmeted guinea fowl, a deer doe, an ankole-watusi cow, a few dogs and a cat. Burrolandia is open to the public on Sundays, usually in two two-hour turns, one at 10:00 and the other at 12:30. Visitors can buy a bag of goodies to feed the animals for a nominal price to support the non-profit, get merchandise, or directly donate.

Donkey, goat, hinneys and mules, horse

Cow, black rooster, cat, sheep, hinney, deer

There are fewer visitors in August and it was easier to get tickets and for the day, there was only one long timeslot from 10:00 to 14:00. We arrived a few minutes after opening time, and I was surprised at how high “low demand” actually was. There were maybe twenty to thirty cars already there, with a ton of families with toddlers and kids going nuts about… the dogs, in most cases. Most kids were terrified of donkeys, though they were smaller than I had imagined. I would have expected them to be closer to a horse size, so I think that most of what I grew up considering “donkeys” were mules. Live and learn…

Burrolandia bans bringing food for the animals – both to control what the animals are fed, and as fundraising tool. We bought a bag of veggies, which contained mostly carrot, celery, some lettuce and a piece of dry bread. The donkeys, goats and sheep were all ambling outside, but most the mules, hinnies and horses were in “donkey jail” behind the fences. You could still feed them though, but they are bigger and possibly less docile than the smaller donkeys which roamed free. They were all very acquainted with the brown paper bags with the treats though, which made them very friendly. In general, I was reminded more of the Okunoshima bunnies than the Nara deer, even if one of the mules did get a bite out of my finger, and the baby goats kept trying to climb onto us. My sibling had the great idea to use some of their riding gloves to pet and feed the animals.

Feeding donkeys and goats

We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then moved on to Las Rozas de Madrid, another village in the area known for nothing except for the high-end “open shopping mall”, a street full of outlet brand-fashion boutiques selling discounted items. I had heard on and on how fantastic Las Rozas Village was. There are specific bus tours from Madrid that take tourists to the mall and back.

We parked the car in another shopping centre, Heron City Las Rozas, where we changed clothes and shoes because… we did not trust ourselves with the barn smell. We walked into the Village, and I don’t know what I was expecting, but for sure something with a big more… grandiose I guess. To my surprise, the shops were almost empty (both of produce, and customers) and every second shop was a Scalpers… I have to say I was quite underwhelmed. We did not even find a nice place to grab a bite to eat. Furthermore, I heard at least three other people commenting the same thing – they had heard a lot about the mall and it was disappointed.

Entrance to Las Rozas Village

We ended up having lunch back in Heron City Las Rozas. We found a Japanese chain restaurant named Sumo, a sort of buffet with a flat rate for a number of dishes. Since it was still quite early – and again, August – the place was mostly empty – we had sushi, takoyaki, wakame salad, and some gyoza. As dessert was not included, afterwards we went to Starbucks to have a matcha drink, named after a House of Dragon character for some publicity stunt – Dracarys Matcha Frappuccino. It was a cold matcha latte with white chocolate cream on top, to which I added some vanilla, just because I could, and it was a great idea. I think the matcha with strawberry cream on top was a better combination, but apparently that one was only available in spring. I guess I’ll have to try the standard Matcha Frappuccino at some point.

We went on to our last stop for the day. Xanadú is a shopping mall in Arroyomolinos, home to Atlantis Aquarium Madrid, a smallish oceanarium. Upon entering, you go down some stairs, and the first area are Rivers and Mangroves, with some mudskippers, and cute shiny fish. Actually, the first tank the visitor encounters hosts a shoal of red-bellied piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri). Of course, there are a few axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) too.

Piranhas, discfish, axolotl, mangrove fish

Then come the Mediterranean anemones, jellyfish, starfish… Afterwards are the Tropical Reefs with the usual suspects – who does not try to find Nemo among the clownfish? There are also butterflyfish, surgeonfish, and of course all the corals. The Open Sea area, a typical central tank, has few species of sharks – blacktip sharks, grey reef sharks, bonnetheads, longtail carpet sharks… There are also rays and loggerhead sea turtles. In between the different views of the central tank are the penguins, which were pretty photogenic! The last area had a few small tanks with Coastal Ecosystems – anemones, sea cucumbers and hermit crabs mostly. Staff had put out some glass shells for the latter to move into, which was fun.

Anemones, clownfish, shark and penguins

Atlantis: hermit crab and sharks

The gift shop had a lot of cute souvenirs, and afterwards we walked around the rest of the mall for a while, had a smoothie, and eventually drove off. It was a good day, with lots of cute animals, some of which I even got to pat. Not the sharks, sadly, but I made a lot of donkey friends, even if they only liked me for my vegetables and stale bread.

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

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

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

Restaurante Bestial by Rosi La Loca

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

Patagotitan skeleton in front of CaixaForum Madrid

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

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

Patagonian Dinosaurs

Patagotitan front and back legs, along with a huge shoulderblade

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

La Ciencia de Pixar

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

Interior of Edificio Gran Vía 32

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

Madama Butterfly Promo

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

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

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

Cast:

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

Artistic team:

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

Madama Butterfly Teatro Real

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

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

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

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

Warehouse containing the old underground engines

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

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

HotBao Yatai Market Cortezo

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

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

Museum of Illusions Madrid

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

Museo de Madrid exhibits

Museo de Madrid - chapel and fountain

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

Longoria Palace

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

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

El Jardínde Orfila: tea serving for two

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

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

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

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

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

Noheda mosaic

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

Noheda Mosaic

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

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

Ercavica cemetery

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

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

Snapshots of Ercávica ruins

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

Buendía Reservoir from Ercavica forum

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

Sanjacobo at Casa Goyo

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

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

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

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

Exhibition Antonio Palacios El Arquitecto de Metro

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

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

Decoration: Los Secretos de Lola

Food Los Secretos de Lola

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

Palacio de Cibeles

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

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

Inside Palacio de Cibeles

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

Lookout on the rooftop of Palacio Cibeles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notre-Dame the Augmented Exhibition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snaps from The Art of Manga Madrid

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

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

Museo del Romanticismo Madrid

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

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

Snaps from Museo Sorolla

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

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

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

Museo Arqueologico Nacional Madrid

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

Afternoon tea at El Jardín de Orfila

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

Sparrow hopping towards a scone crumb

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starbucks' Iced Strawberry Matcha Tea Latte

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

Monument to the second of May

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

Monument to Goya

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

Hermit church of St Anthony

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comic Planet Madrid Food

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

Comic Planet Madrid decoration

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

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

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

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

Genesis Madrid stills

Genesis Madrid stills

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

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

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

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

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

Old council Houses, Madrid

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

Old council houses, Madrid

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

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

Royal Collection Galleries - Hausburg collection

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

Royal Collection Galleries - Bourbon collection

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

Royal Collection Galleries - chariots and cars

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

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

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

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

Interior of the Círculo de Bellas Artes

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

Las Ventas bullring, outside

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

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

Inside the bullring of LasVentas

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

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

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

Last Days of Pompeii exhibition

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

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

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

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

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

Expominerales 2024 at ETSIME

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

Shopping from Expominerales

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

Shifu Ramen ponzano - okonomiyaki and ramen

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

Classical Train Exhibition Madrid

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

24th February 2024: Feria de las Mercaderías de San Matías 2024 (Tendilla, Spain)

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Going to the Medieval Fair in Tendilla around the festivities of Saint Matthew’s Feria de las Mercaderías de San Matías seems to have become a tradition. Though they close off the village to traffic, I know the area well enough to know where to ditch the car so I can get in and out easily. Since last year, I’ve been driving in early on Saturday, before the scheduled events start so I can help out with the shopping for the day – there’s the tradition of cooking breadcrumbs, migas at my relatives’, and it’s a big meal, so we usually need to get some last-minute stuff.

The weather forecast was miserable – and there was the risk of a huge storm like the previous day, so this year there were fewer stands and visitors. That, in turn, meant I ran into many more acquaintances than usual, as it was harder to blend in…

After getting everything ready, we left the house around 11:30 to walk around the already-set stands and look at the communal migas. There was not much of interest on display. We walked into the women’s association ladies, giving out confectionery items, and we tried those. A bit after noon, the opening parade set off, with musicians, dancers and giant puppets.

Opening parade

Then we found a place at the edge of Main Square Plaza de la Constitución, to watch the equestrian show by the group Caballeros del Alarde, called Privilegio de Juan II de Castilla. It was very similar to the one they did in 2023 – they make sure that the square is covered in sand and prepare two U-shaped courses and they do different activities on the horses, trying to emulate a joust. At the end, they brought out a small hawk – which they called “fat” – so it got used to people. During the show there was a few minutes’ worth of hail, nothing serious. It was chilly all through the day, though.

Stuntment doing horseriding exercises

Afterwards, we went home to make lunch and we happily ate our migas – breadcrumbs seasoned with paprika and fried with garlic and minced chorizo, with a sunny-side-up fried egg on top. Some people like eating them with grapes or orange bits, but I just like them “plain”, so I ate the fruit later.

Once fed, family needed to entertain some guests and I made myself scarce. I headed out on my own, and I went to see the animals at the exhibit at Plaza de Vicente Mariño. It was still early and bright, so I decided to climb up to the ruined monastery Monasterio de Santa Ana. As spring was nearly upon the village, the almond trees were in bloom despite the cold, and it was really pretty.

Animals at the farm exhibit - A rabbit, a horse, an ox, a goat, two geese, a pig and a herd of sheep

Saint Anne's Monastery with flowers in the foreground

I went back home and we decided to show up to the “guided visit” that the town hall organised. Right now, this is the only way to see the recreation of a traditional house that has been built in the ethnography museum Museo etnográfico. It made me feel old, because there were a lot of things that I was used to seeing – and using – when I was a kid. However, the guide was… not too good. She even said things like “oh, I’m not rural, I wouldn’t know what that is” about some items.

Afterwards, we tried to find a good spot to watch the parade-show by the cultural group Asociación Gentes de Guadalajara, which started after dusk. They played the funeral parade for the Count of Tendilla Cortejo fúnebre con el catafalco de D. Íñigo López de Mendoza, I Conde de Tendilla. Born in the Mendoza family, one of the most powerful clans during the Castilian Middle Ages, he was a politician and warrior. The Count participated in the power struggle before Isabel I was proclaimed Queen of Castile. He died in 1479, and was originally buried in the monastery Monasterio de Santa Ana. Later, his tomb was relocated to Guadalajara, and eventually destroyed during the Civil War. The whole thing was very solemn, and we ended up catching the parade at three or four points. We even could catch part of it from the balcony at home as they turned to “bury” the Count in the church.

Burial of the Count of Tendilla

We went back to the square Plaza de la Constitución to watch the last show of the day – by now dark night. It was supposed to involve the Knights Templar arriving, and then dancers and jugglers, but apparently the Templars got lost. A lady danced with fire, and there was a scuffle with fire swords, but no knights. That was a bit of a bummer.

Jesters at the Medieval fair

Afterwards, I went to find my car and drive back before all the Sunday drivers finished having their dinner and left. I hoped that would mean fewer idiots on the road. Unfortunately though, I still could not avoid the stereotypical idiot using full-beam headlights behind me. It seems there is always one of those when I drive at night.

11th February 2024: The Parade of the Wood Dragon (Madrid, Spain)

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Chinese New Year started on the 10th of February of the Gregorian (solar) calendar. Many East Asian countries follow a lunisolar calendar, in which the New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. In China, it is usually referred to as the Spring Festival, and outside it as Lunar New Year. For a while now, the Chinese diaspora in Madrid has been celebrating with a parade in the District of Usera, the so-called “Madrid Chinatown”, which will eventually have traditional gates and panda decorations in order to try to be developed as a tourist area. Since the parade was on a Sunday, I decided that I would attend.

The equivalent to 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon. The Chinese calendar uses a combination of twelve animals that conform the Zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig) and the five elements of Feng Shui (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) to name the years. The dragon represents prosperity, authority and good fortune. The Wood Dragon brings abundance and improvident, so it seems to be a promising year!

Announcement of the Chinese New Year festival in Madrid

After keeping an eye on the ever-changing weather and rain predictions, I decided to bite the bullet and go, whatever happened. The parade was due to start at noon, and rain was to come a couple of hours later. I packed an umbrella, a waterproof bag inside my backpack, and my all-you-can-travel train pass. I picked up my sibling on the way.

We reached the district of Usera a bit after 11:00, with plenty of time until the start of the parade at noon. We found a street barrier and set positions, ready to wait out the cold until the parade started. I had read that it would last about three hours, but I thought that meant in total – since the first person went out at the beginning of the parade until the last person reached the end. I had never been to Usera before so I had no idea how long the streets were. In the end, the parade took about an hour and forty-five minutes to pass in front of the point where we were. There are a lot of Chinese associations! I do not really know if they were all based in Madrid, or if the Chinese diaspora of all of Spain had congregated for the occasion. And not only Chinese people marched – a lot of Spanish and Latin Americans did to.

The event was called Great Parade of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon Gran Pasacalle “Año Nuevo Chino Del Dragón”. It opened with a locomotive which “pulled” everyone behind it. There were people dressed as lions, others moving huge dragon puppets, dancers, musicians, martial artists, people in traditional clothing, acrobats, walkers on stilts… women, children, men, everyone seemed to be invited to the party. Each group got their introduction with a red banner, and lots of people carried either Chinese or Spanish flags. Some people handed out “dragon masks” for kids, and quite literally ignoring all the adults wanting one (I might have rescued one from the floor at the end of the parade). People in the parade waved and cheered Xīn nián kuài lè and Feliz Año Nuevo, “happy new year” in Chinese and Spanish. There were some drummers too, but most of the music came from portable little devices. An older lady kept telling everyone to hurry up.

Chinese New Year Parade Usera 2024

About half an hour in, my memory card ran out of space. I had been aware of that being a risk for a while, so I was carrying an extra one, which unfortunately was not compatible – I have no idea why. Luckily, I could use the phone for more pictures. The worst thing about the event was the presence of the “media” – I can understand the ones who were working / recording / interviewing. However, there were also a bunch of accredited people who were just in the way, chatting on their phones or doing nothing in the way of the parade – and of pictures.

Parade of the Chinese New Year 2024

All in all, it was spectacular. I loved the lions and the dragons, and I had to wonder how many dragons come out on a non-dragon year parade. Furthermore, everyone seemed to have such a good time!

Chinese New Year Parade Usera 2024

At the end of the parade there were a few South American organisations who also participated, probably because even if Usera seems to have many Chinese businesses, there are a few Peruvian and Bolivian restaurants. They seemed more Carnival-like anyway.

Chinese New Year Parade Usera 2024

After the parade had finished walking in front of us, we went to try to check the food trucks and the market at the end point of the parade. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to have had the same idea, and it was packed.

Instead, we found our way back to the underground and went off towards the centre. There we had a snack at one of the big malls, where I also bought a new SD card. I asked the assistant if the card would be compatible with my camera, he had to get another assistant, who had a bit of a waiting list. This second assistant said that my camera would not take a 128 GB card. I showed her the 128 GB card I had been using. She then asked to see the card which was not compatible. I showed her that one too. She said that it was not compatible because of the adaptors, but I pointed out that the cards had the same shape. Then she said that it was not compatible because “TDKs are too slow”. The card is a Philips. Anyway, she offered to let me try the new card to check it was compatible before buying it, which guarantees it works. I bought two, just in case.

Afterwards, we headed off to the shopping gallery Galería Canalejas. This is the new luxury shopping hub in town. The complex occupies almost a whole block, having joined as many as seven historical buildings into the same project – a Four Seasons hotel (the first in Spain), a parking lot, some private residences and the shopping gallery.

The original central building was commissioned by an American insurance company and built in 1887 by the architect José Grases Riera, who designed it in. The construction homed the Insurer’s headquarters, private residences, the former casino, and small shops on the street front. It was called Palacio de la Equitativa, uniting the word “Palace” with an approximate translation of the name of the insurer. In the 20th century, the building was bought by a bank company – and Spanish banks merged, re-merged, disappeared, until finally the building was sold to a private investor in 2012. The Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque façade was carefully restored, along with the Art Decó stained-glass window on the ceiling. Also, under the direction of the architectural firm Estudio Lamela, some of the bank safes were recovered for decoration. The first shop in the gallery opened in 2020, and it seems that the Madrid tourism board started promoting the complex in 2023, following a strategy to drag “luxury vacation-makers” into town.

The gallery has three floors. The basement has been used for the food court. The ground and second floor hold a lot of security guards, since there are shops like Cartier, Louis Vuitton or Valentino… There is a café on the ground floor, amongst all the luxury shops. Behind it there is a staircase that connects all three floors (aside from the escalators on the sides).

The café Galería Canalejas Café offered afternoon tea, and I was even willing to try it despite the lack of scones. But it was cold and drizzling, and I had just discovered that they had afternoon tea the day before. We sat down and ordered.

Afternoon Tea at Galería Canalejas Café Madrid

The set included:

  • Café o té Coffee or tea. I chose a Japanese sencha, which was brought quite earlier than the snacks. It was really good, albeit a bit weak. I own up I had finished it almost completely by the time the food came out. I really think they should add some water to the mix.
  • Savoury snacks:
    • Mini sándwich chicken coronation. Coronation Chicken mini-sandwich in a salty waffer, made with a salty waffer.
    • Mini sándwich de mortadela trufada y queso Coloummier. Coloummier cheese and truffled sausage mini-sandwich, also in a salty waffer. I think they forgot the cheese in mine…
    • Quiché de espinacas y salmón. Salmon and spinach quiche with wasabi mayonnaise. This was the best, in my opinion.
    • Crep de hummus con vegetales. Hummus and vegetables crêpe. They actually forgot to bring this one out and did so later on.
  • Sweet snacks:
    • Bizcocho Valentía. A quite-heavy brioche with honey and lemon. It was nice, but I could have used a smaller size.
    • Mini churros con vainilla y chocolate. Tiny churros with vanilla and chocolate. The vanilla was actually whipped cream, but the powdered-sugar on the churros and the bitter chocolate made it a good combination.
  • Petit fours: We got three of these, but I have no idea which ones. According to the publicity, you chose them yourself, but they brought them on their own. They were tiny biscuits that felt really nice to finish off the tea.
    • Bombón Canalejas
    • Diamant Madagascar
    • Florentin aux amandes
    • Noisettine
    • Trufa de turrón

All in all, it felt a little wannabe pretentious, but the staff was extra nice, and allowed us to stay there for as long as we wanted. We left when I noticed that the turn over was slow and a queue had started forming. We snooped up and down the gallery for a while before we headed off. And of course, I totally missed my train connection – what else is new?

16th December 2023: A day out of ExpoGema (Madrid, Spain)

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Since the mineral expo ExpoMinerales back in February was all cool and fun, I decided to attend its shinier (and unbeknownst to me, way more unaffordable) sibling, the gem expo ExpoGema, and make a day out of it. Thus, I headed out for Madrid on the 9:00 train with temperatures below zero – I was not made for winter. It was not much better when I arrived, but for once the train ride was uneventful, I actually made my connection, and it seems that after a chaotic year, the underground train tunnels are finally open. Everything going smoothly gave me some unexpected 45 minutes to wander around as the square Puerta del Sol slowly became fuller and fuller with people.

I had booked a guided visit through the company Madrid en Ruta, who has the exclusive concession to show the business centre Casa Comercial Palazuelo. Located in downtown Madrid, it was designed by architect Antonio Palacios. The promoter, Demetrio Palazuelo, bought the lot left behind by a fire, and commissioned the building with the goal of renting it out to shops and professionals – it was thus the first office building in Spain conceived as such, and not repurposed from a manor or an apartment building. Palacios drew inspiration from the Chicago School commercial architecture and used iron to stabilise the building, which allowed him for bright interiors using lots of glass. The office building was erected between 1919 and 1921, and the offices are still rented out today, with the only caveat that the beautiful interior translucent-glass doors have been painted white – to either protect privacy or hide the fact that today the house seems to be almost empty – at least according to the building’s own directory.

The exterior façade could be considered eclectic – the main frame tends to neoclassicism with huge glass windows framed in black iron. The interior tends towards Art Deco and modernism. The offices are distributed around a central indoor patio, with curved balconies that overlook it and lots of lights mainly due to the skylight. There are two classical lifts which are the original ones, in peartree wood. When we went up, I took the stairs, which have white treads, and the riser is made out dark green ceramics. I have seen these in other works by Antonio Palacios.. The interior, with the iron balustrades and its curvy design, was really cool, but I think it is really a pity they painted over the glass.

Interior of Casa Palazuelo

The visit started at 11:00. We spent the first fifteen minutes outside getting context, roughly half an hour inside, and the last twenty minutes on the roof of the building, waiting for the clock of the Puerta del Sol to strike 12:00, then we were ushered out. I really wish we could have wandered the house a little bit, even if we could not go into the offices. The ten euro we paid surely did not feel like we were paying customers, but more like we were sneaking around like unwanted guests – which we probably were anyway.

Puerta del Sol from the roof of Casa Palazuelo

I grabbed a quick snack then and headed off towards the engineering school Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas y Energía (ETSIME) for the sixth edition of the gem fair ExpoGema. The fair itself was neat, but most everything was way above my budget range. I was there at the typical Spanish lunchtime, there were few people, and most were at the stands. Thus, I had the museum Museo Histórico-Minero Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia almost completely to myself. I really like old-style museums, and this one has a huge amount of specimens, most of them are minerals, but there are also fossils and a collection of cave bear skulls and bones. I had decided not to book any guided visit or activity as none happened within the couple of hours of lunch downtime.

Geology Museum at Etsime

I bought an ammonite pendant, a small pyrite with almost perfect right angles, and another pendant made with a small meteorite from Campo del Cielo, along with a tiny extra piece. Campo del Cielo is an area in Argentina where four or five thousand years ago an iron meteorite fell. The meteorite shattered upon entering the atmosphere and, when it impacted the surface, the different created up to 26 craters. About 100 short tonnes of a fragmented iron meteorite have been recovered to date, and I now own around four grammes of it – yay me. I did not buy any precious stone though since the pretty shiny rocks were way out of my budget.

Expogema 2023

I left the ETSIME and I walked towards the square Plaza Pablo Ruiz Picasso, where there is a temporary art installation called El Regalo (The present) by Amigo&Amigo, a studio specialising in art installations. The artwork comprises a few arches that end in pads that can be stepped on – when they are, music sounds. The day was still bright, so the artwork was not shining, but a bunch of kids jumped on the pads to keep the music playing.

El Regalo artwork

Afterwards, I took a train and headed off towards central Madrid again. I had a reservation for an afternoon tea at NuBel, an “avant-garde gastronomy space” in the modern art museum Museo Reina Sofía. I had been drawn to the place due to the “freshly-baked scones” they advertised.

The experience was beyond disappointing. First, I had to wait to get seated, but then the person who checked me in forgot to notify that I was there – this is what I assume happened, I was literally told that “the kitchen had forgotten about me”. The set menu took 40 minutes to come out, and the scone was cold anyway, so not even freshly-made. I had got a decaf latte that was also cold when the food came.

The menu, 16€ as I don’t drink alcohol, consisted of: two mini-sandwiches – the two of them had been made from the same bread slice, so you can imagine the size, with some kind of mayonnaise filling which was not bad but rather unidentifiable; one shot-sized glass of (pre-made) gazpacho; one scone; a piece of red velvet cake; a piece of carrot cake; one chocolate brownie; a side of cheese cream, butter and jam; and in my case the already-stone cold decaf latte.

Nubel afternoon Tea

The scone was cold – so much for freshly-made, the only thing that had kept me waiting. Furthermore, the cheese cream, albeit nice, did not fit it like at all, so I had to use butter on it. I laughed to myself thinking about “the horror!” while I clutched my metaphorical pearls. The red velvet was probably the best, but in general the cakes were too sweet – good thing the menu included free tap water. Afterwards, I was comped another free decaf as an “apology for the delay”. However, when I tried to pay, more drama ensued. First the card-reading machine was not working, then they could not take cash because they were balancing the register, then they could bring the machine to the table. All in all, I spent almost hour and a half there – about five minutes waiting to be seated, forty minutes waiting for the tea set, and twenty minutes trying to pay. I’m sorry to say I did not tip, nor do I plan to ever come back.

I missed my train due to the paying delay, and I had to wait almost half an hour for another one. I hung out the Christmas market for a bit, and looked at the lights around Puerta de Atocha station. As it was cold, I walked in and went to check out the original train station, now turned botanical garden. I had never stopped to look at the iron ceiling, just at the plants – and the tortoises people used to dump there – but there had been an old photograph during the Casa Palazuelo visit that made me want to look at the building itself, and I recognised that old station in today’s building, with its wrung iron columns. Funny, how you can look at the same old things and recognise them.

3rd December 2023: Sushi, I“k”ons, Goddesses and Light Bugs (Madrid, Spain)

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I had evening plans in Madrid with my sibling, and they wanted to have lunch in town and make a day trip out of it. Since I had previously ascertained that the Running Sushi franchise was all right and fun, I proposed to check out another of the locations. They agreed and I had booked a 13:00 slot at Running Sushi in Akihabara, near Plaza de España. It was even more fun than the one I had checked out before, with Godzilla, Taito Station signs, Pacman, neon, anime graffiti in the toilets, and Japanese music playing. From the outside, the restaurant is shaped like a train carriage, and the sliding doors relay the same message they do when Tokyo JR stops at the station at Akihabara. In general, Running Sushi Akihabara offered the same food as the In Market restaurant, but this time there was tuna. I don’t know if it is because of the location, or because it was a weekend – and thus more expensive. Reservation was a great idea, because though I had no problem booking for 13:00, there were plenty other people with and without bookings, and when 14:00 – standard Spain lunch time – approached, the place became almost crowded. We stayed for the whole hour since we had a late start due to missing chopsticks and napkins, and I own up that the last takoyaki might have been excessive. This time, I remembered to ask for the membership card – you get a reward if you visit all the restaurants in the holding, something I’m considering to aim for.

Running Sushi Akihabara

After lunch, we had a 14:50 ticket for a place called IKONO. I have to say I’m warming up more and more to these Instagrammable places – I’ve recently read one of them described as a “fun house” and I think it’s a more than accurate idea. I like them because they’re silly places for, quite literally, kicks and giggles. According to themselves, IKONO was born as a leisure option alternative to “restaurants, shopping and clubbing” for young people – I disagree with the “young people” take though. Out of the permanent establishments of its kind in Madrid, it is probably my favourite.

The IKONO mood kicks off even before you go in, with a peacock-like armchair just outside the main entrance. Spread over three floors, the venue has 15 different experiences / things to do. Once your tickets have been checked, the first “door” you go through is a thick wall of foil fringe curtains in a gradient of shiny colours,which felt like going through the Stargate! (I know, I know, niche comment). All through the place, there is bouncy music playing.

Once you have crossed the curtain – I somehow ended up in a weird inner space instead of where I was supposed to reach, but that’s just me – the first room is a ball pit, and a deep one at that. It was quite hard to move there. There are quite fewer rules than in other ball pits too – you can jump in, and throw balls up. Once you manage to drag yourself out of the ball pit, you get to go upstairs, what I’ve mentally named the “paper floor”. It has three rooms – the landing one has a pretty origami tree and some wings for you to take pictures with. There is a “psychedelic” ward with black-and-white décor and a blue-and-pink confetti cannon. The third one is a dark “jungle scenery” with glow-in-the dark colourings and paintings that I really loved – the frogs were adorable, and the serpent god quite impressive.

Back on the ground floor, the following room is a Japanese-style bamboo forest with wooden lanterns and a torii [鳥居], the traditional entryway to a Shinto shrine. As you may imagine, this was my favourite area. The room walls are covered in mirror, so it looks like a long path, that ends in the following room, a “bamboo forest” which a felt a little underwhelming in comparison. According to the website, the idea of IKONO cemented while visiting the Japanese Arashiyama bamboo grove, and these two rooms are a homage to that place.

Then we walked downstairs, to the “lights area”, with a few more rooms, including some hanging bellflower-shaped lamps, and another with lights made with marbles that went on and off to the music, some modern art inspired by The Last Supper, and a cube of infinite light dots. Back upstairs, there were a couple more panels for photo-ops, and a small souvenir shop. The staff offered a small present if we left a Google review, so we did. Oh, and they had a cloak option for coats, which was amazing.

IKONO Madrid highlights

We walked outside towards our following spot Caixa Forum Madrid, where there are two exhibitions at the moment. The one I really wanted to see was Veneradas y Temidas: el poder femenino en el arte y las creencias, “Worshipped and Feared: Feminine power in art and beliefs”, an exhibit on the female presence in the religion and spirituality of different cultures. The other one was Horizonte y Límite: Visiones del Paisaje. Colección de Arte contemporáneo, “Horizon and Limits: Views / visions of Landscape. Collection of Contemporary Art”, which I had not read about beforehand – because I am biased.

Veneradas y Temidas: el poder femenino en el arte y las creencias is a British Museum’s touring exhibition, Feminine power: the divine to the demonic (which I feel is a more appropriate name, but that’s just me and my problem with translations). It is a collection of artefacts (most of them not exhibited anywhere else) originating from different cultures, trying to convey the “female spiritual power”, though it also has snippets of erotism and homosexuality. One of the most important and impressive pieces include a copy of the Campo Iemini Venus, a “modest Venus”, halfway though covering herself – a copy of the Capitoline Venus, it was found in an Italian Roman villa in 1792. Aphrodite / Venus was the Greek / Roman goddess of Goddess of beauty, love, lust, passion, pleasure, and sexuality. Other Ancient Greece and Rome pieces include Hecate / Trivia (goddess of boundaries, crossroads, ghosts, magic, necromancy, transitions, and the New Moon), Athena / Minerva (Goddess of handicraft, warfare, and wisdom) or Eros / Cupid (God of desire, love, lust, and sex). There are several pieces of pottery, both red and black, depicting different scenes of various… degrees of erotism.

Halfway between Athena and Aphrodite, the goddess Ishtar, Queen of Heaven, and goddess of love and sexuality was worshipped in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Though according to the mythology, she had many lovers and was responsible for creation, she was not considered a “mother goddess”, and one of her advocations is the goddess of war.

The Divine to the Demonic: Greece and Mesopotamia

The first thing we saw from Asia were three masks. There was Taraka [Tāṭakā], a Hindu spirit, whose rage upon the murder of her husband turned her turned into a man-eating ogre (ogress?). From Bali, there was Rangda, the demon queen, antagonist of the forces of good, leader of an army of evil witches, and child-eater. From Japan there was a hannya [般若], the jealous vengeful spirit of a scorned woman.

Also from Hinduism, there is a creepily fantastic (or fantastically creepy?) devotional icon (murti [मूर्ति]) of Kali [काली], goddess of death, doomsday and time. The sculpture is the advocation Dakshina Kali – depicted with four arms, a scimitar, a collar made of heads of her slain enemies, and Shiva at her feet. The murti represents a passage in which Kali goes on a rampage after fighting demons, having lost control, and her consort Shiva throws himself at her feet hoping to calm her down.

Theatre masks and Indian Goddess Kali

Among the Egyptian representations, there was Sekhmet, the warrior goddess, represented as a lioness, who was also the goddess of medicine and one of the sun deities. There were also Bastet, who started off similar to Sekhmet but became more of a protector figure, represented as a cat. There were also references to the cosmic goddess Nut, who symbolises the sky, stars, astronomy, the universe, and mothers.

From China, there was a gorgeous Guanyin [觀音] as the Goddess of Compassion, a very different style from the one I had seen in either the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. There was also a Shiva porcelain which was astonishing.

Egyptian Sekhmet and Chinese Guaiying

From Meso- and South America, there was a beautiful sandstone of Toci, the “mother of the gods” who is depicted with bare breasts and her hands on her belly. There was also a statue of a Mexican cihuateotl. The cihuateteo were spirits of women who died in childbirth, and received the same honours as the warriors who died in combat. There were other references, such as the Hawai’ian goddess of the sea Na-maka-o-Kaha’i, talismans of sex and love (because the Victorians were a bunch of perverts), references to the Mesopotamian demon Lamashtu, Egyptian protection sculptures, funerary steles… and some modern art kind of thing, like a lady sitting down with a ball python slithering on her because… yeah? I really enjoyed the exhibition, though I have to admit I ignored the interactive art a little, to focus on the mythological aspect.

Afterwards, we visited the contemporary art exhibition Horizonte y Límite, which focuses on different… I’m not sure because I know squat about contemporary art (see above comment about the lady and the snake). There were paintings, imaginary photographs, a piece made from different geological cores representing a fault, a panel with postcards, a glass box filled with smoke to represent climate change… Pleasant, but not really my thing. Except the geology cores, they were cool.

Art piece fromthe exhibition Horizonte y Límite: Visiones del Paisaje

After seeing both exhibitions, we headed off towards our next stop. We took a break and sat down for a while to have a great banana-and-strawberry smoothie of all things. Then we walked towards the park Parque Enrique Tierno Galván, where we had tickets for the light show Naturaleza Encendida: Insectos “Lit-up nature: Insects”. The Naturaleza Encendida show used to take place in the Botanical Garden, which is smaller. This year, it has been relocated this year for “reasons unknown” and it feels a bit too long and almost unconnected. All that without taking into account that the idea of a larger-than-me butterfly and giant spiders is a bit creepy to be honest. We had premium tickets which gave us access to the enclosure at any time between 18:00 and 19:00 without queueing, and decided to arrive there around 18:30 as it would already be dark. We had also ordered a cute “magic lantern” – a bunch of sparkling LED filaments – for the giggles.

After an entrance of archways and carpets of light, there is a swarm of dragonflies as a centrepiece. You walk around it, and enter the zig-zagging path. Along the route, you encounter butterflies of different kinds, a line of hard-working ants, bees, grasshoppers, more bees, mosquitoes and flies, more bees, eggs, more grasshoppers, disco balls, larvae (I think? If I had to hazard a guess I’d call them anemones), beetles, ladybugs, spiders and a row of differently-coloured Christmas trees. There were “light corridors” in-between, hive-like hexagons projected onto the trees, and lots of artificial smoke. There are supposed to be some praying mantises somewhere but… I did not see those?

Naturaleza Encendida Insectos figures

All in all, Naturaleza Encendida: Insectos felt too spread out, as if trying to justify the bigger space. Though we had a premium ticket, there was no special premium-only area, and the only benefit was having an hour to go in, without having to queue – which is already enough in my books. I think you really have to be into the topic – we came across a lady who was very freaked out and mostly running so she could get away from the bugs. I have been to three editions of Naturaleza Encendida, and the only one I really enjoyed was the sea-creatures one, Explorium. I thought that the bad weather last year had damped the experience – literally – but I’m going to stop holding my hopes high.

Finally, we headed back to the train station. My morning train had had a five-minute delay, which by the early evening had progressed to the upper 40s. Joy. I’m hoping that when free ticketing is over, service will improve, but I’m not holding my hopes too high…

12th November 2023: Trains and Parks (Madrid, Spain)

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I had booked a visit for 15:30 using Madrid’s program to divulge the Heritage of the city Pasea Madrid (“Walk Madrid”), and I had planned a great day around it. Unfortunately, such plan had me on the best train to get to the demonstrations happening there at noon and therefore it would most likely be “delayed due to uncontrollable circumstances” or worse. Thus, I needed a new plan. Since there was a yellow weather-alert in effect across the parks in the area I wanted to be , I just drew a general list of places I could check out and decided to keep it flexible.

The day did not start off as I had imagined it. I slacked off a bit in the morning and by the time I was ready to leave, it was too too late to catch the original train of the second plan. There was part of me which was really not in it, and I considered just cancelling the visit and staying home. Then again – I reasoned with myself – the visit was sold out every other day, I had been lucky to secure a spot. I did not know whether I would be lucky enough to be free when the next batch of tickets were released, nor if the dates were convenient – if they ever opened again, or as the webpage said, it was a “special occasion” (honestly, I think that they just say it is to hype up the reservations). Thus I set off to catch the next train, still in good time for plan B as it was flexible and I could just kick one stop off if necessary.

Once in Madrid, I headed off to the Railway Museum Museo del Ferrocarril, technically closed that day due to the monthly flea market Mercado de Motores. It turns out that the ground floor of the museum is still open, which allows you to have a look at the main train collection (actual historical trains) and take some cool pictures. For once, I was not the only one with the camera, but one among a bunch – to the point that a few of us ended up queueing for a similar picture at some point.

The Railway Museum is located in what remains of the former terminus of Delicias, which opened in 1880. Designed by French engineer Émile Cachelièvre, it had three distinctive areas – the passenger building, the loading docks, and the customs building. The last train left the station on the 30th July 1969, at 22:15, headed for Badajoz. In 1984, the Railway Museum opened in the passenger building, which kept the former platforms.

Fleamarket at the Railway Museum

I am not sure how crowded the museum is during normal days, but for the market, it was packed. I had secured a free entry reservation, just in case. The main building hosts a number of actual trains which serviced passengers and cargo throughout Spanish history – real locomotives and cars on the tracks they used to travel. Before Covid, one of the cars was used as cafeteria, and another as an Orient-Express-inspired restaurant, neither of which are in active now. Though the side rooms of the ground floor and the upper floors were closed due to the market, I got to see the trains from the outside and admire the building structure.

Railway Museum Madrid

In the outer part of the museum, I found the food court and the former tracks which disappear into the nearby park. To the side stands the miniature train complex Ferrocarril de Las Delicias a layout of tiny trains – a 265-metre long, 127-millimetre wide track, to be exact – where you can travel on equally-scaled trains, with classical tickets and all. My original idea had been riding it, but I found a great spot for photographs and decided not to queue through all the toddlers and their parents. I thought that since I wanted to go back to the museum to see all the rooms, I could do that on a day when the tiny trains were running.

Miniature trains in Delicias

I left the station-turned-museum and walked towards the so-called Pantheon of Spain Panteón de España, a burial site for remarkable Spanish politicians, noblemen and military personalities – formerly known as the “Illustrious Men”. Before mobile phones with a camera were a thing, my school took my class to the crypt, but nowadays only the upper area and the gardens can be visited. The original plan, designed by Fernando Arbós y Tremanti in the Neobyzantine style, comprised a basilica with a bell tower and a cloister. The project began in 1891, but only the tower – now part of a school – and the cloister had been built when construction stopped in 1899 due to astronomical costs. In the cloister, there are funerary monuments to a number of important Spaniards who were exhumed and reburied there, such as Mateo Sagasta, Antonio de los Ríos y Rosas, Anonio Cánovas del Castillo or José Canalejas. Eight tombs and a central monument can be visited in the cloister and the central garden. The entrance is decorated with golden mosaics, and the interior is white calcite and grey slate, with domed rooftops. The central garden had flowering winter roses and a view of the abandoned bell tower.

Pantheon of Spain

I headed out towards Madrid’s main park Parque del Retiro, part of which had been restricted until noon due to predicted strong winds. The weather, however, was fantastic, even warm, which felt weird for such autumn-coloured day – it made the yellow alert issued a little strange. The park was gold, red and orange everywhere, a stark contrast with the green grass and bushes. I reached the crystal palace Palacio de Cristal, which looked extremely cool with the fall tones, though it was packed.

Retiro park in autumn

El Retiro crystal palace

I took a turn towards an area that I had not visited before inside the park. In the 18th century, when the now-public park was the monarch’s garden, the royal gardeners kept complaining that flowers bloomed where they had not planted them, and blamed a magical force living in the park. The Spanish word used is duende, which is a nature creature somewhere in-between a fairy, a spirit and a gnome. The sculpture Duende del Retiro was created by José Noja in 1985 to honour the legend. The duende plays a flute while sitting on a stone hut, which used to be a cage for the bears of the former zoo Casa de Fieras del Retiro, now turned into the garden Jardines de Herrero Palacios. I’m glad no animals live there any more, except some geese and ducks that can fly – or waddle – away any time they want, but considering how much they get fed by passers-by, I doubt they care about doing so.

Duende of Retiro Park

I finally made my way towards the central pond of the park Estanque Grande and the monument to King Alfonso XII Monumento a Alfonso XII, my 15:30 visit. The monument is composed by a colonnade, two lion-gates, four mermaids sitting on different marine animals, and a triumphal column with a sculpture of the king riding a horse on top. The complex measures 30 metres high, 86 metres long and 58 metres wide. The colonnade is public access, and I would not have booked a guided visit for it. However, what made the visit special is that we were granted access to inside the column to climb to the lookout that lies within the top pedestal where the horse stands (97 steps, thankfully on newish metal ones).

Alfonso XII became king of Spain in 1874. He grew up in exile in France until his mother, Queen Isabel II abdicated when he was 17 years old. He reigned for almost eleven years. His first wife, reportedly his one-and-only love, died within a few months of marriage. He married again, and had three children with his second wife, Queen María Cristina, two more with his opera singer lover. He was charismatic and the Spanish loved him, he was called “the bringer of peace”. He died while María Cristina was still pregnant with his son, king-to-be Alfonso XIII, and she became Regent. It would eventually be Alfonso XIII who inaugurated the monument to his father.

The monument was designed by architect José Grases Riera and involved as many as 20 sculptors. Probably the most important one was Mariano Benlliure, who made the horse and the king in bronze – the horse is about seven metres long, and the whole sculpture from the horse’s hooves to the King’s hat, about eight metres high. Grases Riera placed his project on the existing pier of the pond, in order not to cut down any tree from the park, as a pier could always be rebuilt somewhere else. The monument was funded by the public, so it alternates cheaper stone and more expensive bronze, according to how much money there was at nay given moment. The colonnade features shields from the different Spanish regions at the time, and the main column has scenes from the King’s life and allegories to Peace, Industriousness, the Arts… Completion took 20 years from the call for projects in 1902 to the monument inauguration in 1922.

Monument to Alfonso XII across the Great Pond

The lookout is encased in the pedestal where the horse stands. It has windows made of glass to allow a 360-degree view of the park, and I swear I had never even realised it was there. The stairs were not steep and there were cool views from the lookout, especially with the autumn colours, and the sun starting to set. The guide was good – just again impressed by the camera – and explained to us everything that could be seen from there. A relative, however, took the same visit a few days later and, when we compared notes, the information we had been told was rather… different.

Monument to King Alfonso XII - horse and king close up, plus views from the viewpoint

The whole visit took an hour, with 15 minutes at the lookout, and we were out by 16:30. It took me a bit over 25 minutes to reach the station, but the train was late – it was actually at the platform when I got there even if it should have left ten minutes beforehand. I hopped in, and I spent the ride organising the photos on the phone. I am glad I did not cancel the visit and went on with it. I shall remember that for the upcoming one.