Tag Archives: Age of Enlightenment

26th July 2025: Gladiators in Alcalá de Henares (Spain)

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I am weird. Give me an exhibition of things I’ve seen (from the MAN) or I’m planning to eventually see (from the Roman Museum in Mérida), and – even if it is nearby – I won’t feel like coming. Add a thirty-minute historical recreation, limited-time only and I’ll be all in. The archaeological museum Museo Arqueológico y Paleontológico de la Comunidad de Madrid MARPA, in Alcalá de Henares, was running an exhibition on gladiators from Hispania called ¡Hispano! Gladiadores en el Imperio Romano (“Hispanian! Gladiators in the Roman Empire”. I have no clue what the exclamation mark is doing there). It’s not like I was not interested, it was just… not really drawn to it.

Gladiator exhibition poster, showing two Roman fighters in the Colosseum

However, I did hear about the historical recreation just about it was going to end. And you know how I am with “now or never” feelings. The way it was organised made it a bit of a challenge though – tickets were free but handed over at 15:00 for three sessions: 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00, and I had no idea when people would queue or whatever. I arrived at the museum around 13:30, and asked at reception. They told me that people usually started queueing around 14:30, and thus I decided to head there around 14:15 to secure entry.

Meanwhile, I checked the exhibition out. The majority of the pieces were reproductions, but there were a few originals. The most important real artefacts came from the Mérida Roman Museum, which as far as I know is closed at the moment. There was a guided visit going on, and I reasoned that a bunch of those people would also want to see the recreation.

The collection included reliefs, mosaics, and some sculptures. There was also a copy of the Roman Law from the MAN. In glass cases, helmets and weapons – most of them real – were displayed. In the centre there was a round amphitheatre where the recreation would take place. It was a small exhibition.

Exhibits in the Gladiator show: reliefs and a mosaic showing men fighting, and a helmet.

Afterwards, I wandered the rest of the museum for a bit, and around 14:15 I went to queue, displeasing the security guard who said that lining started at 14:30. That was not what I had been told. I offered to move, but he muttered “never mind”. What is with security suddenly going weird when there is queueing involved? I’d never had any kind of problem with the MARPA staff before.

At 14:55, I got my free ticket and headed outside the museum for a quick bite. I had planned to try a typical pastry, but all the patisseries close from 14:00 to 16:00, which was inconvenient. I ended up having yoghurt ice-cream instead. I had never seen the main street Calle Mayor or square Plaza de Cervantes so empty, but I guess that was because of the heat. Afterwards, I walked towards Puerta de Madrid, an 18th-century monumental gate that took the place of the actual wall gate. Coincidentally, the structure shows up in the 1960 gladiator film Spartacus.

Main street in Alcalá de Henares, during summer mid-day. The only shadows is under the covered area behind the columns at the sides

Puerta de Madrid - monumental entrance to Alcalá de Henares

I went back to the museum and we were soon admitted into the “theatre” that doubled as arena. The recreation was carried out by the historical recreation group Antiqva Clio. There were three actors: the lanista, and two gladiators. There was a kid running around too, but he was sort of the mascot, and a lady in plain clothes helping out.

The recreation started introducing the concept of ludus (plural ludi): a gladiatorial school, where the gladiators were housed (kept) and trained. The owner or lanista selected the fighters – slaves, criminals or free men – and assigned them to a category, either heavy-weight or light-weight.

The lanista was the owner of the school. He invested in the gladiators and their training. Gladiators who were slaves or criminals could eventually buy their freedom if they won enough fights. Once the gladiator entered the ludus, they took the “Gladiatorial oath”, which was akin to “we accept to be hit, burnt, chained and killed by the sword”. Which… was not the expected one, right? To get it out of the way from the get-go, apparently the whole Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant (Hail, Caesar, those who will die salute you), was popularised in the 19th century, and there is only evidence that it was said in real life as Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant, once. It was in the year 52 CE on Lake Fucinus (not even a circus), where a group of criminal and prisoners sentenced to death were to fight on a naumachia (mock naval encounter) until there were no survivors.

Anyway, back to what I learnt. After swearing the oath, gladiators chose a fighting name, and got right into the fray. They trained together and became a sort of family, even taking care of each other and their relatives. Gladiators tended to specialise, as there were different classes with styles and weapons, and the ones who fought each others were different from those trained to hunt beasts. Fighters trained with weighed weapons so the fight would seem much smoother on the show. They were well-fed and even a little chubby so there could be wounds and blood without jeopardising their lives too much. As a matter of fact, when a gladiator died, his lanista had the right to monetary compensation for “loss of investment”.

The standard Roman circus games, ludi circenses, were sponsored by an editor, a sort of promoter who paid for everything. He hired the gladiator schools ludi to offer free entertainment to the people around him. The games started with Wild Beast Hunts (a fighter who was trained in this was called a venator or a bestiarii), then came executions, then the gladiatorial fights (munera) happened.

The gladiators who fought each other were paired: a light-weight versus a heavy-weight, and each fight took about ten minutes. There were different classes of gladiators, and we had an example of a murmillo (Leandrus) and a hoplomachus (Pintaius). The murmillo was a heavy weight-gladiator, equipped with a large shield and a sword. He was the defensive party. The hoplomachus was the light-weight and thus the aggressor. He carried a spear and a small shield. In general, one was “too armed to move” and the other one was “not armed enough” to somehow balance their differences. Both wore helmets with bad visibility in order to increase the drama.

Gladiator in fight pose, hiding behind a large shield

Gladiator with a small shield and a spear

There were two more figures in the games, the rudis, sort of a referee, and the lorarius, who made sure the fighters gave everything they could using a whip to motivate them. Though there was a risk that fighters might die during the fights, it was not the common thing. The winner received a laurel crown, a palm, a purple coat, a silver tray, and a bag of money. The loser could be pardoned or killed, but the whole thumbs-up, thumbs-down thing? That is not historically accurate either. If a winner gladiator was ordered to kill a loser who came from the same ludus, he made sure to do it as quickly as possible.

When a gladiator had won 10 fights, he had enough money buy his freedom and leave the life completely, though he could continue fighting and even assume another role in the ludus, such as a trainer or doctor of sorts. There is no historical information about how a fight was refereed, but here they did a first-to-reach-three-hits scheme. The lanista divided us in two groups to cheer for each gladiator, and the one on my side lost. Apparently Antiqva Clio‘s fights are not staged. The members of the recreation group actually train (with non lethal weapons of course) to learn how to fight, and whomever wins has won. No idea, but I felt sorry for the guys, who had to do it again in 30 minutes, and they were exhausted.

Gladiators fighting. The light-weight is launching his spear forward

Gladiators fighting. The light-weight's spear has made contact with the heavy-weight's shield.

Afterwards, we could take pictures with the gladiators – and they let me hold the weapons, since “my mum was not around to grant or deny permission”. In the end, I just headed home. The walk to the car was a bit scorching though… The price you have to pay for an easy parking spot is a ten-minute walk that… gets hard towards the end of July.

But there was a limited-edition activity and I had got to do it. Good job me.

31st December 2024: A clumsy morning yielded to an unbelievable evening {Vienna, Silvesterkonzert 2024}

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When we walked out of the rooms to go down and have breakfast, my parent’s alarmed face made me worried. They informed my sibling and myself that “it had snowed”. That was spooky for a second – until I ran to the window and saw that the “snow” was just a very thin layer of scattered white powder. It was safe to go out, even with my senior parents. We had breakfast and we got ready to go out.

Snow in Vienna

At some point, my family “caught” that I like Natural History museums, so they really, really thought I wanted to go to Vienna’s Natural History Museum – Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, and just wouldn’t listen to “No need, I’ve been there already, Their reasoning is that I had mentioned it before, which I actually had, to inform them that the Venus von Willendorf was there. That is where we ended up, and I was happy to oblige – the museum has rocks, meteorites, fossils and dinosaur animatronics. All right up my alley.

The museum’s oldest collection 250 years. In 1750, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I bought what at the time was the largest collection of natural history objects at the time – around 30,000 objects. That same decade, the Emperor founded the Schönbrunn Zoo and the botanical garden, and he ordered the first scientific exhibition to be held. Upon his death, the collections were donated to the state, and the first museum according to the Enlightenment principles was founded – and soon expanded.

The museum building was also commissioned by the Emperor. It was designed by architects Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer, with an identical exterior to the nearby Museum of Fine Arts. Works began in 1871, and the institution officially opened in 1889. Though it was indeed originally designed as a museum, it feels more like a repurposed palace, with decorated ceilings and monumental staircases. It has 39 halls with almost 9,000 square metres of exhibits, still keeping the 19th century outline. We just did halls 1 to 13: mineralogy, petrography, meteorites, palaeontology and prehistory galleries, including the Venus von Willendorf. The 11-centimetre figurine was made in limestone around back to 30,000 years ago. It is a nude woman of large proportions, and even if she does not have a face, she is mostly anatomically correct and has plaited hair.

My family was fascinated by the collections, and I guess I felt a teeny bit smug about that – considering how much fun they poke at me because natural history museums are very high on my priorities when I visit a new place (see: my first time in Brussels).

Natural History Museum Vienna

Natural History Museum Vienna

We left the museum after a couple of hours, around noon. We did not stay at the Silvestermarket at the square, but headed out towards the Imperial Butterfly House Schmetterlinghaus. It comprises half of an Art Nouveau greenhouse turned tropical botanical garden and butterfly zoo of sorts. I really love the iron-and-glass architecture of the building – and I would have loved to have had lunch in the brasserie that fills the other half of the greenhouse. The building was designed by architect Friedrich Ohmann and erected in 1901 as part of the Hofburg Palace and is, next to the Burggarten palace.

Most of the butterflies we saw, if not all, were forest giant owls Caligo eurilochus, very large butterflies originating from the Americas – they can live from Mexico to the Amazon basin. They have marks like big eyes in its back wings (hence the commmon name), and the inner wings are blue. They are pretty, and they seem to like fruit, as they gathered around the feeders to snack on it. The sad part is that they only live around 24 days.

Schmetterlinghaus

We then headed to the restaurant Centimeter, near the Rathouse (town hall) to have lunch. It is a place that has a lot of things measured – you can order sausages by the metre. I was somehow was not feeling hungry, so I decided to get Gebackener Emmentaler mit Sauce Tartare und Preiselbeeren, breaded and baked Emmental cheese with tartare sauce and cranberries. After lunch, we expected the Silvestermarket next to the Rathaus to be open, as it was one of the places to be for New Year’s Eve. We were wrong! That was a bummer, because in hindsight we could have cancelled the reservation and just stayed at the market in front of the Natural History Museum. That was a bummer, but at least we were warm.

Gebackener Emmentaler

We headed back towards the hotel, and we stopped by the supermarket next door to buy something for dinner. I grabbed myself some pre-emptive sushi, because I was pretty sure that my family was not going to find what they wanted – basically stuff like they would get at home. After half an hour of going back and forth, they decided to settle down with sandwiches and more sushi. We also picked up some chocolate thingies that would end up being more coconut than anything else. Not that I have anything against coconut, but I do not appreciate it replacing chocolate unannounced.

We took the groceries to the hotel, and had a bit of downtime before got ready for the main event. During that time, I went on the online airline webpage to make sure that the travel agent at El Corte Inglés had checked us in. The check-in was done, but someone had made a typo on my parent’s email address so we had not received the boarding passes. I retrieved them and downloaded onto my phone to distribute later.

A bit past 18:00, we left for the Wiener Musikverein, the Viennese Music Association, home to the Vienna Philharmonic Wiener Philharmoniker, where we would attend the 2024 Silvesterkonzert. It was a bit strange to head to such an event using the underground, but that was the most efficient means of transport, to be honest. We ran into the Spanish lady and her husband again – and that was great because that way we could take pictures of each other without having to get a stranger to do so.

Vienna Musikverein

The Musikverein was designed to resemble an Ancient Greek Temple in a Neoclassical style, following plans by architect Theophil Hansen. The building was inaugurated in 1870, and it has a small decorated entrance, very underwhelming staircases, a small chamber music hall, and the main music hall, the Großer Musikvereinssaal or Golden Hall. Walking in there was… surreal. It’s a hall I’d seen so often on TV, and it actually felt… I don’t know, a bit… pale. Less bright than on the screen. Maybe it was that the flowers were white and pink, so they did not pop. And it’s not like I know anything about flowers, anyway. I was just happy they were artificial enough not to trigger my allergies, it would have been awkward to sneeze all throughout the concert…

Vienna Musikverein Golden Hall

Though the “New Year Concert” is the one that everyone knows, there are actually three concerts with the same set list – the Preview Voraufführung on the 30th, the Silvesterconcert Silvesterkonzert on the 31st, and the New Year’s Concert Neujahrskonzert on the 1st. I honestly would have thought that it would be full of wealthy people and they would be all cool as cucumbers, but it turns out, a whole bunch of us were just excited noobs taking pictures of every and anything. My family’s seats were on the second floor balcony. I just couldn’t believe everything that was going around around me, nor where I was. I bought the programme, because I really wanted something physical from the soirée, aside from the ticket.

The Vienna Philharmonic was founded in 1842. It is formed by the best musicians from the Vienna State Opera. It is actually run by the musicians themselves. Every year, a conductor is chosen to direct the concerts, and for the 2025, it was Italian Riccardo Muti. Maestro Muti was born in Naples in 1941, and studied in the Classical Lyceum. He proceeded to move onto studying Piano, then Composition and Conducting. He began his career in 1968 as the music director of the opera festival Maggio Musical Fiorentino. He conducted the New Year’s Concert in Vienna in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2018 before this year. In 2011, the Philharmonic awarded him Honorary Membership. He is also a bit of a troll.

The concert had two parts, including the encore:

First part:
  1. Johann Strauß I. Freiheits-Marsch, op. 226 – Freedom March
  2. Josef Strauß Dorfschwalben aus Österreich. Walzer, op. 164 – Village Swallows from Austria, waltz
  3. Johann Strauß II. Demolirer-Polka. Polka française, op. 269 – Demolition Men’s Polka, French Polka
  4. Johann Strauß II. Lagunen-Walzer, op. 411 – Of friends, Waltz
  5. Eduard Strauß Luftig und duftig. Polka schnell, op. 206 – Airy and fragrant, fast Polka

Second part:
  6. Johann Strauß II. Ouvertüre zur Operette “Der Zigeunerbaron” – Overture to the operetta “The Gypsy Baron”
  7. Johann Strauß II. Accelerationen. Walzer, op. 234 – The Acceleration, Waltz
  8. Josef Hellmesberger (Sohn) Fidele Brüder. Marsch aus der Operette “Das Veilchenmädl” – Fidel brothers. March from the operetta “The violet girl”
  9. Constanze Geiger Ferdinandus-Walzer, op. 10 [Arr. W. Dörner] Ferdinandus, Waltz
  10. Johann Strauß II. Entweder – oder! Polka schnell, op. 403 – Either … or! Fast Polka
  11. Josef Strauß Transactionen. Walzer, op. 184 – Transaction, Waltz
  12. Johann Strauß II. Annen-Polka, op. 117 – Polka Ana
  13. Johann Strauß II. Tritsch-Tratsch. Polka schnell, op. 214 – Chit-chat, fast Polka
  14. Johann Strauß II. Wein, Weib und Gesang. Walzer, op. 333 – Wine, Woman, and Song

Encore:
  15. Johann Strauß II. Die Bajadere, Polka schnell, Op. 351 – The Bajadere, fast Polka
  16. Neujahrsgruß (New Year’s Address)
  17. Johann Strauß II. An der schönen blauen Donau, Walzer, Op. 314 – The Blue Danube
  18. Johann Strauß I. Radetzky-Marsch, Op. 228 – Radetzky March

Vienna Silvesterkonzert 2024

Honestly, what can I say? It’s nothing and everything like what you watch on TV. The music was fantastic, but somehow it felt like the conductor did not do much, the orchestra did whatever they wanted, not in a bad way. They knew exactly what to do and just did it. I know next to nothing regarding classical music, but they made it feel absolutely effortless. I am not sure how much work they do on their own and how much they do with the conductor, but I can tell had Riccardo Muti a blast. At some point, when he was coming in and out, he knocked over some of the viola or bassoon’s music sheets all over – he was very apologetic about it. Also, although neither photographs or videos are not permitted (mine are totally… sneaky, you see), one of the ladies in the first row was shamelessly filming, and he winked and waved at her. Furthermore, he would just… jump during some of the polkas, which is a feat considering the man is 83 years old.

The concert always ends with Strauß’s Radetzky-Marsch, and the public is invited to clap along. Muti completely had the concertgoers in his pocket, controlling them (us) with a finger and a look. It was amazing to watch. All in all, he was absolutely… not careless but carefree. It was great to see, somewhat magical in a way.

Vienna Silvesterkonzert 2024

The concert felt much much shorter than the two and a half hours it lasted. We went down to the first floor for pictures during the intermission, and we were not the only ones. However, I think we kind of… snuck past the intern or something, not sure we were supposed to be allowed on that floor. People were having champagne but I only cared about seeing everything. I might be a bit… weird. I make no apologies. I really loved the experience. They say it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but to be honest, I would just try the lottery every year from now on. I mean, I now have the right clothing for it…

After the concert, we went back to the hotel where we had our dinner. To be completely fair, there was a part of me that would have totally wanted to go out to watch fireworks and Vienna’s way to celebrate the New Year – and then be an absolute wuss, freeze my butt off and need to come back to the hotel. But the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and since I did not get to see it… It must have been the most interesting thing ever! It’s okay though, because I got to see the concert, and it was already my once in a lifetime most interesting thing ever… But it took me hours to get to sleep, so maybe I could have explored some, because in the end I’m greedy and I want it all.

12th September 2024: Cádiz {Escapade to Cádiz, September 2024}

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My paperwork-related appointment was at 9:30 in Cádiz itself, and I got up around 7:30. I left the hotel, but unfortunately the café where I had expected to have breakfast was closed. Thus, I instead headed out towards the promenade Paseo del Vendaval to see the ocean again. I turned to my right, in the opposite direction from the previous night, and I walked towards the central beach in town – Playa de la Caleta, a mostly-rocky area with tidal ponds and a long bridge called Puente del Hierro which leads to an old castle Castillo de San Esteban. I chased a few birds on the way for photographs. They were not at all cooperative.

I reached the former bathhouse Balneario de Nuestra Señora de la Palma y del Real, built in 1926 from an original design by Enrique García Cañas with one main access and two corridors that form a semicircle towards the ocean, and end in domes. It was build directly onto the beach, in reinforced concrete, with a style gravitating among Art noveau, eastern historicism and local decoration with azulejo tiles. It was abandoned in the 1970s, but restored for administrative use in the 1990s.

I ventured away from the ocean into the narrow streets of Cádiz downtown until I got to the town’s theatre Gran Teatro Falla, in the Neomudejar style. It was built between 1884 and 1905, on and off due to lack of funds, after a design by Adolfo Morales de los Ríos and Adolfo del Castillo Escribano. The theatre is one of the key spots during Carnival festivities. The Cádiz Carnival is one of oldest and most famous in Spain, known for its groups of people who parade the town in costume to sing simple songs that make fun of every- and anything, normally current affairs – coros, cuartetos, comparsas and chirigotas. The great Carnival contest is celebrated in the theatre, and prizes are awarded in each of the categories. The carnival brings in about 400,000 visitors each year. I tried to get to visit the theatre, but I did not manage to do so.

Paseo del Vendaval & Gran Teatro Falla Cádiz

Around 09:15 I decided to try my luck with the paperwork issue, even if it was early for my appointment, and I was successful. Since it was an important document, I ran back to the hotel to drop it there, and then headed off to the square Plaza de La Mina, where the local museum Museo de Cádiz stands.

It is said that Cádiz is the oldest Western city, founded around the 9th century BCE. Mythologically, it is associated with Hercules’ Columns and the city of Tarsis. The oldest archaeological remains date back to the 7th century BCE. The now-peninsula was originally a small archipelago where the Phoenicians settled down as it was a strategic point for commerce and mining of copper and tin, naming the settlement Gadir. It was later conquered by Carthaginians, whose march to Rome led by Hannibal started there. When Carthage lost the war, the city was taken over by Romans and became Gades in the 2nd century BCE.

As the Roman Empire declined, the city was invaded by the Visigoths, then the Byzantine Empire, and again by the Visigoths. In the year 710 CE, it was the first stronghold to fall to the Moorish conquest of Spain. After the Christians took it over again, it became a key point in commerce with the American territories.

In 1755, Cádiz was damaged by a three-wave tsunami caused by the so-called “Lisbon Earthquake”, 8.5 degrees in the Richter scale. In 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Spanish patriots wrote the first Spanish Constitution, and throughout the 19th century, it was key in the numerous wars and battles through the return of Alfonso VII, the Republic and the Restoration of the Monarchy periods. However, during the 20th century, the city decayed suffering from lack of infrastructures, and rampant unemployment. Thus, it is happy to focus on tourism and the money it brings.

The Museo de Cádiz tries to follow this trail of history, but only the archaeological floor was open. The most important artefacts date from the Phoenician, Roman and Moorish periods. Of particular interest are two Phoenician sarcophagi which were found in completely different areas, but are presented as a couple of sorts, and a complete dowry. From Roman times, they exhibit a few dozen amphorae, sculptures and columns. Finally, the remains from the Moorish domination are quite colourful in comparison with everything else. The second floor of the museum was closed, so I was done earlier than expected.

Cádiz Museum

Thus, I decided to push my luck a little and try to get to the archaeological site called Cueva del Pájaro Azul for the 10:30 visit in English. The place is a former flamenco tavern built within the repurposed dry docks of the Phoenician Gadir. Most of the structure has been covered in brick and barely the original shape can be traced back, enough to calculate that the dry docks served war ships. While building new stairs, they did find part of the original Phoenician harbour though, the most important remain that survives. The tavern itself might be considered of minimal historical importance as it was a considerable cultural hub in the 1960s.

Archaeological site Cueva del Pájaro Azul

To keep in the mood, I decided to visit the archaeological site Yacimiento Arqueológico de Gadir, making a stop for a coffee first. Unfortunately, the site was closed that day. Thus, I decided to check out the Roman Theatre Teatro Romano de Cádiz – it might feel a little back and forth, but distances in central Cádiz are small and I wanted to prioritise Phoenician remains (I said I lived in the area, but all these archaeological remains are newly discovered). The theatre is the second largest one in what was Hispania, and dates from the 1st century BCE. It could host up to 10,000 people, and the stage, stands and the vomitorium (corridor underneath the seats) can be visited. There is an extra room with miniatures of the different stages of the history of the theatre.

Roman Theatre Cádiz

I left behind something called “The Elf’s Alley” Callejón del Duende, the narrowest street in town, now closed off. Very near both the alley and the theatre, I found the old cathedral Catedral Vieja de Cádiz officially Parroquia de Santa Cruz. This was the original cathedral of the town, commissioned by king Alfonso X around 1262. The original building was destroyed during the scuffles between the Spanish and the English at the end of the 16th century, and a new one was erected a few years later in a mixture of the Renaissance and the Baroque styles.

Former cathedral of Cádiz

Next to the old cathedral stands the museum of the cathedral Casa de la Contaduría. The museum comprises a number of rooms disseminated in a conglomerate of buildings dating back from the 16th century – including the tower of the old cathedral and a Mudejar courtyard. The museum holds – obviously – religious items: paintings, sculptures, mass paraphernalia, codexes…

Cathedral Museum Cádiz

Afterwards, I crossed the city centre all over again, and reached the park Parque Genovés, a sort of botanical garden and the largest park in the old town. It has a small lake with a waterfall and a man-made cave with a lookout of the town and the ocean.

Park Parque Genovés in Cádiz

Then, I had booked lunch in the café of the Parador de Cádiz – Hotel Atlántico, a cute not-so-little place called La Tacita del Atlántico. I had set my heart on a grilled urchin dish – erizo de mar relleno y gratinado con huevos de arenque ahumado which I combined with a salmorejo (a creamy soup with a base of tomato and bread, garnished with ham and hard boiled eggs), though the dish had a local twist salmorejo cordobés, huevo y mojama. The urchins were delicious, but the salmorejo was lacking. I liked the idea of exchanging the ham for salt-cured tuna (mojama), but overall I found the food overpriced and the service mediocre. On my way out, I stopped by reception to get my stamp for the Red de Paradores rally.

Lunch at La Tacita del Atlántico

I stayed at Parque Genovés for a bit after lunch, then headed out towards the “new” cathedral Catedral de la Santa Cruz. The cathedral was built between 1722 and 1838, in a mixture of styles – Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassicism. It was erected in an assortment of materials, from noble marble to the humble local piedra ostionera, a sedimentary rock with a high concentration of seashells (biocalcarenite). The interior has three naves, and a Latin cross floor plan, over whose crossing there is a has dome, covered by golden tiles on the outside. The main altar is neoclassical.

Underneath the cathedral stands the crypt, and one of the towers can be ascended, leading to a great view of the town. The tower has very few stairs, most of the way is done on a ramp. Unfortunately, though, the cathedral is in rather poor state, and a net is cast under the ceiling to prevent debris from falling. I also climbed the tower since it was included in my combo ticket.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Cádiz

View of Cádiz from the cathedral tower

Behind the cathedral, I found myself back at the promenade Paseo del Vendaval, and I walked towards the beach Playa de la Caleta. In historical times, it was the natural port for Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman shops, now it is a small-ish beach in the heart of the city. It is located between two of the castles of the old city, and its most characteristic structure is the bath house I saw in the morning.

The beach has a sand area where most people sunbathe, but there is a long bridge separated in two sections – one directly built upon rock, Puente de Hierro and the other with arches to let the water flow through, Puente Canal. At the end of the half-kilometre of bridges, stand the ruins of the castle Castillo de San Sebastián, which today includes a working lighthouse, and an archaeological site. The first structure in the ancient island dates back from 1457, and the castle itself was built in 1706. Though it was warm and sunny, I walked the bridges and around the castle walls.

La Caleta Beach Cádiz & San Sebastián Castle

Upon my “return to mainland”, I passed by the bath house again and I reached a second castle, Castillo de Santa Catalina. The outpost, in the shape of a five-point star, was built towards the end of the 16th century to defend the city form sea warfare. In later years, a church and a sacristy were added, and from the 18th century onwards it was used as a prison. Today, it mostly hosts cultural or cinema-related events.

Santa Catalina Castle, Cádiz

I continued on my walk around the city, left behind a knee cramp, the Parador de Cádiz and Parque Genovés until I reached the bulwark Baluarte de la Candelaria and the park Jardines Clara Campoamor. From there, I went on towards a second bulwark and the remains of the city walls Baluarte y Murallas de San Carlos. The bulwark was built towards the end of the 18th century to protect the harbour. Not far from there stands the square Plaza de España with the monument to the 1812 Constitution Monumento a la Constitución de 1812, the political response to the Napoleonic invasion. A bit further away stands the fountain Fuente de la Plaza de las Tortugas, with lots of cute turtles as decoration.

San Carlos Bulwark and Walls Cádiz

Monument to the 1812 Constitution Cádiz

Turtle fountain in Cádiz

At this time I decided to get an early dinner around 18:30, so I bought some fast food to take to the hotel. That is when the ant invasion started. It was something I was not expecting – one or two bugs is workable, but this was a whole nest out for my fries. It was not nice. I decoyed them into bathroom and decided to have the room cleaned the next morning.

I set off again about 20:15 to look for a place to watch the sunset at the beach Playa de la Caleta, which did not disappoint, and I sat there until the sun disappeared beyond the water line. Luckily, I made it today, as it would be ridiculously windy the following day.

Sunset at La Caleta, Cádiz

I then found the street Calle the la Virgen de la Palma, at whose end stands the small church Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Palma. It was built in the 18th century and it hosts a sculpture of the Virgin Mary credited with stopping the waters during the 1755 tsunami. In the street, there is a signal marking the highest water point, but there were so many restaurants and people that it was impossible to find it!

Sculpture of the Virgin Mary

I went back to the hotel afterwards to have some sleep – I was beat. I did manage to make a stop at a supermarket to buy coffee and pastries for breakfast the following morning though. Because one late latte per trip is enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paris Fan Festival: Stjepan Šejić and Linda Lukšić Šejić

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

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

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

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

Paris Fan Festival snippets

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

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

Lutetia Amphitheatre

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

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

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

Passage Du Havre escalators

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

Upper floor of the Galerie Lafayette

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

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

Projections inside the Invalides church

Les Invalides church by night

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

28th April 2024: No plans, really

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

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

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

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

Great Gallery of Evolution

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

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

Mineral and geology gallery

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

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

Pan-fried beef tartare with foie gras

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

Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois

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

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

Notre Dame under reconstruction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Starbucks' Iced Strawberry Matcha Tea Latte

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

Monument to the second of May

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

Monument to Goya

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

Hermit church of St Anthony

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comic Planet Madrid Food

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

Comic Planet Madrid decoration

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

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

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

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

Genesis Madrid stills

Genesis Madrid stills

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

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.

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.

21st July 2023: Naples, from the hills to the port {Southern Italy, July 2023}

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Due to poor planning on my side – that happens sometimes – Friday was a weird day. Part of me keeps thinking that I should have taken a train or a boat somewhere, but I actually managed to do most of the key sights in Naples. Acting on a recommendation, I had booked a 10:00 visit to the Catacombs of San Gennaro Catacombe di San Gennaro, part of the Catacombe di Napoli (Catacombs of Naples) network.

I bought a multiple-trip public transit ticket and I set off around 8:00. The underground-bus commute was to take 45 minutes, but the underground alone took that long. Thus, I decided to do the second leg of the trip on foot, up the hill Collina di Capodimonte. The bus trip was to take 20 minutes, and the walk 22 – I took less than 20 and I did not even see any bus going where I wanted to be… then again I was stupidly early in the end…

The cult to San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) is deeply felt in Naples – the miracle of his blood turning liquid three times a year is just one of the signs. They buried, exhumed, and reburied the man up to seven times if I understand correctly, and he is not even in the catacombs any more, but in the cathedral. The catacombs are excavated into the volcanic tuff that conforms the hill, and they date back to the 2nd century CE. They were located outside the city walls, as were all the graveyards at the time. The original tomb was expanded to accommodate palaeo-Christian burials. The first patron of Naples, Saint Agrippinus, was buried here and a basilica was constructed in his honour. After his burial in the 4th century CE, the catacombs became… popular. Eventually, San Gennaro was buried there in the 5th century and the place became a pilgrimage site until his body was moved to Benevento.

The catacombs have two levels, and can only be visited in a guided tour. They were restored in 2006, and are currently managed, by a cooperative which tries to promote Naples heritage and improve the city, providing working opportunities for young people. They tackled the restoration of the catacombs in 2006. Our guide asked if anyone had visited any catacombs before, I said that I had visited the Catacombs of Paris, but she did not make any… further comment about anything. There are no bodies in the Catacombs of San Gennaro, which is almost weird considering how morbid Neapolitans are.

Catacombs of San Gennaro

What you can find in the catacombs is a powerful example of underground architecture. Everything is directly carved into the rock, except for a few bricks here and there (and some scaffolding). There are three types of tombs: fossa (ground burial, vaguely body-shaped), loculo (stacked tombs built against the walls) and arcosolium (a carved tomb carved into the wall and a protective arch surrounding it). Some of the walls and tombs still have frescoes, a few of them with recycled symbolism from the pagan times, such as the god of wine Bacus’ vines being reinterpreted as a Christian theme of Jesus as the ‘true vine’, God as the husbandman, and the disciples as the branches.

The visit ended at the basilica San Gennaro Extra Moenia or St Januarius Beyond the Wall – due to it being outside the city’s protective walls, even if these walls are long gone. As the reception area had a small cafeteria, I headed there for a late breakfast (second breakfast? super early lunch?). It was around 11:00 and I ordered a mini-pizza and got myself a cold coke. I felt much more alive after that.

Neapolitan mini pizza

I went uphill for Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, one of the former royal palaces Reggia di Capodimonte, and the forest that surround it. The palace was built in the Italian Baroque and Neoclassical styles between 1738 and 1840. A cohort of architects worked on it, the most credited being Giovanni Antonio Medrano. Although today the palace is technically a museum, the ‘good’ paintings have been moved for restoration, so I decided not to go in. But I might have got sunburnt on the walk.

Royal Palace of Capodimonti

I went back down Capodimonte Hill towards Central Naples, and I made a stop at Galleria Principe di Napoli, a commercial gallery dating back from the 19th century. It was originally built in brick, with a cover of iron and glass. Today it is almost unused as most of the shops have closed or moved, and there have been recent mini-collapses which worry local authorities.

Commercial gallery in Naples

I walked into the underground system – which does not have air-con and was crowded. I stopped at Stazione Toledo, one of the stations belonging to the project Stazioni dell’Arte (Art Stations), a city project to beautify Naples’ transport hubs. Óscar Tusquets designed Stazione Toledo, and it has earned the reputation of being the most beautiful underground station in Europe.

Escalator in Toledo underground station Naples

Afterwards I went back to the platform to wait for a train to head to the harbour – the frequency is 15 minutes, but at least I was sitting down. I should have eaten something , but it was too hot – I bought a bottle of water and an ice cream (which was not even actual Italian ice cream) and continued off. I saw the outward of Castel Nuovo, a medieval castle dating back from 1279, commissioned by Charles I of Anjou. Had it had an open ticket office, I would have come in, but you could only book online and I really did not want to go around entering my bank data in the middle of Napoli.

Outside of Castle Nuovo, Naples

Thus I walked past the theatre Teatro di San Carlo and headed off towards the square Piazza del Plebiscito. On one side stands the church Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola, which was getting prepared for a wedding. On the other side, the other Naples Royal Palace Palazzo Reale di Napoli. The palace was one of the Bourbon residences during the time of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Like the Capodimonte one, it is built in a mixture of Italian Baroque and Neoclassical styles, and it is attributed to Domenico Fontana. I snooped around the free areas of the palace.

Basilica of San Francisco de Padua, Naples

Royal Palace, Naples

There is another shopping gallery next to the palace, the Galleria Umberto I, a little more alive than the Prince of Naples if only because there were tourists groups using it as a meeting point. I crossed it on my way to the underground stop. I took the train again and alighted at the square Piazza Dante, with the monument to the famous poet Monumento a Dante Alighieri and the school Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, whose tower is called the Equation of Time Orologio Equazione Del Tempo, with a double clock to reflect both solar hours (apparent solar time vs mean solar time) simultaneously.

Dante Square, Naples

I headed out to the chapel-museum Museo Cappella Sansevero, which is reported to always have long lines. I wanted to check if there were advanced tickets. Upon arrival around 15:15, I managed to get a slot for 15:30, and I was admitted a bit after 15:20. Pictures are not allowed and the guards patrol like eagles, so I could not even a sneak one. The chapel is home to a number of incredible Baroque and Rococo sculptures. The most important one is the masterpiece known as the Veiled Christ Cristo velato by Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720 – 1793). The sculpture was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro and completed in 1753. It is so impressive that a legend says that an alchemist transformed the veil from a real one into marble.

Other incredible sculptures are Release from Deception and the veiled Modesty. When you go out, you are forced to cross a small cabinet which holds something called Le Macchine Anatomiche “Anatomical Machines” (Giuseppe Salerno) which are real-life skeletons with a reproduction of the vascular and circulatory system.

My final stop for the the day was Complesso Monumentale di Santa Chiara, a monumental complex comprising a church Chiesa di Gesù Redentore e San Ludovico d’Angiò, a cloister Chiostro maiolicato, a museum Museo Di Santa Chiara and a Roman archaeological excavation Scavi archeologici Santa Chiara.

This religious complex started off as a Clarisse monastery built between 1313 and 1340. The cloister is square, and the arcades are covered in frescoes. The cloister itself is considered unique, as in 1742, Domenico Antonio Vaccaro built two avenues of octagonal columns. These pillars, along with the benches that join them, are decorated in the Rococo style, covered with majolica tiles in floral and everyday-life themes. A bit too fancy for a Poor Clares convent… though I really liked the columns and the cloister.

20230721 Santa Chiara Cloister Naples

The library contains codexes. The Roman ruins are from a Roman bath, but with Pompeii and Herculaneum so recent in my mind, they were not that impressive, I guess. The museum holds pieces from the baths, religious artefacts from the church before it was burnt, and other religious paraphernalia.

Altar. Santa Chiara, Naples

The church was originally erected in the Angevin Gothic style, with some original Romanesque left, and it was redecorated in Baroque style in the 17th century. After being damaged during the WWII bombings, it was restored “in style” – meaning, how it was supposed to have been before the Baroque decorations.

After the church, I went back to the hotel and I decided to try one of the McDonald’s item that is typically Italian – not found anywhere else, a Tasty Basket: McNuggets (found everywhere), chicken wings (found in more places), and panzerotti con pomodoro (typical Italian, a panzerotto is a small calzone with the same dough and seasoned tomato as pizza). It was either strangely good or I was hungry.

panzerotti con pomodoro

20th July 2023: Herculaneum and the Naples National Archaeological Museum {Southern Italy, July 2023}

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Knowing my way to the station of Napoli Porta Nolana, this time I only had to buy the ticket and wait for the 8:14 Circumvesuviana Line 4 to Poggiomarino, which was supposed to reach Ercolano Scavi in the town of Herculaneum [Ercolano] by 8:33. It took longer than that because there were a lot of stops. Then again, my strategy of the first station in order to travel sitting down was successful once more.

Unlike the modern city of Pompeii, the modern Ercolano was built before the ancient town was discovered. It was originally called Resina, but the name was changed in 1969. Despite the legend saying that the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules in Latin) founded the original Herculaneum, the early history of this city is parallel to that of Pompeii. It was first an Oscan settlement, then Etruscan, then Greek, and it eventually became a Roman municipium in the first century BCE. It was a small vacationing town for people from the north, apparently.

Much like Pompeii, the ancient city of Herculaneum – what today is the Parco Archeologico di Ercolano or Herculaneum Archaeological Park – was buried by the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and it belongs to the Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata Unesco World Heritage Site. However, the different location of the town changed how it fared during the eruption.

The 79 eruption lasted two days (thought to be 24th and 25th October 79 CE). The citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum who fled and survived were the ones who escaped during the first 12 hours – during these, heavy pumice and ash came down on Pompeii, destroying buildings. At this time, Pliny the Elder was commander of the Roman fleet at a nearby town, and he sent galleys to help the evacuation of the coast. We know this because his nephew, Pliny the Younger – a teenager at the time who would grow into a lawyer and magistrate – left in writing what he had seen in two letters. Those letters are now lost, but Medieval copies of them survived.

At the time of the eruption, Herculaneum stood right by the shore. Most of the bodies found were at the coastline, probably trying to escape by sea or reach Pliny’s ships. A boat was actually found carbonised in the vicinity. As wind blew pyroclastic flows towards Pompeii, burying it in volcanic ash and pumice, only a few centimetres of ash fell onto Herculaneum. These, however, rightfully freaked people out, and caused most of the population to flee during the first day.

As Herculaneum lies closer to the volcano, when the cloud of volcanic material (called a “volcanic surge”, composed by gas, ashes and pumice) collapsed in the middle of the night, it hit the town at over 400 ºC. Everyone who had stayed behind was instantly killed by the heat, leaving behind the skeletons of around 330 people. There were no casts made of them – unlike the thousand unfortunate Pompeiians.

Pliny the Elder died in the early morning of the second day. During the second day, the second pyroclastic cloud collapsed on top of Pompeii, but at this time, not a soul remained alive in Herculaneum. Subsequent volcanic clouds and pyroclastic surges (not lava) buried the towns until excavations started in the 18th century – barring some grave robbers, apparently.

About one fourth of Herculaneum has been unburied, even if it was the first city to be discovered. There is a bit of a paradox here – although it is in better condition and it suffered less structural damage, it is worse preserved. It still holds a lot of mosaics in situ, despite many frescoes taken to the Archaeological Museum. Unfortunately, its current condition has deteriorated terribly.

Herculaneum is less famous than Pompeii. A much smaller area can be visited, and the unexcavated part is underneath the modern cities of Ercolano and Portici. There are many buildings closed and a lot of scaffolding is needed due to a period or abandonment at the end of the 1990s. One of the telltales that it expects fewer tourists is that the webpage is only in Italian.

I reached the station Ercolano Scavi around 8:45, and ten minutes later I was at the entrance of Parco Archeologico di Ercolano. The park was already open and there was a line to buy tickets, and people struggling with their phone passes. I had printed mine out, so it was stupidly easy to wave it, get it scanned, and go through. Most people who went in before me decided to stay at the museums because that is the first thing you reach, but I reasoned that the earliest I went into the archaeological area, the less time I’d be under the sun when it became scorching. Again, this helped to be alone in a couple of houses.

Herculaneum general view

Restoration is a race against time in Herculaneum and as you walk you can see the scaffoldings and workers going on their daily lives – archaeologists, restorers, gardeners. Here, the effect of the volcanic activity are seen extremely clearly, on the floors and the walls – bulging mosaics and cracked frescoes and tiles. There is no doubt, however, that the damage was less. There are columns that still stand, covered in their original paint, and the bathhouses could just be used today with some refurbishing – and of course running water.

Another phenomenon that happened in Herculaneum was that a lot of wood became instantly charcoal when the pyroclastic surge collapsed onto the town. That means that some of the beams that are still in the buildings are the original ones, which is unbelievable. There are even surviving stairs and furniture. I wandered the streets for a few hours, going into anything that was open and in general feeling in awe at the mosaics and the frescoes. I was also astonished as how people felt comfortable poking the slabs and the paint – as there were fewer caretakers than in Pompeii.

Some highlights included:

– Terme Maschili or Male Baths, where you can see the wavy mosaic on the floors.
Herculaneum mosaic - Merfolk

– The mosaics in Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite or House of Neptune and Amphitrite.
Mosaic covering a foutnain in Herculaneum

– Casa del Rilievo di Telefo or House of the Relief of Telephus, one of the best preserved structures with a lot of paintings, even on the columns.
Herculaneum: House of the Relief of Telephus

– Terrazza, statua e altare di Marco Nonio Balbo or Terrace, statue and altar of Marcus Nonius Balbus.
Terrace, statue and altar of Marcus Nonius Balbus

It was noon when I decided to retreat towards the museums, which hold only small trinkets and some jewellery. Just as I was thinking that the Herculaneum inhabitants could rest in peace instead of being on display, I reached the Boat Pavilion Padiglione della Barca, which holds a carbonised boat where some of the residents tried to escape. There are panels which explain that they are planning to make copies of the three hundred something skeletons they found at the coastline and place them in the same spot they were found. So much for resting in peace.

I went back towards the station and took a train back to Napoli, where I transferred to the underground and headed off to the National Archaeological Museum – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN). I had read online that the ticket was valid for two days, so the plan was to grab a leisure lunch there, wander around for a while in the air-conditioned areas of the museum, then come back the following day. Unfortunately, the ticket read that it was only valid for one admission that day. I had to reconsider my plan then. It was barely 13:30, so I decided to go right into it. Also… there was no air-con.

The roots of the MANN are the so-called Collezione Farnese, or Farnese Collection, one of the first collections of the Greco-Roman Antiquity. The original collector was Pope Paul III when he was still Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1568 – 1549). In the 18th century, the marbles were inherited by Elizabeth Farnese. Her son Charles would become King of Naples, Sicily and Spain, and was the great sponsor of the excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii. The mosaics and frescoes taken from these two cities are the second core conforming the museum.

The Farnese Marbles are fantastic. It’s been a while since a work of art took my breath away, but some of these did. The collection preserved a lot of Roman copies of Greek original sculptures, and although a lot of them were restored during the Renaissance, I enjoyed the gallery a lot. Some favourites were the Resting Hercules, Atlas, Apollo playing the lire, and of course the Farnese Bull.

Farnese Marbles: Farnese Hercules, Farnese Bull, Farnese Apollo, and Eros with a fish

The Hercules sculpture shows the hero leaning on his club after having finished the last of his tasks – the apples of the Hesperides garden, which he holds behind his back. Atlas kneels, holding the world. The Farnese Bull is the biggest surviving sculptural group from antiquity – the twin brothers who founded Thebes, Zethus and Amphion, tie their stepmother Dirce to the horns of a wild bull as revenge for how she tormented their mother. The original is attributed to Appollonius of Tralles. Apollo playing the lire is sculpted in two marbles, one darker for the tunic and a white one for skin and the lire – and one of the few sculptures I can share on social media as he is totally clothed…

After the Farnese marbles, I explored the rest of the classical sculptures. Then I moved onto the second floor to the collection of mosaics from Pompeii and Herculaneum. When I was little I saw a mosaic of fish in my history book, and I had always wanted to see it. I finally did, along with one that implies “beware of the dog”. I did not get to see the Alexander the Great mosaic because it was being restored (though I did see the in-situ reproduction in the Casa del Fauno / House of the Faun). There was even a whole fountain with columns that were almost completely covered in mosaics.

Mosaics from Pompeii and Herculaneum

At the end of this area stands the “Secret Cabinet”, which holds the images and sculptures from Pompeii and Herculaneum that were over the centuries considered “too pornographic to be seen” – including penis amulets and a sculpture of “Pan making love to a goat”.

I continued on to the second floor, to “Archaeological Naples”. In this area there also were sculptures, a lot of bronzes too – including a beautiful Athena and a Drunk Faun. The central hall of this floor held an exhibit about Alexander the Great and his influence in the Mediterranean. It hosted the Farnese Atlas and the Artemis of Ephesus. Afterwards, I went to the Protohistory and Prehistory area – which did not hold many attention-grabbing artefacts, especially consider how spectacular everything else was.

Sculptures in the Napoli Archaeological Museum

By this time, I needed a break. It was a bit later than 15:00 so the café was practicable. I got myself a lemon sorbet and… fried pasta pasta frittata, a typical street food bite. Which is basically a croquette made out of pasta. It was surprisingly good, actually.

Pasta fritatta

I went back upstairs – I was tired by now, and if I had had the chance to do the museum in two days, I would have left now. But I did not, so I continued towards the exhibitions of “everyday life” and frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum. These include dishware, glassware, decoration, mirrors, jewellery… and of course the frescoes, including the Portrait of Terentius Neo and his Wife, that were taken down from the walls of the houses during the 18th century in order to preserve them. They feel weird as they hang on the blank walls – framed, far away from the place they used to be. I know it can’t be, but it would be cool to see them all on site. While I could really imagine how some of the houses would have looked 2,000 years ago when I was in Pompeii, I could not imagine the perfectly-framed frescoes on the walls. It was a bit unsettling.

Pompeii and Herculaneum frescoes

I bought the extra ticket to see the Magna Graecia Collection. At first I was not convinced because after a while all the Greek pottery starts looking the same to me. You get to wear shoe coverings in order to walk in there, at first I thought it was not to upset the marble floors, but then I walked onto the mosaics and wow. Just wow. I mean… after a bit you don’t even realise that you’re supposed to be looking at pottery and just keep staring at the floors…

Magna Graecia Mosaic

I ended the visit with the Egyptian collection, where – on top of it being the only area of the museum with air conditioning – I saw one of the crocodile mummies that I might have seen at Kom Ombo.Finally, after basically snooping round the whole museum including the gardens, I headed back to the station area to buy some food and go get some rest in the hotel.

For the sake of completion, here is a relation of all the spots I visited in Parco Archeologico di Ercolano or Archaeological Park of Herculaneum:
Boathouse and shoreline
Access bridge
Casa dello Scheletro or House of the Skeleton
Casa dei Galba or House of Galba
Terme Maschili or Male Baths
Casa dei Due Atri or House of the two atriums
Sede degli Augustali or Hall of the Augustales
Casa dei Salone Nero or House of the black salon
Bottega del Plumbarius or Shop of a plumbarius (metal worker, welder or blacksmith)
Casa del Bel Cortile or House of the Beautiful Courtyard
Casa di Nettuno e Anfitrite or House of Neptune and Amphitrite
Terme Femminili or Female Baths
Casa Sannitica or Samnite House
Casa del Tramezzo di Legno or House of the Wooden Screen
Casa del Papiro Dipinto or House with the painted papyrus roll
Casa dell’Alcova or House of the Alcove
Casa dell’Erma di Bronzo or House of the Bronze Herm
Casa dell’Ara Laterizia or House of the Brick Altar
Casa dell’Atrio a Mosaico or House of Mosaic atrium
Casa dell’Albergo or House of the Inn
Casa del Telaio or House of the Tailor
Casa del Mobilio Carbonizato or House of the Wooden Furniture
Casa dell’Apollo Citaredo or House of Apollo the Lyre-player
Casa del Bicentenario or House of the Bicentenary
Pistrinum di Sextus Patulcius Felix or Bakery of Sextus Patulcius Felix
Taberna di Priapo or Bar of Priapus
Casa della Stoffa or House of the Cloth
Casa dei Cervi or House of the Deer
Palaestra
Casa del Rilievo di Telefo or House of the Relief of Telephus
Terrazza, statua e altare di Marco Nonio Balbo or Terrace, statue and altar of Marcus Nonius Balbus
Terme Suburbane or Suburban baths
Area Sacra or Holy Area
Sacello di Venere or Shrine of Venus
Grande Taberna or Large bar
Casa del Gran Portale or House of Large Portal
Thermopolium (food shop)
Casa di Aristide or House of Aristides
Antiquarium (museum)
Padiglione della Barca or Boat Pavillion

18th July 2023: Naples from below and above {Southern Italy, July 2023}

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Naples [Napoli] was waking up when I walked out into the heat. It was a bit after 8:00 because I was… not really planning, just expecting to get lost. My hotel was right next to the Porta Capuana and Castel Capuano, remains of the Medieval times and ancient walls. There is where I took my first wrong turn – the nice receptionist at the hotel had tried to explain to me how to get there, and I tried to follow his instructions – which meant I did not follow my original route and I got disoriented. Fortunately, phone GPS came to my aid and I eventually made my way to the Historic Centre of Naples Centro storico di Napoli. While on principle I understand the protection of a Unesco Heritage Site, it did not feel like one, mostly due to the smell – a mixture of human urine, cooked flour and raw fish – and the crazy traffic. I don’t think “pedestrian” means the same thing in Italian as in any language I speak.

I was around the area I wanted to be about 9:30 for my 10:00 visit, and I took the time to wander up and down Via del Tribunali. Off to one side stands the metal sculpture Busto de Pulcinella – a character of the early theatre school called Commedia dell’arte, where different characters wear masks to be identified as an archetype. Pulcinella is an opportunistic anti-hero from the lowest social strata recognised by the black mask. Italians like rubbing body parts of different statues for luck, that’s why his nose is polished off.

Napoli Storico - the centre of Naples

I had a booked guided tour at 10:00 for a place called Napoli Sotterranea – Underground Naples. It is just one of the companies that give tours through the hundred of kilometres of tunnels that cross the Historic Centre. The city of Naples was built on and out of tuff, a volcanic rock made out of compacted ash, with a yellowish colour in this area. Tuff is easy to dig and excavate, and the Greeks used it to build an aqueduct to serve the city – that later the Romans expanded – 40 metres under the ground. When I arrived at the gate, there was a crowd – and even if I had a “skip the line” reservation, my English tour did not start till 10:20. The whole thing was a bit chaotic, and I later realised that as convenient as online pre-booking is, it is not covered by the Naples Tourist Card, so a lot of people had no option but to call at the attractions to get their discounted tickets – I decided not to get the card because I had booked or planned to book most things in advance so it was not value for money for me.

Napoli Sotterranea starts off going down over 150 steps into the excavated tuff to visit the aqueduct. There are a number of galleries where the water used to run, and at some points you can even glimpse the original paint to help prevent the water filtering into the rock. Then the guide explains that during the WWII bombings, the tunnels were used as air raid shelters and you are shown the “showers” and “latrines”, followed by a morbid recall of the stench and the conditions, and some art exhibits and objects from the time. It was at this point I started thinking that the Neapolitans had a thing for the macabre.

Fortunately, we moved over soon, to a tiny garden that is not watered nor lit by sun, and yet it thrives in the tunnels due to humidity and artificial lamps. Then we went further into the earth – you have to walk along a very narrow tunnel, sometimes only practicable sideways. They used to give you a candle for it, but now they tell you to use your phone torch. It was a bit claustrophobic, but at least you did not need to crouch like in the pyramids. At the end of the tunnels there are several underwater ponds and fountains.

Napoli Sotterranea: tunnels and underground water reservoir

As you come out from the tunnels, there is a small “museum of war” with some uniforms and so on, and then they take you to see “the Roman Theatre”. Here’s the thing – the theatre is kind of there. Throughout the centuries, it has been incorporated into the rest of the architecture of the city, so only bits and pieces are visible, mostly those that remain underground, like the actors’ tunnels, and a hall which holds a collection of Neapolitan nativity scenes or presepe.

After the guide set us loose, I walked towards the Montesanto funicolare cable car station. Naples’ rope way is a tourist attraction in its on right, some people say. I’m not a fan, but I really did not want to climb up Vomero Hill Collina del Vomero in the sun and heat. The ride did not take longer than a few minutes, and after a short stroll I reached one of the city’s castles – Castel Sant’Elmo.

This fortress and former prison dates from the late 13th century. It was built in volcanic tuff, and the structure was mostly developed throughout the 14th century, though it was severely damaged in an earthquake in 1456. Construction continued, and then in 1587 lightning struck the ammunition depot and the explosion destroyed several parts of the castle, including the church. Throughout Naples’ convoluted history, Castel Sant’Elmo has been a stronghold for war, and a prison. Today, it’s a monument, a museum, and a viewpoint of the port and Mount Vesuvius Il Vesuvio in the distance.

Naples Castel San Telmo

Next to the the castle stands the monastery-museum Certosa e Museo di San Martino. It originally was a Carthusian monastery inaugurated in 1368 and dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. The monks were expelled by French soldiers in 1799, and they were never allowed back. In 1866, it was taken over by the state. The monastery has a Baroque church – Naples is after all the birthplace of the style, but in a different way from the Spanish one, so I don’t dislike it as much. The monastery also has two cloisters – one of which with a cemetery in the middle. There are also hanging gardens and orchards and the different rooms of the building host religious artefacts, items from the Bourbon times, and one of the best presepe in the world.

Naples Monastery of San Martino, showing the church, the cloisters, and the entrance to the hanging gardens

Then I went back downhill, again using the funiculare. My next spot was Naples Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, known as Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, Cattedrale di San Gennaro in honour of Saint Januarius, the patron saint of Naples. However, the most common name it receives is simple Duomo di Napoli. The current building was built in the Angevin Gothic style (gotico angioino) back in the 13th century, over palaeo-Christian buildings. The interior is strongly Baroque, though there are still some 14th century frescoes.

Collage. Duomo the Napoli: façade and main nave

For reference, Italian churches claim that walking into them showing shoulders or knees is disrespectful – so they encourage visitors to show “decorum and modesty” because “it demonstrates respect in the house of god”. I think their obsession with joints is exaggerated (especially considering the heat), and there was a certain event that highlighted the hypocrisy of it all. I visited the palaeo-Christian baptistery, one of the parts of the cathedral that you need to pay in order to access – and all tickets in Italy have been increased 1 € as part of the recovery plan of the area of Emilia Romagna, affected by heavy floods in May 2023.

The Baptistery of San Giovanni Battistero di San Giovanni in Fonte is a basic round pool on the ground, but the mosaic above it is super-detailed. It dates back from probably the late 4th century. The centre has the Chi-Rho symbol, and it is surrounded by scenes from the Bible, animals and plants, and allegories. Well, while I was admiring the art, the guy from the ticket booth came over, pulled his zipper down and urinated into the remains of the original wall. Talk about Catholics and respect in the house of God…

Next I went to the side chapel Reale cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro (Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius) and the Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro (Museum of the Treasure of St. Januarius). San Gennaro / Saint Januarius is the patron saint of Naples. He was a Catholic martyr in the 3rd century, who died during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian. After his beheading, his blood was saved and it is said that the blood liquefies three times a year. The chapel holds a reliquary, and the museum some religious artefacts, including the “treasure” – reliquaries, jewels and other religious paraphernalia in noble metals and gems.

Collage: Baptistery of San Giovanni and Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius

After the cathedral, I found Via San Gregorio Armeno, an alley that is famous because it concentrates the sells of handmade figurines for the nativity scenes presepe. However, as I walked I could only find cheaply-made expensively-sold figures of politicians, footballers and so on. I have to say that I know or understand nothing about football, but apparently Naples’ city team has won the national championship, and that’s a big thing? Everything was full of football references, posters, banners… and the alleyway was not an exception. It felt a bit… disappointing as I had heard so much about it, and I saw very few things that were “classical” there – I would come back another day and found the real thing though.

I made a visit to a local supermarket to find something to drink, dinner, breakfast and snacking the following day – because I had packed some, but I had forgotten that I had. Italian people don’t believe in either sandwiches or refrigerated coffee, which was a bit of a bummer. They have a lot of stands to grab something on the go, and they are keen on cafés, but I really did not feel comfortable sitting around in the city.

I went back to the hotel with my “groceries” because I did not want to be walking around after sunset, and I spent the rest of the evening watching British Museum’s documentaries about Pompeii and Ercolano to get ready for the following day. One of the things that drew my attention was how the documentaries kept emphasising the “importance” of the archaeological sites, and that it was important to respect them. I did not understand why, as I felt that is quite obvious. I would later discover… yes, people need to understand their importance.

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

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

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

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

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

Puerta de Alcalá under the protective cover

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

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

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

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

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

Scaffolding supporting the Puerta de Alcalá

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

Sculptures at the top of Puerta de Alcalá

Views from the top of Puerta de Alcalá

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

31st May 2023: Birthday in Madrid (Spain)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Felicidades dessert

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

Royal Palace and Chapel

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

The program included:

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

Al Ayre Español bowing to the audience after the recital

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

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

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

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

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

Baroque Palace of La Granja peering behind a few large trees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Workers at the Glass factory: making and engraving a glass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apocalyptica white and black poster, signed by the four members

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

Wheel Setlist

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

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

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

Epica Setlist

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

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

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

Apocalyptica Setlist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A slice of chocolate cake in front of mugs and teapots

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

13th March 2022: The outskirts of Madrid (Spain)

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I’m usually rather enthusiastic when I visit new places, but if there is a place that I’ve found kind of over-hyped, that has been the park Parque del Capricho, in Madrid. “Capricho”, which means whim or folly – in its architectural meaning of an often extravagant picturesque building erected to suit a fanciful taste, or building erected for decoration, typical of the French and English decorative gardens from the 18th century. The park is located in Madrid, and the only romantic garden that remains in Madrid. It was promoted by the 12th Duchess of Osuna between 1787 and 1839, and became a recreational area for the nobility of the time. Some of the most important gardeners and landscapers of the time worked on its design. It was declared Historical Garden in 1934 and restored in 1999.

So it is a garden, with some plants, some flowers, and a bunch of weird-looking decorative items, that takes itself a bit too seriously. It won’t accept pets and you can’t bring any food inside (it has some cage-looking “lockers” were you can leave your stuff). There is a strict capacity control which does nothing for it not to feel ridiculously crowded on a regular nice-weather Sunday. Maybe it improves in spring / summer, and with fewer people, but I had some stuff to do in the area and that is why I made time to visit today.

It had been raining all week, so I had mostly scrapped my plans. It was a great sunny day though so in the end I decided to get there. Parking the car was ridiculously easy – though the parking spot was maxed out, I found a very easy one in the avenue next to the park – good, it was close as I would not put my sandwich in the crappy-looking lockers and preferred taking it back to the car. Then I walked in, and explored for a couple of hours – and don’t tell anyone, but I ate a piece of candy, just to be rebellious (≧▽≦) (and to make sure I did not sugar crash without any food around, but that does not really make for a good story).

While I of course did not expect everything to be blooming and colourful and green… I hoped that it would have at least maintained through winter. No such luck. A bunch of areas were fenced off, the footpaths were swamped with puddles, and the water in the ponds was not as clean as it should have been. Exploring the 14 hectares took me about an hour and a half, considering that I did go into all the little paths, but all the buildings were closed and / or under constructions. There is a Civil War bunker in the park too, but that is only open through pre-booked guided visit and I did not know I was going to do this 30 minutes before I jumped on the car. The few flowers that had already bloomed included the garden pansies (Viola × wittrockiana, which are after all winter flowers), and the yellow and white daffodils (narcissus, maybe the subspecies jonquil Narcissus jonquilla). There were a couple of black swans (Cygnus atratus) at the main pond, and mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) on every second water body, including fountains.

Pond in the park. There are some flowers and buildings around it, and a black swan sunbathing.

Collage of different park decoration: a bush labyrinth, a fountain, and some decoration reminding of Greek temples.

Afterwards, I took a small detour to see if any of the Japanese cherry trees in the park opposite the street Parque Juan Carlos I had started blossoming. The answer was not at all. But the point was heading to the restored castle Castillo de la Alameda. The castle dates back to the 15th century, though there are older remains underneath, and it is thought that its presence is the one that got all the aristocrats to flock to the area, as it switched from defensive castle to palace.

The remains of the castle feature an irregular moat with lobe-like structures in the corners, and the restored keep, which stands up to the first floor, though it must have been much higher. An interesting characteristic of the castle is that it was built using a kind of mortar made from flint. I have to say it was a nice surprise, free to visit.

A clover-shaped castle ruins, all white. There is not much of the castle left, but the moat is almost intact, though empty

To the side of the castle there is a casemate – a fortified machine gun emplacement from the Spanish Civil War, called Nido de Ametralladoras (Machine gun nest), a semi buried cement block for snipers of sorts to defend the position.

Concrete block that was used as a machine-gun base

Then I moved onto Mejorada del Campo a little town near Madrid that only has one tourist attraction – a… handmade cathedral. Of sorts – Catedral de Justo Gallego .

Justo Gallego was born in 1925. Deeply Catholic, he became a young monk-in-training but had to leave the monastery when he contracted tuberculosis. He made a vow to erect a cathedral to the Virgin Mary in her “Lady of the Pillar” avocation, and he sort of did. Throughout the next 60 years he worked on building the cathedral, using recycled material, and on his own. His work came to fame when a soft-drink company made him the star of an advertising campaign, which made him and his work famous.

The cathedral has 12 towers, a crypt, two cloisters, a baptistery, and the main nave is 20×50 metres, with a 35 metres high dome. Most of it was done by hand, using discarded items such as tubes and bicycle wheels. It is garish and childish in its decoration, but I found it to have some strange allure. The cathedral has drawn the attention of international artists and institutions, and apparently Gallego built it without any blueprints or knowledge of construction. Upon his death, an architectural studio started working on “legalising” the cathedral (from an urbanistic point of view; it is not an official Christian building) and is it is now under management from an NGO. It was just a bizarre thing to see, but interesting since I was in the area (sort of. Construction made the route stupidly long), glad I’ve visited it at least once. I did catch a European white stork (Ciconia ciconia ciconia) coming home to one of the towers.

Cathedral made out of recycled items: pipes, plastic bottles, irons... there is a dome and a nave, in bizarre colours.

A stork approaches one of the towers of the cathedral

I drove off afterwards, and I have to say the weather that day was amazing – just in-between two piss-poor ones, so yay spring escapade.

Walking distance: 11.18 km (16916 steps)

22nd & 23rd October 2021: Zaragoza Getaway (Spain)

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We had a silly day-and-a-half and it turned out that for some reason a commuting train to Madrid took about as long as a high-speed train to Zaragoza, a town in the area of Aragón that we scratched off our summer route because there are lots of curves in the Pyrenees and time was limited.

22nd October 2021: Churches, Museums and a Palace

The train to Zaragoza arrives at the Delicias station, which is a bit away from the centre of the town, so we took a taxi to the hotel. This was around 9 am so we were of course not expecting any room, what with check-in being 2 pm – we just wanted to drop off the overnight bag. Not being able to give us a room seemed to upset the receptionist quite worried, and he promised to call as soon as a room was available. Honestly, I just set my phone to flight mode because we were starting to visit monuments right away, as the hotel was just by the most important square in town Plaza del Pilar.

Zaragoza is home to one of the most important Christian icons in Spain, the Virgin Mary of the Pillar, Virgen del Pilar. The image is hosted in Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. The bulk of the current cathedral-basilica was built between 1681 and 1686 in the Baroque style, but was later modified quite a few times and it was finalised in 1872. Interesting items in the church include, aside from the virgin image, some frescoes painted by Goya, the main altarpiece, and two bombs that fell within the church during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Zaragoza is very anti pictures inside so I had to sneak them in. Sorry, not sorry.

A collage showing the Baroque Basilica, including unexploded bombs, and two of the altars

Virgin of the Pillar, wearing a mantle

After a small detour to say good morning to the river, Río Ebro, and the Puente de Piedra (stone river), the second building we visited was the Old Market Exchange building – Lonja de Zaragoza. This was the first Renaissance building erected in Zaragoza, dedicated to commerce, with an amazing Gothic-imitation ceiling. Today it is used for exhibits, such as paintings or sculptures.

Coming out, we almost walked into one of the fountains in the square, Monumento a Francisco de Goya, featuring the artist – a brilliant Spanish painter from the Romantic times. He was as brilliant as bad-tempered though. Behind the fountain stands the cathedral, for which we had tickets for 11 am, and it was still early for that.

Thus, we started the route of the Caesaraugusta Museums. Zaragoza was founded in Roman times under this name (where an Iberian dwelling used to be) and in the latest decades, this Roman past has started being dug up. We first visit the museum focused on the original forum, Museo del Foro de Caesaraugusta where we could see the foundations of the old city and walk into the sewers (yeah, it’s cooler than it sounds). The Roman ruins date back from emperors Augustus and his successor Tiberius’ reigns.

After that it was almost time for our reservation to visit the Catedral del Salvador also known as La Seo de Zaragoza, the other cathedral of the town, literally at the end of the same square as the other one. The cathedral mixes several architectonic styles: Romanesque, Gothic and Mudéjar, these last tow being among my favourite styles, so a total win – Renaissance and Baroque elements were added, including the towers. The cathedral has a tapestry museum with a lot of works, not exactly “pretty” but rather impressive.

Following the cathedral we walked towards the rest of the Roman museums, but we made a small detour to look at the Mudéjar tower of the church of Mary Magdalene, Iglesia de Santa Magdalena.

Then we reached the museum of the Bathhouse, which was open but closed – let me explain. They run an “Audiovisual” and close the museum door for as long as it runs. It runs every half hour so finding the thing open seems to be hard. Thus, we moved onto the next archaeological site, related to the old Roman Theatre Museo del Teatro de Caesaraugusta. The theatre was apparently discovered by accident in the early 1970s, and it is apparently one of the biggest Roman theatres in Spain.

We tried our luck with the Bathhouse Museum again Museo de las Termas Públicas de Caesaraugusta. Unfortunately, just like before, we walked up to it while the audiovisual was running, and the concierge made a very studious effort not to see us – so we just peered over the glass roof to see what is left of the main bath.

More impressive was the river port museum Museo del Puerto Fluvial de Caesaraugusta, which keeps the foundations and some of the clay amphorae that were used for import / export.

And believe it or not, we did all that before lunch!! Therefore, we decided it was the right time for a break. We headed back to the hotel to see if we could wash our hands (and take off our facemasks for a while). To our surprise, the hotel had given us an upgrade to a junior suite, so we had a sitting room, a full bathroom and a bedroom – and a balcony that went all along the three. When I opened the window I could hear people playing the piano on the street, as there was some kind of festival going round. Believe it or not… I got to listen to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Rufus Wainwright’s Hallelujah.

We had lunch outside in a place that my companion enjoyed called La Lobera de Martín – not a cheap place, honestly! However, we splurged a little. We shared a smoked fish salad and I had a side of fresh Foie. As a main, ordered steak tartare, which to my surprise, was prepared for me next to the table! For dessert I tried the home-made berry yoghurt. I have to admit that I was totally planning on having a tiny dinner (or completely skip it!) at that time.

After lunch we walked along one of the main arteries of the town, Paseo de la Independencia, to find the Basílica Menor Parroquia de Santa Engracia, to at least see the outside, since we could not fit visiting the interior and the crypt with our tight schedule. One of the most interesting things about this church is how its façade is built like an altarpiece.

Next to the church stands the neo-Mudéjar post office, built in typical bricks from the area – Oficina de Correos de Zaragoza.

And finally, we looked at the current Science Museum, Museo de Ciencias Naturales, the former Medicine University. Why? Because that’s where my parents met *cue romantic music*!

We did not go in though, because we needed a break and had booked a ticket for 5pm somewhere else, so we decided to raise our feet a little for a while in the hotel room – the sitting area was nice though unfortunately there was no more sun on the balcony, else I would have totally impersonated a lizard there (I did scare a pigeon away though, even if the startle was mutual). Our next target was the Medieval palace called Palacio de la Aljafería – a fortress that combines Islamic architecture and ulterior Christian elements. The Moorish palace was built around 1065 – 1081, and it holds a magnificent garden called the Golden Hall with a portico made out of interlocking mixtilinear arches (I totally looked the word up, and will forget it promptly). The palace was taken over by the Christians 1118 and became a palace for the monarchs of Aragón. It was not modified until the 14th century, and in the 15th Century the Catholic Monarchs extended it further into the Mudéjar Palace. Today it is the meeting site for the local government. I adored it, to be honest, I loved the Golden Hall most of all, but the original ceilings in the Christian palace were also really cool.

We walked back towards the Plaza del Pilar (probably through some streets we probably shouldn’t have, hindsight is 20/20 they say), and we reached the church of St. Paul Iglesia Parroquial de San Pablo. The restored interior leaves a bit to be desired, but the exterior, built between the 13th and 14th centuries in the Mudéjar style – it has an octagonal tower in dark tones, with the upper roof added in the 17th century with richly decorated with tiles and windows. It is worth mentioning here that several Mudéjar buildings in Zaragoza, along with others of singular architecture, are declared Unesco World Heritage Site.

Between the church and the square we walked by the central marketplace Mercado Central de Zaragoza in the late 19th and early 20th century, in a combination of stone and iron-and-glass architecture.

Close to it we could see some of the ruins of the original Roman walls Antiguas Murallas de Romanas de Zaragoza, which are actually sprinkled all through the town and mixed with the Medieval ones at points. There, a lady was happily chatting on the phone while her child climbed the walls – so in case it is not evident, here’s a social clue: if there is any kind of barrier / signage around something, it should not be climbed on.

To finish off the day we visited the Museum dedicated to Goya Museo Goya. Goya, whose complete name was Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828) was a painter and printmaker from the Romantic age. He is probably one of the most important artists in Spanish history. He was a royal portraitist, fresco decorator, and also painted and printed many critical and fantasy works. To be honest, the museum was a bit underwhelming – with few of the minor works, and one of the least impressive major works, the Christ portrait. There was however a whole room full of prints.

After one more visit to the square, where I managed my only complete picture of the whole (night-lit) Basílica del Pilar from that angle, we just headed to the hotel. There was a sandwich shop at the entrance, so we took one each and had a late light dinner as we watched Night at the Museum in the hotel bathrobes – because it was cozier than turning up the heating. I did not sleep too well as the fire alarm was right on top of the bed and it kept flashing – at one point I thought that an electric storm had hit, but it was just the alarm…

23rd October 2021: Papercraft and walks

The next morning we had breakfast and headed off to the origami museum and workshop EMOZ: Escuela Museo Origami Zaragoza, located in the “Stories Museum” Centro de Historias. I remembered the exhibition from a few years back in Museo Cerralbo in Madrid, with an actual-size hippo, so I have to admit this time I was a little… underwhelmed, probably because the temporary exhibit ended up being “abstract” paper folding…

However, in the very same building there was a very fun exhibition about the evolution of household appliances throughout the 20th century. That was cute!

As we got ready to draw a close to our day-and-a-half getaway we went to say goodbye to the river Río Ebro. We walked by the modern Puente de Zaragoza bridge, and crossed over the Puente de Piedra, the traditional stone river of the town. The current one dates back (although reconstructed) from 1440, but there are records that a previous Roman one stood in its place and was destroyed in the 9th Century. Between the two bridges a flock of cormorant seemed to be sunbathing.

From Puente de Piedra I took my last picture of the Basílica del Pilar before we had a nice milkshake, then headed back to the station to take our train back. By the way – I find it ridiculous that the stations have blocked 60% of the seats while they’re filling up the platforms and the trains as normal…

Total walked distance: 8.69 km

8th September 2021: Impromptu Madrid Run! (Spain)

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This was oh my god so unplanned that I kept improvising throughout the whole day! It all started because a Spanish publisher decided to translate a non-fiction book I’ve loved for ages – Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. The publisher flew the author in for interviews, and I guess I was disappointed that no signing event was organised. I asked the author once and the publisher another time, then shrugged it off when I got no answer. There were some interviews scheduled for him, and a book fair coming up. I guessed it was just not meant to be, but I did feel disappointed.

And then, on the 7th, Mr Adelstein shot me a message that he would sign my book if I could go to Madrid and meet him at one of his breaks. As you can imagine I just… said yes (I could not meet him that very same evening because of travel times, but I could make it on the 8th. And there I went).

It was the first time taking the train since the whole pandemic thing (hell, I had not even been on a train since Paris 2020), and a weekday so I chose the times carefully to hopefully get close to as few people as possible – it worked, as both rides nobody sat next to me.

I arrived in Madrid and transferred easily, then got out at a new station in the area of Gran Vía. The Tokyo Vice book came out that day, so I wanted to go to a big book store that would hopefully have it already. My first stop, FNAC, failed miserably, so I went to La Casa del Libro, where they told me I would find the book in a completely different section where I actually did. But at least I had it in my hands, even if I had apparently not used my credit card for so long, I got the right PIN for the wrong card (≧▽≦).

After I had the book in Spanish – I’ve owned a first edition copy in English since 2010 – I had thought that I should get a small detail for the author as he was making time for me. As he had to continue on his travelling, I decided to do something small and “consumable”, so I came up with buying some typical Madrid candy – violet sweets from La Violeta. I’d never been inside the shop, but it’s an adorable little place dating back to 1915.

It was still early for my appointment at 14:00, so I decided to head towards a square that hosts an Egyptian temple of all things. On the way I made a stop at a Starbucks for a Vanilla Frappucino, I figured out that the amount of calories would get me going and I would not have to eat until I was back – looking back it was a weird thing, but it made sense in my head at the time. I strolled around the park next to the palace Palacio Real.

The way to the temple was completely blocked off due to construction, so I decided to backtrack. I walked up the great avenue in the middle of the city Gran Vía. As I walked around, minding my business and listening to music, I kept remembering a comic by Sarah Sanders, in which she makes fun of how people won’t leave you alone when you’re wearing headphones and, well, minding your own business.

I reached the square with the fountain to the goddess Cybele Fuente de la Cibeles and the related Palace Palacio de Comunicaciones (by Antonio Palacios). The fountain dates back to the 18th century, when king Carlos III revamped a lot of Madrid trying to make it more beautiful and similar to other European capitals.

Carlos III is also responsible for the design of the modern version of one of the former wall gates, called the gate to Alcalá, the nearby town, Puerta de Alcalá. This area was declared Unesco World Heritage Site in summer 2021 as Paisaje de la Luz, so Madrid was in a celebratory mood.

I headed into the park Parque del Retiro, which is also included in the Heritage declaration. The park was initially built in the first half of the 17th century, as part of the royal recreational areas. Carlos III opened it up as public park a hundred years later. Aside from the obvious green areas, the park features fountains, palaces and sculptures. I walked past some of them. First I came across the fountain “of the turtles” Fuente de los Galápagos.

There is also a large pond, aptly called the big pond Estanque Grande del Retiro populated by carps, to whose side stands the monument to Alfonso XII – Monumento a Alfonso XII.

Nearby the pond stands the fountain called the artichoke fountain, Fuente de la alcachofa.

I walked to the fountain that depicts the fall of Lucifer from Heaven, Fuente del Ángel Caído. The fountain itself was built in order to exhibit the sculpture by Ricardo Bellve, who originally created it in plaster. The figure would then be cast in iron for the World Exhibit of 1878 in Paris, and eventually placed in the Retiro.

I strolled back towards one of my favourite points in the park, but that’s because I like iron-and-glass architecture – a little building called Palacio de Cristal, which has a small pond around.

Finally I headed over the little café where I had arranged to meet with Mr Adelstein. He arrived shortly after. He signed my book, but truth be told, I had also brought my first-edition copy, which happens to be full of post-its from the first time I read it. He was happy to sign that one too, and to my eternal mortification… he went over all the notes. I almost died right then and there. We chatted for a little, I gave him the violet candy and he had some umeboshi sweets for me too. I babbled that I was very happy that he had made some time for me, and he told me “but you were so polite on twitter and the publisher said no signatures!” and I kind of died again.

In the end, our meeting was only 15 minutes, but I have not felt so happy in a very long time – that he specifically took time felt amazing. We took pictures and even had a safe mask-hug. Afterwards I headed towards the nearest train station so I could be on my way before the afternoon rush came through, so that was it for the day.

Walking distance: 12.39 km

7th – 10th February 2020: Paris (France) for DIR EN GREY & BABYMETAL

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I organised a weekend in Paris because two concerts conveniently aligned on Saturday and Sunday, and I had Friday free, as well as Monday morning. It was a great mental break that I needed badly. ETA: There were rumours about a flu from China, and some of the airport workers were wearing masks. We had no idea what was about to hit us…

7th February 2020: Through the Strikes

I had found quite a convenient flight that left at 9:00 on Friday for 35 €, which was a great deal. At first, I did not understand why it was so cheap. It turned out, the plane came from South America and it was on a Madrid stopover – so it was pretty much full already. It was a huge aircraft with on-board entertainment. That came in handy when the pilot informed us that we were going to have to wait something between one and two hours to be able to take off due to the air controllers’ strikes in France. But at least we were flying and I had films to watch.

We took off at about 10:00 and our big plane made the jump in just one hour, as opposed to the 2h10 minutes of estimated travel, which meant we were almost on time! Of course, this did not sit well with the strikers, who had us wait first for the parking spot, and then for the stairs to deplane. I finally managed to leave the airport and get onto the train so I reached downtown Paris around 13:00. I wanted to inspect the damage caused to the cathedral Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris by the 2019 fire. My first impression, looking at the main façade and towers, was optimistic, but as I walked round the building, I could see the real damage and reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, it still reeked of burnt wood, probably because they were still pulling out debris. My optimism did not linger long, I’m afraid.

Collage of Notre Dame showing the cranes and scaffoldings in the repairs

As it was sunny, I decided to walk to the Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) and see its windows in good weather. The Sainte-Chapelle is a small two-level chapel inside the Justice Palace Palais de Justice de Paris in the Île de la Cité, smack in the middle of Paris and not far from Notre Dame – actually, both of them belong to the same Unesco World Heritage Site, Paris, Banks of the Seine. The chapel has a lower early Gothic level, and an upper level with impressive stained-glass windows which I love. As the sun was shining outside, the views were stunning.

Collage. Sainte-Chapelle: outside showing the spire, inside with some colourful windows and pointed arches

Collage of the upper floor of the Sainte-Chapelle. It shows different angles of the long gothic windows, covered in colourful glass

The weather was great – especially considering February in Paris, which is always more to the north than I mentally place it. Unfortunately, the forecast for the following day was quite miserable, and thus I decided to just walk along from the Île de la Cité towards the Arc de Triomphe (some 5 km away). On my way, I walked by the Louvre, Les Tulleries, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Alexander III Bridge, and into the Avenue des Champs-Élysées – the Banks of the Seine that the Unesco declared World Heritage.

Collage with different landmarks of Paris - the river, neoclassic palaces, Luxor obelisk, Champs-Élysées.

Finally I reached the Arc de Triomphe, which honours the fallen in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 1836, and you can actually climb it, which I might do some day. From there, I took a train towards Montmartre, where I had booked my hotel. I dropped off my luggage and walked up Square Louise Michel, a sort of urban park which leads up to the church Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (222 steps). There was a pretty carousel Carrousel de Saint-Pierre, and from the square, I could watch the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel against the sunset from the lookout Vue de Paris.

A view of the Sacre Coeur with a classical carousel in front of it

A profile of the Eiffel Tower in a blurry sunset in orange tones

I went back to the hotel for a while during twilight. On the way, I bought a snack in a nearby supermarket for dinner as I waited for the evening to get dark and the lights to come up. When it did, I took my last adventure for the day, and walked off to see the Moulin Rouge while I listened to KAMIJO’s song of the same name. It was a few minutes’ walk away from my hotel, and Moulin Rouge [ムーランルージュ] is one of my favourite songs of his. Since the man is obsessed with France, he has a few songs that fit my weekend. Truth be told, I did consider dinner and a show there, it is after all the most famous cabaret in the world. However, it was a bit expensive and I had read quite a few reviews about bad seats if you are alone. I did not want to waste money, and I did not know how tired I would be that evening in the end – and to be brutally honest,I really had not felt like packing fancy clothes for the evening.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, all lit up in bright red for the night

8th February 2020: Louvre and DIR EN GREY

The weather forecast was accurate, and despite the lovely weather on Friday, Saturday dawned stormy and dark. I decided to go to the Louvre Museum Musée du Louvre, even if I had been there before. It is after all one of the greatest museums in the world.

The Louvre holds so many pieces (over 600,000) that it would be impossible to describe them all, but for me, its core is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period, around the 2nd century BCE, and my favourite piece of art. The Louvre is a national art museum, which opened in the post-revolutionary France in 1793. It exhibits around 35,000 items – Egyptian antiquities, Sumer and Assyrian pieces, Greek, Etruscan and Roman items, Islamic art, neoclassical and Baroque sculptures, a collection of objets d’art (Decorative arts), paintings, prints, drawings… It is located in the former French Royal Palace of the same name.

A collage with several Louvre pieces of art - Winged Victory, sitting scribe, the three graces, Diane washing her hair, Hermaphroditus sleeping, Psyche and Eros kissing, Liberty guiding the people, Venus de Milo

I wandered there for a few hours and I might have lost my way in the galleries a few times. In the end, I managed to (re)visit all the artefacts and artworks that I wanted. Because there are hundreds of thousands of items, but I must always see the Sitting Scribe, the Borghese Hermaphroditus, Canovas’ Eros and Psyche, and the remains of the Gates of Istar. I had a bit of a headache, so I eventually went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for the DIR EN GREY concert and VIP experience in the Élysée Montmartre live house. DIR EN GREY or “Diru” is a Japanese heavy metal band known for its dark themes and scenography that I thought I needed to check at least once (the final verdict was that I don’t need to repeat the experience, but it made for a nice mental break). The band has remained stable since its formation in 1997, and it is composed by Kyo [京] (lead vocals), Kaoru [薫] (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Die (lead guitar, backing vocals), Shinya (drums) and Toshiya (bass, backing vocals).

A dark stage with a drum set. Letters projected on the screen behind the stage read Dir en Grey Tour 20 This Way to Self-Destruction

Setlist:

    1. 絶縁体 [Zetsuentai]
    2. 人間を被る [Ningen wo Kaburu]
    3. Rubbish Heap
    4. Devote My Life
    5. 軽蔑と始まり [Keibetsu to Hajimari]
    6. Celebrate Empty Howls
    7. 赫 [Aka]
    8. Merciless Cult
    9. Downfall
    10. Values of Madness
    11. 谿壑の欲 [Keigaku no Yoku]
    12. Ranunculus
    13. The World of Mercy
First encore:
    14. Followers
    15. THE DEEPER VILENESS
    16. 詩踏み [Utafumi]
Second encore:
    17. Sustain the untruth

Listing of all the concerts in the Dir en Grey 2020 tour

The concert was the final of DIRU’s 2020 European Tour TOUR20: This way to Self-Destruction. When I walked by the venue on Friday evening, around 18:00, there was a small number of people queueing already. I did not care enough to queue all day, and I had a VIP ticket with early entry, so I just headed to the line about 15:00. When the queues were separated and organised, around 16:30, I was VIP number 42. The weather was miserable, and I could have totally skipped the downpour while waiting, but I was lucky enough to be against the live house and not in the middle of the boulevard, where the General Admittance queue was. Doors opened at 19:30 for GA, and the VIP experience was held beforehand. The VIP queue started getting in around 17:30. As present we got a VIP pass and an “exclusive VIP only merchandise item” which turned out to be a scarf – very appropriate with the weather. The experience itself was a group photo with the band. There were five cushioned chairs for the fans, and the band stood behind. They did not say a word, nor interacted with fans in any way, not even acknowledging a hello or a thank you.

Afterwards, I headed for the hall, and I found an almost-barrier spot in the left area, on the second row. The people in front of me let me grab the barrier between them so I had something to hold on while I waited. The special guest was a DJ, who was more focused on getting recorded by his buddy on the phone than mixing music. The main show started a little after 20:30.

DIR EN GREY’s music is quite powerful, with a heavy focus on strings and drums. They also have a huge flare for theatricality and they enjoy the shock factor as part of the aesthetics. The singer, Kyo, donned a Joker-like make-up appearance, with a fake-suicidal attitude on stage, using the microphone to mimic stabbing his chest, or the wires to hang himself. It became a bit disturbing because it was repeated more than once. The act also felt rather distanced, there was very little interaction with the fans. At some point, a pick flew in my direction and the person behind me actually felt me up to try and find it in the folds of the coat I had tied around my waist. That was probably even creepier than the act.

The guitars and bass were tremendously powerful, and the drumming was amazing. The crowd was extremely loud, and the singer, Kyo, later confessed that he had been pretty exhausted and burnt out from the tour, which maybe explained why the concert felt so distanced. The encores were the probably best part of the concert, the part that felt more real and relaxed. After the concert was over, I headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Since I remembered that the area had felt a bit rough when I was there in 2014, this time over I wanted close accommodation so I could get back quickly without needing to use the underground.

9th February 2020: Destroy the Bastille!

Sunday morning was around 2 ºC, and it was windy. I lingered in bed for a while to recover from the previous evening, and then I headed out – I should have brought the merchandise-scarf with me! I saw the Place de la Bastille, where the revolutionary prison used to stand. In the middle of the square stands the “July column” Colonne de Juillet, which commemorates the Revolution of 1830 (which is not the “famous” French Revolution, which happened between 1789 and 1799). A few minutes away, in the Square Henri-Galli, I came across the base of the tower Tour de la Liberté (Freedom Tower), which was unearthed while building the first metro line. There are only a few stones remaining from the foundations, but I’ll take my fun wherever I can – so I stopped and used my music player to find another KAMIJO song, Bastille, just because I could.

Monument to the French Revolution

A few brick stones forming a circle, considered the last remains of the Bastille

It was too cold to wander, but I had a great plan. I headed off to the science museum Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée (Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy Gallery), which was a short walk away. I had read about it and was curious. To be honest, I’m still trying to decide whether it was amazing, or the materials nightmares are made of.

The museum was founded in the 19th century, and it keeps the atmosphere – and the charm – of the old exhibitions. There are stands and wooden cases, and the smell of dust and old paper. The first floor holds a “Cavalcade of Skeletons” – the whole floor is occupied by preserved skeletons of mammals and birds. In the glass cases along the walls, there are taxidermy specimens, preserved animals and dissected specimens. In the far corner, there is “gallery of monsters” with natural oddities. It was enchanting, but at the same time deeply disturbing – especially the male human figure displaying muscles and blood vessels, with a vine leaf on his groin.

The second floor hosts the dinosaurs and other fossils, including a very cool toothed whale, giant crocodiles, a Bernissart iguanodon, a diplodocus, shark teeth… Most of the fossils are either casts or reconstructions – I swear I’ve seen that Irish elk at least three times before. Also, the T-Rex skull was adorably flawed, as it was imagined to be in the 19th century.

The third floor is… ammonite-land. There were cases upon cases of ammonites in different shapes, colours, rocks and materials.

Shots of the museum. Skeletons of animals - fish, oxen, crocodiles, elephants, whale. Fossils: Dinosaurs, fish, toothed whale, shark teeth, snails

After I was done with the museum, I decided it was too cold to wander the neighbouring Botanical Garden. Instead, I headed off to yet another one, the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet – the National Museum of Eastern Arts or Museum Guimet, which holds pieces of art from Cambodia, India, China, Japan, Korea and so on. There was a gorgeous dancing Shiva sculpture, collections of religious artefacts, calligraphy, samurai armours, even modern art and clothes inspired by the Far East. It was a really cool museum I had recently found about and was happy to visit.

Different pieces in the museum: Dancing Shiva, sitting Buddha, Calligraphy in the shape of a dragon, elaborate kimono, samurai armour, Indian goddess

After leaving the museum, I walked towards Trocadero to take the underground. I made a small detour to have a look at the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel, and saw a bunch of peddlers playing shell games with tourists. Someone lost about 400 €, I really hope they were in on the game.

The Eiffel Tower in front of a cloudy sky

Since it was too cold to continue walking around to find something to eat, I decided to get take-out, and I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the BABYMETAL concert. I had never listened to them before, but they are a sensation, the basic ticket was not expensive, and two concerts in as many days seemed convenient. They actually played in the same venue as DIR EN GREY on Saturday, so I found out by sheer coincidence on the live house’s website. At that time, I thought “why the hell not?”. Afterwards, they added Madrid to their Europe tour, so if I had known that beforehand, I might have acted differently. BABYMETAL is one of those insanely-profitable Japanese marketing stunts involving cute girls that had never really been in my radar more than in passing.

Notice with the date of Babymetal's concert

BABYMETAL is a product of the “Japanese idol factory”. It was created artificially to fill a market gap. Three girls were chosen to form an act that would mix the idealised cute idea of girl idols with the heavy metal genre. When they debuted in 2010, the term “Kawaii Metal” was coined. One of the girls left in 2018, so there are two main members and and support dancer on rotation. The members are Nakamoto Suzuka, “Su-metal”, the main vocalist, and Kikuchi Moa aka “Moametal” on back-up vocals and screams. The supporting musicians are called the “Kami Band”.

BABYMETAL’s long-awaited European tour is officially called Metal Galaxy World Tour. The VIP tickets sold for around 170€, and did not even entail a M&G, so even if I had had the chance, I would have not even considered them. Despite that, they sold out, along with the show itself.

When I left the hotel at 9:00, the queue had started organising, and the tour buses were already there. I had no intention to queue or try for a barrier. I had decided to sit back and relax, so I reached the venue around 18:45 for the 19:30 concert. There were tons of people waiting to buy merchandise, but I was good. Thus, I just headed to the floor, and found a spot in the back. Since the venue has sort a bit of an arena and some upper stands, there was a wall I could lean against and it was not the end of the room.

The crowd was quite different from DIRU’s, ranging from good ol’ metalheads to families with little girls between five and ten years old with a bizarre range of in-between: people with fox masks, goth and loli dresses, explicit heavy-metal t-shirts (a bunch of those T-shirts were much less kid-friendly than the show… everything you could imagine. I… don’t think most parents knew what they were getting into, and a few of the kids ended up crying.

At 19:30 sharp, the support act started – a German band called SKYND. Their sound was really good, but their lyrics are based on true crime, which makes them a bit on the disturbing side (and very much not kid-friendly). The name of the songs are all serial killers or similar criminals.

Setlist:

    1. Richard Ramirez
    2. Elisa Lam
    3. Katherine Knight
    4. Jim Jones
    5. Tyler Hadley
    6. Gary Heidnik

At 20:30, the BABYMETAL show kicked off with the projection of the Future Metal video as an introduction of sorts. The musical act relied heavily on the Kami Band, and Su-metal carried the weight of the vocals. She spent the whole one-hour concert jumping and dancing while singing, and her voice did not break even once. If she is not lip-synching, she has the most impressive lungs ever. Both she and Moametal encouraged the crowd, making a lot of eye-contact. Su-metal addressed the audience a lot, even – I think – trying French. The concert was non-stop, and it ended up feeling a bit short, but much better than I had expected. The one annoying thing were the daddies putting their babes up on their shoulders in the middle of the floor, when the kids gave clear signs of not caring or were distressed. But it was fun. Not sure I would repeat unless I made it a thing with friends or something, but I enjoyed the act, and had a good time.

Setlist:

    1. DA DA DANCE
    2. Gimme Chocolate!!
    3. Shanti Shanti Shanti
    4. BxMxC
    5. Kagerou
    6. Oh! MAJINAI
    7. メギツネ [Megitsune]
    8. PA PA YA!!
    9. Distortion
    10. KARATE
    11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
    12. Road of Resistance

A group of girls dressed in black dancing in front of a logo that reads Babymetal

I was back at the hotel before 22:00. Thus, I got a good night’s sleep before I left, once again happy that I had taken nearby accommodation.

10th February 2020: No bells of Notre Dame

My plane boarded at 10:00 so I had to leave early for the airport. The weather was rainy again, so I took the underground to Gare du Nord, and then the train to Orly. As I was riding the train, I had a nice view of the Paris at dawn, but the bells of Notre Dame were not tolling, and my inner child was sad about that. Despite issues with the airport security staff, the stupidly-expensive food, and the general unpleasantness of early-morning public transportation, I made it to my plane without actual problems. As it was a big plane again, I settled down to watch Jurassic World during the flight, because I’m a nerd. Going straight into work from the airport was not fun, but it a small price to pay

I only had three days, but this trip was a very welcome getaway, and even if the weather did not help, I got to do a lot of stuff. I had to discard a few plans and improvise due to the weather. However, there is that film quote, “We’ll always have Paris”. After all, I’ll be coming back for the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. ETA: Or so I thought, at the time of writing the article…

26th January 2020: Royal Palace and Norwegian salmon (Madrid, Spain)

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A friend was over visiting for the weekend and we headed off to Madrid. It had been raining and the weather the previous evening had been rather miserable. Actually, when we left home it was rather foggy and dark, but upon stepping out the Avenida de América bus station, it had become sunny and not cold at all.

My friend wanted to see the Palacio Real de Madrid, the Royal Palace – we had been playing Madrid Cluedo the day before and she had mentioned that she had never been there. At first, we only wanted to see building. As it was Chinese New Year, the blunt of tourists was somewhere else watching the Parade, and we had a short queue to go inside, so she decided to wait as it was not expensive, either.

You can’t take pictures in most of the palace, but the yard looked really nice and you could see the cathedral from there. We also heard all the bells tolling at noon, which was fun. When you go into the palace you see several rooms, including the throne room and the old sleeping quarters. One of my favourite rooms is the one with the Stradivarius violins and other instruments.

While there aren’t that many pictures taken inside, here is a shot of the cathedral, Catedral de la Almudena .

After visiting the Palacio Real, we went to have lunch. She wanted ham, and I wanted a poke bowl I had seen announced in El Corte Inglés cafeteria, so it was a win-win situation. I had a “Poke bowl de salmón noruego”, Norwegian salmon poke bowl that was amazing – a sushi rice base with avocado, spring onion, purple onion, wakame, a soft-boiled egg and Norgweian salmon marinated with soy sauce, rice vinegar and kimchi.

She declared that she was happy after this, so we called it a day.