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22nd November 2025: Expogema & Wicked: For Good (Madrid, Spain)

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Wicked: For Good was released on Friday the 21st of November, and this time around I decided not to hit the cinema on opening day as I did for the first part, but to head out on Saturday. That way I could make a day out of it, combining the film with a mineralogy and gemology event. I had to work on Friday morning anyway, so there was no way I could make it to the first session even if I tried. Unfortunately, the weekend coincided with planned railway maintenance – which meant no trains whatsoever.

Getting to Madrid with the train system out (albeit scheduled) was not an odyssey, but close to it. I got to the coach station with 20 minutes to spare, and I had to queue up in a long line. Fortunately, I made it to the bus – good, because I had a timed ticket I had bought online. I learnt later that you can buy a ticket “for the next bus” on site and it’s actually cheaper… There were extra coaches running at the same time to make up for the lack of trains, which makes sense. The train company had arranged coaches of its own, but it charged “train money” for “bus service”. Well over a hundred people had decided, just like me, to take a bus at bus price.

The trip was uneventful with few stops, and I reached the terminus Avenida de América before I had to take the underground to get to Ríos Rosas. That placed me at the ETSIME Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas y Energía around noon, total peak time. The place was packed with people who had heard about the Expogema event but had no idea what they were getting into – and were therefore “upset” that the event only had “rocks”, and that they were expensive (“lady, I cannot sell you a 400-euro tourmaline for 60 quid” was one of the sentences that echoed in the chambers). I had to take three walks around the fair in order to just see what was on display. I could not afford most of what was being exhibited anyway and for a change, I left without buying anything. I would make up for that on the 2026 Expominerales in the end…

Expogema is the fair dedicated to exhibiting and selling gems and gem-adjacent items such as jewellery. It is organised yearly by the Spanish gemological Institute, Instituto Gemológico Español IGE is a non-profit organisation, created in 1967, as a jewellers’ association. Today it independently certifies and appraises gemstones and jewels, especially diamonds. It works with individual owners, insurance companies, and anyone who is interested in a particular piece. It emits super-complete certificates which describe any gem to boot. Unfortunately, since their analyses are purely physicochemical, the one thing that cannot be certified is the ethical origin of the rocks.

The ETSIME hosts two big fairs a year, Expominerales and Expogema. I missed Expogema last year, because while it’s usually held in late-November or early-December, it happened in September. This year, I wanted to have a look, and I could combine it with other events happening that weekend. Besides, I like the ETSIME, with its little classic museum of mining and geology (Museo Histórico-Minero Don Felipe de Borbón y Grecia) and its eclectic architecture by Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. The building seems to be in perpetual renovation though, but it has a beautiful cloister, which this time around was packed with curious onlookers.

Interior of the ETSIME - two floors of arcades and a glass and iron ceiling.

I left the school and walked out towards a former water cistern, now turned into an exhibition hall Sala Canal de Isabel II. The public company Canal de Isabel II manages the water supply in Madrid, which includes the structures around the River Lozoya. In 1858, the first water deposit was inaugurated in Madrid, designed by engineer Juan de Ribera Piferrer. Three more deposits were constructed, even though an accident during the works on the third one caused 30 fatalities and 60 wounded.

This last deposit was not built underground. It was designed by engineer Diego Martín Montalvo and materialised by Luis Moya Idígoras in 1907. It was a tower made out of mostly brick, and with a height of 36 metres. At the top there was a metal sphere which could hold up to 1500 cubic meters of water. It was used until 1952 to store water, then abandoned, and eventually turned into an exhibition hall in 1986.

In the year 2000, maybe as an operation to improve the reputation of the entity, the foundation Fundación Canal was established, to divulge culture, art, environmental knowledge and the importance of water. Legally, a Spanish foundation must serve “general interest” purposes and must be a non-profit. It might have served as a cover-up or money laundry point, considering that during the 2010s, Canal de Isabel II was involved in several monetary scandals and corruption cases.

The former deposit was hosting photography exhibition, a sample of the archives they have, called 14 millones de ojos. Colección, fotografía, público (14 million eyes. Collection, photography, public). It was a great excuse to explore both the building and the adjacent park, though most of the area was closed off as it was the weekend. The exhibition was a bit strange, with images all over the place, but some of them were very cool. It is apparently… a collection of pictures that people have taken of items that have been exhibited in the venue before? I am not completely sure… There was a disturbing amount of portraits of people pretending to be naked though…

Water deposit turned into exhibition venue - high brick tower with a spherical top.

After a walk around the park, I took the underground and headed towards the central district of Madrid. Since I had started a Christmas ornament collection, buying one in Paris and one in Monaco, I decided to try my luck at finding one for Madrid too. The quest was… surprisingly difficult, but I found a bauble in the seventh souvenir shop I checked.

Afterwards, I found a spot at Kawaii Café for a light lunch. Though they were extremely busy, they had a spot for me and given the choice, I actually like their food. Plus, they’ve got discount cards now. I had a smoothie and a salmon bagel which was more than worth its price. Once I was done, I had the time to check out a couple of shops before I headed to Yelmo Cines Ideal to watch Wicked: For Good, the second part of the Wicked film duology, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. I like Ideal because most of the individual cinemas have enough of a slope that I manage to see above the head of the person in the row in front of me.

Bagel and smoothie from Kawaii Café.

I ended up with conflicting feelings about Wicked: For good. On the one hand, the film felt about 45 minutes to an hour too long. There were reprises of scenes and extra focus on interactions – especially the love triangle – that I could have done without. Also, random spotlight on characters that I know, but don’t even remember if they were even featured in the first part, such as Elphaba’s nanny. On the other hand, there was no way the “ham” could have fit into just one film, considering how long the first part was already. Nevertheless, I do have the feeling they wanted to delve a little further into the authoritarian dystopia of Oz, and the character of the Wizard. After all, if you have Jeff Goldblum around, you want to feature him as heavily as you can. Either that, or the film-makers tried to show the power of propaganda in some modern societies. And not-so-subtly aim for an Oscar or two – the first instalment competed on ten categories and took home two statuettes, but the second one was not even nominated once.

Wicked: For good focuses on the second act of the Wicked musical, based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If the first half tells the story of how Elphaba “becomes” the Wicked Witch of the West, the second focuses on how that affects her. It surprises me though how come people were not anticipating the hit the Wicked film was going to be. When I went in for the first movie, it was just a regular release. This time around, we had a photocall and staff wearing witch hats and handling magic wands.

Wicked photo-op cardboard with all the main characters.

Cynthia Erivo does a good job on Elphaba, but in the end, it’s not that hard to portray her as a sympathetic character, since the watcher is the one privy to all her struggles and goals. However, Ariana Grande delivers a fantastic performance – I had watched the musical thrice at this point (four times now), and it is the first time that the character of Glinda has actually touched me. Grande’s approach gives a depth to the “good witch” that it’s often overlooked. The spotlight on her did not feel as a filler to me, and her voice breaking during I couldn’t be happier is a fantastic touch.

There is something I have realised though – if they decide to turn this into a franchise, I don’t think I’ll follow it. I would not have developed such a big emotional connection with Wicked if my first contact with it had been the films – they are way too long. The musical is just the bare minimum to tug at your heart, no fillers. How I wish I had seen the original New York production though…

The film has a few strokes of genius, mostly homages to the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, especially how the character of Dorothy, who is only insinuated, is a carbon copy of Judy Garland’s rendition, down to the dress and hairstyle. Furthermore, the wink to Margaret Hamilton’s cackling laughter and Glinda’s reaction – akin to what new generations would have, being absolutely flabbergasted by it – is hilarious.

Speaking of new and generations. On my right, a group of university students who spent most of the film bawling. On my left, a couple – one of them was a fan, the other one had no idea what was happening, and guessing along the way. Further on that side, a little girl loudly wondering what was going on half of the time. The joys of going to the movies at the weekend.

Upon leaving the cinema, I would have usually walked to the train station, but I had no trains. Thus, I had to go to Puerta del Sol to catch the underground. It was packed. I had not realised that they were turning on the Christmas lights that evening! When I had to change, the crowds in the corridors actually felt dangerous, and I was relieved when I could get to the platform in the opposite direction. That was stressful for a few minutes. I was lucky, though, that the first station was not closed and I could get in.

Once in the Avenida de América hub, I bought a coach ticket to get home – thus learning about the “next bus” tickets. Afterwards, I boarded the first scheduled service, which was on time, direct and ran into no traffic jams. I had been fortunate enough to park near the coach station, so I was home within a little over an hour after boarding. All in all, despite the lack of trains, transportation worked smoothly. I saw everything I wanted to, and I had time to spare, the weather was nice and I saw the film spoiler-free. A rather successful day, I’d say.

3rd & 4th October 2025: Wicked Madrid (Spain)

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I am not a big fan of musicals – not because of the genre, but because in general the stories don’t seem to appeal to me. However, I like Wicked. Just before the first instalment of the movie duology was released, it was announced that the musical was getting a Spanish version. I was on the fence as to whether buy tickets or not, because I have often come across horrible translations into Spanish. After a lot of pondering, I decided to get an opening-day ticket, which I purchased in late November 2024. If in the end I backed up from attending, I could always give it to someone else, as it was sure to be a full house. Thus, I got a spot for Wicked: El Musical in Nuevo Teatro Alcalá in Madrid. However, once the film was released and I got to read the subtitles – I’m a visual person, I can’t ignore subtitles no matter how much I try – I became a bit more apprehensive.

In March 2025, I received an email advertising the option to get a VIP upgrade, Experiencia Premium Wicked, which included early entry, the booklet, a guided tour of the theatre, and what was de-facto dinner in the VIP lounge (which had its own private toilets). It was convenient, so I purchased it. Since I had originally bought the ticket on presale, some kind of discount was applied to it. I can’t be sure how much due to the anything-but-transparent Spanish ticket pricing. The nice seat on row 13 had a face value of 84.90 €, there was a fee of 6.79 € and a discount of 17.98 €, yielding to a final price of 74.71 € for the seat. The Premium upgrade was 29.90 €, value for money for the convenience only. Thus in total, I paid 104.61 €, without even being sure I was going to attend – I think my nibling was praying I would back out in the end and gave them the tickets…

I was not completely sure what to do with myself that day. I got a hotel because the 21:00 session would wrap up late, especially on opening day. The theatre Nuevo Teatro Alcalá was not in a convenient point to drive to. Trains would not be running any more when I reached any station, but the underground would. The only affordable but private room I found was 20 minutes away on said underground, but a big city would still have reasonably-full trains around midnight on a Friday in what is climatologically late-summer. The hotel was relatively close to the largest cemetery in Madrid, Cementerio de La Almudena, which reportedly holds some masterpieces of funerary architecture. I thought that it being October, it might be an appropriate visit, following a cultural itinerary provided.

On the day of, I set towards Madrid so I could reach the hotel a bit around check-in time, at 15:00. I dropped my luggage and set off towards the graveyard. Cementerio de La Almudena is the largest cemetery in Western Europe. It opened in 1884, though it was officially inaugurated in 1925. There were several architects involved in the design, but the current appearance is due to Francisco García Nava, who substituted previous styles with different Modernisme trends. Looking from above, the cemetery is designed as an adorned Greek cross, a design that eventually yielded to the creation of a secondary civil cemetery across the street.

I had wanted to visit for a while, but once there, I found Cementerio de La Almudena oppressive. Though there are green areas, it had nothing on the nature feeling northern Europe cemeteries give off. The niche walls felt overcrowded and cold, and the paved paths seemed designed just for vehicles and not people. I mean, the cemetery is big enough that it has its own bus stops inside, but there was something off about it. It was not a Victorian Garden, I guess. Since I was not enjoying myself, I decided to cut the visit short. I left after an hour, and headed towards the Central District.

La Almudena graveyard, with some neobyzantine decoration and traditional cross-decorated graves

When I reached my underground stop, I saw there was a matcha bar nearby, but upon reaching it, there was long a queue outside – it turns out that it belongs to a TikTok influencer – and I decided to just go to Starbucks instead. I had a vanilla drink sitting at a park, then headed out to one of the few buildings representative of Modernisme in Madrid, the manor Palacio de Longoria. It was running an exhibition on the history of Spanish comedy cinema. I am not a fan, but exhibitions are the only way to visit the manor. The building was designed by José Grases Riera and built in 1902. It features a central staircase with a colourful skylight which is always cordoned off, but it is incredibly beautiful.

Longoria Palace, a Modernisme building with a stunning skylight with a red stair in a sun and a blue stela. It is over a staircase with an intrincate railing.

My next stop was the national library Biblioteca Nacional de España for an exhibition I wanted to see in July, but it was not running. It turns out that the temperature control in the room had broken down, and the exhibits were removed for safety. The exhibition El papiro de Ezequiel. La historia del códice P967 (The Ezekiel Papyrus. History of Codex 967) displays part of the oldest surviving document preserved in the National Library of Spain, and discusses its history. The document is a Greek translation of some of the books of the Bible, copied on papyrus probably in the 3rd century CE. It was discovered in the necropolis of Meir (Egypt), probably in the 19th century, and sold by the page to different institutions and collectors around the world between 1930 and 1950. Its excellent conservation is probably due to it being sealed in a vase until it was dug up.

The Spanish National Library is depositary of several sheets, which were originally bought by private collector Pénélope Photiadès. Upone her death, her collection of around 350 papyri, now called Papyri Matritensis, was bequeathed to the cultural organisation Fundación Pastor de Estudios Clásicos. As for the rest of the original codex, 200 out of 236 pages are accounted for in different places around the world. The pages in deposit in Madrid contain the oldest version of Ezekiel’s prophecies

The Book of Ezequiel is part of the Hebrew Bible [Tanakh, תַּנַ״ךְ] and the Christian Old Testament. Ezequiel was an Israelite priest, considered one of the 46 prophets to Israel, who lived around the 600 BCE. His prophecies or visions revolve about the fall of Jerusalem and its eventual restoration. In-between, there are prophecies against other nations or rulers who had wronged the Israelites.

Regardless of the importance of their contents for the Abrahamic religions, it was really cool to see something that old. Especially considering that all those centuries ago, someone thought the writing was important enough to have it preserved and protected for the future. The exhibition is held in a round room, with photographies of all the known pages and their location. At the moment, there are five collections – Cologne, Princeton, Dublin, Madrid and Barcelona.

The exhibition displayed five sheets mounted over mirrors so both sides could be seen. Alongside, there are other translations of the Bible, and a small display on how to write on papyrus. The whole collection was displayed in a circular room, so it felt really immersive. It was really cool.

Ezequiel papyrus - two pieces of papyrus with ancient writing on it

The weather was nice and I still had time, so I headed out to the park Parque del Retiro. This large park in the centre of Madrid originates in a Royal possession in the 15th century, and it opened to the public in 1767 under the reign of Charles III (Carlos III). Today there are several buildings remaining, alongside the royal gardens, now the large green area. There are ponds, fountains, sculptures and extremely old trees – which end up being a potential hazard when it’s too hot, too cold or too windy. This yields to quite the controversy when the park closes during summer due to the risk of collapsing branches. Parque del Retiro is considered a historical garden and part of the Unesco Heritage Site Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, a landscape of Arts and Sciences.

I finally headed off towards the nearby theatre Nuevo Teatro Alcalá. I ended up joining a loose group of people waiting for the theatre to open, and I got shoved away by a group coming out from a taxi. Later, one of the ladies would claim that she was there before anyone else – everyone who had seen them pushing me knew she was lying, but obviously her group needed to go in first. Ironically, though they made it to the hall first, I ended up reaching the theatre and the VIP lounge way before them. The irony.

Teatro Nuevo Alcalá with the promo of Wicked for the musical.

Upon entrance to the hall, I received my VIP lanyard and booklet. I am not well-versed in Spanish musical theatre actors, but I’m told the cast is really popular. First, we were shown inside the hall, where we had an introduction to the building and the play. Wicked is the musical adaptation of the eponymous book by Gregory Maguire (1995). The novel is in turn based on the world created by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). While the original book is aimed to children – I read somewhere that it was conceived as the first “US-based fairytale”, later adaptations would take a turn towards more mature audiences.

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a normal child from Kansas, Dorothy (with her little dog too), ends up in the magical world of Oz after being flown away by a tornado. There she partners up with a Cowardly Lion, a Tin Woodman and a Brainless Scarecrow. Together they travel to meet the eponymous Wizard, who promises to help them if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West.

The book has been both praised and reviled throughout its history. While the original story gives no room to think that the Wicked Witch is anything but gratuitously evil, the very way the protagonist party is just sent to kill her may sound… strange. It did to me when I was young and read the story for the first time. Other versions just have the Wizard tell the party to bring him the Witch’s broom.

It might have also been like that for Maguire, whose novel focuses on the evil witch, whom he names Elphaba. In the novel, Elphaba is ostracised and radicalises as she grows up, which leads to her fall into evil. In the musical, she is not really evil, but the circumstances around her life and powerful people’s manipulations make her a scapegoat. She chooses her own path rather than either give in or become a victim.

The original musical features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It first opened on Broadway (after a San Francisco try-out) in 2003 – and it has run since then, except during the Covid pandemics. In 2005, it went on tour in the US, staying on different cities for literally hundreds of performances. The London production opened in the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 2006 – I have seen that one twice, in 2018 and 2022. There have been two German productions (2007 – 2011 and 2021 – 2022). There have also been runs in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Brazil. Between 2013 and 2015, the first Spanish adaptation was staged in Mexico City, though I cannot be sure the translation is the same as the Mexican one. The Spain version is considered a “non-replica production” as the setting is different. For starters, there is no dragon hanging above the stage and no map of Oz on the curtain.

Wicked stage, surrounded by a circle of runes and a stylised Z in the middle

We did not hear any of this at the small explanation, but we learnt that they have 140 pairs of shoes. Then, we could go up the stage to get our picture taken with the giant Z on the curtain. I was amongst the first to get up there, so I also was lead to the VIP room quite early – remember the lady from before? I beat her every time, I did not even try, but it amused the hell out of me to realise it. To be honest, I had chosen the VIP experience not only because I’m a snob, but because it included what could be counted as dinner – cheese, ham and breadsticks with a drink before the play. And also the private bathroom, which was great. Ten minutes before curtain the waiters started telling us, along with taking orders for the drink during the break.

VIP package at Teatro Nuevo Alcalá - cheese, ham, breadsticks, soda, a commemorative grass, the program, and the menu.

I was at my seat at 20:55, and the theatre was not full yet. The play started a little late, and I was a bit apprehensive, to be honest, because as mentioned before Spain has a less than stellar record with translations, but adaptors David Serrano and Alejandro Serrano have done a general good job. Main singers included Cristina Picos as Elphaba; Cristina Llorente as Glinda (that must have been confusing during rehearsals); Guadalupe Lancho as Madame Morrible, Javier Ibarz as the Wizard and Xabier Nogales as Fiyero. The latter was, in my totally-non-expert opinion, the weakest performance. When trying to sing with both the witches, his voice was barely audible, and he just did not have the… charm nor the presence. There is more to Fiyero’s character than choosing a cute actor, I think. There is one line that defines Fiyero in Dancing through life, which hints that there is more to him than the deeply shallow character he plays. After babbling about being brainless and shallow, when the “Ozdust ballroom” is mentioned, he sings that in the end “dust is what we come to”.

The play was well carried by the main characters, despite a couple of wardrobe malfunctions with Glinda’s dress and Chistery’s wings. The translations of the songs and the jokes were mostly on point. An exception was “magic wands, are they pointless?” – that one either completely flew over the translators’ heads, or they tried to localise it – and failed. The lyrics were well-chosen, carrying as much parallel in form and meaning as the originals. Unfortunately, the song that suffered the most was Defying Gravity, which just… can’t be easily done. It was decent though. In general, I’d give the effort an 80%.

The main cast of the Spanish Wicked musical greeting after opening day

During the break, I returned to the VIP lounge to skip the bathroom lines, and have a snack (popcorn) and my second drink. I have to say that the VIP experience is much more value for money than the London one, even if it catered to way more people – maybe because it was opening day. After the event was over, I made it to the nearby underground station and… the trains were crowded. I’ve seen fewer people on the platforms on a random weekend morning. Maybe in the future, I can drive closer to Madrid and park somewhere with an underground station so I won’t need to book a hotel.

However, staying over had a few advantages. When I woke up in the morning, I headed towards a cosy café (as cosy as a franchise can be), Santa Gloria, to order a “glorious latte with vanilla” whipped cream and cinnamon, and a salmon-on-avocado toast, which was delicious. Afterwards, I took the underground to meet up with some family members (amongst them my very-disappointed nibling). Their house is actually quite near the Museo del Aire y del Espacio, Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics and we headed there to spend the morning.

The Museum of Aeronautics and Astronautics is a space where the Spanish Air Force preserves historical aircraft. It is located in the neighbourhood of Cuatro Vientos (Four Winds), close to the military air base. Since it was established in 1975, the site has expanded its collection to 200 aircraft. There are seven hangars full of stuff and almost 70,000 square metres of exhibition. Along with all the actual preserved items, there are reproductions of important planes in history, models, engines, uniforms… I know next to nothing about the history of aeronautics, but it was really cool to see all the machinery and even go inside a couple of planes. There were even a few items from space exploration.

We were there from around 11:00 until closing time, 14:00, and it was barely enough to have a quick look at everything. There are guides who show you around, and it might be interesting to take a visit with one of them in the future.

Several aircraft at the Cuatro Vientos - helicopters and military planes, along with a historical biplane.

I had seen there was a big shopping centre nearby, but we got lost and then caught in a traffic jam, so we ended up having a very late lunch before everyone headed home for the day. Oh, but the mall had a Lego store where I could get stamps on my passport. When the salesperson asked me how many I wanted, he was somewhat surprised that I said I wanted all of them…

22nd November 2024: “Wicked” (film) on opening day (Madrid, Spain)

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There was a time when you could mute words on social media to avoid spoilers. Since the algorithms have taken over and you can’t curate what you see any more, I decided that the best way to avoid Wicked spoilers was trying to see it as early as possible, preferably on opening day. Ideally, on the first screening on opening day, an English version.

For a change, “ideally” worked. At least, I found a screening at 15:45 on the day the film came out. It was a cinema with Spanish subtitles but I can live with that. I have seen the musical twice in the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London and I’ve loved it both times. Not only I’m a firm believer in the message of Defying Gravity, I also give regular thought to Dancing Through Life. Sometimes I also listen to No One Mourns the Wicked and get all philosophical…

Anyway, I headed off to Madrid with next-to-no information and no expectations, hoping to enjoy the film. I had been slightly surprised that so many tickets were already booked when I bought my own, but I gave it no more than a couple of seconds’ worth of attention, I just thought I was running late since I made the decision the previous weekend before heading out to see Ha·Ya·To . Since the film was rather early in the afternoon, I had to get to Madrid with time for a bite. One of my options was Yatai Market but in the end I decided to grab brunch at Toby’s Brunch Club, where they run an all-day brunch (here I went, cheating the system again, just like I did at the James Joyce – twice in one week, too). I tried to book online but the system only took reservations for two or more. Since the Internet said that it was usually quite busy, just thought I still had Yatai as a backup plan…

I arrived at Atocha Station and walked towards the brunch place. As I did, I had to walk past Caixa Forum, which is still running the exhibit on Patagonian dinosaurs, and the Patagotitan smiled at me. I, of course, smiled back.

Patagotitan mayorum

The very-busy brunch place was empty – weekday “crowds” I guess. I was the only customer there for the duration. Usually, not being able to book for myself on my own discourages me from a place, but I’ve been wanting a “typical” brunch for a while now. The brunch consisted of a cold drink, coffee or tea and two courses (22€). For my cold drink, I ordered orange juice, and for the hot one a coffee latte. The first course was a basket of breads with butter, jams and tomato paste, and a yoghurt with fresh fruit. As my second course, I ordered eggs Benedict with smoked salmon. Because I really wanted eggs Benedict and I can’t cook them to save my life. Everything was delicious, especially the yoghurt. The eggs were perfect. I think this would kill me before noon though, so glad I used it as lunch.

Toby's breakfast club brunch

After my brunch / lunch I still had some time so I dropped by the art gallery Museo del Prado. I used my museum card Tarjeta de Museos Estatales and the lady at the ticket booth told me she had never seen a card like that before. She took it to the back shop, and when she came back, it turned out that the card had stuck to another card, which explained why she was confused. I finally managed to get in, and spent about an hour there. There was a small exhibit called El Taller de Rubens (Rubens’ workshop) which analysed the master’s works and that of his apprentices which was very interesting.

Afterwards, I walked towards Yelmo Cines Ideal (passing by and waving at the Patagotitan again) to watch Wicked. When I got there, the cinema was still closed, but as soon as I turned away to snoop into a shop across the street, the doors opened. I found my seat and I found myself seated between two groups of high school and university students, who were complaining that their life was very hard, and that they had barely had the time to eat lunch before getting to the cinema. And a few of them were threatening to cry. And they were telling each other not to sing along. I had not realised there was such a big following of Wicked from the younger crowd…

After a few minutes of hearing them babble excitedly, I realised that all of them had listened to the songs on the Internet, or something, but they had never had the chance to seen the musical themselves – it’s debuting in Spain in autumn 2025. It made me realise how lucky I am to be able to jump onto a red-eye flight at a random weekend and go to London, and be there for the 14:30 performance at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

Wicked film poster

In general, I enjoyed the film. More than I believed I would, because I went with zero expectations and I had managed to avoid any kind of spoiler and previous knowledge, except that Jeff Goldblum was the Wizard. The main cast includes Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Marissa Bode as Nessa (kudos for an actual disabled actor playing a disabled character!), Ethan Slater as Boq, Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; and Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond (voice).

I do not believe what I am going to say – but I thought Goldblum was the weakest character. I mean, he keeps playing himself, and Jeff Goldblum is not the Wizard (I had the same feeling when I watched Jurassic World: Dominion; he played himself, not Ian Malcolm). On the contrary, Michelle Yeoh was fantastic, her sole presence in a take stole the whole screen. I enjoyed seeing the animal characters a lot, as it is the bit of the musical that always feels a bit off. The logistics of landscaping Oz was a bit awkward at points, but I guess that’s theatrics and not… geography.

I found the music decent. As for me the most important thing was for the story to be faithful to the musical – which is more up my alley than the novel – I was rather satisfied. The best song, in my opinion was What is this feeling?, the camerawork was stunning. It was also great to see the cameo of the actors who portrayed Glinda and Elphaba on Broadway for the first time, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel – known worldwide today for Frozen’s anthem Let it go. The library scene and choreography for Dancing through life was also impressive.

What I saw of the subtitles was not a good sign though, because the message of No One Mourns the Wicked loses most of its meaning if you translate it as “she’s finally dead”. However, I am rather good at ignoring subtitles anyway. I am not sold on Glinda being all pink either. Too many Legally Blonde vibes there, I prefer ice-blue.

The film ended at the end of the first act of the musical, with the “main event” of sorts – Defying Gravity. Very showy, okay music-wise. It was more visually impacting than musically, and my mind was dubbing it with Kristin Chenoweth’s version anyway. At this point, half the theatre was sobbing, which I found slightly amusing.

All in all, I enjoyed the day and the film. I am looking forward to the second part, and having affordable Wicked merchandise I don’t have to save for special occasions. After leaving the cinema, I walked back, and since it was cold, I got there in record time – and then I had to wait 40 minutes for the train because of course I did.

11th August 2022: 21 hours straight of ups and downs in London {England, August 2022}

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The first thing I had to do was waking up for a 6:30 flight – though considering I did not sleep very much that night due to the heat, I’m not sure if that it counts as waking up. The previous day, the airline had sent warning emails about arriving at the airport early – three hours before the flight would have meant being there at 3:30, so… not really. I arrived at the airport around 5:10, and I was at the gate by… 5:20, I’m not even kidding. While I normally do not queue to enter planes – the advantages of backpacks, I just kick them under the seat – I had been assigned seat 1A, which meant I had to put my luggage into the overhead compartment. I had decided to take a small backpack too, because I would be carrying it around for a while, and it would get searched in a couple of places.

Surprisingly, despite Brexit, the Ryanair strikes, airport chaos, and the fact that apparently the automatic passport reader cannot cope with my new look, I made it into the United Kingdom first and straight to London without a glitch. Not only that, I managed to get my Oyster recharged without any problems, and as soon as I had bought some food, I was on my way to the first stop of the day: Crystal Palace Park, for which I got to ride the shiny new underground line, the Elizabeth Line, then the Overground. Even though there are another couple of landmarks (that might warrant a visit when / if the restoration project finally goes through), what interested me in Crystal Palace was a collection of Victorian sculptures – the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Though Ancient Greek already knew about fossils before the current era, it was in the 19th century when it hatched as a “science”, according to some spurred by Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. Fossil hunters ran amok, excavating and spoiling the North American badlands. In England itself, Mary Anning kept discovering cool things. There was a sort of a “Dinosaur fever” – the Victorians became fascinated with all things prehistoric. In 1852, a number of extinct animal reconstructions were commissioned to be erected in the gardens of the Crystal Palace, after the World Exhibition. Using the knowledge available at the time, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkings, a natural history illustrator and sculptor, who did his best according to scientific knowledge at the time.

Not all the animals represented are real dinosaurs, but the nickname stuck. From today’s standards, most of the reproductions are extremely inaccurate, with some exceptions, such as the ichthyosaur (discovered by Mary Anning around 1811), and the plesiosaur (of which Mary Anning also found a skeleton in 1823, and then another in 1830 – I love that woman). Today, the park is organised in several “islands” where you can see the sculptures, though the water was a bit down due to the heatwaves:

  • Amphibians and therapsids: Dicynodon and Labyrinthodon
  • Marine reptiles: Ichthyosaur, Mosasaurus, Plesiosaur and Teleosaurus
  • Dinosaurs and pterosaurs: Hylaeosaurus, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Pterosaur
  • Mammals: Palaeotherium, Anoplotherium, Megaloceros and Megatherium

I have been aware of these sculptures for a long time – since I was a child and started liking dinosaurs. However, only recently did I find out that they really existed, and where they were. I arrived at Crystal Palace station a little after ten (making whole travel from the airport about two hours). I walked by a small farm with typical fauna such as… an alpaca, then I ate my sandwich overseeing the first island.

A collage showing differet statues of prehistoric creatures. Some try to be dinosaurs, and they look almost comically wrong, like giant iguanas or chameleons. There is one plesiosaurus looking rather acurate - it has a long neck and flipers. Finally, some mammals: a deer with huge antlers and a tiny horse-looking creature

I walked around for about an hour and then I set on my way back. Though I had planned to have a relaxed day at first, I had to adjust due to cancellations and train strikes. It was around that time that I calculated that I could actually cram my original Thursday and Saturday plans onto Thursday, plus the alternative plans I had made if I tweaked the time a little. So I back-rode for another hour towards the city.

Near Tower Hill stands the Sky Garden, on the 35th floor of the 20 Fenchurch Street building, designed by Rafael Viñoly. Sky Garden is considered the highest garden in London, and a fantastic viewpoint of the city. I almost accidentally came across the option to book a free access ticket for this – while I had not wanted to pay for any morning / early afternoon activities in case my plane was delayed, I figured out that I could book this for free, especially as they go stupidly fast! I made my 12:30 timeslot with a few minutes to spare, but I was let in after a queue, ID check, X rays and metal detection.

The Sky Garden features two terraces full of plants (landscaped by Gillespies), a couple of restaurants and bars, and an “open” gallery which has glass above your head so the feeling of opening dissipates – the glass is stained and scratched. It was one of the “must-do’s” in London I had never visited before, so I thought it would be a good opportunity. Fortunately, they have relaxed the rules on no bottles because of the unusual high temperatures.

After wandering around for a bit, I continued onto Saint Dunstan in the East Church Garden, the ruins of an old Wren church destroyed by The Great Fire of London and destroyed again during the Blitz (World War II bombings). Dating back to the 1100s, it was opened as a public park in 1970. Aside from being a very cute building park I wanted to see for a while, a music video by the band VAMPS was filmed there.

Ruins of a gothic church turned garden, with hanging ivy and bushes overgrowing the walls and windows

As it was lunchtime, the park was bustling with people, so I just had to move on rather quickly, and went back to the underground to get to the area of Westminster. I had originally booked tickets for Saturday (back in May) but then they were cancelled due to “repair work” going on that day (I do wonder if it was a security measure related to the strikes though).

But of course, first I feasted my eyes on the very new Elizabeth Tower clock tower aka Big Ben – though Big Ben is one of the bells in the tower, but nobody really cares about that any more.

Elizabeth Tower, shining gold with the restoration. It almost looks fake. The clock marks Quarter to two.

The Palace of Westminster or Houses of Parliament is the centre of the United Kingdom’s turbulent political life. The current palace was built after the previous one was destroyed by a fire in 1834. The new palace was erected in the Neo-Gothic style, and it was mostly finished by 1860, although it did open to be used in 1835. There was a competition regarding the design, which was won by sir Charles Barry. The Palace of Westminster holds the two chambers where the British government meets – the House of Lords and the House of Commons – alongside the Norman Porch, St. Stephen’s chapel, and the different corridors where the MPs vote or discuss state matters. I’ll forever be amused that “for security reasons, photography is not permitted in these chambers with dozens of cameras for TV broadcasting and Internet streaming”, but alas. The woodwork on the Norman Porch ceiling is fantastic, and some of the decoration choices, such as Churchill’s sculpture are… interesting. It is noteworthy that it is part of the Unesco Heritage Site “Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church”.

Collage: a view of the houses of parliament (London), with the Elizabeth Tower on the left. Two shots of the Norman Hall, a huge ward with an intrincate design of wooden ceiling. A gothic corridor with a wooden door and some coloured glass panels

Afterwards, I just found my way to the hotel – though I had to wander a little to find the nearby supermarket, bugger those never-ending attached-house neighbourhoods, rested for a little and then went to the station to go to the theatre – I wanted some extra time to check out where my airport coach would leave, so I gave myself 45 minutes for a 22-minute trip. It turns out there was train trouble and I was barely on time, taking an alternative route instead of the direct one.

When I realised my flight timing would give a free evening in London, I booked tickets for the Apollo Victoria Theatre to watch the “Wicked”. This musical tells the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from the point of view of the witches, and somehow gives the “Wicked Witch from the West”, Elphaba, an amazing personality and backstory that resonates a lot with me. For the same price as the ticket I was eyeing back in the day, I found a VIP upgrade just one seat over, so I was entitled to a drink and “snacks”, an early entry, along with access to the “Ambassador Lounge”, a tiny reception hall with access to a private restroom.

“Wicked” was great. The actress who plays the main character, Elphaba (Lucie Jones) came out a little yelly though in her solos. The duets with the other female singer (Glinda, Helen Woolf) were fantastic, and the male love interest’s (Fiyero, Ryan Reid) song was absolutely great, even though he is a character I have never cared for.

Apollo Victoria Theatre: the inner theatre, showing a dragon and a closed curtain showing a map of Oz. The outer theatre: there is a sign reading Apollo Victoria Wicked, and everything is lit green. The VIP lounge, with a glass of soda, and some chairs. The cast at the end of the show, taking their goodbye bows.

By the time I was out, the trains were running again, and one-to-three-minute delay on a line that runs every five minutes or so, and I was at the hotel by 23:00, absolutely beat. The room was extremely hot, because London is absolutely not ready for heat, so I had a snack in front of the fan, took a shower and then got some sleep – 21 hours on the go were over. Funnily enough, by the time I went to bed, I had that wobbly-world jet-lag feeling I have after my first day in Japan. It must have been the barely sleeping the night before. I fell asleep very fast.

Walking distance: 30.52 km / 46192 steps

9th & 10th June 2018: Wicked London (England, Great Britain)

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This will be the last work-trip, at least for a while. I might change my mind later, but for now I’m done with them (although there’s an upcoming family trip rather soon…). Again, we flew in early Saturday morning, and we went to walk around the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.

Then we went to the British Museum. I left them for a couple of hours there and I went to visit some of the lesser-seen galleries.

We had booked tickets for the musical “Wicked” in the Apollo Victoria Theatre at 14:30, so we headed over there. Wicked is a parallel story to “The Wizard of Oz”, focusing on the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, who becomes a social outcast due to her tendency to speak her mind and the strength of her magic. I had really wanted to watch this for a long time, so I used this chance and convinced the group to get there. I absolutely loved it ♥.

After the show, we dropped our things at the hotel. The group wanted to get some rest, so we stayed there for a while, then got out again. We took the underground towards London central and we were in Trafalgar Square for a while.

Then, we went to Chinatown for dinner.

Later, we walked around Piccadilly Circus, checking out some shops and so. We even stopped for cake.

On Sunday morning we went to Saint James’s Park, where we got to meet the local fauna, especially a very adventurous squirrel.

Then we dropped by Buckingham Palace. Although we did not watch the Guard Change, we did see one of the relief marches.

We walked from there to Westminster, saw the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, along the outside of Westminster Abby.

We visited the Monument to Emmeline Pankhurst and stayed for a while in the Victoria Tower Gardens.

As a final visit, we went to the Natural History Museum.

Finally, we headed off to the airport, and the icing of the cake was that we got caught in a controllers’ strike, so we had like a three-hour delay on our flight and it took forever to get home (;¬_¬). All in all, this was a very… strange trip, and without a doubt the highlight was going to see Wicked, which is something I had wanted to do for a long time, and gave me a couple of hours of enjoyment to myself.