Dear Family and Friends:
Thursday, Day 17! After a late night of flamenco and chatting online with friends, Martha and Dani got a late start to the day. Well, Martha got a really late start, and Dani read on into Exodus in her reading adventure. She also had time to plan the day for the duo as Martha finally started working on her book, getting through edits to the three pages of the first chapter. YAY!
We set out about 3:40 PM to take one of the 5K Madrid foot-tours recommended by the Lonely Planet. We had already walked many of the streets, but this time, we were armed with information on specific landmarks, and enjoyed learning about the historical sig
nificance of many of the buildings and churches.
Through la Puerta del Sol, we passed through the shopping district along Calle de Preciados (photo above, left). Taking a left, we passed a convent (Convento de las Descalzas Reales, photo to right) and turned South to one of the oldest places of Christian worship, la Iglesia de San Gines. Martha has a feeling that our next stop was the REAL reason that Dani chose this 
particular adventure, as we stopped for churros and deep, dark, rich hot chocolate (to dip the churros into, of course, photo to left) at the Chocolateria de San Gines.
Back up through the Plaza Mayor, we entered through one passageway and exited through another to find the Plaza de Villa (photo to right), which contains a 
flower-surrounded statue of Alvaro de Bazan (who planned the Spanish Armada), and one of the city’s oldest surviving buildings, including ayuntamiento (town hall), the Gothic Casa de los Lujanes, and the 16th century Casa de Cisneros (also in photo to right). We spent some time taking photos beneath the overcast skies, enjoying being outside once again. Will the simple pleasure of being outdoors in so much daylight ever get old?
We wandered down a narrow alley, across Calle de Sacramento, down the stairs and onto Calle de Segovia, where we found the Mudejar Tower (photo to left), a former Moorish building of the 15th century that was taken over by the Christians to build the Iglesia de San Pedro el Viejo. 
Up the hill, we arrived at the Museo de San Isidro and the Iglesia de San Andreas. Wondering whether our annual museum passes would get us into the museum, we started in, and Martha noticed an “entrada gratuita” sign on the door of the museum, ensuring that we would be heading inside. And so our walk essentially ended in the outdoors as there were three distinct exhibits in the museum.
The first exhibit comprised a collection of artifacts from primeval Madrid (photo to right, above) through the Roman Empire and 18th century art and city development. We saw models of churches and of 18th-century Madrid (photo to left), including our neighborhood! Full walls contained examples of how different persons dressed in the 18th century, from royalty and artists to prostitutes and mothers, all surrounded by reproductions of famous 
paintings from the time that we had seen at el Prado … but now got a chance to take photos of them!
The second displayed distinct memorabilia around the life of San Isidro (the patron saint of Madrid), artistic pieces in his honor, and the actual deep well of “el pozo milagroso”—San Isidro ‘s miraculous saving of a baby who had fallen down a well (photo
to left) by asking for God’s help in sparing the child’s life. In response, He raised the waters of the well, and the baby was retrieved, safely floating up with the waters to the arms of its mother. We still have not figured out what his accompanying lady-saint, Saint Maria de la Cabeza (Mary of the Head), did to deserve her grand stature with Dios!
The third exhibit was also interesting—an archeological display (photo to right) from findings collected during the restructuring of route M30, which runs along the Manzanares River. They found fossils from elephants, ancient wolves and vermin, and humans. They also unearthed old puentes (bridges) from previous eras. Along with the findings exhibited, they also presented pictures and details about the task of carefully collecting and preserving the items, including the faces of the workers, happily hunched over the dirt with brushes and masks to keep the dust from their lungs.
It was after 7 PM by the time we exited the museum, so we sat in the plaza below the church to drink some water and decided not to continue our walk since it would take us past territory we had covered on our last walk up to the Parque Oeste and Templo de Debod. Heading home, we stopped at the grocery store once again for yogurt and stopped in the Tirso de Molina plaza to enjoy our books in the sunshine. The evening brought a chill, so we headed home for sandwiches, some writing time, and Grey’s Anatomy in Spanish!
Much love,
Martha and Dani
Thursday, May 31, 2007
May 31—Book Work Begins and A Walk Ends at the San Isidro Museum
May 30—Surrealismo, Sketching El Greco,
and el Flamenco!
Dear Family and Friends:
Oh, joy to be writing in real time finally! Martha and Dani had a great day today, continuing to take advantage of their annual pass to the art museums with a return to Reina Sofia and el Prado. We have paid off one of the two passes already with our visits! WOO HOO for frugal use of funds to get us into cool places.
Our day started with a visit to Reina Sofia that was not very long, it turned out, just a couple of hours into the afternoon. We managed only rooms 9 and 10 on the second floor: the land of the 1930s Surrealists. Dani has been a fan of Salvador Dali since her first visit to this museum 15 years ago, with his dream scenes and intricate details in the background of social commentary, or psychological images that are not supposed to be explained. We thoroughly enjoyed a series of his paintings, such as Senicitas, Monumental imperial a la mujer nina, El enigma por fin, and El enigma de Hitler.
Beyond room 9 where Dali was surrounded by other late-1930s followers of the surrealist philosophy—describing the dominant nature of the mind and that artistry can somehow capture the intricate inner-workings of the mind—was room 10 … where photographic images also sought to capture these ideas. Dali was friends with a 1930s/1940s photographer/filmmaker Luis Buñuel, who skillfully captured biographical images of members of the Surrealist movement that were displayed around room 10, in front of a cinema room. An introduction to the room explained that the films were exceedingly controversial in their time, with strong sexual undertones and violent/incomprehensible images. We sat down to watch both Un Chien Andalou (also: Un Perro Andaluz, from 1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930). And our lives will never be the same.
The only people who stayed to watch the entirety of the two films included ourselves and a father and son who spoke whispered French in the seats behind us. What did we have t
he pleasure of witnessing that so warped our minds that we had to leave the museum to digest what had happened in those films? What imagery could have left us with such an overwhelming mindset of “huh what?”
What a treat to have found the former film—the shorter and, amazingly, more comprehensible of the two—on the World Wide Web, just so that we can share the experience with you!! How exciting!! Click here for the about-sixteen-minute experience … or just watch the first five minutes to understand where we’re coming from in describing our experience as mindbending. Honestly, we somewhat enjoyed the strangeness of Un Chien Andalou, and it was L’Age d’Or that set us over the edge. What can I say but that it’s a French film?? I have a feeling that we still would have been at a complete loss had we understood the dialogue in the movie.
Leaving the building immediately after watching these movies, Dani’s head was about to spin off, and it was time for lunch! We had packed chorizo and queso and purchased a loaf of bread on our way to the museums in the morning, so enjoyed the afternoon sunshine with sandwiches and confused looks on our faces. We agreed it was time for some realism and headed to el Prado.
Dani wanted to find a particular artists’ group of work that we had skimmed over the last visit, but we took the long way in finding it, first going through new territory: Flemish works in the right wing of the building’s third floor; through the Romanesque sculptures pre-dating Christ; past a couple of new Tintoretto paintings that had replaced a wall of his art that we had seen last week; into the 1400 to 1550 wing with its Sarto, Parmigiano, Raphael, Correggio, and Messina retratos and religious paintings; and upstairs to find Rubens, Velazquez, el Greco, and Dani’s man—who turned out to be Tiziano once again! Tiziano’s use of darkness was particularly impressive in his 1547 Ecce homo, and Martha particularly liked the perspective in La gloria. Dani found the little boy peeing on the sleeping woman in La bacanal de los andrios particularly amusing.
Martha sat down to enjoy sketching one of el Greco’s renditions of Christ’s life: La anunciacion, which is just gorgeous with the bright colors of the Madonna, the angel messenger, the Holy Spirit, and the host of angels overlooking the heavenly announcement of the virgin birth. Martha’s new sketch pad (she bought a proper dibujo/sketch pad, pencil sharpeners, and three amazing gummy erasers for three euro at the local Chinese market) has some tick marks on the side that she found very helpful in getting decent perspective in this first round of sketching. Perspective has never been one of her strong points in art, so this is quite a challenge … to actually fit the masterpiece in the proper framework!! (Yeah, most of you have seen Martha's short-armed rendition of a Henry VIII painting that hangs in the basement at our house.) She got a decent start on the sketch, but looks forward to returning to work on it some more!
Before we knew it, it was 5 PM, which we had somehow gotten into our heads as ‘closing time’. So, we picked up our tools and got a-going, only to learn that the museum was open u
ntil 8 PM!! No worries, though, because we can return there ANY TIME with the annual pass!
Back up the hill, we stopped at a grocery store to get more supplies, specifically some of the items that we have found ourselves buying in-town: croquetas, calamari, more chorizo for sandwiches, vino at $.45 a box, juices for the mornings, milk, and helado, finally, for Dani (little bars in a variety pack of 12 that will last us a week, or at least a couple of days)!
At home, Martha worked on the new blog posting and chatted online with Buford, distracting him from work, while Dani succumbed to the afternoon siesta in preparation for their night out! For today is Wednesday and the Lonely Planet says that there is free flamenco to be had!!
The Lonely Planet was indirectly right-on, as Cardamomo charged us five euro to get in the door, but gave us a free comp for one of their five dollar (!) Heinekens. (What is this, Norway!?) Anyway, we enjoyed a lovely evening watching the dancing, taking photos and video, and chatting with Claire, a wonderful grad student from Australia who 
has been studying for her Master’s Degree in anthropology at a university in Boston and is about to go to Japan for a year to use her degree before returning to her home in Australia. Interesting, very pretty lady, from a background of Polish on her mom’s side and Burmese/Japanese on her father’s side. Martha was the first person that she’d met who has actually been to Burma! 
The singing, guitarra playing, and dancing were impressive, although not very long-lived. Dani and Martha took some video, too, of the performance, and here is a link to the five-minute video, posted on YouTube. Baile!
Much love,
Martha and Dani
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
May 27 to 29—El Rastro and A Couple of Long Walks
Dear Family and Friends, Each Sunday in Madrid, the locals and tourists clamor to shop along the open market of el Rastro (meaning “the Stain” because there were all butcher shops at the top of the hill where the market begins and the blood from the butchers would flow downhill). Boy what an amazing collection of people and wares! Of course, having managed to score an apartment in such an AWESOME location, it was just two blocks to the Plaza de Cascorro to begin at the top of this multi-street bazaar--the largest outdoor fleamarket in Europe! (Note that Martha's camera ran out of batteries early into our adventure, so you will have to wait for more photos of this collective until next week!)
We walked up and down the hillsides, looking at clothes for three euro and up; cheap bags, beautiful fans, tossed-about shoes, souvenirs, t-shirts, and socks; antiques and old junk; an alley of original artworks; electronics and tools, batteries and light bulbs; original handiworks; and even a pavilion of piercing accessories. So, what did Martha and Dani buy? We were pretty good, actually spending four euro or less each for the day! Martha bought a new eyebrow ring (she’s been looking for an all-green one ever since she passed up a titanium one on sale 
several years ago; today, she bought one from an awesome gentleman who took the time to find one for her that was not too long like the others that she owns). Dani bought a beautiful little blue cross with four colors across it creating a diamond-shape. Very pretty on her. After the bazaar ends, people gather in the square to continue the party and enjoy the beautiful day outside. We joined them in Tirso de Molina, enjoying a band performing until mid-afternoon and watching the politicos gather. The anti-fascist guys—who wore t-shirts touting their anti-fascism, which is how we knew—were particularly interesting to people-watch, as they drank their large beers and smoked their cigarettes, and grossly blew their noses in the plant-life in the plaza. Not the kinds of guys to take home to Mom, that's for sure!
Martha ran back to the apartment for a moment, leaving Dani to continue enjoying the sunshine and the gypsies who had taken up the task of filling the air with music. Martha’s return found Dani talking with Rocky, a mechanic from Peru who had made his way to Madrid to live and work. We three had a nice time talking about Peru, North
America (is Reagan’s daughter really getting heavily into politics?), and life as expats. He invited us to continue the conversation at a local pub, but we declined, erring on the side of caution. We may meet up with him again next week, however, which will be a nice distraction to look forward to, and a nice way to continue to work on our Spanish skills. (Well, for Martha to continue to work on her Spanish skills, as Dani is completely adept and Martha has found her comprehension of others’ lacking substantially! DOH!) The evening passed with rest, work on financial matters, and early planning for our next step. Looks like we will either be headed to Sarajevo come June 22 or directly to Bangkok to spend a few months in SE Asia. 
Monday morning, Day 14: Happy Memorial Day! We have begun our third week away from home. In the morning, Martha worked on blog entries, trying to catch up so that she can begin her “real work” on the book she’s aspired to get published someday. Dani slept and slept and slept, finally getting out of bed around noontime. We went grocery shopping, now turning from our “vacationing” lifestyle to our “living” lifestyle of watching our resources carefully. Lunch was amazing, however, as Dani cooked a more
traditional Spanish meal for us: chuletas (pork chops) from the butcher down the block, eggs, fresh bread, salchicas (tasty little sausages), and fried potatoes with salsa brava. (Martha has been craving something a bit spicier and this tomato-based spicy ketchup was just what she was looking for!) Apparently, we were hungry! Not the cuisine that we usually eat at home, but delicious, and great protein-enrichment for our afternoon walk.And so we headed out, Martha “leading the way” to nowhere in particular, but back through the dahlia park of San Francisco, today on a bright sunshiny day, by the Puerta de Toledo with its grand white archway. Within about an hour and a half, we found ourselves South of the city and off of the map of central Madrid that is supplied in the Lonely Planet. We walked downhill and over an old bridge above the small river Manzanares—where much construction was going on along the riverbanks.
Further towards the South, we found a busy highway with pedestrian path back across the river and
took another right, again away from home. Although we are not sure what exactly we encountered, the brick buildings and park area where we sat to relax for a while seemed to be a cultural center of some sort. We did see signs for the Matadero Madrid, which we thought might be open-air brick-face buildings being made to house the bulls for local bullfights, but this speculation did not live up to Martha’s Internet search on the topic, which revealed that it is a project to create a cultural center for Madrid. 
At least we had part of it right! It seems that the construction is still going on in a lively fashion, as much of the area we explored was closed off to the public. Back on our feet, we enjoyed a café con leche and the coldest cervesa yet found in the city, served in a white ceramic mug that may well have been chilled before service. Excellent. Back towards home, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the far side of Reina Sofia, followed by another wrong turn that left us saying, “Wow, there are a lot of different shops open than we’re used to seeing on this usual-street towards home!” for good reason. But soon, we were back at the apartment, ready for some more work on blog and books, and an early-to-bed Monday.
Tuesday, May 29, Dani awoke to Martha working on the blog-stuffs once again. (Almost caught up! I may be able to work on the book tomorrow … oh, except we plan to go back to the art galleries … DOH!) She made us breakfast (bread and yogurt) and lunch (a Spanish potato and egg tostada), and in-between spent some more time in Genesis as the morning turned into afternoon. Martha typed away, getting the next blog entry and its photos posted and beginning the next round for our adoring fans. *grin* Before we knew it, 4 PM had arrived, and it was time to stretch our legs!
Out the door, we headed Northwest this time, towards el Parque del Oeste (yup, you guessed it, 'Park of the West'). Again, we had wonderful sunshine to help us take photos of landmarks that previously had been overcast by the sky’s impending downpours. Martha was much more awake during this visit to the Plaza Mayor, and it was a warm, square-filled day for the tourists and the artists selling their glorious 
Spanish renditions in the shadows of the statue of King Felipe III. El Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Almudena and el Palacio Real were very photogenic. Beyond the palace, we hit new territory for the two of us, exploring the Jardines de Sabatini (gardens just below the palace dedicated to the architect of the palace itself), where lovers lounged in semi-seclusion. Both of us enjoyed seeing the Cervantes statue in Plaza Espana where the author sits above statues of his famous characters, Don
Quixote and Sancho Panza, as well as Don Quixote’s loves: the real Alfonsa with seeds to his left, and the fictional Dulcinea to his right. Children played all over the statues, and again couples and friends littered the grassy areas on this brilliant day. Somehow, Dani has managed to keep her helado compulsions at bay as we walked by numerous ice cream stands along our walk today!
Wandering, wandering, we came to “our destination,” an Egyptian temple called Templo de Debod, which Martha had seen on her previous journey here and had wanted to learn more about, since she considered it such an oddity to find an Egyptian landmark in Spain. It was about 5:30 PM when we arrived from our strolling, and the main building of the temple opened again at 6 PM! So we took some photos of the flowers (yes, it was Martha who took the flower pictures) and of the far-reaching view of the city to the West, and sat on the grass among the locals to soak in the evening s
un. Admission into the temple itself was free, and well worth it to enjoy the cool air inside and explore the many rooms full of hieroglyphics and details about the original location of the temple in Egypt.
The exhibit included information on why the monument needed to be moved (a dam was flooding the valley where this and other ancient Egyptian temples were located) and how Spain was gifted with it (the Spanish monarchy was instrumental in saving many of the landmarks before they would have been destroyed, so the Templo de Debod was a gift of thanks). Martha took photos of the hieroglyphs … the first that she has ever seen live, and Dani took photos both inside and outside of the temple. She even found a cubby hole to crawl through to scare someone in another room! 
Both were amazed at how large the inside of the building was, and then enjoyed taking more photos of the outside from the platform that housed two entry-way arches.
We finished the extended NW part of our walk into el Parque Oeste, along where the dogs were playing and students were making a film. Martha was getting tired and cranky by this time, so we stopped for some tapas—calamari and croquetas—before walking down the Gran Via, through la Puerta del Sol, along el Corte Ingles and the many shoppers out
for the evening, and back home by way of a grocer to pick up snacks and a sketch pad for Martha for our gallery trip tomorrow!
Our night ended with lounging once again at the apartment, our feet tired but feeling good after covering well more than 10 miles in two days. Martha admits that she is about ready to smack our Neighbor-Lady of the Loud (or at least bang on the wall) as NLL just recently came home, blasted her music, and began chatting at the top of her lungs, once again. If we were trying to sleep here about midnight it would be one thing, but typing away and reading the Bible were not too much hindered by her antics tonight. But, NLL is something else … and patience (and ear plugs) will be needed in the coming weeks!!! Hope your night is filled with quiet satisfaction!
Much love,
Martha and Dani
May 24 to 26—El Parque del Buen Retiro, el Prado, and Alisa!
Dear Family and Friends,
Thursday, May 24, the rains finally caught up with Martha’s head, keeping her in bed with a migraine until 1 PM to let her medicine work. What a gift to be able to lounge through the day instead of pushing herself to work or do other tasks! By early afternoon, she was feeling much better, although the rains kept coming most of the day. Dani and Martha headed to el Prado, just about a mile away from the apartment, to see about getting annual passes to this premier art museum as well as other museums around Madrid and greater par
ts of Spain. At the entrance, however, we were turned away as we needed to supply them with two passport photos (which we had brought many of, thanks to earlier guidance from Captain Heckel teaching Martha that it was important to have these photos along for journeys such as this) and a photocopy of our passports. We had all of these available, just not with us!
I. We also took time to feed the birds beneath the statue to Alfonso XII, explore where a zoo was located in the park until 1972, walk by a row of bookstore shells (only two or three were open this day), and generally have a great afternoon slopping around in our raincoats.
Our favorite find in this 320 acre park (so far) was la Rosaleda, a glorious rose garden with sweeping archways of flowers 
and fountains on each side and in the center. Walking back towards the area of el Prado, we came across the unique statue of el Angel Caido (the Fallen Angel), which is supposedly the only European statue dedicated to Satan, and wandered through what we believe was an olive grove dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Spanish train bombings. We also learned of weekend concerts in the park and hope to return some evening in the coming weeks to enjoy some free music. 
Friday morning, Day 11, we were up and headed back towards el Prado, passport photos and photocopy in 
hand, as soon as Martha could be dragged from bed! We stopped so Martha could by a sketch pad and some pencils before hiking down to el Prado. We worked with the ticket master to procure our laminated passes that allow us—whenever we want (EEEE!)—into el Prado, el museo Reina Sofia (more modern art museum than el Prado), and bunches of other museums in the area, as well as in Toledo, Barcelona, and parts of southern Spain (they gave us a list, thank goodness).
Our morning and part of the afternoon were spent among Romanesque sculpture from as early as 100 AD and the Spanish artists from 1500 to 1850, including Tiziano, Tintoretto, Verones, Bassano, Velazquez, el Greco, and Rubens. Martha took notes of some of her favorite images, and both she and Dani enjoyed seeing 
We did not even attempt to spend all day amongst the art as we did in London at the National Gallery (until our eyes and feet ached) since we can come back at any time!!! So, we headed out to try the menu del dia at La Finca de Susana, a restaurant nearby that is recommended in the Lonely Planet. We did stop momentarily at a souvenir/artisan shop to look at the wares: Lladro, swords, mosaic pieces, and other artistry. Onward to the restaurant, we found a full house enjoying the 8.40 euro meal of two courses, dessert, and a jar of wine. Dani had the paella followed by meatballs and potatoes in a rich sauce. Martha found the white sauce over her stuffed tomato to be exquisite, and the full fish well-cooked although full of tricky bones. The accompanying potatoes, however, were also amazing. Dessert comprised flan for Dani and helado chocolate (hmmmm, ice cream) for Martha. What an awesome find! We agreed that this would be “a place to take visitors”!
Back down the hill we strolled to el Museo National Centro del Arte Reina Sofia, the second of three prized art galleries in the city. Here more modern arts are housed: the cubism and surrealism of Picasso and Dali being the central focus, but we also enjoyed works by Balbue
na, Santos, and Ponce de Leon from the early twentieth century. Dani’s favorite of the day was to again see Dali’s
Again, we decided it was enough for the first day, just before we got to the surrealist wing that houses most of Dali’s famous works. We intend to make next Wednesday, May 30, a full day of the art museu
ms, armed with sandwiches for midday! We enjoyed a nice evening at home, and looked forward to Saturday after hearing from Alisa that she would be available to hang with us all day!
Saturday morning, Day 12, we woke up around 9 AM to shower and head out the door to the Tirso de Molina metro stop. Four trains later, we were uptown with some time to kill before meeting up with Alisa at 11:15 AM at the Novotel Puente de la Paz hotel. We caught up a bit in her hotel room as she finished getting beautiful for the day, then headed out
to catch the bus downtown and grab a bite to eat. We recognized the square near La Finca de Susana, so took her there! No menu del dia on a Saturday, unfortunately, so we each chose our choice of cuisine: salmon for Alisa, meatballs for Martha, and veal fillet with spinach (three pieces of a leaf … they are not big into greens here) for Dani. We shared a bottle of wine and sipped coffee as the restaurant filled up. We never thought it could happen in Spain, but after two hours of enjoying our meal and chit-chatting, we were asked to leave because of the line outside!!! No worries, as we were about done anyway, and the overcast day had little promise of downpours.
Our trio headed to el Parque del Retiro, where Dani and I traced some of our path from the previous day to share with Alisa, especially the rose garden, where we sat with our shoes off by th
e central fountain and discussed life, love, religion, and the exciting lives of our sorority sisters in America. Alisa has changed very little in the five years since we saw each other last; she continues to be a strong, independent woman who is finding her way in a world where she has pieces of her life on two different continents. Now, she must decide whether to leave her home country once again to live in a foreign land, with a different language, and the unknown. She’s a very thoughtful person, though, so I know that she will feel the situation out thoroughly before acting, and that gives me the greatest hope that she will find her happiness. One amazing change about her, however, was that this time, she actually admitted her true age! (Yes, Alisa, you’re 23 years old. Always …)
going to book signings, and enjoying family time in this grand park. We walked out, sat down for a quick libation, and headed towards el Corte Ingles so that Alisa could look at shoes for her grandfather. No luck here, but we did try some nice perfumes. Too soon, it was time to put Alisa back on the bus to her hotel and her boyfriend, Pedro, and his family. We send our love to you both, and look forward to meeting Pedro in Sarajevo in about a month! 
Dani and Martha took the long way home, cutting through el Plaza de Colon (Columbus Plaza), with its iconic statue of the great discoverer and grand modern sculpture, where the skateboarders and bike riders were doing tricks in the fading sunlight. We walked up through Chueca, a trendier part of town, and stopped for bocadillos at a place recommended in the Lonely Planet. We’d thought about checking out the nightlife on our first Saturday night, but we are old folks, after all, so we hopped on the metro home instead and were content to look forward to enjoying a night out at the discotec sometime in the near future.
