May 31—Book Work Begins and A Walk Ends at the San Isidro Museum

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 significance 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