MANY museums in Madrid, art and otherwise. These paintings are in the Thysssen Bornemisza art museum.
Thyssen Bornemisza Art museum
Monthly Archives: January 2015
Misc. Madrid
As I’m typing this, I can hear/have been hearing the constant roar from a soccer match at the Vicente Calderon Stadium – .75 miles away!! – Laura
Bling
Laura wanted me to spring for some bling but instead I sprung for some springs. -Dave
Jan 6, Still in Holiday mode
Jan 6 is a holiday here – Los Reyes Mogos. Translated into English – “everything will be closed or have reduced hours”. It didn’t stop many people, including us, from being out and about on another sunny day. No luck finding the stamp and mint museum (it likely would have been closed) so we settled for a beverage at Casa Carmencita.
“This mid 19th century taberna was famous in the early 1920s as a hangout of writers, artists and politicians. Its wood façade, elegant tiling and gas lamps add to its character.” The tile work was absolutely beautiful. Dave noted that the garlic-infused green olives (we love the gratis snacks!) were the best he’d had. (Kirken: you’d go nuts here!) We hope to find a few more of the old taverns, especially the one frequented by Ernest Hemingway.
But wait – yesterday, Jan 5 was Cabalgata de Reyes. Translated into English: HUGE Twelfth Night parade (semis pulling the floats) and crowds not to believed. The parade started at 6:30 p.m. and it was 8:00 when it finally reached the end of the route, where we jostled for a viewing spot at the barrier. Most of the people (us included) couldn’t actually see the parade so I surmise it’s just yet another excuse for kids to be out late! We left after the first few floats, which were very commercialized children’s characters, so guess we missed the ones that actually related to the religious meaning of the event, AND the fireworks. This 2013 video. gives a flavor, as does this second shorter one. Yup, we hit the jackpot and were here for the “biggest holiday in Spain”! Cheers – Laura
All about the fur
Fur coats (Paige!) are worn casually, though the temperatures really don’t warrant them. Fashion in general is several notches higher than in the states. Even those on a stroll to the market are dressed smartly. Sweats and athletic shoes are only seen on joggers. – Laura
Raisins…
Trip Strategy
For this trip we are trying to live within our retirement checks or stated another way, live for the same price we would at home. We are using the web site airbnb.com to find lodging. This site gives you the ability to search for bunches of places to stay and allows you to enter criteria to narrow down the search. We are using three criteria: 1) whole house 2) washer/dryer and 3) wifi. You can see all the candidate homes on a map and click on a home to see the description and all the included pictures. The airbnb vacation rentals are all homes/apartments/condos/rooms that people, in contrast to companies, are making available.
We type in what ever city we are interested in and look for a place that looks decent and is either walkable to most places or is on a bus or train line to get where we want to go.
The selection of “whole house” on airbnb also assure us we find places with a kitchen which is also key to keeping cost down. In general we plan to to eat two meals at home and one out every day.
We intend to stay in one place for at least 10 days. The longer you stay in most airbnd establishments the better price you get but also the longer you stay the more you get a feel for what life in a particular city is really like. The trade off of course is that you stay too long in either a city you don’t like, or a home you don’t like, and that you don’t see as many attractions over the course of a trip (in our case 4 months). On balance we are shooting for about 2 weeks every where we go.
I have included the picture of two wine bottles we bought in our neighborhood grocery store here in Madrid. I’m always on the search for the cheapest bottle of drinkable wine I can find. We bought two bottles one costing $1.38 and the other “expensive” wine was $3.90. Laura and I both preferred the $1.38 wine so it now replaces a previous cheap wine we like (in Malta several years back for $1.90). In fact bottled water costs more than bottled wine here in Madrid. – Dave
Happy New Year 2015
Excellent instruction from our lodging host got us through the Madrid subway system without a hitch. Transferring between 3 different lines (pink, navy blue, light green) was easy, and this “first time” was made easier by the lack of crowds on this holiday a.m. From our subway exit it was a 10-ish minute walk through a neighborhood to the apartment we’re staying at. Having extra time, we would have loved to find an open coffee shop – but no-go (none open on New Years Day). Cold morning (30 deg) with clear skies. Norberto showed up on time to let us into our new “home” for the next 10 days. A small but efficient newer 4th floor apartment, windows to the street. The street level is peppered with small bars, restaurants, grocery and produce stores, and various other service stores. Very handy. Apartment dwellers compete for parking spots on the street, and on the sidewalks on the “no parking” side of the street. Most of the apartment buildings in this area are not big – 4-5 stories with 3-5 places on each floor.
Caution: Watch for lit cigarette butts flicked from upper balconies, salt disguised as sugar in a canister (‘this tea sure tastes funny’), and dog poo on the sidewalks.
Travel days
Dec 31 & Jan 1
Flight from Seatac to JFK uneventful. Travel note for JFK: if you’re traveling on more than 1 airline & they’re in different terminals (there are 8 terminals), allow extra time to go through security – again. We had plenty (4 hrs) but wouldn’t have guessed it would have taken us as long as it did.
The travel gods were with us:
1) Everyone we asked for help (and there were several of them!) was kind and helpful.
2) “TSA Pre-check” was stamped on our boarding passes (don’t know the criteria that allowed this) so we were directed to a line where removing shoes and liquid contents of luggage is not required. Often this isn’t a time-saver, but on this occasion it was huge.
3) Our boarding passes also noted “priority”. Again, not sure of the criteria. Good looking couple? They were almost- free tickets (Frequent flier miles + $35), so it wasn’t because we were big spenders. Regardless, it got us to the front of the line – again.
4) Scrunched back in 767 economy seat to Madrid, but not complaining, a flight attendant asked if we’d like the emergency exit row seats. “Hell yes!” I whooped, as I gathered belongings and bolted to the new seats before he changed his mind. Once again, not sure why he chose to offer them to us. Didn’t care, just enjoyed the extra leg room – Dave especially.
The flight time was reduced by 1 hour to 6.5 hours with the 100 mph tail wind. This got us into Madrid at 7:30 a.m, through immigration with narry a glance or question, no customs (day off?) and no luggage to collect (just a carry-on bag for each of us). And we’re off!! – Laura