The more I learn...

the more I wonder...

WEEKEND RECAP in ONE POST (aka warning: long post alert):

VIERNES:

Thanks sooooo much for all of your notes, videos, and stories on my birthday!!!  Your notes on Insta and FB and email ensured that I had a smile on my face everywhere I turned.  The videos cracked me up, and I’m impressed at how many of you practiced your Spanish!  And the stories!!!  I hope y’all enjoyed each other’s; now I have many travel stories to hear more of whenever we visit the US.  Even though I missed being with y’all, I was with some great people.

Earlier in the day, Chad and I wandered out to find the biggest department store in town, el Corte Ingles.  Think of Target with 7 levels and with 3 of the stores within walking distance because even that isn’t big enough.  I had to add to my clothes collection.  Turns out instead of packing for the low 50s that were predicted for Norway, I should have packed more for the high 90s of Spain. Luckily, one can find clothes anywhere in the world, it’s just not always easy. The message in Spain, for instance, is clear: put on some respectable clothing for crying out loud!  After slowly backing away from the saleslady in the “casual” department (aka the fanciest clothes I would own,) we went up to the athletic floor.  I wished I were athletic enough to warrant buying one from every “designer” (ha, because A. Didas is more of my jam than the other floor.)   

I did finally find a pair of shorts, and we headed down to the first floor to find something Chad has needed.  He left behind his shaver because it was too heavy.  He found one Friday that is light, but he will need a converter to use it in the States.  I don’t know why I thought it would have our plug and they would just need converters. Wonder why we have different plugs anyway in the US??  Anybody with electrical knowledge that can share?

Then we had a nice lunch, although it started with the waiter plopping a bowl of nuts down on the table.  I am allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and so far I’ve been impressed with all 3 countries we’ve visited and how they alert you to allergens.  Even in the nicer restaurants, they have a key with sometimes up to 15 ingredients in their menus.  But this bowl of allergens was a new one.  Obviously, I knew not to eat them, but it’s not as easy when they put nuts in bread that they plop on the table.  I am fortunate to be able to ask, and I have people that watch out for me, too, but the amount of food with nuts makes me take pause about going to places where I don’t speak the language.

Fast forward to dinnertime:

Luke (aka Texas Jesus for those of you who met him at Chudstock) made the drive down from Santander to bring the party from up north.  Pritch and Jodi brought the party from the other side of Madrid.  We started off the evening (of course) at the Meson de Champiñones, and it did not disappoint.  We sat close to the table where it all began for me. (You can read a few entries back by going to the website if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  https://walkgently.blogspot.com)  The mushrooms were delicious, the company entertaining, and the old man on the keyboard just precious. I’m sure we’ll go back.

Afterwards, we went to a wonderful restaurant in the Florida Park section of el Retiro, which is like their Central Park. https://www.esmadrid.com/en/tourist-information/parque-del-retiro for a quick synopsis of all that is in this park, including that it is a recent addition to the UNESCO World Heritage designation.  It says there are more than 15,000 trees and 125 Hectares (again, conversion math…)  It was the playground for kings, and there are many sculptures and “resting areas” throughout.  There is an annual book and reading fair, but even during the year booksellers open their kiosks with an array of books along this one stretch near the park.  (Made me wish I had clothes I could let go of to make room for souvenirs.  It’s times like this that I miss my travel vest for sure.)  And there are other curious landmarks: “Near the Rose Garden, you’ll encounter the statue of the Fallen Angel, the only sculpture in the world dedicated to the devil, which curiously enough sits 666m above sea level. Other spots worth visiting are the Galapagos Fountain, built in honor of the then princess Isabella II, and the Teatro de Titeres, the only theatre in Europe that stages puppet shows every weekend.”

Dinner was amazing, and for the record, I tried a new fish even if I wasn’t brave enough to sample the tartar or ceviche.  I also got a birthday sorbet with a huge sparkling candle before we headed out to the park to find somewhere for Luke to play his “Banjo Friday.”  Right beside the lake, he serenaded us with his signature style for about an hour. During that time, some people walked up and sat down with us.  They stayed for a couple of songs and tried to find the place to drop some Euros before they left.  Chad waved them off, but later he wished he hadn’t because he realized it would have been Luke’s first paid gig!

Ok, I looked it up.  There are over 300 acres in el Retiro, and I felt like we walked most of them after Luke’s concert.  We started just meandering through the well-lit trails when a security guard drove up in a little smart car, barking orders at us through a megaphone even though we were standing right in front of him.  I know enough Spanish to “defend myself,” but I don’t speak megaphone-police Spanish.  All I understood was that we were walking the wrong way and to go to the exit at Atocha.  I know that Atocha is the train station, but I have no idea where it is, especially in relation to where we were.  Thanks to Jodi, Pritch, and Luke for knowing the way, we were able to walk and walk and finally get to the corner of the iron gate.  It still didn’t look like an exit at first, and I thought we might end up spending the night in the park, which would have been great for this blog but not so good for my anxiety.

We made it home around 2am, and let me tell you, I think we were the first ones headed to bed in this entire town.  To say the people around here are night owls is an understatement.

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SABADO:

We got up early, and Chad grabbed his cleats.  We were headed to the other side of town to a Club Deportivo (sports park) to meet up with Raul.  Raul is a friend of mine from college (we actually dated for a while.)  I had asked him a few months ago if he could arrange for Chad to play in a pickup game with him.   As it turned out, Raul had a motorcycle accident so he couldn’t play, but he did put Chad on the roster with his team for the day.

Chad says: “I am so thankful to Raul for setting up time for me to play in this pickup league.  It was so much like playing with the group that I normally played with back home.  After five minutes, I was fully into the game, and we had a fantastic match back and forth.  The language of fútbol kicked in, just as it always does.”  (PS from Karin, he scored twice and had 2 assists.  Way to represent!)

I figured that he and Raul would like each other.  They both are huge soccer fans not only in playing but also in watching and analyzing. They are interested in business, and both work with teams in the US.  Raul had already given me suggestions to pass along about how to manage the time zone difference.) And both were/are very patient with me when I was/am bitchy.  I last saw Raul when the kids and I came to Spain almost exactly 10 years ago.  Old friends are sometimes the best to meet again.

At lunch, Luke, Chad, and I met Raul and his girlfriend, Victoria, at a nice place in the center of the city.  We had a leisurely lunch and then headed back home.  We went for a walk to the Parque de Atenas (Athens Park) with Luke as the sun was setting.  As we rounded a corner, I heard salsa music playing.  My ears perked up, but my heart leapt when I saw people moving to the beat.  There were probably 100 people spinning, dipping, and stepping.  Salsa really isn’t a Spanish dance, so I was surprised to see so many people there. (Chad was dancing by himself until finally an old man came over to ask if he wanted to dance.  Chad turned him down.) We watched the couples for a while before it dawned on me that these were likely immigrants, as many people from Latin America come to Spain.

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DOMINGO:

Chad, Raul, Victoria, and I went to Segovia, a town that is about an hour’s ride away.  There we saw the Alcazar, which was built in the 12th century on top of a rock and surrounded by 2 rivers and a moat.  It has all sorts of hidden passageways that connect it to the rivers and to other palaces.  It is also what inspired Cinderella’s castle.  (See the side by side comparison here.  See again, how does one get that “search for somewhere cool for Disney” job?!)

https://www.coleccionandomomentos.com/espana/alcazar-de-segovia-todo-lo-que-necesitas-saber-antes-de-visitarlo/

We also saw one of the best preserved elevated Roman aqueducts, which is what Segovia is most known for.  Besides making me want to learn more history, I tried to imagine the brainstorming session it must have taken for them to engineer the aqueduct.  Since we didn’t take an official tour, I’m depending on our friends at Wikipedia for the big question I wanted to know—how old is that marvel?  Archeological evidence from 2016 says around 117 AD.  It’s truly hard to wrap my head around something being that old.  Raul and I had a conversation about whether we as a society are smarter than people who managed to create something with such limited resources and tools that was so useful and has lasted so long  He said, “They did what they did with the tools they had, and we are doing the same.”  Still, I’m amazed at what people so long ago were able to accomplish.

We wandered around the narrow cobblestone streets until we got to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, another place that had my brain in overdrive.  “Built at the highest point of the town, construction of the cathedral of Segovia began in the year 1525, during the reign of Carlos V. It was the last Gothic cathedral built in Spain.”  https://www.spain.info/en/places-of-interest/cathedral-segovia/  There was one little section that is being renovated for 140 million Euros.  It’s hard to comprehend the pricelessness of that Cathedral, which goes on forever and is full of marble and gold.  I wondered what the people thought when it was being built.  I wondered who paid for it.  I wondered how it must feel to attend mass there now.

By the time we left, I had no more room for wonderings.  However, on the drive back, we started talking about Victoria’s home, Ukraine.  She left not too long ago and told us about all of the normal things that seem impossible to have lost.  She talked about coffee shops and a shopping mall that her mom frequented that were destroyed.  She talked about how many young soldiers have died fighting.  She said her mom has gone to Poland but wanted to go back to their small town in Ukraine so she could check on her gardens.  Once again, I wondered…

We eventually made our way back, along with all of the other Madrileños who had gone out of town for the day or the weekend.  We were surprised by the fincas (farms) and mountains (which apparently have some nice trails) that we passed along the way.

Another solid couple of days in Spain.  We have started a spreadsheet (surprised?) to rank all of the places where we go to see if we’d like to spend more time there.  So far Spain is scoring pretty high.

FOOTNOTES:

1) Writing prompts:

• I wonder…

• I wonder…

• I wonder…

  2. Check out Instagram for more pics (@walkgentlyblog)

  3. Check out Instagram for Banjo Friday songs (@eltexasjesus) : )