IMPRESSIONS OF MADRID 14 MARCH 2019

IMPRESSIONS OF MADRID .. .. ..

Fifty years ago I was a Navy yeoman in a transport squadron station in Rota, Spain, at the Naval Air Station that's not there any more.  My wife and I have returned to Spain to see how much of the Europe that we knew is still there.  How much has it changed.

These are the first impressions I was able to capture.
I'll smoothe things out as I progress with these posts.


one of the women at the bar where we had breakfast
-----guided a blind lady who came in to a seat and took her
-----order
Kathryn and I went to find groceries . . ."alimentarios" are
-----everywhere; a pear and a tomato here; pkg of tuna and
-----pkg of peas there; couple of mandarins yet another 
-----place and a blackberry "tiramisu" at a small bakery
-----for dessert --- 3/8 mile around the block
bazillion cars in the street, and everybody is walking
Kathryn stayed in to do some bookwork, so I 
-----took the bus to the MUSEO NAVAL - it's closed for a 
-----year for remodeling
so i went walkabout 
-----to main Post Office at Plaza de Cibeles
-----art installation there by Victor Barba --powerful stuff
-----holographic Star Wars stamps
-----Justice League-printed flat-rate boxes
bought map to replace the one I left at the hotel
-----and postcards for grandkids
passing the Museo del Prado I flashed on all the kids
----- (elementary and up) attentive to their docents,
----- in their uniforms
passed so many huge sycamores I had to measure one;
-----it was 11 FEET in circumference at shoulder-high
-----(yes; I DO carry a tape measure in my backpack)
flashed on the green parrots in the trees
passed the statue of Apollo - yes; spitting water
passed the statue of Neptune - again, spitting water
gloried in watching a little girl jumping from square to
-----square defining the pedestrian lane while holding
-----mama's left hand; younger brother marched resolutely
-----across holding mama's right
toured a gloriously upscale souvenir shop across from the 
-----Prado; I WAS tempted, but I don't need a suit of armor
-----or a sword or a hand-painted miniature chess set of
-----Crusaders and Saracens . . . really; I don't
complimented a little boy (2-1/2 according to mama)
-----for his singing to the display-window mannequins
there is a Burger-damn-King across from the Prado!
put handful of coins in blind beggar's cup on street
passed a young man rapping in Spanish to his cellphone
passed an American in a Big House Football cap
there's a KFC next door to a Farmacia - cultural jolt
little boy in a blue school uniform -- with a tie -- eating a 
-----treat with his mama
there's a Taco Bell next door to a Dunkin Donuts across the
-----circle from the Association Atocha - the huge tennis
-----arena
there are electric bicycles and scooters everywhere
people walk their dogs everywhere . . . big dogs, little dogs,
-----young dogs, old dogs; even a small dog in a quilted
-----pink coat with a fur collar (!)
gave handful of coins to another beggar . . .
Jehovah's Witnesses proselyting next to Army recruiting 
-----billboard
kids and boys and men in soccer uniforms
many, many people smoking cigarettes
people's dogs on leashes lining up (the dogs are lining up)
-----to do their business in the bare soil around the trees
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia has a six-story outdoor lobby
-----walked into bookstore lobby - instant silence from
-----outside world; library below; classrooms above
conversation there with couple from Buffalo, NY, finishing 
-----Viking River Cruise; took the train from Barcelona . . . 
-----asked me if I was a teacher there (what a compliment!)
the Loteria is up to 90 million euros
motorcycle police with flashing blue lights on pylons
jogger with a ponytail
mamas and papas pushing strollers everywhere
stopped to buy grapes at a Bangladeshi fruteria; thought 
-----the little old lady ahead of me was through, but she
-----firmly shouldered me aside to keep putting stuff on 
-----the counter; finally got my grapes
couples walking everywhere, young people, old people,
the same people who pick up trash in the parks wash the
-----graffiti and posters off the building walls
Coca Cola posters on every bus stop shelter
Wednesday is trash pick-up day in this part of town;
-----businesses pushing out big containers of bagged trash
-----there were mattresses stacked up on a side street
motorcycles park on the street corners - including monster
-----BMWs
fountains everywhere; water playing everywhere
children playing on kid equipment in the parks
the crosswalks chirp to let you know to cross; the rhythm
-----of the chirp changes as time grows short
cell phones and people texting are everywhere
My walkabout was 3.2 km back from the Museo Naval to the hotel; about an hour.
We went to dinner at the Kubo Loco ("crazy bucket") across the street. Cuban rice and a coca cola. Picked up a chocolate pastry for dessert at pasteleria next door to our hotel.
Good day.

Who has time to take photos?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Fingerpost at Bowness

Image
Eighty-four-plus (includes wrong turnings) miles later I have completed walking the path of Hadrian's wall. I have learned some things and met a world of wonderful, joyous people. This photo is from the last portion of the walk. An old man in Port Carlisle has erected a fingerpost marking the distances to the ends of the Wall Path. He added fingers for walkers' hometowns, put a coin-slotted collection box on the post for donations, and opened his laptop for Google Maps. H is open garage just across the path sheltered his computer and his box of slide-in letters. I laughed out loud at the joy of it all. Of course I stopped. I had met Stephan and Sylive from the Czech Republic earlier on the Path at the Mithraic temple at the town of Carrawburgh (caRAWbruff) we had each stopped for a breather/water bottle/sandwich in a car park and were discussing which way the fingerposts were actually pointing. Stephan followed one sign; I followed the other. His went down the hill to t...
Read more

Walking Hadrian's Wall . . . Heddon-on-the-wall

Image
The first time you actually see what is left of the wall, your impression is . . . "What?! I've come all this way for THIS?" And then you calm down; you take a deep breath, and you realize that what you're looking at is almost 1900 years old. OK. What's that mean. Well, for one measure, twenty-five other guys lived as long as I have in a straight line before me. I don't consider myself old, but I'm not exactly young either. I think there are at least twenty-five people  from my high school graduating class still kicking; I'm only in touch with half a dozen or so. So if all of us held hands, that piece of wall would be four times older than we are. My brother and all my family that I know of I don't think total that many years.  And that wall will still be there when we're gone. And with the way climate change is going, I wonder what the evolved humans who come through the other side will make of it. Thus for philosophy. Just flipp...
Read more

Hail on V-E Day

Image
Interesting day in Paris in the Spring . . . Dragged out of the sack about eight of the clock (we'd been up reading last night till midnight), and, stuffing each of our laundry bags into my on-its-last-legs-overnight bag, slogged off to the "Club'Lav" over a couple of blocks. Yes, I -did- stop to pick up an apple-stuffed flaky pastry for munching during the wash cycle. Slow morning. Strolled to the end of the block to discover the Folies Bergère. Paris is a medieval city still. Yes, Hausman's avenues slice straight lines across her, but when you get off those straight lines, the Lord in His wisdom knows where you'll end up and what you'll find. I've passed the rear of that building several times and never had a clue. As well as palaces and museums and historical sites . . . you have to have a destination in mind. Walking the streets in this immediate neighborhood I have found half a dozen five-star hotels on streets ...
Read more