Tuesday, February 25th
We went to an archeological museum today, the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. It’s quite near to us, just a 20 minute walk. The exhibits focus on the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal) from the Stone Age up through medieval times.
One of the most famous items in the collection is a limestone bust called La Dama de Elche.
The bust was created sometime in the 4th Century BC. Experts believe that it is an image of the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, who was worshipped in some parts of Iberia at that time. The bust was found in 1897 by a farm worker who was clearing land near the town of Elche, Spain. The landowner placed the bust on a balcony at the front of his house so that everyone who passed would be able to see it. Soon, however, news of the discovery spread to Paris and the Louvre offered to buy La Dama for 4,000 francs, a large sum of money for the time. Thus La Dama resided in Paris for many years. Finally, in 1941, the French and Spanish governments signed an agreement that resulted in her return to Spain.
Today the Dama de Elche is exhibited next to another 4th Century BC sculpture, a seated figure called the Lady of Baza.
Wednesday, February 26th
Well…there’s a birthday coming up. Time to do some present shopping. First we went downtown because E wanted to look for some makeup at a famous department store called El Corte Inglés. It was only two Metro stops away, so that was easy. And it was pretty easy to find the gigantic cosmetics section. In fact the only difficulty at El Corte Inglés was the price of things. Of course that was to be expected, but still it was a shock and E decided to put off most of her purchases for another time and place.
But what about some clothes shopping? For that we left the area around Puerta del Sol and walked a few blocks down toward the Plaza España. There we found a store called Zara, a much more congenial place. Another big difficulty, though, is that the styles are so different here, first because they’re so European and second because they’re so urban. But E was up to the challenge.
We passed several Metro entrances during our travels today. Here are photos of two of them. We’ve edited out the station names. But even without labels, perceptive readers might be able to tell which is Chueca and which is Plaza España.
Thursday, February 27th
And then, suddenly, it was the day, the actual day of the birthday. In the morning M went off the papelería (paper store) to get some needed supplies. When he returned he closed himself off in our little bedroom and got busy wrapping. By 1:45, we were suitably dressed and ready to get on our way to the La Maruca restaurant over on Velasquez Street, just five Metro stops away.
By 2:45 we were seated around a table for eight and getting started with some white wine…
La Maruca specializes in Cantabrian food and everything we tried was delicious. Cantabria is on the north coast of Spain and many of its famous dishes are seafood based. E had merluza (hake) served with boiled potato pieces in a sauce of onion, garlic, paprika and olive oil. She loved it. M had albóndigas. Albóndigas are meatballs served in a small amount of rich broth. It is often a modest dish and M had had it before many times on both sides of the Atlantic. Usually it is a tasty but unassuming dish. As he looked through the menu M suspected that La Maruca albóndigas might be on a whole other level. He was right; they were superb, the best he has ever had.
For dessert E had a piece of lemon meringue tart, this on the very day that some of her Oregon friends were holding a meeting of the Corvallis Lemon Meringue Pie Society, a meeting that E had to miss.
The gathering was fun, and a special reunion of old friends. Yes, the friendships are old and so are we. We all have our health challenges, some more than others. E is very grateful for the efforts that everyone made to attend.
And finally, here are a couple of photos at our place back in Chueca.
Friday, February 28th
A much quieter day today. Our agenda was pretty simple: sleep in, then go out and get a fresh loaf of bread and maybe a can of soup to go with the broccoli that’s sitting in the fridge. That would do for dinner. For lunch we went to a very modern, mostly vegetarian restaurant called Honest Greens. Very nice. Corvallis definitely could use a branch. And oh yes, E also made a trip down the street and around the corner to a little shop called the Bazaar. She wanted some clothespins.
Saturday, March 1st
Rain. Hmm. We may have to leave. But meanwhile, continuing our quest for affordable cosmetics, we took the Metro out to a mall in another part of town—a place where normal people shop. And we found success: identical products for half the price! The cosmetics store had a tiny men’s section, which M decided to examine while E was occupied. He found a row of products meant to keep men’s hair in place. These come in various strengths, ranging from Estilo Despeinado, (The Uncombed Look) to Glued, then Ultra Glued, and finally Hard Cemento. Perhaps you think we are joking, but no…
Sunday, March 2nd
More rain today. Definitely time to head for Pompeii.