Madrid, Spanish Naval Museum

02/17/2011


In the fall, Robyn came back to Madrid and I stayed home. She had some great trips with our spanish friends including a trip to Rioja, which is in the wine country, and had the best time. Unfortunately, we have not found her USB cable to get the pictures off the camera so those stories will ahve to wait until we get back home and she has time to write about them. Robyn has been extremely busy at work and working long hours. This project they are working on is very large and stressful on everyone there.


We finally made it back to Madrid on February 12th. We had a good flight over and now that we know our way around and a little more spanish, we had no trouble getting to our new apartment from the airport. We are in a different part of town that is very nice and not as noisy as our previous apartment in Sol. Unfortunately, the commute for Robyn to work is an hour and requires a lot of walking but the exercise will be good for her. We both suffered jet lag worse than any other trip but we will rest up this weekend. After getting settled in our apartment, we went out to dinner with some friends. Reuben, who is from Spain, ordered the tapas for the 7 of us as well as a hard apple cider which is well known in a special region of Spain. The waiter held the bottle high in the air and poured the cider into a glass he held below (over a barrell to catch the cider that missed the glass) so as to add air to the cider to enhance the flavor. The food was delicious and included chorizo with potatoes, octopus (yummy), squid in squid ink empanada (sounds bad but tastes good), and big white bean and clam soup which was so good that Robyn and I have decided to go eat this once a week. Robyn was off to work on Monday and I was off to the grocery store to get supplies. I soon realized we needed an ice tray(bandeja de hielo) so I went to the closest stores but they did not have them. I knew a store in Callao that had them because that is where I bought them last time so I decided to walk the nearly 3 miles there on this cold, cloudy day. I found the ice tray in the large department store right where I remembered them being from last time. I rode the metro back home because I was tired. I have to build up my stamina for walking long distances again. I brought a pedometer with me this time so I can keep up with how far I walk each day. I didn't start wearing it until Monday but I have walked over 12 miles in the first 3 days. It has been rainy and cold every day until today. Tuesday I walked through Retiro Park to get to the Thyssen Museum but on the way I came across the Spanish Naval Museum so I stopped in there. It is a large museum with lots of models of old ships from the Spanish Armada all the way to modern ships. There were also lots of old canons, weaponry, and artifacts from old ships. It was very interesting and I was there for 1-1/2 hours. The picture of all the toy soldiers shows the changes in the uniforms worn by the soldiers from past to present. The picture of the long tube-like thing standing on end is actually a telescope that was mounted on the ship. I left that museum and walked to the Thyssen museum which holds lots of paintings from masters such as Monet, Chagal, Salvidor Dali, Picasso, and many others. No photos were allowed in the museum but the paintings were great. The exhibit is very large and after 2 hours my legs were getting sore so I left and walked back home.

Today is a beautiful day and I am doing laundry and writing this blog but I need to go to the store to get food for dinner tonight and then go out and walk around for a while to see what I can find.
Adios mi amigos