Saturday in Madrid

It is 2:30 and I am sitting on a bench in the garden beside Palacio Real. We have walked over 4 miles today and my feet ache a bit. Still not bad for a couple of oldsters :)

This morning we had breakfast at our hotel—very nice—and then walked down to the Golden Triangle of museums, the Prado, Thyssen and Reina Maria. The Prado’s line up was crazy long and online it had said their were no other tickets being sold today anyway.

I had read that the Thyssen might be more interesting in terms of Impressionists so we walked over there and the line wasn’t long at all. It is a hidden gem, so many breathtaking paintings!! We spent an hour walking along the galleries and eventually were replete with images. Couldn’t take in any more!

So we had sandwiches in the cafe and walked over to the Botanical Gardens. Huge line for those that didn’t seem to be moving so we decided to go back to our hotel for an afternoon siesta. Once again though all the side streets completely turned us around and ended up here at the garden in the Palacio. Even R’s much-vaunted sense of direction completely defeats him.

Some photos

Comments

January 2024 and blogging

I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. Partly that was due to not knowing what to write about and partly it was wondering if I wanted to put myself "out there" anymore. And in what way. I subscribe to a few blogs on Substack, which is a subscription-based blog. You can pay to have your own blog, you can pay for someone else's blog, and that means you get to write and post and get comments back from a whole lot of people. You can comment on other people's blogs--if you pay--or else you can just read the blog and not pay. Of course you might miss some of the "pay only" content--much like modern news media has teaser stuff but to read the whole article, you have to pay for a subscription. The Substack blogs cover all kinds of topics and there are a few "professional" writers--meaning they're journalists and writers who have published and been paid larger bucks than the $5 a month they get per subscription on Substack--but I think most ...

It’s just another day

Yesterday was the final day of my 8-day assignment in a 4th grade class; I’ve written something about that assignment in a previous post, “Revolt of the Guinea Pig,” It’s been a challenging 8 days which, as Dickens might have said, brought out the best in me and probably the worst in me as well. But yesterday morning I had that experience that every teacher dreads—shelter in place, also known as possible shooter situation. I had arrived at the school at 7:20 thinking how wonderful it was that our heat had broken a bit. The skies were overcast, we’d had rain the day before, there was a cool breeze. As I walked to my classroom (photos below of what the buildings look like), I waved to the students already gathered on the other side of the gate, who were waiting to rush in, some to the cafeteria for their breakfast, some to the playground to run and hopefully get some of that energy out before the bell rang at 7:55. I unlocked the outside door to our building, walked down the corrid...

Journeying to Helsinki

Sheila and I got up quite early in our hotel room, were packed and ready to go by 7:30. Had some buffet breakfast (a couple of mini croissants, double Gloucester cheese, fruit and a latte), brushed teeth, out of room by 8:30 am. At train station before 9, picked up my tickets and realized I wasn’t going directly to Heathrow on the train but was going to King’s Cross first and then would have to transfer to the Tube. Ugh. Still the first class carriage York to King’s Cross was very nice. I was served a ham sandwich and a brownie. (If I had realized that would be the last food I’d get until 3:00 pm, I would have eaten the whole sandwich. This is becoming a theme with me, long waits between meals.) As first class also means free WiFi, I began to dismantle my arrangements for Edinburgh although I couldn’t fix the Ryanair part of it yet—what a surprise. I have over a week to do that, if I’m not too tired when I get to the hotel in Helsinki tonight, I will get that done. It was difficult to ...

valeriesbookofme

Search This Blog