Impressions of Madrid, Historic Edificios

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Gran Via

As an American, I'm not used to seeing really old, ornate buildings right where I live. I wrote in yesterday's entry about scheduling my trip around early morning and late evening walks.

Hace Calor! One Woman's Survival Strategy (Madrid)

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Madrillenos have their own techniques for dealing with the heat of the city in July.

Those who don't have a long commute back home may still have a big midday meal and an afternoon siesta before returning to work until evening. But many do commute. I imagine they take advantage of air-conditioned offices as much as possible.

A tourist wants to see things, but when it gets to be over 100 degrees, she gets more than hot.

After I more-or-less got over my jet-lag I had forced myself to stay out all day. I was just miserable. After I came close to passing out on the metro, I came up with my strategy for beating the heat. I developed a modified Spanish plan. I set my alarm and got up at 6:00 in the morning to got out walking different neighborhoods, and taking photographs. In the late morning I visited any museums or other tourist attractions. Once it got good and hot in the early afternoon, I went back to my hotel room, showered off the heat, ate my yogur y frutas and whatever I had scrounged from the mercado. Then I had a REALLY LONG nap, really the second part of my nights sleep. I got up really late in the afternoon and went out walking again. This always included hanging out in El Parque el Buen Retiro. That's where the locals were anyway. Once I got tired of walking in the park, I sat on various benches and read or sketched. I also hung out at the turtle pond and chatted to people. (See my previous entry, Getting Neighborly).

Madrid stayed light until after 10:00 at night in July. Several times I stayed out until past 11:00. The Plazas are well-lit and, since I saw other home-bound women walking home at that time of night. From the style of dress of the people I saw, I guessed that the walk back to the hotel was relatively safe. A casual supper in my hotel room, a little English language news on t.v. and I got in another 5 hours or so of sleep.

Early evening at El Lago in El Parque de Buen Retiro

Enjoying the Frutas (y Verduras) of Madrid

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Towards the end of my week in Madrid, I found this nice grocery store about a three minute walk from my hotel right on the way back from the neighborhood entrance to El Parque de Buen Retiro, which I visited every day.

I waited my turn while I listened to this woman discussing the gazpacho she was going to make with the produce man. There, of course, the produce seller picks out everything for his customer. We don't sully the frutas or the verduras by touching or squeezing them with our fingers. They picked out everything she needed – tomates, pimentón, a little bunch of sweet, yellow cebollas and some nice heads of ajo. I can’t eat peppers, onions OR garlic, and it still sounded good, a nice cold vegetable soup in the ‘midst of Madrid en Julio. Most days it ranged somewhere over a hundred degrees in the afternoon.

La Senora made a friendly joke to me, about how long she'd taken and I told both of them how much I'd enjoyed listening to her cooking plans, since I was just visiting. That seemed to help me out of the tourist and into the visitor category.

This man handed me both a fresh cherry and an apricot to eat while I waited and, after he marked the price on each package of produce, he added in extras to each bag for this, clearly well-known, customer. Grocery shopping in another country is as enjoyable a cultural experience for me as restaurant eating is for the next woman.

Getting neighborly at El Palacio Cristal, El Parque de Buen Retiro, Madrid

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My favorite activity in Madrid was walking in the wonderful big city park, El Parque de Buen Retiro. I walked there every day. I chose the hotel I went to, Hotel Agumar on Calle de Reina Cristina, because I saw that park on the map nearby. I have really enjoyed locating near parks in other big cities, with which I was unfamiliar. I’m used to walking a lot at home. Not only is it nice to have a great big swath of shady green, I like getting to see people out strolling, biking, skating and enjoying the company of their pets and children. At home I have a lot of casual interactions with pets and people in my own neighborhood park and this was a similarly comfortable way to interact with people in Espagna.

The spot I returned to most often in the park was the turtle pond by El Palacio Cristal - a beautiful building if ever there was. It was fun going and sitting on the steps there in the evening, to watch the turtles and have low-key chats with children and adults. That's when I really felt a part of the community. And, unlike in the restaurants, when people started to smoke, I could move!

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain, Thoughts on Surging Over a Language Barrier

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One Wet Terrier

El Parque de Buen Retiro

Madrid, Espagna

Photo altered using Photoshop CS4,

Original work is the copyright of, L. Shimer, 2010

Dogs can usually figure me out - humans - not always.

Spanish dogs seemed to understand me easily, no matter in which language I spoke to them. Madrillenos seem to like dogs as much as Californianos do. It seemed like every third person in Madrid, had a dog on a leash during the paseo.

I was very glad that I am comfortable using Spanish on my recent trip to Spain. I think it would be difficult to visit Madrid and the environs, without some proficiency in the language. My most challenging encounters with Spanish came when I was working through the process of buying train tickets within the Atoche Renfe metro/train station. When I became uncertain about where the train left from (turned out I had to get a train to another station - Chamartin- first!) , broke down and asked for help in English, it simply was not available. I just had to figure out how to come up with other words to use, to ask my questions.

Next day in Chamartin, confused by the displayed departure information, I again asked for help in English. My request was met with a shrug and a referral to another clerk who didn't understand my question. As I've learned when visiting other countries, these situations force me to figure out how to communicate my needs. And, Y hola !, did I feel proud of myself when I navigated two trains and a bus on my day trip from Madrid to Segovia. Particularly when an older woman bus driver praised me for traveling sola.

I found the Harper Collins "Language Survival Guide, SPAIN" book in my library and took that along as my travel dictionary. Not only does it have word lookup, but also sections such as transportation phrases and ticket layouts. It was really useful, and I liked it better than other dictionaries I've used.

Good Enough To Eat

Waiting for an Introduction

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This long-legged beauty greeted me in the bathroom last night, while I was brushing my teeth. She jumped a little when I made a noise and scuttled back into the corner. Then she popped out again to, check me out I guess. Do spiders actually notice us as fellow creatures, or are we simply a big noise to them?

Is she a Callobius in the Amaurobiidae, or Tengellidae family of arachnids? I think she looks most like the photos of Ground Sac Spiders - CorinnidaeAmaurobiidae

Sami and Catnip at Spider identification.org thinks she might be one of those. We're waiting for more input. At this point she's still a bit of mystery.

And, typical of her sisterhood, she's crept off to find a more reclusive habitat. I doubt I'll see her again.

I altered the original photo a good deal. I created the colorful tiles from the colors in this red-legged beauty's body as viewed by the mosaic filter in Photoshop CS4.