Thurs, 8/18/2011 - Keswick to Winchcombe

We bad farewell to the Lake District -- Grasmere & Dove cottage would have meant a few more hours'drive & I was nervous enough about my stint of driving on the M6, so I lugged The Oxford Book of English Verse along for nothing, didn't I?

It was about 5 hrs drive down to here -- through pretty grimy Midlands (Lancaster, Birmingham) but these rolling hills & fields are lovely. The house we're staying in is lovely, too, built in the 18th cent, all filled w/ antiques & pictures of a VERY handsome family. Lovely picture of two blond daughters, barefoot, in sleveless black dresses, standing on the grass.

They own some 600 acres and of course the line is they take in B&B guests only out of generosity to share this loveliness w/ them, but it can't be much fun, can it, to have strangers tramping dirt into your lovely home week in & week out? And, I mean, it's not that much money, is it -- total revenue is maybe GBP 400/night or so (max, and there are exps), and I as overpaid dweeb earn roughly that. Of course, I don't live in lovely country-side, do I. I guess that's the point.

The bookstore in town is going out of business. S spent some GBP 20 on maps there, a shocking sum for him, and then spent a further 10.

My bberry revived when I charged it w/o the transformer, and now it's its peppy little self. (altho radio transmission briefly off after I took out the battery).

However, we still have communications constraints, because:
1) S's Estonian-based cell phone doesn't get good reception, so when he calls the states, people can't understand what he says.
2) I can't figure out how to dial UK numbers -- the prefixes we could think of didn't work.
3) I can't figure out how to set up my voicemail box.
The upshot is, S can call me, but I can't call him. Steve thinks I'm technologically inept. I think if he had some normal cell phone I could just return a missed call.

Fri, 8/19/2011 - Winchcombe, Belas Knap, Sudeley Castle

Funny to hear sheep baa-ing as we wake & go to sleep. Keep hearing "sheep may safely graze" the Bach cantata tune, in my head. (posted a link to a rendition in the left hand side of the blog). We walked into Winchcombe today & then to Belas Knap -- a Neolithic barrow that held some 38 individuals -- way up on the Cotswold escarpment. The altitude gain was 700' (so paltry, but it made me huff & puff). Lovely views across the valley -- Sudeley castle & St Peter's in the village.

Belas Knap looks roughly like 1/2 pear, where the pear is 40-50'long and up to 20'high. One guidebook said -- 15,000 man-hours, v. fine dry laid stone, so demonstrated advanced organization. I keep thinking, what would possess people to build such a thing? Someone's ego trip.

Sudeley castle v. damaged in civil wars & largely rebuilt by Victorian textile tycoons. The lovely little church of St. Mary's is almost entirely a Victorian reconstruction (I learned after reverently photographing the effigy of Catherine Parr). Poor lady only lived a bit over a year after marrying Semour -- died of purpureal fever at 36.

The exhibits weren't that substantive -- mostly costumes from a TV version of the 6 wives of Henry VIII -- so largely Philippa Gregory land. Gardens v. pretty - I only spent an hour in the whole place, and 15 min was getting & drinking a pot of tea, since S stayed outside.

We trudged back to the house (so maybe 8 miles total that day) and scurried into Winchcombe to pick up laundry. Dinner at the Indian restaurant, followed by S investigating the coop supermarket to compare prices with the US.

Sat 8/20/2011 - Broadway, Chipping Campden, Cirencester

We drove over to Broadway -- pretty, but it didn't really grab me, and then to Chipping Campden, which is really lovely - buildings of all eras -- 14th - 19th cent, all in the same honey-colored limestone.

Church of St. James v. nice - chapel with 17th cent effigies of worthy couples w/ incredible neck ruffs carved in marble. Couldn't find the floor bronzes in the chancel that were described. V. comfortable looking church. We ate lunch in a 14th century pub -- I had a little of S's hard cider.

By the time we'd wandered around, it was well after 3 & I wanted to see the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Cirencester -- S kept threatening I should drive but good thing I didn't, since we had to scurry to get to the church by 4:30. V. handsome 17th cent floor stones, all specifying profession: soap boiler, or printer or clothier. Also 14th cent bronzes in the altar of one of the chapels.

8/21/2011 - Hailes Abbey

Two mysteries I'm leaving on the shelf of the guest room (but the authors were decent):

PL Gaus - Clouds w/o rain

Rebecca Tope - A Cotswold Killing (she didn't tie up all her ends, though).

Steve's green jacket is disintegrating day by day (and is terribly smelly). The hood is coming apart from the body & the back is flaking off.

Lovely, clear day. We started out for Hailes Abbey -- dismantled in the Dissolution -- took longer than we'd thought to go through the interpretive material. We didn't start walking till maybe 11:30, and the walk took till maybe 2:30. Great views across the Vale of Evesham.

8/22/2011 - Call to A

He's signed a lease starting Sept 1 on a house, so for the mean time he stays w/ Claire, whose parents are divorced. He mirrors where Claire's sister goes (i.e. when she goes to one parent, he goes to the other & uses her bed). He's friends w/ Claire's Dad. Spent most of the weekend hanging out w/ people from work (predominantly 22-23 yr olds). He was asked to tell his manager if he was going to be getting into the office later than 11 AM (so worktimes v. flexible).

8/22-23/2011 (Mon & Tues) Oxford & London

We left the Cotswolds about 10 AM yesterday -- S drove maybe an hour to Oxford, parked in a park & ride, whence we took the bus into Oxford. Ashmolean (alas) closed Mondays. Went through Balliol (Id forgotten that Peter Wimsey was among the alums) -- mostly Victorian. S v. interested because it was the model for Princeton's grad college. The portraits of dignitaries in Hall included Baruch Blumberg (I hadn't known). Incredibly lush flower beds (I've really never seen the like). Included banana-looking things (winters must be v. mild).

[S said at some point he worries I dress too frumpily for work. (this from someone who's spent 30+ years teaching in math T shirts). I worry maybe he has a point.]

We also went to Magdalen -- v. lovely cloisters lined w/ hydrangeas. Then we went back to the car -- S drove us to Heathrow -- one wrong turn, and a scramble to get to a gas station & top up the car (I wound up directing S at one point when he had to back out of a non-functioning bay). Great relief to S to deliver the car unscathed.

Then bus to but-to-airport, 2 hr van ride into London. The hotel we're in is near Harrod's, but you'd never guess -- it's on a v. quiet, short, dead end-street. Our room's one window looks out on an air-shart, but the room has air conditioning, is relatively large, and has a huge bathroom. Drinks & afternoon tea are free, too.

We went to a Thai place around the corner; S upset abt the cost & abt swallowing a hot pepper.

I agonized a certain amt over the GBP 14 for the room service breakfast (no DR), but the breakfast was nice. S went to MacDonalds, a block or two away.

This morning (rainy) he walked some 25 min to do laundry. I went to Westminster Abbey (had never been), leaving 9:30 by tube to use the reduced-price day pass. Waited in a long, soggy line (BUT, I saw the gargoyles in action -- that's worth something isn't it?) Inside was wall-to-wall tourists, shuffling damply through. I shuffled along w/ the masses, didn't take the audio tour, but gleaned what I could from Fodors, the pamphlet, and reading the eulogies on the monuments. The floor-stones included one marking an 18th century plumber of Westminster, but maybe that meant lead gutters instead of sewage? We'll never know.

Afterward, I made my way to the National Gallery -- along w/ every other tourist in London, admission being free. 13th-15th cent is on the top floor of a new addition -- had lunch in their nice dining room in the same addition, then S came over, and we went through the 16th-20th centuries together. He's much more observant & appreciative than I am, e.g. Claude, a 16th cent French landscapist -- I tend to look at paintings & label them -- that's a Turner, or a Monet. Found a Hogarth I'd remembered from a child's book about art I'd had years ago --a v. quick, vivid painting of a smiling shrimp-girl. Two Monets I especially liked - one of trees, one of a seashore - done w/ an uncharacteristic amount of detail, in beiges & whites. The rooms were VERY crowded -- especially the impressionists at the end.

We had coffee / tea in the cafe, made our way back to the hotel. I had my by-now-customary couple of glasses of the nice red wine they serve here -- Bergerac - Chateau des Peyroulets. Went to an Indian place S had seen in the neighborhood where he did the laundry, which was fine -- I mostly didn't want him to grump about the price of dinner. We took the tube there & back -- on the return trip we wound up going down 87 spiral stairs by mistake (at the bottom, but not the top was a sign not to use the stairs except in an emergency).

Did I say that all my resolutions to wear city-type clothes & sandals have come to naught? I can't do museums in anything but running shoes. So there I am in my crops, running shoes, and mesh shirt, surrounded by all these svelte young things in black tights & short skirts & high heels.

8/24/2011 (penultimate day)

OMG this is the penultimate day of vac. S & I separated -- he to Hyde Park and the transportation museum, I to Hampton Court, some 20 mi outside London.

He was VERY happy there. There were hoards of kids pretending to drive the vehicles. Did I notice why the London subways were so deep, instead of cut & cover like NY? Well, London built trains to the suburbs before NYC, but by an act of Parliament couldn't build through the middle of town (which is why there are so many different train stations in a ring). But how to get people from the trains to wk??? At first there were horse-pulled trams. Then, around 1865 -- so 30-35 yrs before NYC--but steam-powered, because electric motors weren't powerful enough to pull trains till around 1900. The Circle Line was cut & cover, but the others were far deeper, w/ ventilation holes every so often to vent the smoke & heat (but see next post -- I think S hadn't seen all the Tube exhibit at this point).

I had a lovely day at Hampton Court -- caught the 9:06 out of Waterloo station. The ticket machine gave me 6 (count them, SIX) ticket stubs for a round trip & I had to ask the guard which to use to get through the barrier. Half the palace is Tûdor -- there were audio tours for the Tudor kitchen (which fed some 1,000) and the Henry VIII state apts (huge banqueting hall), and Henry as a young man (I thought he had red hair? but the video -- maybe from the TV show? showed a v. virile handsome dark haired man).

Went to the cafe for lunch (by then, the Henry VIII section was getting crowded -- the one thing I've learned besides arrive early in the day is to go to lunch early -- by the time I'd finished eating, the line was out the door). Had to relinquish audio on the way to the cafe, so after lunch toured the Christopher Wren part of the palace w/o. Was pretty well palaced out by then. HUGE rooms w/ 30'ceilings -- had to have been drafty in winter. Enourmous portraits mounted 10' up on the wall. Outside were massive cone-shaped yews (?) and a grape vine planted 1768 & still producing (the grapes -- prettily packaged -- were on sale in the garden store, so of course I had to buy some at maybe GBP 8 / lb?). I think it was Trollope's Small House at Allingham ? where a decision to mend the chimney in the small house's grape house signified a turn in sentiment by a noble patron. (OMG I just checked on my bb & was right-- it's so reassuring sometimes to be able to remember something).

So many things to check when I get home. Like, who was Lady Jane Grey and why was she executed? I had her mixed up w/ Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward. Oh, OK, I could find that searching on my bb too. She reigned 9 days, after the death of Edward & before Mary I.

Stung by S's characterization of my clothes as "frumpy", I dressed up for dinner last night in an outfit I'd bought for London, and we went to a French place Fodor's liked nearby. S had the prix fixe; I couldn't resist the lamb (so not prixe fixe), S sort of shell-shocked by the price, but it was VERY nice. Aren't these thrilling chronicles?

8/25-26/2011 (Thurs -- our last day in London & trip home)

Our last day. Rain in the AM, and we went to the Tate Britain in Pimlico. I liked the old stuff best, of course, the Cholmodeley Ladies (born on the same day, married on the same day & gave birth to sons on the same day), a Geo Stubbs of reapers, the Constables & the early Turners.

Then we split -- S to stay another hour in the Tate & return to the Transport Museum, I to go to Liberty of London to buy stuff, then to the National Portrait Gallery. Ate lunch in the restaurant -- which had an incredible view over Trafalgar square & London's rooftops. I should have taken a picture.

I liked the Tudor era portraits best, of course -- my attention faded after that, except that I needed to see Ms. Austen before I left. The only confirmed portrait of her is a tiny little thing, maybe 5"square? a sketch by her sister Cassandra with a funny ambiguous quote by her niece. 'there is a look which I recognise as hers', her niece wrote, 'though the general resemblance is not strong, yet as it represents a pleasing countenance it is so far a truth.'

Lovely, clear weather by the time I emerged -- a more ambitious soul would have walked back instead of taking the tube.

We're headed back to the Thai we ate at the first night -- its prices don't seem as horrendous now to S.

More from the transportation Mus - the lines after the Circle Line were deep because Brunel (pic in the national portrait gallery) had figured out how to tunnel -- the clays under London lent themselves to deep tunnelling, the elevator & electric motor had been invented by roughly 1980, so it was feasible to get people down that deep. Nonetheless, it took US financing to complete the first tunnels.

Then we (heatedly) discussed how we'd communicate if/when he was in Berlin. I keep thinking a normal phone (that he carried & left turned on) would be easier to deal with than the Estonian service he has, i.e. when he calls, my bberry on a normal phone, shouldn't I be able to reply?

Anyway, we got to the airport v. early the next day (crowds had been forecast) -- I finished David Starkey's Henry: Virtuous Prince (a bio of the early life of Henry VIII), and then read an Agatha Raisin (a mystery featuring a dumpy 50-0dd yr old who settles in the Cotswolds) and the newest Dona Leon, & also watched 27 dresses (a chick-flick whose heroine accumulates 27 bridesmaids dresses), and now we're home.

The sump pump is acting up, our water heater's got a crack, my Prius won't get out of park (so I had to walk my groceries home from the coop), but it was still a lovely, lovely trip.

Holiday Colloquium - Equation editor

Thoughts on Spain

I was so glad the bits of Spanish I knew came bubbling back up -- the last time I'd used it was maybe 2006? when I used to go to Latin America's budget meetings, before I worked on Brazil & was trying to learn Portuguese. Steve commented that people talking to me didn't seem to slow down (conversing in German with him, they did).

I was so glad Steve loves figuring out train & bus schedules -- all our transportation went smoothly & it's not easy navigating on strange systems in a strange town.

Maybe the Dogs of God wasn't ideal reading material? Maybe I was projecting onto the Spanish Baroque and the 16th & 17th centuries had more artistic richness than I gave them credit for? Even if they hadn't expelled the Jews from Spain, Spain's rule of its American colonies was brutal. I kept thinking of Fray Oviedo whose Historial General y Natural de los Indios (1535--I read him when I was doing my dissertation research) chronicles the first years of Spanish rule of Central America (even before epidemics killed millions):

neither paper nor time suffice to tell entirely what the captains did to destroy the Indians and to rob them and lay waste the land, if all was told as it happened, but...in this land of Castilla del Oro, there were two million Indians -- they were uncountable--and it is necessary that it be said how such a number of people ended in so little time.

(that quote from Oviedo is one of the few things I remember from my diss)

I think that even in those days for that time, this was an unusually brutal society, and in the places we visited, I just didn't see much awareness of history (I guess I should come out and say--remorse). But maybe a tourist to the US, who did nothing but visit the Smithsonian and the NY Mus of Nat Hist would think the same?

But in terms of Steve and me, it was a good time. We're good travel companions, and enjoy talking back and forth about new impressions. I hope we have many more years to travel together.

Oct 16-17 Cordoba & Madrid again

10/16/2010: Went yest by bus to Granada, which meant a hasty breakfast (amazing buffet) and walking fast through the dark to the bus station where we were ½ hr early. 2.5 hrs by bus to Granada – only garden tickets were available by the time we got there & S didn’t want those.

We were able to get into the Carlos V palace for free, starting 2 PM (S kept pressing me to ask the guard in Spanish, and he was right), so we did, & saw an exhib on Matisse at the Alhambre, also lots of Spanish Baroque religious art, which was hard to look at. S did not want to go to the Capilla Real, which had Isabella & Ferdinand’s body, also Joanna the Mad, who took the body of her husband, Felipe the Handsome, with her wherever she went, and opened the coffin each night to kiss his embalmed face. Can you IMAGINE???

Then , we went down a steep path & up a steeper street (hill of Albaizin), until we got to St. Nicholas’ square, which had beautiful views.

Some confusion at the bus station over which bus went to Cordoba, and the bus driver wasn’t so great – stopped v suddenly at one pt to avoid a car stopped for a red light. It seemed like a long way home. But we got to Cordoba & had (I thought) a nice supper at the hotel (S trying not to be cross because it was expensive) [vg lamb shoulder] & went to bed & slept & slept.

Biggest bed I’d ever seen – somewhere beyond king. You could sleep utterly unconscious of the other person. In fact, you needed to travel a vast expanse to find the other person.

Today, we slept late, ate vast amts of breakfast, went to the Alcazar, Roman Bridge & Museo de Bellas Artes (I’ve pretty much had it w/ Spanish Baroque painting, and kept projecting onto the scenes the animus I’ve been feeling toward the Inquisition & Ferd & Is). But certainly the people we’ve met have been delightful & obliging, and it has been ½ a millennium since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. England expelled its Jews, too, and I feel no special animus against them.

We stopped for lunch at an outdoor café—the recommended restaurant being full. S happy because it was tasty & cheap. We called a restaurant in Madrid & I made a resv all by myself in Spanish – I was quite proud. Didn’t succeed in doing much of anything after lunch – the museum we tried was closed. Walked around. S naviagated to the Christa de los Faroles (Christ of the lanterns) in the Plaza de los Dolores, which is (according to Fodors) where you feel most deeply the city’s languid pace, but, quoth S, how can you feel the city’s languid pace in a square with noplace to sit??

We took the train back to Madrid & here we are, in a 2 story suite w/ 2 bathrooms (one w/ a jazuzzi) and 4, count them, 4 sinks. Also 2 genuine Roman mosaics. All for the princely sum of €175. Went to a local Italian rest & had a nice dinner (lots of veggies), but the people around us were smoking. Headed to the airport & home the next day, and here we are.

Read Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors and a terrible, implausible mystery by John Dunning (the Bookman's Promise).

Thurs, Oct 14th, Cordoba

10/15/2010: Cordoba – we got up early yest & got to the train w/o incident – weather kind of grey & misty, so not much in the way of views. Got bus tickets w/o problem, took taxi to hotel, rm not ready so went off to the mosque-turned-cathedral – a forest of red & white arches, v. distinctive, v beautiful.

Found a recommended restaurant (by Fodors & hotel), had vg tuna/anchovy salad, went to Safared house, which had v detailed & bitter account of the Inquisition that I translated aloud to S (other American tourists listening, too), also v. long list of eminent conversos & descendents of conversos. (Part of the Inquisition was blood-purity laws, so anyone with even part Jewish blood couldn’t hold office).

The synagogue was v touching – small, w/ wall decorations that had been hidden behind other paneling. I took picture after picture of the walls & Hebrew writing.

Came back & got our room, which has a HUGE bathroom (but the tub v. slippery & no grab bar). Realized we’d neglected to get an online resv for the Alhambra—which we should have done weeks ago—they’re hard to get. The lady at the desk tried to help us, but none were available. We decided to go anyway, and see if we could get two of the tickets reserved for walkups. The guidebook said you could visit the Carlos V palace separately. Then went to the archaeology mus – some parts v touching, eg Roman burial stones often include STTL – sit terra tibi leva – that the ground over you be light.

A little priapic figure that S missed. Lots of Moorish capitals, and two Jewish gravestones, one pretty legible; the other worn to where I couldn’t make out a letter or a word. Letters opened toward the right instead of the left. I finally realized that if you looked at it upside down, you could at least make out a letter here & there. Communicated my thought to the front desk, where it caused much consternation. A volunteer curator arrived, who said we’d need to talk to the day curator.

Wednesday, Oct 13th - Madrid

Wed morning was much more leisurely. We found a Laundromat, S did laundry, I caught up on writing this, and we set out for the modern art museum, which is in a huge old bldg. w/ a courtyard. We spent quite a while in a temp exhib w/ extremely pretentious text on placards – for example, a cubist looking nude with the hair of the Maja had explanations about the political ties between Spain & the US in the ‘50’s and how the watched became the watcher. Much more in this vein in every room. We watched a tape of a man in whiteface handling a huge white rectangle, and a nude lady (but not in the Maja pose) looked on.

We looked at a room w/ two huge, weathered slabs of iron, where the text told us how the artist was trying to eliminate his role as intermediary (but then wtf was the point of his existing?) Then, S motioned me into the hall, saying I’d need to reconsider my views on Ely. The (huge) hall was full of tires – maybe 60’ of tires piled 6’ high. No name, no explanation, just 60’ of tires 6’ high. I took a bunch of pictures.

For lunch, S insisted we go to a place that had a €9 plato del dia, but it really wasn’t that gd (S had ordered chicken, which was random bony chunks, and I ordered hake but it had shellfish on top, so S let me have his chicken) & I remonstrated at length that more expensive lunches should be permissible. In the afternoon, which is to say about 3 PM, we got to the more representational parts of the museum: Picasso, Miro. Nevertheless, I tired by around 5, & headed back to the hotel room to try out Jess’ “Stay fit anywhere” workout.

S got back maybe 7:30 & I persuaded him we should eat at the Finca de Suzana, which was nearby & supposed to be cheap, for good food. I liked my gazpacho & duck breast; S burned his hand because I forgot to translate the “quema” the waiter muttered.

So far the only books I’ve read this week were Mennonite in a little black dress (cute, but I still don’t understand the title), & Jane & the Madness of Lord Byron.

Tuesday, Oct 12th - Segovia

I felt much better in the AM (albeit hung over), but S complained he couldn’t eat enough of the €21 breakfast for it to be worthwhile. We took the subway to the northern train station & set off for Segovia (which has an incredible Roman aqueduct). Took many, many pictures of the incredible Roman aqueduct. Found one museum of local art open – it had v backhanded praise for one featured 18th century artist – about his longevity & relentless pursuit of detail.

The old Jewish quarter had a reconstructed church that had once been a synagogue, with an account at the back of how it had been seized around 1410 after some Jews bought a consecrated Host and tried to burn it, then confessed under torture to having tried to poison the king. They were dragged through the city & dismembered. The placard was at some pains to say that the accuracy of the accusations (or lack thereof) couldn’t be verified.

I got v. indignant & vented some in Spanish to a docent at the nearby “Center for Jewish Learning”, which had a video of a service at a synagogue & various ritual objects w/ explanations. She said one had to allow for how long Spain was closed to the rest of the world – divorce had only been allowed for 20 yrs.

The main drama of the day – the admissions lady at the cathedral glanced up at me & Steve and said “2 seniors”. I was DEVASTATED. S wanted me to explain in Spanish that we weren’t EU citizens. The cathedral was made of a golden local limestone – much less ornate than Toledo’s (a good thing), with a beautiful Gothic cloister.

Anyway, we ate lunch after seeing the cathedral, but were out of luck in that the Provincial Museum didn’t reopen after lunch (it being a holiday). The Alcazar was mostly a reconstruction after a 19th century fire – but v. impressive, with the deepest moat I’d ever seen. It does look v. Disney-ish, with its turrets & crenelated tower.

Came back to Madrid, took a different subway back to the hotel & stopped by a tapas place the hotel desk & Fodors had both recommended (the place had been jammed every other time we went by). I was uncertain at first how to order, but we were eventually settled at a table w/ a tuna salad, vg bread, a huge plate of canapés, with beer for S and wine for me. I was so happy and everything tasted so good.

Monday, Oct 10th - Toledo

Got up early to head to Toledo – ½ hour by fast train (the train station is ½ hr from us). Grey day, and Toledo is up on a hill of grey rock. Unfortunately, the Transito synagogue was closed, and also the Sephardic museum, because it was Monday. An older synagogue has been made into a church – Sta Maria La Blanca, and was full of an art exhibit by a group that foresaw a union between the Jews & the Catholic Church.

Many twisty, steep, narrow streets, and countless stores selling marzipan, a regional specialty. Cathedral had huge numbers of El Greco’s, but the Romanesque cloister was closed for renovation. Steve esp liked a tiny mosque at one end of town that had been a tiny Romanesque church (or was it vice versa), located over a Roman road & a Roman sewer.

There was a provincial museum with huge tapestries depicting Spanish conquests in Africa (and benches to sit on from which to admire them). Also, a huge exhibit of historic ceramics. But, of course, no modern reproductions to buy. What a pity, said I, here I’m all primed to spend $$ and nothing to spend it on. There were lots of ceramics for sale in the stores round about, but they all looked identical. I asked the admissions guy what a lovely collection and what a pity there are no reproductions (I’d wked out the Spanish beforehand). He suggested a store on the other side of town—we went over there, but it wasn’t the style I’d liked. (of course, could I remember the names of the styles I’d liked? No).

S wanted to head down to the river, to a couple of bridges, so we headed there last – down three escalators, part of garages built into the hillside like Assisi. I was quite tired & footsore by then; we’d been walking all day. Got to say, my Merrill clogs v. comfortable. Then we walked to the train station, where we bought tickets for Segovia, the next day. S wanted tickets for 11:15, but the man at the ticket counter said that train hadn’t existed for a year. S being v. emphatic, the man was getting offended, and I was trying to translate, and getting more and more cross at S. Afterward, I said he was possessed by the shades of Ely, an accusation I rarely trot out.

Then we walked from the Madrid train station back to the hotel. I was cross & tired and complaining that S walked too fast, etc. Our marriage was on the rocks.

However, we went to an excellent restaurant around the corner (La Ancha), and split a bottle of wine, and our marriage picked itself off the ground & shook itself off. S kept chuckling as my mood improved w/ the wine, and saying that after 28 years of marriage, he knew his little wife; she always perked up with wine.

Sunday, Oct 9th - El Prado

Sleeping till 8:30 was a problem because our tickets at the Prado were for 9 AM. However, the admission people didn’t object when we showed up ½ hour late. We started with Velasquez & Las Meninas (jammed w/ Asian tourists – I assumed they were Japanese but S said maybe Chinese & sure enough, when I listened to one guide, he did sound Chinese.) Velasquez also painted the dwarfs who were part of the court.

We worked through many, many Goyas – I’d never seen many of his paintings (because they’re mostly at the Prado?), the 2nd & 3rd of May, the Maja (I kept teasing S that he only liked her body). I esp liked the dowager duchess of Gorgenza (?), in the same room as the Majas, because her eyes showed character. Made me realize how hard it is to remember paintings.

There was a room of Hieronymous Bosch – because Felipe II liked Bosch, said S, but not that much of other Flemish artists. It took a while to realize the collection was mostly what the Spanish Royal Family had accumulated; it wasn’t supposed to be art of the world.

That said, there were some beautiful Romanesque frescoes that had been added to get closer to Art of Spain. We came out for a break around 2 PM (since our hotel is so close). V aware how old we were getting, with backs & feet that got sore. V. aware how glad we were to find benches.

El Greco & most of the Baroque don’t do that much for me – not sure why.

V. difficult to find things in the big (heavy) Prado guide – which was organized by painter, not room. For example, Goya was spread out among many rooms on 2 floors, with his latest paintings (the black paintings), including the ½ submerged dog (el perro semi-humido) on the first floor. Some rooms had the interpretive placards translated to English, some didn’t. So S and I were continually passing back and for the the guidebook, and hunting by places. Also, the guidebook was organized by: All Spanish painting, more or less chronological by artist, and then Italian, then French, etc.

Beautiful Fra Angelico annunciation.

Ate dinner at an expensive place heavy on marine creepy-crawlies, where the service was slow. S got v. cross.

Did I narrate the saga of the safe? S couldn’t enter the code. The maint guy said it was the batteries & another guy changed the code. I was going to the gym & tried entering a new code but got messed up by the lack of 0, and it wouldn’t open when I tried and said I was blocked. By then, the guy with the mastercode had left. HOWEVER, S correctly surmised that my code had never “taken” and that the original 1234 code would open the safe.

Swarthmore 10/8/2010 - Madrid 10/9/2010

Took Friday off. Finished my thankyou notes to the patrons of the soc act brunch, returned my library books, bought sound-cancelling earphones, a charger for my ipod & 3 mysteries & a paperback history of religious conflict in Spain, visited the 3 shelters to talk about the coop (but only one of the 3 directors was there), dropped the car off at the collision place to get its dent repaired, and off we went to the airport.

S had found a remote parking lot that charged $7/day and was jammed (Wally Park, where I’d parked when I last travelled, charged twice as much & had many empty spaces). Flight was on time. I read Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (v cute) and must have slept some. We arrived – Madrid’s airport had us go up hill and down dale to get to immigration, but we had little baggage. We got to the hotel by maybe 9 AM – pouring rain—went out for coffee @ a nearby Starbucks, went for a walk (and got soaked by passing taxis running through puddles), but fortunately by then a room was available so we settled in and napped till 2 PM.

Had lunch – a VERY leisurely lunch—at the hotel. Quite nice and the quoted price -- € 32—included everything: wine, coffee, the cute little appetizers and post-dessert sweets, so S not unduly annoyed. By the time we finished it was 4:30 but nevertheless we set out for Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. I of course had plenty of time to go through the museum—Fodors quotes critics who say it has the minor works of major artists and the major works of minor artists. Steve, of course, found all sorts of paintings I’d missed – Hoppers & Bierstads and thought it might be the best collection of American painters in Europe.

We wanted something light for dinner – got 2 recommendations for tapas, but those places were jammed so we ate in a Cuban restaurant, came home & fell asleep till 8:30 AM (S slept through his alarm).

Eli Manos

He was such a generous, open, outgoing person, like his father-in-law, great-uncle Bernie (who had also been on Harvard's football team).

MANOS ELI MANOS, Cleveland lawyer Eli Manos died in his sleep in the morning of Nov. 21, 2009. Born to Greek immigrants in 1931, Eli grew up in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood and remained active in the local Greek community throughout his life. A graduate of Lincoln High School (1949) and College at Harvard University (1953), he excelled in both football and academics. He married Kathy Greenman, of Woodmere, NY., in 1955. Eli served in the United States Army and afterward attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1958. He began his law career with the Ohio Attorney General, before joining the law firm that would later bear his name, Mansour, Gavin, Gerlack and Manos. Eli and Kathy resided in the Cleveland neighborhood of Shaker Square. Brother to former United Stated Federal Court Judge John M. Manos, Eli is survived by his wife, Kathy; sons Michael (wife Diane and daughter Grace) of Larchmont, NY., Peter (wife Sandra and sons, Sean, Nicolas and Eli); daughter Phyllis Petteys (husband Mark and son, Guthrie) of Forest Grove, OR., and daughter, Linda Peltomaa (husband Vern and daughter, Aja) of Columbus, OH

Annual 2009 pictures: my huge, hairy darlings

(the minute we finished taking group pictures, Leon, Aaron and Steve each returned to his computer & his lair)