last few days in madrid! we did a tour of some bookshops i had bookmarked, and i got “the little prince” in chinese for myselfand the jolly postman in english, for little niece. it’ll take some years for her to be ready for that, but i don’t mind stocking children’s books for the years to come.

we fortified our bellies with cheesecake and the last churros and chocolate, watched the sun go down on the cerro del tio pio for the last time, and off we went to germany, ready to resume our yearly pilgrimage to bielefeld, that got broken with the pandemic.

it was a really nice time, like being back in a place that is so familiar to us, filled with friends and cozy corners. we had pickert again, walked in the forest to soak in all the autumn colors, and this year we even visited dr. oetker’s factory!!

the highlight of the visit is this pudding-making machine they have in the atrium, where you can make your own dessert. it’s brilliant, and the result is yummy too! on sunday, we said goodbye to germany and flew back to porto.