Category: in spain

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in spain weeknotes

weeknotes 42/24

i confess i had no idea one could see so many famous works of art in madrid. the museums really are world class, with the kind of paintings everyone has seen on books at some point. picasso, dali, goya, caravaggio… it’s enough to give you stendhal syndrome :|

so our strategy has been to savor these in small bites after work, and not try to get to everything. we’ve seen bits of the reina sofia museum, the gallery of royal collections and the natural sciences museum, which is always a highlight. so many taxidermied birds and insects! :D and dinosaur bones!

we’ve also managed to rent some bikes and ride around the retiro park, to give the boy a rest from all the walking. he has been increasing his training to prepare for his next race and now has a case of shin splints… :/

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foooood in spain

weeknotes, 41/24

madriiiiid! we’re visiting the spanish capital for a few days, and i love that we managed to get here without taking a flight… although it did take the whole day between buses and trains. but we made it!

we’re doing a home swap and staying in a small apartment in the vallecas neighborhood, which feels very “multikulti” and reminds us a lot of our old neighborhood in berlin. it’s missing tempelhof, but it has a hill from which you can see the whole city!

so far, we’ve wandered the city’s avenues to try to get a feeling for it, and also visited the retiro park, which feels huge.

and of course, we’ve been using any opportunity we get to fill our bellies with churros and chocolate! :D

next week: museums and culture!

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in spain traveling

walking on history XVI: expo 92

same, same… but different.

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in italy in spain

walking on history, XIII: roman roads

over 400,000 kms of roads connected the roman empire and it’s amazing that many of them still survive to this day. famously straight and featuring big slabs of polished rock, they were used for centuries to move troops around, trade goods, spread messages quickly… and even transport the animals that would fight humans and each other in the colosseum.

it’s fun to spot them throughout europe. the ones above are in rome, while the one below is in italica (near seville)… and yet, they look remarkably similar, despite being over 2000km apart.

it’s quite a feat of engineering!

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in spain in the uk

gibraltar!

the last stop on our andalusian roadtrip wasn’t really in spain, but in the uk… sort of. on our way back home, we detoured through gibraltar, to celebrate my birthday and the 30th country/territory we’ve ever been in.

we crossed the airport’s runway, got a sunday roast on a local pub and even had time to write a postcard home, before heading back. 30 countries down, 180 or so to go! :)