I kind of think I now understand why Hemingway liked Spain. It is France without the stuck up attitudes of the French.
Regardless-I really enjoyed my trip to Madrid. Surprisingly, the city was very clean, the subways worked much better than those here in Stuttgart, and the wine and food were simply marvelous. The down side of course being, that to eat the food, you had to wait till 8:30 PM or later. I was fine with that-the S.O., not so much. Rather than adapt, she thought she could bend the city to her will. As a result I got to be witness to a few episodes of “the ugly Nihonjin”. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t pretty and I wanted to go hide in a corner. But, of course, I couldn’t do that-I had to pay the bill.
Nonetheless the architecture in the city is marvelous. Below you can see some examples of it. In many ways the city looks like Paris-and why not? considering the lineage of the King is from France. ( Yes its true. The Hapsburgs lost the toss and France has influenced Spain ever since. If they could not win by invading-as Napoleon found out-they just influenced the monarchy. ( click on all the pictures to see them as they should be)
Taken in front of the Teatro Real.
And of course there is the Royal Palace:
Let’s not forget the parks:
And the music in the parks:
How a Mariachi Band ends up in a Madrid Park is beyond me. But they had a cute looking lady singer:
More to follow in three subsequent posts.