Happy Birthday Paul!

Happy 33rd Birthday Paul, I hope that Cameron, Roslyn & Liza treated you during the day and I'm sure you had a great time with the whole family.

All the best for the coming year and stay safe on those roads at night.

Last Day in Madrid…or Not!

After yesterday’s fantastic day in Toledo, we decided that today should be a more relaxed day, especially as our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:50pm.

Some how Grigoria’s parents figured that I like sports (no idea what gave them that impression!) and suggested that we do a tour of Real Madrid’s home ground - The Bernabeu Stadium.
http://www.realmadrid.com/portada_eng.htm

So after a short bus ride into the city, our tickets in hand we were off on the tour. I’ve been to a few stadiums now including Real Madrid’s arch rivals – Barcelona so I knew this would be a treat.

In essence the tour included views from the top stands, players tunnel and visitors changing rooms, the dug-out, field of play (for which I got into trouble for touching the grass), royal box and finally the trophy and history exhibition.

After that excitement (for me anyway), we decided to stretch the legs and walked up Plaza de Castilla to the “Leaning Towers” buildings that are a recent architectural statement in the skyline.

Despite my good intentions of taking Grigoria’s parents to one of the pretty Madrid coffee shops, we unfortunately started to run out or time so we headed back home to prepare for the impending flight.

In the early afternoon we set off for the airport to catch our evening flight. However, it wasn’t to be. Unfortunately our flight, booked through BA but run by IBERIA, was overbooked and we were left stranded at the airport with no other flight to get home.

To add insult to injury neither BA nor IBERIA seemed to be too bothered about the havoc they caused. In the end we managed to get a seat on the early Monday morning flight meaning that we had to spend the night in Madrid and get to work late.
On the bright side we had somewhere nice to stay, and Grigoria’s parents prepared a lovely dinner to take our minds off the rather eventful end to our Madrid trip.

Overall a great weekend spent with Grigoria’s parents.

Toledo Day trip (Madrid)

After a packed day of sightseeing in Madrid, today we decided to visit Toledo, a beautiful old town 71Km from Madrid.
Grigoria’s parents have been there a couple of times and really loved it (her Mum currently dreams of owning a house there!), so they were the perfect guides.

Our trip begun in earnest when we arrived at the main Madrid station, Atocha. What makes the station stand out is that its large vaulted ceilings which house a mini oasis full of palm trees and other tropical plans.
There is also a little lake with tiny turtles that spend their time chomping on the water lilies!

30 mins later (which Grigoria spent catching up on her beauty sleep!) we arrived at sunny Toledo. Grigoria’s Mum explained to us that the city of Toledo was the result of many influences; Arab, Christian, Jewish and Roman. The city has changed little from its heyday during the middle age.

Toledo was built in year 1000 and sits atop a steep-cragged rock (529m above sea level), encircled by the Tagus river. It was the capital of Spain from the Gothic times until 1560 and today is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Inside the fortified stone walls we came across the narrow cobblestone passageways which snake through the town.

Two Toledo specialties are jewellery shops and cookies moulded from
marzipan, not to mention the historic structures, Toledo cathedral,
church of Santo Tome and museum of Santa Cruz.

Our first port of call was the massive Toledo cathedral. Built mainly in the gothic style, it is one of the largest in the world and was completed in 1493. It is impossible to describe all of the wonderful paintings and sculptures we saw but some of the highlights were: the 16th century Mozarabic chapel, the only place in the world where once a year catholic mass is held in Mozarabic; the altar window (el transparante) a rococo complex of sculptures made of marble and alabaster which are lit by an ornate “skylight” on the side of the cathedral; the treasure room and the sacristy, a fabulous gallery full of paintings by Raphael, El Greco, Goya, Van Dyke et al.

By the time we came out of the Cathedral it was time for lunch and Grigoria’s parents took us to Don Diego, a quaint little restaurant hidden in a Toledo courtyard with tables underneath trees.
With a nice breeze cooling us under the shade, we enjoyed some wonderful food and company.

From lunch we quickly went onto the church of Santo Tome, a 14th century chapel, which houses El Greco’s “The Burial of the Count of Orgaz”.
Our final destination was the museum of Santa Cruz.
The building was originally a hospital, founded by Cardinal Mendoza. The museum houses a rich collection of painting, including El Greco’s last painting as well as works by Goya and Ribera.

There is also an extensive collection of elaborate archbishop capes as well as priceless Flemish tapestries. The basement of the building is dedicated to archaeological finds from the area including mammoth tusks!

Finally our Toledo experience ended with a nice cold drink and ice cream at the beautiful Toledo train station which was built in 1917.

Later that evening we enjoyed a fabulous dinner of stuffed courgettes prepared by Grigoria’s mom before sitting down the watch some of the World Cup football.

Hola de Madrid (Hello from Madrid)

As Grigoria’s parents are based in Madrid at the moment it seemed a very good opportunity to visit Spain’s capital, spend some time with them and see how the city compares to Barcelona.

So we flew out last night after work from Gatwick and 2 hours later arrived into the new Richard Rogers Barajas Terminal 4 airport, to be welcomed with big smiles by Grigoria’s parents.

Today’s order of the day was shopping and general sight seeing in Madrid.As Grigoria wanted some summer sandals, and Spain has strong reputation for leather goods, we started with the El Corte Ingles shopping centre and some time later (not too long really) we walked out with a pair of cute brown saddles.

With the shopping over our day started in earnest and Grigoria’s mum begun to show us the more historic and architecturally interesting aspects of the city.

First up was Puerta del Sol, the official centre of the city were all distances are measured from. Almost to the side of the square lies the most popular meeting point in Madrid, the statue of the Bear and the Madroño (a bear standing up eating away at a strawberry tree). This is the emblem of Madrid (still investigating why) and can be seen on all official crests, on footpath manholes, street lamps and taxi stickers.

A very short distance from Sol is Plaza Mayor, which has been the centre of social life in Madrid over the centuries. The square is dominated by the statue of Philip the third and by “La Casa de Panaderia” (the royal bakery, now the house of the municipal city council) and its vividly painted façade.

Our next destination was the Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). With over 2000 rooms the palace is one of the biggest and most opulent in Europe. What impressed us most however were the Armoury, a comprehensive collection of royal weaponry– including horse armoury – perfectly displayed, and the Royal Pharmacy, with rows upon rows of china vases full of plants and plant extracts which formed the basis of medicines. Grigoria’s mum, a chemist by profession, was in her element and explained to us how the old distillation apparatus used to work.

Located directly opposite the palace courtyard, and looking towards it, is the Almudena Cathedral, dedicated to Madrid’s patron the Virgin de la Almudena (of the walls). The proximity of the Cathedral to the Palace is a strong symbol of how the power was shared between the royal family and the church. The Cathedral took 110 years to build and was finally finished in 1993. As a result of the time it took to construct, and in contrast with La Segrada Familia which is build according to the vision of a single architect (Gaudi), the Almudena incorporates a blend of different styles ranging from Gothic to something similar to pop art. It is probably an acquired taste but still a very imposing building.

By the time we left the Cathedral we were tired and starving so we took a well deserved lunch break. Breaking with the tapas tradition Grigoria’s mum took us to Cafe de Oriente, one of the most popular in Madrid, where we devoured our croque maison (a little bit of French cuisine in Spain!).After lunch we headed home for a good rest before hitting the town later in the evening.Javier, Grigoria’s friend from LSE, and Carmen, his partner, treated us to tapas and great Spanish wine.

After a great night out, and a sneaky baileys or two, we tiptoed home at 2am dead tired from our long day and excited about our Toledo trip on Saturday.

Stella Artois Tennis Championships

One of the perks of living in Baron's Court is being near (indeed we can see it from our roof!) to the Queens Club Tennis grounds; until this summer the home of the Lawn Tennis Association.

Every June Queen’s Club kick-starts the grass court season with the Pre-Wimbledon warm-up, the Stella Artois tournament. (http://www.stellaartoistennis.com/default.asp)

As residents in the area, the club gave Grigoria & me a free evening pass to view some of the games.
Unfortunately due to the draw the only big name player we saw was Mark Philippoussis who, by the time we found our seats, had all but finished off Sebastian Grosjean 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

Following that we settled into a doubles match between Bhupathi/Stepanek and Black/Coetzee, which turned out to be more eventful than we anticipated as Stepanek had to retire due to illness in the first set.

Undeterred we found ourselves some seats to a different court in time to watch the more lively (mainly due to the Italian supporters!) doubles match between Ginepri/Kerr and Braccili/Ljubicic.

Despite the rather moody weather we’ve been experiencing lately the sun broke through long enough for us to enjoy a summer evening outdoors and mingle with the other tennis fans.

Who knows, maybe next year we may even get to centre court. That is if we actually buy a ticket!