This weekend was a fabulous one that recharged me for a final week of work in the archives. On Saturday I got up relatively early and went for a 5 mile run along the Madrid Rio. After getting cleaned up, I sought out a cute bakery and cafe that I had noticed one day when I was on my way to the archives and had a napolitana de chocolate and a cafe con leche. Then I went to Lope de Vega's house. I have tried to go a couple of times in the past to the Casa de Lope de Vega, but each time it had been closed. This time I was successful and managed to get inside and take a guided tour with a group of Spaniards. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the house, but it is allowed in the lush gardens behind the home.
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| In Lope's gardens |
After visiting my second favorite Spanish playwright's house, I spent a couple of hours meandering around an art museum in Madrid.
Saturday evening my friend C. and his partner J. invited me to join them and some of their friends to have a Galician feast of food and to watch Eurovision. Being an American who doesn't pay too much attention to singing competions, this was my first time to pay any attention to Eurovision at all. I had a blast, as we also scored the entries and came up with our own top 5. However, it was incredibly cheesy, and the Bjork-wannabe from Albania got way too many votes....
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| Intent on tabulating our scores |
On Sunday morning I slept in a bit, and then headed to the Rastro (a big weekly flea market in Madrid) to buy another pair of harem pants and to do some looking around the other stalls. I meandered for a while around Madrid, had some lunch, and then spent a couple of hours reading a novel. Then I headed out to find the Parque de la Dehesa de la Villa to go for a run. While I'm glad that I explored a park that I was unfamiliar with and that I got a second run in this weekend, I'm not completely sure that this was worth the 3 euro in metro fare that it cost me to head up to the northern part of the city. The park was crowded with couples and families strolling around and kids playing soccer. So I didn't run for long.
Do you watch Eurovision? Readers who run, do you drive or take public transit to places where you run or do you just run from your door?
I have never heard of Eurovision. :)
ReplyDeleteIf I am running with my running club, I drive to the place we meet. I am hoping to start biking a couple of times a week starting in June, though. If I am not running with my running club, I just walk out my front door which is the best feeling. :)
In some ways I felt I'd watched Eurovision second hand just by following my twitter stream. That first photo of the gardens in just so very green.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you got a couple of good runs in! I prefer to run straight from my door, but it depends on where I am. Right now I live in a place where I can do that, but when I was working in Missouri, I could do it, but they are missing a lot of sidewalks, so I felt more comfortable driving to the bike path to run. Of course, now I run in the street anyway! I probably run straight from my door 90% of the time.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, what a lovely, LOVELY weekend you had. Treats and running and artsy fun--good stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou have asked a great question! Here in Texas, I do most of my runs starting from my front door. But sometimes I hop on the bike and head to a park to do laps or meet a friend. There's something nice about warming up and cooling down on the bike--it just feels good.