The Road from Santiago

  The people have spoken! Well, with a turn out of 5%, a figure even Parish Council By-elections would be ashamed of, the hivemind has delivered its verdict, and split the next area of interest four ways.  Just as Brecht put a happy ending in the Threepenny Opera because, as he noted, we can’t afford to offend the audience and because democracy is giving the people what they want, and giving it to them good and hard, we are going to….. Rome, then Brno, then Berlin and ending up in Oslo. Google suggests we should go to Barcelona and then get a boat. We shall go to Barcelona but we are not shipping it but wandering our way across country - with some wiggling around the borders. So let us begin.  We are going to go out of town. 6.6km has a certain similarity in it, shops at ground level, flats above. Slowly we will wander along the paths; the height of the apartments will go down, the buildings will get newer and eventually we will hit a bit of bland municipal architecture....

  Day two of the interregnum.  We will wander towards more food. We are wandering past Casual Robots. We need to pop in.   https://www.casualrobots.com/   They get 4.7 stars and Almudena reckoned, four years ago, ‘ I met them at their exhibition at the Telefónica Foundation and was immediately impressed. They're incredibly passionate about what they do, highly professional, and dedicated to making robotics accessible to everyone. They not only have every robot you could possibly need, but they'll also give you ideas on how to get the most out of it. It's a real pleasure. ’  Four years ago Eva felt ‘ Casual Robots has been at Fundación Trébol bringing robotics technology to people with disabilities. It was an unforgettable experience with the Paro/Nuka, AIBO, and MAX robots, which we all enjoyed’ We are crossing the Calle de O’Donnell.  Who he are here you ask.  Go on, ask. Look, we are not going for lunch till you ask. Is it     No, it’s Leop...

  Today is the big day of the reveal, but, to be honest, I am not going to be free to do anything about this until Wednesday so you have two more days to get voting. As we have nothing better to do, let’s go and get something to eat. Across the park we go and so to the monuments of Jacinto Verdaguer. Keen players of Caesar III will remember bunging statues in areas to improve the ambience and distract barbarian invaders, who would waste time destroying them while you mustered troops. This is one of them.  Jacint was a Spanish writer and priest, who has been named ‘Prince of Catalan Poets’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacint_Verdaguer   He died in 1902.  The statue went up in 1953. There are several pet based boutiques around here, including Gentlecan. It is a 4.8 star pet groomer.  https://gentlecan.es/   Four hours ago Berk wrote ‘ They are professional and punctual. No surprises on pricing, and our dog was not nervous at all. Thanks! ‘  Four days ...

  We are walking to El Retiro. I once did this with the son and heir. I suspect his mother was sleeping. We were staying in a convenient and cheap place known to the family.  I thought, here I am, a dad, doing dad things as the world rushes by. It was at the playground a Spanish lady taught me that the amount of Spanish I spoke was un pocoito, not un poco. Casa Salesas is restaurant in the Calle de Fernando VI.  https://www.casasalesas.com/  The website is a trifle cool. Let us look at brunch. 55 euros is the tariff.  Yesterday Elena said ' There are thousands of restaurants better than Casa Salesas, and with better value for money. The food was unremarkable. The tables were very close together and the atmosphere was noisy. I won't be back.' However Soukaina reckoned ' Excellent spanish food, full of colours and flavours. Ambience and decoration exquisitely chosen for an ultimate unique experience. The service is highly dedicated and David made sure everyon...

A short walk today - a mere 36 minutes Google wise.  We are passing the Alonso Martinez metro station. It gets 4.2 stars, which is fairly good. The most recent worded review is three days old.  Manuel said ' I got there by chance. We were just driving around and decided to hop off the car and have a coffee. We ended up spending quite a nice afternoon. I might be wrong, but this neighborhood seems to be one of the posh parts of Madrid. Either way, it's a beautiful place to spend some time waking around' The idea of the Metro came about in 1916. A Royal Decree decreed a four line plan. The plan was estimated at costing four million pesetas. 2.5 million was raised from various donors. Alfonso XIII stepped in and gave the other 1.45 million required. The first section was opened on 19th October 1919. Following Line 1, Line 2 opened in 1924, R in 1925, 4 in 1932 and 3 in 1936 - on the 9th August. Further lines were added, two in 1961 and so on into the 2000s. We are passing th...