Well my post on France where I live have been well received so why not Spain where I have lived for four years, and visit often.
The biggest news of course is the tie 1×1 between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Spanish Liga BBVA or first division. The game was control by Barcelona as was expected with a team well groom of many years playing together ,and some from youth division in the Macias or farm team there. The star player Messi (Argentina) score first on a penalty kick, and was tied in the second half by Real Madrid’s star player Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) on ,also, a penalty kick. Real Madrid had one of its defender Albiol sent off with a red card so it played shorthanded 10 men for 45 minutes!! The Liga stays the same with Barcelona ahead by 8 points which at this point it will surely gives them the title.
The Copa del Rey or Kings’ Cup is now on Mestalla stadium, Valencia, and the final will be amongst the same team on Wednesday April 20th for what will surely be a different game ,and for a title Real Madrid is very much looking forward to it. Game can be seen by RojaDirecta.es and you need to be online about 15 minutes before game time, at 21h30 Spanish time.
The new Madrid Rio project is off and running opening the park areas from Friday by 11H Madrid local time. It has 952.000 square meters of park area including a promenade of pine trees call Salón de Pinos ,which will run from the forest of El Pardo to the Nudo Sur or south knuckle on the beltway road M30. Therefore a total of 53 kms (32 miles) of walkers paradise right in the city. Also, 18,5 kms (11.4 miles) of bicycle lanes available! The whole complex park will have 35,963 trees from 47 species, and 470,844 bushes of 38 species coming from forests in the mediterranena, atlantic and coasts. Amongst the water section of the park it has four lakes under the Puente de Segovia (segovia bridge), two of which have aquariums and four fountains in the gardens or jardines de Virgen del Puerto, that will remaind old residents of the days when the ladies would go down the river to wash clothing. And this is not all, in addition, at the parque de la Arganzuela it was created an urban beach, with three oval places with low depth where one can refresh oneself with water canons; it will have kiosk for drinks and umbrella rentals. The parque de la Arganzuela will have 8 fountains as well with lights. The lighting will be at the many bridges that cross the park, such as puente monumental del Perrault (monumental bridge of Perrault) ,and 32 passarelles and bridges built or renovated to connect the 7 districts that cross the Madrid Rio complex. The bridges are Puente del Rey, Puente de Segovia, Puente de Toledo , and passarelles are Aniceto Marinas , and Parque de la Arganzuela are updated so allowing pedestrians use and cyclists. Again the upgrades go on on the Puente Oblícuo, Puente de San Isidro, puente de Praga, puente de la Princesa , and the one north of Puente de Toledo; the pedestrians and cyclist lanes at calle Almuñécar, forming an ‘Y’, to the north and south of Puente de Toledo , and those at Puente de Praga, next to Puente de la Princesa , and the Salón de Pinos Sur. 7 historic reserves of water were renovated to allow us of pedestrian crossing . It has 33 sport installations to practice skating, football/soccer, Cycling , extreme cycling ,handball, paddles, volleyball, tennis ,and rock climbing; also it is pending to finish a row boat canal , the children will enjoy 17 areas for games with 65 different elements distributed from the Salón de Pinos ,and the parque de la Arganzuela. For the adults, there are 3 areas of health activities with exercise trails, and installed 12 tables for games and 7 fields for petanca (fr petanque). Eventually they will have about 40 kiosks to seel refreshement all over the park. Finally the river or rio Manzanares has undergone a cleaning process to bring it back ecological sane and sound; the cultural center Matadero (the old slaughterhouse of Madrid) is just been finished in the same area, webpage http://www.mataderomadrid.org/ , and the city of Madrid webpage with the Madrid Rio info in Spanish, http://www.madrid.es/portales/munimadrid/es/Inicio/Ayuntamiento/Urbanismo-e-Infraestructuras/MadridRio?vgnextfmt=default&vgnextoid=5acc7f0917afc110VgnVCM2000000c205a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=8dba171c30036010VgnVCM100000dc0ca8c0RCRD
For the next 7 days the weather will be 9°C to 21°C with some rains in the afternoon in Madrid. This webpage will give the weather just click on the map the area you will be in, it is the official meteological service in Spain http://www.aemet.es/es/eltiempo/prediccion/localidades .Traffic will be bad as it is holy week beginning the first day was reported ok, but expect 14,4 millions road warriors in the next few days. In Seville, already heavy traffic around Bellavista , and the Puente del Centenario. The bulk of the traffic will be from holy wednesday on towards monday April 25th. You can obtain free road traffic condition by calling these numbers from the DGT on cellphones or mobiles 505 for Movistar, 141 for Vodafone , and 2221 for Orange users), or calling the fix tel number of the DGT at +34 900 12 35 05, and of course its webpage http://www.dgt.es/portal/es/informacion_carreteras/incidencias/ use the dropdown window for the regions you will be in.
And yes Holy Week or Semana Santa is from today ! in Spain its a tradition that still holds true to its origins. If you want to be here, its crowded, maybe loud, but its darn worth it all. The Sevilla info in Spanish is here http://www.semana-santa.org/ for Malaga,Cadiz,Granada,Cordoba, and Sevilla here is another version http://www.semanasanta.com/ . In Madrid at the colegiata de San Isidro calle Toledo 37 there will be a procession, April 21 at 20h starting from calle Toledo and passing many streets including Calle Cuchilleros near Plaza Mayor. Honoring Nuestro Padre Jesús del Gran Poder (our father Jesus figure sculpture by Jose R Fernandez Andes) and María Santísima de la Esperanza ( holy Mary of the hope sculpture by Antonio Eslava Rubio).
The Marathon de Madrid was today and its 34th version ,and the winner is the Kenyan Moses Arusei, the one with the best mark in the of the 10,500 runners that took part today. He is ,also, the first one to lower the mark under 2 hours and 11 minutes . on the women side the winner was the Ethiopean Girma Tadesse with 2h35:28. webpage http://www.maratonmadrid.org/
The first official smokers’ club has openned in Madrid, at the calle del Nardo, 6 district Tetuán, with the name of Royal Smoking Club. its hours are from 16h to 03h every day, and the music is chill-out. metro, cercanias train at Plaza de Castilla,and webpage http://www.royalsmokingclub.com/
And not to be outdone my old district of Ciudad Lineal now has a new parking!!! for residents!!! with new lighting , all the parking is underground at calle de la Virgen del Sagrario, and underneath the plaza de la Virgen del Romero with capacity for 404 vehicles in 3 levels.
In Alcala de Henares, you will see a great work of art with drawing from July 8 to 28 2011 at the Antiguo Hospital Santa Maria la Rica, Calle Santa Maria la Rica, under the title “Los desastres de la guerra de Francisco de Goya” done by Francisco Goya ,and on about 80 portraits done by him between 1810 and 1815, show the disasters of the war of Independance in Spain (from Napoleon I of France who had his brother Joseph in charge there). And while in Alcala de Henares, try naturalcala a center of good environmental activities for the whole family, webpage here
http://www.madrid.org/naturalcala/es/home/index.htm
And for the real Madrid feel see a Zarzuela and a great one like Luisa Fernanda, one of the best in the first third of the 20C at the famous Teatro de la Zarzuela. This zarzuela was first shown in 1932, with a history of love and a happy ending. until april 22nd hurry up at http://teatrodelazarzuela.mcu.es/
To end, the recall of a magnificent place, first brough in here as a boy,and just early this year revisited on one of my business trips ,the Bar Palace at the Westin Hotel, being given first fame by the many visits by Ernest Hemingway, while writing later “The Sun Also Rises”. located inside the hotel at Plaza de las Cortes,7, webpage http://www.westinpalacemadrid.com/es/bar-hotel-palace-madrid
Enjoy Madrid , Spain everything under the sun. Cheers!
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