And I am coming back at you with my Spain, as said everything under the sun! Things are moving quickly and the spaces are open people out and fun is back. I am waiting for the stadium to be done to be there in my dear Madrid, oh yes the stadium ,the only one, the Santiago Bernabeu home of the Real Madrid CF! Ok ok so now let met tell you some nice news of my beloved Spain. Thanks for reading me since Nov 2010 and on my 106th edition of some news from Spain!
A brief getaway through Castilian lands to visit jewels such as the beautiful Cloister of Santa María la Real de Nieva, in the province of Segovia; the incredible Monastery of Santa Clara, in Tordesillas province of Valladolid, and the unique charm of the Basilica of San Juan de Baños, in Palencia. The proposal supposes an itinerary of 250 km by road from Madrid, which is feasible to cover by car in one day. Just leave early and take advantage of the time! Enjoy the architecturally and historically stunning road warrior tour.
The first stop is in Santa María la Real de Nieva, a peaceful town half an hour from Segovia. The construction of the Gothic church began in 1393 and, once completed, it was handed over to the Dominicans. Shortly after the monastery began to rise and in the following years the church would be expanded, demolishing the apses of the original head. About 80 km from Santa María la Real, in the direction of Valladolid, awaits Tordesillas, which owes part of its fame to the treaty signed on June 7, 1494 between the representatives of the Catholic Monarchs (Fernando and Isabel) and those of John II of Portugal, for the one that both crowns divided the territories of the New World. In addition, Juana I of Castile, nicknamed La Loca (crazy) and mother of Emperor Carlos V, was locked up in this town for more than 40 years. The Royal Convent of Santa Clara, which hosted the body of Felipe el Hermoso from 1509 to 1525, has been six centuries watching the waters of the Duero flow at its feet. It was originally a Mudejar palace that King Alfonso XI ordered to be built around 1340, as evidenced by the lace decoration and Arabic inscriptions, as well as a charming courtyard with lobed and horseshoe arches reminiscent of the Alhambra in Granada. At 70 km north of Tordesillas is the third architectural landmark of this route: a stone diamond erected by the Visigoth king Recesvinto in the Palencia plain of Venta de Baños. The secluded Basilica of San Juan de Baños, one of the few buildings of this type in Spain, resembles a small chest whose dating is not the slightest doubt as in the front there is a Latin inscription that cites the year 699 , and that corresponds to 661 of our era. Built with large ashlars joined together with little mortar, the temple measures 20 meters long by 13 meters wide. Wonderful!
The rebirth of Mayte Commodore, the restaurant that was the center of the political intrigues of the Franco regime. In this luxurious premises, the appointment of Juan Carlos de Borbón as successor to the title of King was forged and Manuel Fraga celebrated the wedding invitation to his son. This summer it reopens its doors renovated but with the essence that made it an icon of Madrid. The new space that will open this summer has dispensed with the name of Mayte. It’s going to be called Commodore. Many international actors, such as Anthony Quinn, Charlton Heston or Ava Gardner, and Spanish politicians and artists, such as Juan Domingo Perón and Lola Flores, spent long evenings there. The restaurant opened in 1967, at No 5 Plaza de la República Argentina, in an emblematic brick building. Mayte was born in Santander. She was the only girl of 14 siblings, she studied at the Lausanne School of Hospitality and at 18 she went to Madrid to earn a living in the hospitality industry. She was a tavern server from Cantabria who set up a canteen near the Bronston studios, at the end of calle General Mola, today Calle Principe de Vergara, and dazzled the great stars. From that first space she moved to what we now know as Commodore, the center of the political intrigues of the moment. There, for example, the appointment of Juan Carlos de Borbón as successor to the title of King was forged. Manuel Fraga, then Minister of Information and Tourism, officiated in one of his four private festive evenings, burned in hand, proclaiming his long-awaited openness. There, in 1987, he would celebrate the wedding invitation with his son, Ignacio Fraga, along with Margarita Pedroche. During those years, political personalities such as Felipe Gonzalez, Adolfo Suarez, Santiago Carrillo or Alfonso Guerra would make an appearance. Pure history of Madrid and Spain reborn to visit as soon as possible. Webpage pending.
Medina Azahara, the great scene of the Umayyad power that succumbed in 73 years. In the year 1000, there was no more dazzling city in Europe than Madinat al Zahra, 8 km west of Córdoba, the capital of al-Andalus and the royal home of the self-proclaimed Caliph Abd al-Rahman III. Madinat al Zahra, Castilianized as Medina Aza .A must to see in my Spain. Webpage: https://www.medinaazahara.org/en/
Manuel Escribano, the first from Las Ventas of Madrid is going to help me so they can count on me as hell he says for the first corrida there since the pandemic. The Sevillian bullfighter will be the first matador de Luces to fight a bull in the Monumental almost two years later. More info here: https://plaza1.janto.es/janto/
At 41, surrounded by his wife Kirenia, his children Axel and Chloe, and all the Real Madrid legends, Felipe Reyes said goodbye to basketball through tears. An unrepeatable player who left unique moments. He was the expected and unexpected goodbye of one of the greatest who wore the shirt of Spain, the third in caps ;236 , only behind Navarro and Epi. He finished with the greatest number of matches played under the Real Madrid 1,046! in 17 seasons where he won 23 titles: 2 Euros cups, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 7 overal playoffs ACB championships, 6 King’s Cup, 6 Super Cup of Spain and 1 ULEB Cup. 3 eurobasket Cups, 2 Olympic silver and 1 bronze 1 world championship ; 2 Silver eurobasket and 1 bronze; 1 bronze eurobasket junior, 1 gold europe junior. Thank you Felipon and well deserve rest good luck in your future. Hala Madrid!!!!
Madrid wants to open the Retiro park bomb shelter to the public in 2022. The construction of this building began in 1936, in the context of the Spanish Civil War. A document certifies that the work was completed in 1938 and, after the war, it was used for mushroom cultivation due to the little light and humidity it offered. Subsequently, it remained closed for more than thirty years. It had three entrances , two in the park and one in Calle Menéndez Pelayo. In addition, it lacked weapons to defend itself, which indicates that it was intended for the use of the civilian population shelter with an approximate capacity of 275 people. The dimensions of its corridors were from 1.10 to 1.15 meters wide and 1.60 to 2.48 meters high, the galleries were straight and every 25 meters they broke at a 90º angle to avoid for the shock waves to reach more people. To be follow as would be very interesting to go under; to be continue…..
The boats in the El Retiro pond and the Casa de Campo lake can be booked through the ‘Madrid Móvil’ application or the ‘www.madrid.es’ website as of this Saturday, June 26, according to made public by the Madrid City Council The ticket gives the right to the use of a boat with a maximum number of four occupants for 45 minutes from the moment the boat starts to be used. The price is 6 euros for weekdays and 8 euros for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays The number of boats available to citizens is 20 in the Casa de Campo (another 30 new boats will be added at the end of the year) and 100 in El Retiro. Great my favorite time when young boy in Madrid and first girlfriend taken there! Webpage in Spanish: https://www.madrid.es/portal/site/munimadrid
La Barraca will be portable. A wandering and free theater that will travel the torrid roads of Castile, the dusty roads of Andalusia, all the roads that cross the Spanish countryside. It will penetrate into the villages, towns and villages, and will set up in the squares his tablados and guignol huts. Resurrection of the traveling entertainment of the past times. These are the words of Federico García Lorca about the mythical university theater company that he himself directed together with Eduardo Ugarte between 1932 and 1936. The last trip of ‘La Barraca’ was on June 14 1936, just two months before his murdered. -He had the support of the then Minister of Public Instruction, Fernando de los Ríos, and intended to take classical theater throughout Spain. The Madrid Theater Institute, dependent on the Complutense University will carry on , bravo chapeau!!! To be able to see it!!!More info here: https://www.ucm.es/item
The most popular European island in 44 European countries as survey by Musement. The Greek Santorini takes the ‘likes’ of a large part of Europeans, but as we can see in 11 of the countries present in the infographic, the favorite island is a Spanish one. After Tenerife, the second most popular island is Mallorca, the favorite of Germans and Belarusians. But this is not all, Ibiza, Menorca and Lanzarote have also earned a place on the map. The study was carried out by analyzing Google search volume data from 200 European islands (excluding island countries). Source webpage : https://www.musement.com/us/
And yes Madrid has metro works and stoppage too. The Metro de Madrid will cut-off Line 6 and the bus entity EMT will connect the Pacífico and Sainz de Baranda stations during the works. The stops of this special service will be located very close to the entrances of the stations affected by these works, which will last from July 1 to July 31 2021. In the vicinity of the Pacífico metro station, there will be a newly created header (stop 4874), at Avenida Ciudad de Barcelona, 83. From there, the buses will travel along Calle Doctor Esquerdo, making an intermediate stop next to the station. Conde de Casal metro (stop no. 1434) and they will continue their route along this street until they reach the Sainz de Baranda station, where the descent stop no. 4614 will be enabled. In the opposite direction, users must go up at the head again creation no. 4962 to make the route in the Pacific direction along Calle Doctor Esquerdo , with an intermediate stop (no. 1,433) at the Conde de Casal metro and final descent stop next to the Pacífico station (stop no. 1,437). This special service will operate every day of the week between 6h05 and 02h09, with frequencies of two to six minutes at peak hours and on weekdays. The frequencies on Saturdays and Sundays will vary between 6 and 16 minutes depending on the time slot. This was my route when visiting Madrid on business trips!
For the first time, the prestigious EVOOLEUM Guide rewards the most beneficial groves for health according to their amount of phenols. According to scientific evidence, extra virgin olive oil is the healthiest there is.(I knew that since birth !!) Among the many benefits of regular and moderate consumption are reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, having an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor effect, and regulating glucose metabolism. Experts believe that, to take advantage of these healthy benefits, it is necessary to consume 20 grams of extra virgin olive oil daily with a phenolic content of at least 250 ppm (parts per million), that is, two tablespoons. According to the prestigious publication, three extra Spanish virgins are among the 10 healthiest: the Cordovan blend of picuda and hojiblanca Parqueoliva Serie Oro, from Almazaras de la Subbética (position no 3), Al Alma del Olivo Cornicabra PDO Montes de Toledo Ecológico, Olinexo ( no. 9), and Pagos de Toral Selección Gourmet, Pagos de Toral (no 10). This ranking by the hand of the EVOOLEUM Guide will be published in September and will be included in the next edition of The 100 best virgin olive oils on the planet 2022, its annual publication. More info webpage; https://www.evooleum.com/en/guide/
Xiringuito by Casa Mono, the dining room with the beach of Madrid. Located in the X-Madrid shopping center in the neighboring town of Alcorcón, it has a dining room, terrace and beach and sand area, and offers a kitchen with contemporary touches. Behind it are well-known names in Madrid’s restaurants, those of the creators of the aforementioned New York-style bar-restaurant in the Argüelles neighborhood -Casa Mono-, Martinete (Salamanca district), Ateneo (in the center of Madrid) and Los Pérez (Boadilla del Monte). Located at Calle Oslo, 53. X-Madrid Shopping Center, local 061. webpage: https://x-madrid.com/taste/el-xiringuito/
And there you go folks, another dandy informative post from my humble personal some news from Spain! Hope you enjoy it and again thanks for reading it. Enjoy Spain, everything under the Sun!! And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 