Paris1972-Versailles2003

In my new life as retiree my blog is my biggest entertainement and before anything else, I like to thank everyone of my readers and followers to stay with me over the years since November 26 2010 !!! Thank you !!! Especially my first likes from former travel forum friend Jeannette I decided to trim some of my older posts in my series Some news from Spain and condense them as not to lose the most important parts, me think, of them, Therefore, this is my new work, the condense news of my dear Spain, Hope you enjoy it as I.

Some news from Spain LXV August 10, 2018

A survery of travel tastes of Spaniards. Pointing out, 55.1% of Spanish travel from two,  although they also bet on escaping with another couple (13.6%) and even in groups of three (12.6%). Solo adventurers are reduced to 10%. Finally, the ranking would close the practice of travelling in groups of five (3.5%) and six people (2.4%). These are some of the data that emerge from the study carried out by Civitatis, the leading online distribution company of guided tours, excursions and activities in Spanish in the main destinations of the world. To this end, they interviewed 200,000 people who had booked their holidays with the Civitatis group during the month of July 2018. I would think in modern Spain the practices have change and now couples try more to get away than in the past. Rome tops the list of the most desirable sites with 8.8% of bookings. The second position is occupied by the city that never sleeps, ie New York, with 7.1%, while the third occupies a place that can come to surprise: Krakow, with 6.4%. They tie Paris and London in the fourth position. Other European capitals follow: Berlin, Amsterdam and Budapest.

Patria (fatherland), a great eye opener literatura work that I hope will be brought to the cinema eventually. Patria the “What happened” , words that refers to the history of violence and social exclusion that has been experienced in the Basque Country for the last 50 years. And Patria is obviously the novel by which Fernando Aramburu picked up last Monday the Francisco  Umbral Award for Best book published in Spain in 2017, awarded by the foundation Umbral and promoted by the newspaper El Mundo. The value of the novel by Aramburu has not consisted in portraying the accomplice society, rather than in reporting the criminal acts themselves, which were already sufficiently documented. The main idea of  Patria is that the use of violence ruins people. Also the people who exercise it . It has won a battle, that of the defeat of ETA, is now the triumph of truth. and Patria contributes to that so nobel goal indeed.

Something from afar that is becoming popular late in Spain. The Cuban Sandwich. Typical snack of the Caribbean island, very popular also in Florida,USA  which is made with roast pork (the marinade of the meat is key), ham, gherkins, cheese and mustard, toasted on a double plate. Enjoy it very good! Some of the best places to try it in Madrid are: Midtown. Paseo de la Habana, 11. With Iberian pork (also bacon), provolone, gherkin, arugula, tomato and mustard with a touch of honey. It is served with potatoes (11.50 euros) La Negra Tomasa.Calle  Cadiz, 9. Piglet, ham, cheese, mustard and gherkins (8.50 euros). Havana Blues. Paseo de Santa Maria de la Cabeza, 56. With roasted pork in casserole cut in pieces with a knife, cooked ham, Edam cheese, mustard and gherkin (6.50 euros).

Some news from Spain LXVI September 6, 2018

Best Patatas (potatoes)  Bravas of Madrid; this is my old neighborhood in the old real Madrid of my teens years, and they are still kicking strong since 1963; this is Docamar, Calle Alcalá, 337 in the Quintana neighborhood of Ciudad Lineal district. Metro Quintana line 5.  The task is occupied by a single cook and by his hands where on a single day more than 2,000 kg ( 4408 lbs) of peeled potatoes are cut into quarters. The sauce, secret of course, has a taste of paprika and is quite hot  (also take out home in liter bottles). Many locals attest to the truth, they are the best in the city…

Some news from Spain LXVII September 14, 2018

A statue in the district of the Letras(  letters), in the beautiful  Plaza Santa Ana in front of the Teatro Español ,(Spanish theater) which in its time was the place that would occupy the old Corral of the prince. In the spring of May 1681, with the definitive absence of the lustrous presence of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, one of the greatest writer/poets of Spain leaves in inheritance a monumental literary work matter of study in thousands of universities all over the globe Calderon born in the labyrinthine city of the cats, Madrid, in a winter apotheosis by the recurrent snows and the heavy cold , dawns one day January 17 of the year 1600.  he reincarnated several times in his beloved Cervantes. A friend and contemporary of Velázquez clung to the Baroque as a lover or ballast marked by blood and fire for the creed he practiced, a religion closed to new and unventilated that would condition his enormous creativity out of respect for suffocating principles. In this orbit of literary, artistic and scientific creation, he coexisted in space time with the conspicuous Góngora, with the ubiquitous and scathing Quevedo, the enormous philosophers Hobbes, Descartes, Baruch ,Espinoza, Locke and other enlightened ones touched by the genius and a talent beyond doubt. His enormous fondness for the profane history perhaps the true one, and the canonical one probably that of the half-truths, its rapprochement with the natural and political right were the tools with which he would face his vast literary creation coupled with the fascination generated by the comedy of Lope de Vega, his great artistic reference, which at that time swept the corrals of the capital. Calderon is basically a comedy writer. Top Ten of literature. It is the decade of the great Biblical dramas and of honor with Los cabellos de Absalón, and El médico de su honra, etc. It is, also the time of the debate between the individual and the absolute power of the State and perhaps, in my view, when personal virtue reaches perfection in the  celebrated El alcalde de Zalamea (the mayor of Zalamea). The famous philosophical comedy depicted in the life Is dream  is probably the most universal work of this eclectic man of the world

The Teatro Real  (Royal Theater) inaugurates its 22nd season in September with Faust, by Charles Gounod, in a new co-production with the National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam. A new reading of the inexhaustible myth of Faust, original work of the romantic German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , which began its historical journey with a cold reception of the French public in the Parisian Théâtre Lyrique in 1859 and which has been imposed little by little in the universal operatic repertoire. Already in 1865, in this same theater, Faust (Fausto)  seduced the Madrid public, being one of the most represented operas until its closing in 1925, which would continue until the reopening in February of 2003.  Gounod’s Faust moves away from the French Grand Opéra, with the beauty of the melodies, the formidable choral parts or the sarcasm in the dialogues, but with a very German style. It is very clear that the primary source of inspiration is in the original work of Goethe which precisely reached its true popularity in Germany.

There you go folks, a big task but a work of love to keep the best, me think of these wonderful older posts over the years, These are what I think worth keeping of my older Some news from Spain series, and I thank you, Again, hope you enjoy this post as I

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!