Felipe III 6, 6B
De Madrid al cielo y un agujerito para verlo.
Welcome to this blog, on our flat in Madrid (nicknamed 'Mayorcita') and our life in the Spanish capital. Note that this blog is in dormancy since we are no longer living there...
See also a panoramic view as captured by Carlos Sanchez.
Despedida de Guillermo
Se va Guillermo Guirales (mañana), que nos ha acompañado durante seis meses en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, trabajando (principalmente) en la elaboración de un código de integración de la ecuación de Gross-Pitaevskii para polaritones.
Madrid Río
Madrid Río is a pedestrian area longing the Manzanares in Madrid combining sportive and leisure areas with modern architecture (mainly as far as bridges and paths are concerned). It is a great addition to Madrid since the area used to iconic of its desolation [1] and mark, by way of highways, the frontier with the poorer neighborhoods. Now, it is a fantastic and modern park which could almost compete with el Retiro.
Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Teatro Real
We went to see one of our favorite opera, les contes d’Hoffmann at the Teatro Real, own production in collaboration with the opera from Stuttgart. This was on 3 June (2014) (a Tuesday), a day where two lazy students decided to complain about not passing with horrible marks and zero understanding of the topic. The delay occasioned by their theater bringing in succession a plea, then bargaining, then menaces, then insults and finally literally crying, almost made us late for the opera.
Orangefest
Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
The Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando is the top gallery of Madrid on the important-vs-famous scale. Here you can enjoy some major works in an essentially empty museum. With Goya as one of the directors and Picasso, Dalí and Botero as some of the alumni, the Academia is a testimony of Madrid's weight in the history of the fine arts. It has the most important Goya collection after el Prado.
It's raining over Madrid
... and over San Andrés.
Semana Santa MMXIV
The holy week is a big business in Spain. Not so much in Madrid, comparatively, but since it is the capital, it still offers orders of magnitude more than one has time to go through. We had the tiniest interaction with the Semana Santa, and as these recollections will show, this was already too much even for a blog post.
En Construcción en la sala Mirador
Tonight we went to see En Construcción in the sala Mirador, written and interpreted by Nelson Dante and Carolina Román, with direction by Tristán Ulloa, who is "el sexo" in Lucía y el sexo (and the husband of Carolina; he joined them on the scene for the nourished round of applause).
Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
We attended a match of football from the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League in the knockout phase, opposing the Real Madrid to the Borrusia Dortmund.
Dining at the Plaza Mayor
This is what we do most days of the year since we live in Felipe III. But tonight we will celebrate the first dinner with guests.
Conde Duque
El Conde Duque is a cultural center in Madrid set in a former military complex (what a nice reform). It has a Churrigueresque door and offers free art expositions.
Spanish manifestation for dignity (22M)
These are some pictures I took earlier today of Las Marchas de la dignidad (the walks for dignity) in Madrid.
Mierdo
Mierdo is one of the street artists performing in the Plaza Mayor, the clown with a black nose.
Mercado de la Cebada
The market of la Cebada is a popular covered market of Madrid, in the Barrio de la Latina. This is where we usually make our "shopping" due to the quality, atmosphere and, ultimately, even good prices.
Tablao Flamenco in Torres Bermejas
Flamenco being the most picturesque, emblematic as well as truly beautiful cultural perspective on Spain, we put the Tablao Flamenco high in our agenda.
We signed and got the keys
We went back there again. Madrid was still here. We paid more attention this time, we discovered the Plaza de España, el arbol de Navidad of Sol, the Opera, San Ginés. I realized just how absurdly perched is the Edificio de Correos. The mountains were in the fog. The sun seemed to be on the roof in front.
We sign next week.
We sign next week. Thursday the 12th, at 11.
Meanwhile, we did get a lottery ticket (Lotería de Navidad). It "graced" the Puerta del Sol in 1991. Maybe it'll be for Plaza Mayor in 2013.
The best flat in Spain
We feel like we won the lottery, with an anxiety mixed with joy and disbelief in our sheer luck. The anxiety is the agony that strangles you when something is too good to be true, that it might not be true, after all, or that something bad could happen, will happen, must happen, that they won't accept the winning ticket and that the fortune will escape us.