With the money Nina got from her four grandparents and her uncle John Dan and aunt Michelle, she is going to buy a ticket to see Taylor Swift in concert next spring. That will probably be her favorite gift of the birthday season, but she loves to read, too, so Mari and I got her 15 books to commemorate the occasion. They didn't all arrive by the 11th, so we took the picture today. She has already read 2 of them. I look forward to reading these with her.
1. Galatea (2022) by Madeline Miller. Short story reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion.
2. Foster (2010/2022) by Claire Keegan.Set in Ireland in the 1980s: "a child it taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again."
3. My India: A Novel about India (2011) by Marcel Moring. Based on a true story about Gandhi; set in India in 1948.
4. Girl in the Blue Coat (2016) by Monica Hesse. Mystery set in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in 1943.
5. Enchanted Islands (2016) by Allison Amend. Inspired by the mid-20th century memoirs of Frances Conway, "an independent American woman whose path takes her far from her native Minnesota when she and her husband, an undercover intelligence officer, are sent to the Galápagos Islands at the brink of World War II."
6. The Downstairs Girl (2019) by Stacey Lee. "By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in in late 19th-century Atlanta, but by night, she moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, 'Dear Miss Sweetie.'"
7. African Town (2022) by Irene Latham and Charles Waters. Novel-in-verse chronicles "the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860."
8. The Last Cuentista (2021) by Donna Barba Higuera. Dystopian science fiction; winner of the Newberry Award for children's literature.
9. A Thousand Sisters: The Historic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II (2020) by Elizabeth Wein. Non-fiction. "In the early years of World War II, Josef Stalin issued an order that made the Soviet Union the first country in the world to allow female pilots to fly in combat."
10. Yes, Please (2014) by Amy Poehler. A memoir by the star of the tv show Parks and Recreation.
11. Unstoppable Us, Volume 1: How Human Took Over the World (2022) by Yuval Noah Harari. Adaptation of the philosopher's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015).
12. Tell Me Who You Are (2019) by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi. Based on the authors' experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America.
13. Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara Kingsolver. Transposes Charles Dickens's David Copperfield to the mountains of souther Appalachia.
14. Remember Me: A Spanish Civil War Novel (2020) by Mario Escobar. Set in Morelias, Mexico, 1930s. Based on the true stories of the Children of Morelia.
15. Frida and Diego: Art, Love, Life (2014) by Catherine Reef. A joint biography.
On our last day in Madrid, we got up at 8, took our bags down to a reserved taxi van at 9:15, said goodbye to Gerardo at the house (he didn't fit in the van), got to the airport at 10, and checked our 5 bags by 10:30.
Goodbyes were hard.
But aside from the anxieties associated with the ticket purchase, Covid protocols on the inbound and outbound flights, and my broken phone (which ending being an upgrade), we couldn't have asked for a better trip. It's hard to believe we pulled it off on such short notice!
We have so much to be grateful for: the great weather; Gerardo flying in and being able to spend so much time with us; being able to hang out with Rita and Uxue and Gimena at both the beginning and the end of our trips; so many delicious meals specially planned and prepared for us by Abuela; the club passes to the Atletli game that Abuelo got for us and his company at the game; the health we all enjoyed from beginning to end; the new places we visited and the familiar, much loved placed we returned to; and above all the new memories we created, and the many, many laughs we enjoyed.
As for our reentry ... it was not without incident.
We failed to sneak a water bottle, a camera, and some cans of tuna through security, and received a brief lecture about it. Mari lost her cardigan at some point in the process. And after more security checks and a shuttle train, Emilio announced that he had left his backpack at the security check. By the time he realized this, the airline agent told us there was not enough time for us to go back to get it. We'd have to fill out an online request form (we did so, and after paying fees, and relying on much assistance from Maria Rosa, the backpack was eventually delivered to Ada after spending several weeks in Germany for no obvious reason).
Only 2 of the 5 of us had seats together on the plane, but once we boarded, we were able to fix that by swapping with some flexible cotravelers.
Eventually, though, we made it back to Ada with most of our luggage, cellphones full of photos, and an eagerness to return to Spain at the next possible opportunity.
The Ruiz Bentons below are awaiting with their parents for the results of an important exam. All five of us took it. It cost $175. If we pass the exam, we will get on a plane and fly to the U.S. the next day. If anybody but me fails the test, Mari will stay with them in Spain.If it were summertime, and Mari and I didn't have work to get back to, getting "stuck" in Spain would not be a bad thing.
Fortunately, we all passed. My relief was great.
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The five of us, los abuelos, Gime, Rita, Uxue and Gerardo had lunch together at VIPS because of its proximity to the house and its diverse menu.
We stopped to get pastries before walking home. After spending the afternoon packing, I went out to do some last-day gift-shopping.
We came back with more suitcases than we started with.
Back at the house, Emi, Nina, Rita and Uxue made up a ball-passing game.
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I took some family photos.
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Emilio and Rita, playing together, won the last game of Carioca.
In all my time in Madrid, I never went to a mass, but I checked that off my bucket list when Nina and Mari joined me for a Sunday morning visit to la basilicade San Francisco el Grande, built in 1784.
The church's dome--the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in Europe--appears in the background of many of Goya's paintings as an identifier of Madrid.
It was hard for me to follow what the priest was saying because of the echo in the building, and there was less music and pageantry than I was hoping for, but the building was beautiful, and I'm glad we went.
Above and below: Nina and San Francisco el Grande, seen from the street.
In the photo above, Nina and Mari are standing in front of the Church of San Andres (Andrew) the Apostle, which was built in the 1660s on the site where a 12th century church was previously built, which was itself built on the same site where the city's main mosque once stood during Madrid's Islamic age. The interior of San Andres was largely destroyed by Republicans in Madrid in July 1938 in the days following Franco's attack on the country.
Construction of the Museo de San Isidro, next to the San Andres church, was built a dozen years after I left Madrid. I didn't know about it, but wandering in, I discovered that it was free, not busy, and open on Sunday, so we explored. It was time well-spent.
The museum focuses on most of the history of Madrid leading up to the time covered by the Museum of the History of Madrid (1561 to the present), which I had visited earlier in the trip.
My visit taught me that:
Humans have lived in the valleys of Madrid for almost 400,000 years (that is not a typo!). The first to arrive were of the species heidelbergensis.
Until 120,000 years ago, the humans in this area lived alongside prairie rhinos, elephants, hippos and giant bulls (of course).
80,000 years ago, climate change brought giant deer, mammoths, wooly rhinos, and bison (!) to the Iberian peninsula.
Neanderthals lived here until 27,000 years ago.
Some of the few examples of Paleolithic art (drawings of animals and anthropomorphic creatures) on the plateau can be found on the walls of the Reguerillo cave in the village of Patones, near Madrid (the cave has been closed to the public since 2006).
Systematic agriculture came to this region about 10,000 years ago after developing first in the near East 2,000 years previously.
When the Romans arrived in 139 BCE, the area was populated by a tribe of Celtic origin known as the Carpetani, who lived in long houses that resemble, to my eyes, some that we saw in the Hebrides islands off the northwest coast of Scotland.
One of Madrid's suburbs, Alcalá de Henares, had a population of 50,000 during the Roman era. Most villages in the area farmed cereal grains, produced oils and wines, and herded sheep. The homes of the most prominent citizens featured mosaic decorations.
In the 500s, the region was governed by the Germanic Visigothic kings of Toledo.
I especially enjoyed encountering the scale-model of the city (above) that shows a series of concentric city walls that enclosed Madrid during its different eras (marked in different colors).
The innermost circle represents the earliest walled enclosure that was built in the 800s/900s, when "Mayrit" was founded by the Cordoban emir Muhammad the first. The frontier fortress was designed to stop Christian attacks from the north. In the city's Islamic period, Mayrit featured a mosque, markets, and bathhouses. The maze-like routes of some the oldest, narrowest streets in the city, near the church of San Andres, were once part of the Islamic medina.
The city was incorporated into Christian Castille in 1085 as a result of a pact between Alfonso VI and al-Qadir, who was then in power in Toledo. Muslims and Jews were permitted to stay in the city, but they lived in designate neighborhoods. The Muslim quarter, la Moreria ,was near the San Andres church, and the Muslims who lived there worked as potters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths.
The city was attacked and besieged on multiple occasions over the next 100 years.
A subsequent circle of city walls was built during the 1100s. The city's patron saint, Isidro, lived in Madrid at the time.
After 1212, the border battles of the Christian re-conquest of Iberia moved further south.
In the 1300s, Castille's Trastamaran kings began making regular visits to the city. At this time, relations between the city's Christians, Jews and Muslims deteriorated.
They don't know whether Madrid's original alcázar (castle), built in the 1300s (site of the current Royal Palace) was itself built on the site of a previous Islamic fortress (but I'm guessing "yes").
The original "Almudena" church was built in the historic Muslim region of the city (al-medina/Almudena) on the site previously occupied by the city's main mosque (they do not know whether the mosque was "purified" and repurposed or whether it was razed to the ground).
The last city walls were built in 1656. I believe the reflection of my camera's flash illuminates the spot where la calle de Toledo reaches la Puerta de Toledo, which is near la casa de los abuelos.
Above: the legendary 12th century well where San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid, performed a miracle. When his son fell in the well, Isidro prayed, and the water in the well rose to the surface, delivering the boy to safety.
When we visited the museum, an extensive nativity scene (Belén, or Bethlehem) was displayed in the museum's courtyard.
The Arco de Cuchilleros, above, provides entry into la Plaza Mayor. It was built after a fire destroyed much of the Plaza in 1790. "Cuchilleros" are cutlery makers.
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For some of us, candy shops are magnets.
I had never been to a professional soccer match in Spain (a secular Spanish mass with more enthusiasm, music, and pageantry?), but I can now cross that off my list, as well. This had been on our wish list for a long time. We weren't sure we were going to be able to make it happen, but Jaime hooked us up with four passes to a club suite for Atletico Madrid's home field La Liga match against Rayo Vallecano (another Madrid club). Jaime got the tickets from a former patient of his who runs a real estate business.
After lunch, we took a subway to the field--the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, built in 2017--and a club suite hostess hung up our coats and invited us to enjoy some delicious free food while we were waiting for the game to start (the food enjoyment continued during the game and at halftime as well)
We could move back and forth from the enclosed suite, where the food was, to the outside seating area, where the roar of the crowd was.
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Nina was the only one of us wearing Atleti attire. I planned to get a shirt for Emilio, but when it comes to t-shirts, he's picky about colors and fabric.
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Atleti won the match 2-0. Atleti forward Luis Suarez was the best-known player on the pitch, but 26-year-old Argentine forward Ángel Correa scored both of Atleti's goals. He is 5'7" tall--about Emi's height.
In the suite next to us, we saw central defender Stefan Savic, who was out with an injury, and former Atleti midfieder Filipe Luis, who made 240 appearances for Atleti and 44 for Brazil's national team (Emilio took a picture with him).
After the game, we stopped briefly at la casa de los abuelos and then headed to a Hieronymous Bosch-inspired art exhibit in an exhibition space constructed on the grounds of what was once Madrid's slaughterhouse. It was really difficult to get tickets under Covid conditions. Each person could only reserve two tickets online, but through a well-coordinated group effort we managed to get tickets for the five us, la abuela, Gerardo, Gimena, Rita and Uxue. We arrived just before the last people were allowed to enter.
Back at the house, we watched the Barca game on TV (we beat Real Mallorca 1-0), played Carioca (some of us), and then Emilio and I watched the Cowboys game on my phone (a loss--yech).
