New Air...

New Air …

I have arrived.  Indeed, I finally made it, I am where a couple of decades declared and stated that I wanted to be and live.  I’m located in a very nice, beautiful and strategically located near almost anything, thanks to a reliable public transport, in the lovely city of Madrid.  Autumn is barely starting bit chilly in the mornings and evenings, but just perfect the rest of the day.  At the moment I’m cautious, I don’t move entirely freely, since the city is so big, criss cross streets and not having a mobile number yet, so I stay close, for the moment, from my new house.  But as soon as I feel more comfortable recognizing the neighborhood, I will throw myself entirely into the adventures of exploring and discovering this wonderful city and people. 

The second weekend spend over here, we went to the north to San Sebastián, to the family house of my friends or new family over here.  I visited this house the first time I traveled to Europe ... couple of decades ago.  Since I was a quite little my memories of this place where a little bit idealized, for me it was like a Palace at the top of the mountain.  Now my memory is more accurate is a big house in a mountain, indeed, since we arrange to fit 12 people in the house, and now I know is not a Palace, but for the child in my heart it will always be the Palace at the top of the mountain with a splendid view of ¨La Concha¨. (Famous San Sebastián beach front, the Queen and Royalty from whole Europe used to bathe here)  Since the age range of this expedition was big from 5 to 50-ish, the ranges of activities were also diverse.  After a long but very interesting and beautiful drive, we had lunch, a bit of ¨siesta¨(rest or small nap) and then on to the adventure of walking in the city, yes walking all the time to everywhere, so nice and relaxing.  We walk along the beach and also by the old part of the city, with majestuous antique buildings and squares, with a bit of rain.  The next day rained non stop so we decided to go to The Aquarium, and apparently everybody else also thought of doing the same, it was quite full, but also very lovely.  Learn about antique boats, styles of fishing even whale fishing, ¨triadas¨(rowing competitions at sea) and saw many beautiful fish tanks filled with magical underwater sea life.  The last day we went to ¨Monte Higueldo¨ which is a theme park, but that has been frozen in time, with a small wooden roller coaster ¨Montaña Suiza¨ with a lovely view over the coast, bumping cars (they are always a hit) and a house of laugh and mirrors, we had so much fun, all from 5 to 50-ish were 5 again.  

Back into the city, got tangled up in the readings for my classes, lots to read, enough to keep me quite busy, helping around the house, walks around the neighborhood to get acquainted.  I have been so lucky to be able to see three different art exhibitions in just two weeks.  First one from Ghirlandaio and all of those romantic Renaissance paintings, then an exclusive collection of American Art with a photos of John Gutmann, which I enjoyed so much, and to close this marvelous week the lovely Renoir @ El Prado.

Well back to my reading, studying the city and getting use to this New Air…