Flying on the Ground

I had a last little bit of time in Barcelona this morning before getting on the train for Madrid, so Jaime, Adrian, and I went see one of two old bullfighting rings.  Bullfighting was outlawed in Catalonia several years ago, and there are only two rings still standing in Barcelona.  The first is used as an outdoor venue for concerts and other events.  The second, the one we visited, has been turned into a multi-level shopping mall.  This particular ring was no longer in use prior to 2004.  The lower seating was overgrown with grass and weeds.  Because they want to retain the historical appearance of old buildings in Barcelona, when they redo a building, they gut it down to its outside shell, then rebuild inside. (We saw an example of this in the Barri Gotic the other day.)  The bullfighting ring, or corrida, was treated the same way.  All that was left of the former building was the Moorish style outer wall.  They built four wedge shaped buildings inside, joined them with ramps and escalators, and added an extra story inside and another on top.  The very top, where there is an observation deck, is a series of restaurants overlooking the city.  The next contains a restaurant as well, and the next has a 12-screen theatre complex.  The remaining floors contain shops, with a glass elevator running through the middle.  There is an interesting display showing how the building looked before restoration (or maybe "re-creation" is a better word), pictures taken throughout the building process, and how it looks today.  The picture below is not my picture, but a photo from that display.  It was really interesting how they did it without damaging any of the outer wall and its tilework during the process.  One amusing thing inside was a store which mainly sells American major league ballcaps, for about twice the price that they are at home.  I found a Chicago Bears cap, but no Chicago Cubs. (I guess they have heard about them in Spain, too.)

Then it was time to say goodbye to Jaime, Adrian, and Barcelona.  By the time I had passed through security (a result of the Madrid train bombing several years ago) and got to the waiting area, I only had a few minutes to wait before boarding was called.  When we lined up, because I had not fully understood the announcement, I asked a guy, in English, "To Madrid?", and he said, "Yes", so I got in line.  A woman came up behind me and asked, "Para Madrid?".  I said, "Si," and she got in line. The guy I asked just stared at me, no doubt wondering why I had asked in English if I understood and answered the other woman in Spanish.

The train was a high speed AVE train, which goes something like 300 kilometers an hour.  It was spacious and quiet, with reclining seats with footrests, huge tray tables, and power ports at every seat, so it would be easy to use laptops, etc., if you were so inclined.  If this is what high speed rail is like, I can hardly wait till the rail through Bloomington-Normal to Chicago is completed!  They handed out earphones and showed a movie, which I didn't watch partly because it was in Spanish, and partly because it was a guy movie with shooting and things blowing up.

 

So now I am in Madrid.  The train station is just a few blocks from the Westin Palace, so I walked.  That seemed like a good idea when I decided to do it, but it was actually close to 100 degrees here today.  After about two blocks it seemed like much less of a good idea, but I took it slowly, stopping repeatedly to catch my breath and drink some of my warm Diet Coke.  Actually, walking along the park, it was shady and really didn't seem that hot.  After taking my bags to my room, I went out for some dinner, thinking I would stop at VIPS and just pick something up to take back to the room.  Instead, feeling very "at-home", I guess, I decided to eat there.  I read the Spanish menu, ordered in Spanish, asked for the bill in Spanish, all without a problem!

Tomorrow I plan to go early to Almudena Cathedral and the Royal Palace, and possibly stop at a geocache or two along the way.  Then at 5:00 is the tapas reception at Vaughantown, where I will meet the other Anglos on this week.  Time for a bath in the world's best tub, then off to bed!  (Now that I know how to properly hang the "do not disturb" sign, I won't get bawled out by the housekeeper, like I did last year when I did it wrong.  I didn't even know it was possible to do it wrong.)