Spain -Week 3

This weeks adventures were very minimal as much work needed to be done on other fronts.

Some other events of this week is I managed to secure a Job till January so it look like we will be staying in Spain for a little while longer. Also it was my Birthday, but that was a complete fail. 

In up coming news next week we will be heading to Bilbao which is in the north of Spain. 
So you can look forward to some more touristy things next week. I might try to do a couple of posts for next week as there might be to much content for one post. 


Parque del Buen Retiro
 

The Parque del Buen Retiro, literally means "Park of the Pleasant Retreat" it is the one of the largest parks of the city of Madrid, Spain. The park belonged to the Spanish Monarchy until the late 19th century, when it became a public park.

 The Buen Retiro Park is a large and popular 1.4 km² (350 acres) park at the edge of the city center, very close to the Puerta de Alcalá and not far from the Prado Museum. A magnificent park, filled with beautiful sculpture and monuments, galleries, a peaceful lake and host to a variety of events, it is one of Madrid's premier attractions. The park is entirely surrounded by the present-day city.




Below: The Monument to King Alfonso XII, The monument is situated on the east edge of an artificial lake near the center of the park.

In 1902, a national contest was held to design a monument for King Alfonso XII at the initiative of the Queen Mother Maria Christina of Austria. The winner was the architect José Grases Riera, whose design consisted of a grand colonnade alongside a pond in El Retiro, with several sculptures surrounding an equestrian statue of the king, with everything constructed in bronze and marble.

Above: View over the Retiro Park Pond, where you can hire rowboats  to paddle about the Estanque.

 Above: Palacio de Cristal ("Crystal Palace"), a glass pavilion inspired by The Crystal Palace in London, undoubtedly the gardens' most extraordinary building. Built along with its artificial pond (Below) in 1887 for the Philippine Islands Exhibitions, the Palacio de Cristal was first used to display flower species indigenous to the archipelago.



 

Below: Just a few random photos that were taken through out the park. 
 














Well like I mentioned at the beginning, this week was a fairly uneventfully one I hope next weeks blogs are more entertaining for you.

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Spain - Week 3

 

This week was a slow week of running around town and doing things that needed to be done or staying at home setting up Kyran's new work lab, for his new role as a travelling inventor. 
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Fist things first tho, some of you may have noticed the photo to the right that was posted on my Facebook page  earlier this week about guessing where Kyran was. 

The answer is: we were at the Royal Palace in Madrid, and Kyran is standing in the Armoury! He really enjoyed it because he loves all things related to killing stuff for some reason...

Royal Palace
The Royal Palace is the official residence of the Spanish Royal Family, but is only used for state ceremonies.

The armoury is considered one of the best in the world and consists of pieces as early as the 15th century.
Despite many wars the armoury still retains some of the most important pieces of this art in Europe and the world, including several signed by Filippo Negroli, one of the most famous designers in the armourers' guild.

The direct antecedent of the Royal Palace is the Royal Alcazar, a fortress built on the same site where the baroque building stands today. On Christmas Eve 1734, the Alcázar was destroyed by a fire originating in the rooms of the French painter Jean Ranc. It was not detected quickly, due the warning bells being confused with the call to mass. Silly buggers.This fire lasted four-days and completely destroyed the old Alcázar, whose last walls were finally demolished in 1738.

Overall we really enjoyed the Palace and it's stately rooms and bountiful ornaments - every room was amazing!

Below:  Almudena Cathedral 
The Neo-Romanesque crypt houses a 16th-century image of the Virgen de la Almudena. Nearby along the Calle Mayor excavations have unearthed remains of Moorish and medieval city walls.

The cathedral seems to have been built on the site of a medieval mosque that was destroyed in 1083.

 

FUN FACT

The capital of Spain use to be Toledo but was transferred to Madrid in 1561.





 



 Left: View of the Puerta de Sol (Means the door of the sun) from the Plaza de Cibeles.
The Puerta de Sol is the center (Km 0) of the radial network of Spanish roads. 

The square also contains the famous clock whose bells mark the traditional eating of the Twelve Grapes and the beginning of a new year.




Left: A Giant 'lucky' Frog donated to the city of Madrid by the Casino Gran Madrid-Colón

Above: Casa de America
Casa de America is a public consortium that aims to strengthen ties between Spain and the Americas, especially Latin America. This approach is encouraged through the organization of seminars, conferences, round tables, exhibitions, keynote talks, screenings, concerts, conferences, presentations, workshops, etc

 
 





Above: Some thing for your amusement... A bob cat hanging in mid air off a crane, guess no one is going to steal it there. 

Left:   The Bear and the Tree is part of Madrid's coat of arms. The shield is Argent, a bear sable supported on a strawberry tree (vert fructed gules).

The Coat of arms of Madrid, the capital of Spain, has its origin in the Middle Ages 

(For more information) 

Above:The Plaza de Toros
I'd like to mention that we did not set out to see this dreadful place but as we happened to stumble upon it we thought we would take a photo.

It has a seating capacity of 25,000 and is regarded as the home of bullfighting in Spain.

The bullfighting season starts in March and ends in October; bullfights are held every day during the San Isidro Fiesta, and every Sunday or holiday during the season. Bullfights start at 6 or 7pm and last for two to three hours. 


Bullfighting
 
The bullfight, as it is practiced today, involves professional toreros (of which the most senior is called a matador) who execute various formal moves which can be interpreted and innovated according to the bullfighter's style or school.

The bull is first been weakened and tired by lances and short spears with barbs which are thrust into and then hang from the bull.

After the bull has been hooked multiple times behind the shoulder by other matadors in the arena, the bullfight usually concludes with the killing of the bull by a single sword thrust, which is called the estocada.

In Portugal, it is illegal to kill a bull in the arena, so it is removed and either professionally killed or treated and released into its owners' (ganadero) fields.

On a more personal note, I think this is a terrible and primitive tradition that should be outlawed and the toreros/ matadors castrated.

 
Left: A Strange looking building that we noticed along our journeys. 

Colunbus Towers or Torres de Colón is a highrise office building.
The building constructed in 1976 was designed by the architect Antonio Lamela.

Right: Kyran newest toy a Laboratory Power Supply, it allows for him to set what ever voltage and current out put he wants.







 




A Recipe: Horchatta

1.Chuffa in it's tube state ready to be processed. 

2.Someone mentioned to my aunty that where the chuffa is grown has rats etc.. she first   
   soaks the chuffa in a water bleach combination. 
  Then the chuffa is rinsed and put with water through the food processor that you can see in the middle.The processor extracts the milk and leaves the woody shells. 

3. The woody shells are then mixed with water and put back through the processor in order to get the most out of the tubers. 

4.Once the milk(on the right of the processor) has been filtered twice it is then put through a cloth to remove the finer woody particles. 

5.The final product. In Spain the milk is known and sold as Horchatta but it is more commonly mixed with sugar and cows milk. In this case it is completely natural and unflavored for maximum nutrient value (it is said that it has the same nutritional value and can be compared to a mothers breast milk).

FUN FACTS- Chuffa:  
Aslo known as: Cyperus esculentus, nut grass, yellow nutsedge, tiger nut sedge, or earth almond.

It is native to most of the Western Hemisphere as well as southern Europe, Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent.

It has become naturalized in many other regions, including Ukraine, China, Hawaii, Indochina, New Guinea, Java, New South Wales and various oceanic islands

Despite its name, tigernut is a tuber. However, its chemical composition shares characteristics with tubers and with nuts. 

It has been reported to be a “health” food, since its consumption can help prevent heart disease and thrombosis and is said to activate blood circulation and reduce the risk of colon cancer. 
- This tuber is rich in energy content (starch, fat, sugar, and protein), 
- Minerals (mainly phosphorus and potassium), 
- Vitamins E and C (making this tuber also suitable for diabetics) 
(For more information)
 

Right: Some sewing was also done the yellow flowers were all made but yours truly  as i have discovered these wonderful petal stencils.  







MOVIE OF THE WEEK
I was recommended this movie by one of my family and it is a cracking movie if you understand Spanish and the Spanish and Basque cultures.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2955316/

Spain Week 2 - Madrid

While we are in Madrid we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have two lots of family to stay with. 

To the left is a photo of my Tio(uncle) Cesar who has been helping Kyran with his learning and pronunciation of Spanish. 































Above: Kyran with Tia Ester where she showed us the Rio Tajo which is on the bottom side of a dam known as Entrepeñas.



Entrepeñas is a reservoir located in the Lower Barren plateau of Guadalajara.

Because the dam is between two towns (Sacedón and Auñón) the dam is all
 "Entrepeñas" which sort of means between towns or tribes. 

The dam was opened in 1958.

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MADRID
In the center of Spain you can find the capitol Madrid. The region has somewhere between a subtropical and a warm-temperate subtropical climate.

The summer in Madrid can get very hot, the months of July and August are the hottest months (right now dammit!).

The daytime temperature will rarely get below 30°C and it is not uncommon to have temperatures above 40°C. I think this week has been mostly 35-37°C.

The summer also brings on the dry season, the lowest rain fall of the year occurring between July and August.  

The days are also longer during the hotter summer months with around 15 hours of sunlight and 9 hours of night.

















SPAIN - Vegetation
The map below shows the vegetation types that are typical for the areas in Spain. These vegetation types are represented by the flower pictures that are posted above and below.

 

Above: There is no shortage of food in Spain, this is a black berry bush that was growing wild around a dam wall. The ripe berries can be seen as the black dots in the photo, the red berries are not ripe yet.

 
At Entrepeñas where we stayed there are various types of water sports on offer, here we were doing wake boarding with my cousin Adei. 

I myself did not try wake boarding, but I climbed aboard the boat as a spotter.



In a nearby town of Pareja (which translated means "couple") the story goes that they were not allowed access to the water of
Entrepeñas so they decided to wall up their own section of one of the tributaries to the dam. 

The dam can be seen in the photos below. to the left is the overflow for the dam and to the right is a photo across the dam with the town of Pareja in the background.

 
















The dam has a concrete beach that leads to the water. 
The only problem is that algae has grown on the concrete making the surface extremely slippery. 
So people that say "I just want to put my feet in" usually end up going for a full body immersion. 

Right: A dog with one blue eye and one brown eye.

FUN FACTS
Heterochromia iridium is the condition of having two different-colored eyes within a single individual.

Brown eyes are rich in melanin deposits, and blue eyes indicate a lack of melanin.

Two genes control eye color: EYCL3, found on chromosome 15, which codes for brown/blue eye color (BEY), and EYCL1, found on chromosome 19, which codes for green/blue eye color (GEY)
(For more info) 
















Above: A trip to one of the local towns near Entrepeñas known as Sacedón found us wondering around the town. 
Where I am standing would normally be covered in water if the dam was full, but you can just see in the background where the water level is at now. In the foreground you may notice I am chewing on a piece of grass, the white bit of the grass is edible although it doesn't have much flavor but it is high in water content. 

Above Right: We were surprised at how cheap the alcohol retailed for in Spain some things were half or three quarters less then in Australia.

 Above:  As far as parks go there are parks for everything, but this park seemed one of the most useful parks I've seen in awhile.  This park is for old people to keep their motion and coordination skills working. in the background there is a simple ramp and step exercise, then there's a seat with bike pedals so they can sit relaxed and pedal. In the foreground are exercises to ensure mobility and functionality in the forearm and hands.

 

And finally some photos for your amusement. After a weekend of being out and about i got burn like sausage and look like a prawn. 

So my Aunty put together a mixture of clay and water to remove the heat from the burns, followed by a lacquering in lemon juice and olive oil to sooth the burns. 

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That's all from the Findlaters for this week, until next week.

 Over and out !