A beautiful day to walk 
by the Palacio Real and 

catch a bit of the changing of the guard too!

Marcos (José Manuel's oldest son) really wanted to be a part of the blog.  Here he is narrating a little from dinner last week :)

Alberto owns a shop in Cercedilla, a small town about 45 minutes north of Madrid in the foothills of the Sierra. He makes beautiful wooden handicrafts that are all painted by hand. He granted me a wonderful interview about his store, the struggles of being a small business owner and then he gifted me a beautiful piece of his work... ¡muy majete!

I am a total sucker for the wrought iron  balconies that are such an important part of  Spanish architecture. ooooh I just love 'em!

I

Honestly, I haven't missed my car at all. But I will miss the ease of the metro in Madrid when this trip is over. Just a little snippet from my ride this morning.

Gerardo invited me behind the counter at his pescadería so I could film him cleaning and preparing boquerones for a customer. I had never seen that before, gracias!

What a fun night of theater with these two lovely ladies, Josefina and Antonia. (They are José Manuel's aunt on the left and mother on the right) They invited me to see an "Antología de las Zarzuelas"...somewhere between musical theater and light opera. It was amazing and there are examples of what they sound like in my audio boos to the right. (Videotaping was not allowed but I did sneak in a few audio recordings:) My favorite numbers included the use of the castañuelos...take a listen!

Time to walk the dog, um I mean, the pig!!

                    Paella to go...in a pizza box!

Kind of a search and rescue operation, kind of :)

Next time you're in Madrid, find the time to stop in at LOBO, an alpargatería with the best selection of espadrilles ever! Thank you Luis, for your interview today, and for the super cool behind-the-scenes tour of the warehouse where you store almost 50,000 pairs of this fantastic spanish sandal, all of which are made in Spain!

Many, many thanks to Silvia for the special access today at the Academia de Bellas Artes! I met Silvia through my friend Agustin, she is a university art professor with an incredible background in art history. I had the chance to visit the "taller" or workshop in the lower level of the museum today where many of Madrid's most special sculptures are repaired and or restored. SO cool!!

This is the measuring tool that must be used in order to maintain the proper "scale" of each piece.

Had a chance to sit down with Tubal today and chat about his work as both a uniformed police officer and some of the work he used to do as an undercover cop! I think some of my students are going to find his interview really entertaining! ¡Gracias Tubal!

I celebrated, for only the second time in my life, mi cumpleaños en España!! Thought you would enjoy the split shot of me and José Manuel on March 5, 1989 and again on March 5, 2014. Thank you José for 24 years of friendship!

So, today a friend is going to teach me how to make Fabada, a white bean stew from the region of Asturias. I happen to love it. She suggested we could throw one of these in the pot for flavor, did you figure it out yet?

It's hard to pass by this place with out stopping, it's like the "Mike's Pastry" of Madrid!! Founded in 1894 and in operation from this location ever since, La Mallorquina is situated on a prime piece of real estate in the Puerta de Sol. Packed to the rafters anytime of day, the thing to do is just pop in and grab a napolitana de chocolate to go....delish!!

Had an AWESOME and AMAZING small world moment today when, across a very busy intersection in Madrid, I heard someone shout "Señora Manning!" SO good to see one of my favorite middle school students, all grown up and using his Spanish in Spain. Couldn't resist posting this selfie of me and Alejandro!

I meant to post these pictures the other night when I went to the concert at the Basilica San Miguel. The audio boo on the right titled: Marchas Procesionales offers a sample of the music that I was listening to. These are some pics from inside the Basilica. It was hard to get a good picture of the military band since the place was packed and I ended up in the back.

 Just a few examples of the beautiful street signs in Madrid!

This is the view of Toledo taken from the parador that sits just outside the city up on a hill that allows for this view. It is THE place to go for a coffee after a leisurely lunch to watch the sun drop low in the sky. Below are a few more pics from my visit to this beautiful village!

The Cathedral

                     The world's smallest window according to the Guiness Book of World Records

  

  The winding streets of Toledo beg you to just wander and get lost