36 Hours in Madrid

Hello there!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Fall.  We have settled into a constant 45-50F with rain.  On a positive note, it's not very cold yet!  But I think I would rather have snow than rain everyday.

Pat was in Madrid last week, and I met up with him on Friday night - Sunday afternoon.  Europe ended Daylight Savings Time over the weekend, which changed the time difference between St. Petersburg & Central Europe (CET) from 2 to 3 hours. 

You wouldn't think it would make a big difference, but it does.  With no direct flights between Madrid & St. Petersburg, our entire Sunday was spent traveling (left Madrid at 3:30PM, was home in our apartment at 2AM!).  Not to mention that we now have more late night European office conference calls (7PM and 8PM calls are now the norm). 

But I digress......  back to Madrid. 

My 1st night was dinner at an amazing restaurant called Santceloni.  The Red wine from the Duero region was my favorite, as was the veal knuckle

So let's start with Pat's highlight of the week.  That's right, a little football.  Real Madrid vs. Juventus (Torino, Italy)

I'm so jealous!  Real Madrid won 2-1, and Ronaldo was apparently "the man", which he should be for a 21 million Euros/year paycheck.

So we then visited the 2nd most important "house" in the city, the Cathedral de la Almudena.  Does every European cathedral have a statue of Pope John Paul II? 

It's not very old by European standards.  Construction started in 1879, but was stopped during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and WWII (1939-1945), and was only restarted again in 1950.  It was completed in 1993.

One of three sets of bronze doors

Because the Cathedral is not very old, it has an interesting mix of modern art & colorful design elements.  The ceiling tiles and stained glass were unlike any that you typically see in European catholic churches.

We were lucky that the weather was nice - 70F and sun - so we mostly spent the day walking around.  I
I want that upper floor apartment with the outside terrace!

Not sure what Pat's looking at :)

Lunch!

Love that the flowers are still in bloom

A store that sells jamon below your apartment would be VERY dangerous

This is Plaza Major.  Built in the early 1600's,  then rebuilt in the late 1700's after a series of fires.  It's is mostly a tourist spot today, but most interesting to me is that all 4 sides are now made up of apartments with balconies.  What an interesting place to live.....

Mercado de San Migual. 

These are actually tiny baby eels, that they serve on bread as a tapas.

And paella

But what did I buy????  Beans of course!  My favorites are the green verdinas (on the right), but I also bought a 1/2 kilo of the Alubia de Tolosa (black beans from the Basque region) to try.

This is Puerta de Alcala (Alcala's Gate) at the Plaza de la Independencia.  In 1774, King Charles III commissioned Francesco Sabatini to construct a monumental gate into the city wall.  It's called Alcala's gate because the road at one time led to the city of Alcala de Henares (a UNESCO world heritage city).



Beautiful blue skies, and I love the wrought iron balconies.

Before we left, we took a walk through Retiro Park. 

 

Images from the Week

 

Hello from Russia!  Nothing too exciting to share with you this week!  It was a pretty quiet and typical week over here - I worked, I traveled to Svetogorsk for a few days, I came back home for a really quiet (but relaxing weekend).

 

So here's a few pictures

 

This is Svetogorsk!  The location of our IP paper mill, a town of around 15,000 people in the Northeastern corner of the Leningrad Oblast.  1 kilometer from the Russian/Finnish border, it has been part of Russia since 1944.  The town was founded in 1887 when a paper mill was built there by the Finns.  

 

That's about all that can be said!  Not exactly a hotbed of fun & excitement.  In my new job, I have to travel to the mill a few days each week.  It's a painful & rough 3 hour car drive on really bad roads.  I should own stock in Dramamine considering how many I've taken in the past 3 years. 

 

 

Other than work, this is where I spend all of my time.  The Svetogorsk Hotel.  Or as we call it "Sveto Hilton".

 



 

Our company owns the hotel.  And as an American manager, I get to stay in the luxurious 5th floor.  We have our own bathroom with running water!  Steam heat from the mill!   And a comforter that I immediately throw onto the floor once I get settled.

 

Plus a whole separate sitting room with flat screen TV (although there are only Russian channels, so I tend to watch a lot of music videos).

In all seriousness, It's not that bad.  It's clean, it's safe, and the restaurant downstairs makes a mean Chicken Kiev with fries, which is ALWAYS a safe choice.

 

A view from my room

 

 

Another view.  Not much more to say about it.  Except that I think I'll be watching a lot of videos on my iPad this winter on my trips to Svetogorsk. 

 

 

Back in St. Petersburg for the weekend, I got some nice nighttime pictures one evening after work.

 

 

The Bronze Horseman.......

 

 The Senate Building

They really do a great job lighting up the city buildings and monuments.  It helps make my quiet walks home much more comfortable

The Last of the Leaves

This past weekend really felt like our last Fall weekend, at least in St. Petersburg. 

The leaves were still pretty, but just past their peak and quickly falling to the ground

 

The temperatures were warm enough to comfortably walk around, as long as we escaped both days for a coffee (our normal order - "два кафе американи, пожалуйста").

 

But even on a beautiful Fall day, it's clear that the tourists are gone!  We'll see them again in April 

 

 

 

 

I miss the Fall colors of the Northeast US.  NOTHING compares!  But Russia's trees are not too bad (and much better than Memphis)  

Summer's over....And is Fall passing us by?

All of a sudden, the weather & city has changed. 

 

Summer is definitely over.  No surprise.  But I'm hoping we will still have something of a Fall season, even if it's short (it normally is)

 

 

The tourists are mostly gone.  And on this past Sunday morning, the locals were also in hiding, staying warm & dry in their apartments

 

 

 

Even the vendors seem to have quit for the winter.

 

 

One of the few signs of life..... the bread and pirozhki truck

 



 

It wasn't THAT early.  10AM.  Where is everyone?????

 

So after a coffee, and shopping for a few food items for dinner, we headed back to the apartment

 

 

 

It's time to get ready for Winter