October 23rd Taking care of business

 

 

Today was a market day for us and we faced the fact that, due to our interest in food, we are spending a little more than we figured.  That won’t likely surprise any of you who know us.  We are buying fresh bread nearly every day and new bottles of wine several days a week.  Both are inexpensive so it’s like Trompeau and Trader Joe’s every day.  Also our kitchen is very compact so that also limits trying to buy in quantity.  The upside of that is that we get smaller quantities of many different things more frequently. 

Part of our shopping included Chapter 2 – Buying Merluza.  You may remember that I tried and failed to buy a type of fish, called Merluza, when the vendor would not sell it to me and I could not understand why.  Our teacher said that perhaps we needed to ask for thick slices, called rodahas.  So we tried buying two rodahas of Merluza today and THEY REFUSED US AGAIN.  The smallest portion they will sell is half of a fish; either the head end or the tail end, and they are not small fish it looks as if a half would be 3 or 4 pounds for a small one.  We can’t eat that sort portion and we don’t want to keep it in the refrigerator very long.  So I guess Merluza is a restaurant item for us.  We did get a very good pair of steaks, they looked and tasted like rib eye but we know it’s not precisely the same cut.  We decided yesterday that we are going to Segovia on Thursday for 2 days so we made reservations for a hotel and bought train tickets; we leave at 7:30 in the morning and get there around 8:00.  Segovia has a very famous Roman aqueduct and a couple museums worth seeing; it also is noted for its roast suckling pig.  We want spend a couple days enjoying that experience.  These plans were accomplished very easily, with an email to the hotel and a trip to the train station.

Botanic gardens at Atocha Station 

After getting train tickets we went to the Prado and bought our annual membership.  We are now official card carrying Friends of the Prado.  We now have access to the Prado, Reina Sophia, and  a dozen other museums anytime we want.   It will pay for itself in just over 3 visits to the Prado alone so all the others are bonus.   

Front facade of the Prado

We almost wandered into one of the demonstrations, as when we were leaving the Prado we suddenly found ourselves in literally a forest of Policia.  They were everywhere along with their police vans so we made a prompt transit out of the area.  It turned out to be an unannounced demonstration, at least to us, which began shortly after our exit from the area.  It was totally peaceful at least this time.

Tomorrow is our Spanish lesson, so we’re studying our verb conjugations and staying patient with ourselves.  It’s only been 3 weeks and we’re making progress.