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| Eladio and I enjoying the countryside in Oropesa this week |
Hello again and Happy Easter.
Today is Easter Sunday and I am writing from the
kitchen table with the dogs asleep under my feet.
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| Elsa our labrador and Norah our beagle love to sleep under the table in the kitchen in the mornings. |
Eladio and my
Father are reading the papers in the dining room and I’m not really sure where
the girls are. The sun is shining in
great contrast to the very rainy Easter weather we have had for more than a
week now. I should not complain though
as Spain was in great need of water, it not having rained properly since about
last November. The girls have a great social life so who knows where they are
right now? Suzy promised to be home for
an Easter Sunday lunch but Oli will be off at 13h. A car will be coming for her from TVE to take
her to the airport, as she is going to Santander for the coming week to cover
news from the north of Spain for the programme she works for, La Mañana de la1, TVE’s 4 hour long morning programme. So we
can expect to see quite a lot of her on the TV in the next few days.
Last week she
covered one of the worst stories in recent times, the story of a Mother,
Adoración Cano whose 9 year old daughter, Ana Maria Jérez was raped and
murdered some 20 years ago by the unrepentant José Franco de la Cruz, alias El
Boca. Adoración was protesting,
something I can quite understand, because her daughter’s killer had been let
out of prison, rather than finishing his supposed life sentence. Olivia said the interview was traumatic and
told me some of the ghastly details the Mother had revealed, details I have been
trying to shake out of my system but which keep coming back. On the bright side, I am left thinking what a
fortunate and lucky person I am to have my whole life intact. How awful it
would be to live with something like that.
The week has
been quiet, the highlight being of course our surprise two day trip to Oropesa
to stay at the 15th century Parador which was once a palace
belonging to a noble family, the Alvarez de Toledo, the Counts of Oropesa. Oropesa is in the province of Toledo, just
some 150km from Madrid. We were there
just before lunch and were delighted with the accommodation. Our room was tucked right away at the top of the
building and had three windows with great views over the nearby Gredos Mountains. If you ever go there, I highly recommend room
403. The receptionist told us it was one
of the most sought after rooms because of the views.
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| The Parador in Oropesa is housed in a 15th century palace |
The Parador,
set in a magnificent courtyard with its wonderful open air balconies
(soportales), sits directly opposite the equally magnificent castle, also
belonging to the Counts of Toledo. The
castle dates back to the 12th or 13th century and was
built by the Moors.
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| The castle in Oropesa, directly opposite the Parador |
Off one of the
walls hangs a relic from the cruel past, a cage where criminals were placed
until their death, for all to witness, until they became a skeleton. Thank goodness justice has evolved into
something less cruel, at least in this part of the world.
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| A cruel relic of justice in past times hangs on the castle wall. |
Lunch was in
the wonderful dining room with its high wooden ceiling. The gastronomy of the area is a little too
heavy for me and I thought the menu was rather limited in choice. Usually Paradors have better food on offer
but not this one I’m afraid.
We spent the
afternoon exploring the little town famous for its lace and pottery, although
there is more choice of the latter in nearby Puente del Arzobispo or
Talavera. We had a great walk all around
the town of some 4 or 5 kilometres where we saw signs of Spring with green
grass and flowers like my favourite poppies all along the sides of the road.
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| Poppies on our walk in Oropesa |
The next day
we drove to nearby Puente del Arzobispo in search of ceramics. We sort of collect bowls from different
places which we use for salads at home.
Here there were plenty on offer.
We bought 9 small bowls and 1 salad bowl in the typical green pattern
popular in these parts. Just look what was
on offer at this wonderful shop, all hand made by the owner in his own pottery
factory of which I gather there are very few left.
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| The pottery shop where we bought some bowls in Puente del Arzobispo. |
We discovered
Puente del Arzobispo was actually much prettier than Oropesa although it didn’t
have a palace or a castle. However it
has a stone bridge built in the 14th century, one of the most
beautiful I have ever seen with great walks on both sides.
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| By the 14th century bridge in Puente del Arzobispo |
Our next port
of call was the lovely 5 star Hotel Valdepalacios which I mentioned last week. It is on the road between Puente del Arzobispo
and Oropesa. Here we were to have a
wonderful although expensive lunch and were nearly the only diners in the
hotel. The hotel is just beautiful with
lots of land around it where you can do all sorts of things like go hunting,
ride 4x4 cars, take cooking classes or enjoy the spa. One day we will spend the night there, maybe
on our next wedding anniversary in August.
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| Leaving the Hotel Valdepalacios where we had lunch on Wednesday |
The afternoon
was spent sleeping, reading and lounging around in our comfortable room after
which we went for another walk, the same one as the day before. We took our umbrella as it had been raining
all day, but were lucky that it had stopped so that we could get some more
pictures of our time in Oropesa, like this lovely one of Eladio in his green
jumper against the very green grass in the field.
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| Eladio in green against green on the walk around Oropesa |
In the
evening, I dragged Eladio away from the boring quarter final Champions League
match between Barcelona and Milan. They
won, as did Madrid against the Cyprus team, the name of which I cannot
remember. That means they will both play
the semi finals and may even meet in the finals. Everyone’s guess is that Barcelona will win
the championship once again.
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| Eladio watching football from our room in the Parador . the Champions League Quarter Finals between Barcelona and Milan |
Dinner that
night was at the nearby La Hosteria, which was much cheaper than the Parador
and had a better menu. Here we feasted
on what we love, a simple plate of typical Spanish lentils. That night I learned from Facebook and
Twitter that Instagram was finally available for Android phones, like my
Samsung Galaxy S2, so of course I had to download the programme immediately. Instagram is a social network which only
works on mobile phones (so far iPhones and now Androids) where you can share
photos. I thought to myself that I just
couldn’t take another social network, what with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Google+, Tuenti and now this. But after
initial worries, I was hooked of course.
Well I love photography, or capturing my life on camera, and I love
sharing things, so of course Instagram is for me. This was the first photo I took and uploaded
to Instagram. If you are not familiar
with the programme, you can also share the photo which can be enhanced, with
Facebook or Twitter and other social networks.
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| My first Instagram photo was of our dinner at La Hosteria in Oropesa |
Instagram is
my latest social network. The one I
joined just before is Pinterest, a different sort of social media and one which
apparently has now been adopted by more than 11 million people. How can I describe it? It’s probably easier to take this quote from
Wikipedia: “Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image
collections such as events, interests, hobbies and more. Users can browse other
pinboards for inspiration, 're-pin' images to their own collections and or
'like' photos. Pinterest's mission is to “connect everyone in the world through
the ‘things’ they find interesting"[via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing”. If
you haven’t tried it you should, it’s lovely.
The next day
was Maundy Thursday and time to go home.
It was pouring down with rain, so instead of further exploring the area,
we decided to come home. Olga was
leaving that day to go on holiday, believe it or not, to Turkey, sponsored by a
wealthier friend of hers who was coming from Brazil the next day. You are probably wondering how we are going
to cope without her. During her absence
we have hired the services of a friend of hers called Hilda who will come twice
a week to look after my Father’s hygiene.
If you thought I was going to clean and iron, then you are wrong. Zena, the wonderful Ukrainian cleaner who
worked here before Olga came, will be coming two whole mornings a week and I
can’t wait for her arrival tomorrow.
First because she will make the house spick and span as Olga’s forte,
I’m afraid, is not cleaning, and the house is in dire need of a thorough spring
cleaning. And secondly because I have asked her to cook us some borsch, the
Russian soup made of beetroot which my Father and I are longing to try
again. This is the typical Russian meat
and vegetable soup my Mother used to make often and which I have never learned
to make, mostly because you need fresh beetroot to make it which I have never
found in the shops I go to here. Like
pelmeni and many other Russian dishes, it is very often accompanied by rich Smetana
(sour cream) as in the picture here.
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| Russian "borsch" soup or stew |
When we came
back on Thursday the girls were out and about and on the spur of the moment we
agreed to have lunch together in town; something we used to do more often. So Oli picked me up and we drove to near
where Susana was working last week, at a hospital near the Bernabeu
Stadium. Later Suzy had to go back to
work and I accompanied Oli to the dentist.
That night,
fittingly for Maundy Thursday, the television was showing typical Easter films
and we watched the 4 hour long 1951 Quo Vadis starring Tony Curtis, Deborah
Kerr and a very young Peter Ustinov, this last in the role of Neron, the crazed
Roman Emperor who burned down Rome. I
have seen this film many times, but never from beginning to end and I just
loved it. Luckily for me, Eladio seemed
equally entertained.
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| We enjoyed watching Quo Vadis on the TV this week |
Friday of
course was Good Friday and again it was raining. The rain spoiled a lot of the Spanish Easter processions. Easter or Semana Santa in
Spain is hugely celebrated with these amazing processions in many of the big
and smaller cities. Despite increase
laicism, the processions are very popular.
I think they are also popular with tourists. The most famous of all is the Macarena which
is carried on a huge float through the streets of Seville by what are known as the
“costaleros”. In my experience it nearly
always rains at Easter in Spain and I wonder when the brotherhoods who organize
the different processions will start covering these medieval statues from the
churches with glass to protect them from the rain, rather like the Pope’s car
as that would certainly put an end to the problem.
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| The most famous Easter procession of all, the Macarena in Seville |
Good Friday is
of course the day most of the Christian religions commemorate the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ. I say most as I know
from my childhood that Russian Easter takes place at a later date as it
observes the Julian calendar. In England, we always ate hot cross buns for
breakfast, a tradition I have carried on in my own family. So, I have been naughty and have been eating
them on Saturday and today too. I
promise I will return to the Dukan fold tomorrow Monday! Nowadays I think you can buy hot cross buns
almost all through the year but when I was a child they were only on sale at
Easter. I, of course, have to buy them
online. Not a problem these days you
will agree.
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| We have been having hot cross buns toasted for breakfast every day since Good Friday |
In the morning
I went with Susana to the huge Xanadu shopping centre. I had warned her it would probably be closed
as most businesses and trade are closed on this day in Spain. I well remember when we first came to Spain
that this was indeed so. I was wrong and
Xanadu was open. Obviously times have
changed. I promise you this time I did not get any more clothes. The time was spent getting some items for
Suzy’s new flat. Ah and there was some
quality time at Starbucks together too of course.
Later the
girls were off to El Escorial to stay the night with their friends Rocío,
David, Elena whose parents own the flat, Ana and another Elena. It was bitterly cold that day and would have
been even more so in El Escorial, a town in the mountains just outside
Madrid. Here is a photo of the 6 of them
taken by Rocío. They look like the front
cover of an 80’s LP to quote Suzy’s friend Erika.
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| The girls and their friends in El Escorial this weekend. Susana in brown on the far left and Oli in the middle with the only boy, David. |
On Saturday
the house was empty without the girls but I suppose I should get used to that
as someday soon there will be just the three of us left, my Father, Eladio and
I. Luckily we have the dogs for extra
company. As usual, we enjoyed our walk
with them on Saturday as we have done most days this week and will again today.
That brings me
to the end of this week, to where I began, today Sunday, Easter Day. Oli came home later to pack for her trip to
Santander and went off duly at 13h when she was picked up by a car from Spanish
TVE. She will be back on Friday and we
will be watching out for her on TVE in the mornings. I never cease to be excited when I see her
reporting live. Well done little Oli.
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| Olivia being picked up by a van from Spanish TVE this morning to go to the airport |
Meanwhile,
whilst Eladio was mowing the lawn, taking advantage of today’s sun, I prepared
the big Easter Sunday lunch. I am very
traditional at Easter so if on Good Friday we had hot cross buns and then fish
for lunch, today I made roast lamb. I make
it the English way with all the trimmings, such as mint sauce. I have to add I did this whilst writing some
of this blog; multi tasking you know.
Suzy was home at 14.30 and we had a later lunch than usual. Being Easter Day it was time to eat the
amazing looking chocolate Easter egg I had ordered online from The Hotel Chocolate. Here is the photo I took this
morning before we attacked it after lunch.
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| The slightly disappointing Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolate which we opened today |
It looked
great, but actually it was not so amazing to taste. I had expected it to be both bigger and the chocolate
tastier, something similar to the taste
you get with Lindt or Belgian chocolate.
But no, it was nowhere near as smooth.
Next year I will go to the Lindt or Godiva website.
And now I am
alone again. Eladio and my Father are
having their siesta, Olivia has now arrived in Santander and Suzy has gone off
again to see her new friends from work.
Next week will
bring with it routine, not a bad thing, as 4 quiet days at home have left me
wanting more activity. I wish you all a
Happy Easter and a great week ahead.
Cheers till
next week
Masha
PS You can see some more photos of our trip to Oropesa here.
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