#~Nampa Zampa

[greenbagjosh]

6 June 2002 - made it to 30 years - El Prado Museum visit plus Chamberí station and supper at Sobrino del Botín

Good morning!  Buenos Dias!

Today is Thursday 6th June 2002.  This would be the first morning that I would wake up outside of Andalusia where I was with family since the 27th May 2002.  On this day I happened to turn 30 years old.  We would visit the Museo Nacional del Prado, and the transit museum in the northeast part near the disused Chamberí railway station.  Also we would eat at the El Sobrino del Botín, which is the oldest still-operating restaurant in the world, operating even during WWII and during the Francisco Franco dictatorship.

We woke up about 7:30 AM and went downstairs to have breakfast.  Nampy Wampys were still available as a breakfast item.  We left the hotel about 9 AM, took the metro route M2 from Plaza de Espana and walked along the Paseo del Prado south to the museum.  The museum would not open until 10 AM.  

The Museo del Prado was really good.  It had many paintings by Goya, El Greco, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso and also Albrecht Dürer.  Albrecht Dürer's name in Spanish was "Alberto Durero".  I had seen most of the paintings while taking humanities class in high school.  It was a special occasion that I was able to see the paintings in person.  

After the Museo del Prado, we went for a small lunch towards the Chamberí metro station.    We had to take a metro to Alonso Martinez, first from Banco de Espana to Plaza de Espana by M2 and then changed to a M10.  My farther found the M10 better than the smaller profile lines such as M1, M2, M3 and M4.  We saw the fully preserved former M1 platform of Chamberí station.  It was restored to when it was opened in 1919.  The faregates are still in use.  The M1 passes by the station but does not stop.  

We went back by the M10, and my parents wanted to take a nap.  My mother however wanted about 4 PM to go on a walk to the Segovia Viaduct.  Neither my father or my brother were in the mood as the weather was crummy.  So I stepped up.  We walked past the Palacio Real de Madrid, the Royal Palace where at the time, it was the residence of Rei Juan Carlos I, who has since been succeded by his son, Felipe VI.  We walked past Plaza Mayor and back by Santo Domingo and Plaza de Espana.  It was a nice walk despite the light rain showers.

About 8 PM it was time to go for supper.  We took the metro to La Latina and walked up Calle de Toledo and went up Cava de San Miguel, and there was the Sobrino de Botín.  We entered the restaurant and then were seated at an upstairs table.  We all had gazpacho soup, and I ordered the lomo de cerdo.  It tasted good with the chimichurri sauce.  I also had a tocino de cielo.  The next time I had that was August 2017.  

We somehow passed by a El Corte de Inglés, and we went inside for maybe fifteen minutes.  I found the electronic section.  There were many interesting CDs for sale, but I found the one I was looking for, "Lifelines" by A-Ha.  My collection for that season was complete.  We could go back to the hotel.

Tomorrow will be the flight home, which may take all day, and we might not arrive in San Francisco any time before the sun goes down.  Hope you will join me then!

Hasta manana y buenas noches!

[greenbagjosh]

31 May 2002 - Opening game of FIFA World Cup with surprise result, tailless apes of Gibraltar and tandoori chicken wings for supper

Good morning!  Buenos Dias!  Sabah alkhayri!

Our adventure in southern Europe still carries on.  Yesterday we were in Morocco, specifically Tetuan and Tangier.  We spent two nights in Ceuta at the Hotel La Muralla on the west side of Plaza de Africa.  We were going to return to continental Europe, fetch the car and drive to La Linea de la Concepcion and walk to Gibraltar.  We were not able to visit Gibraltar in the 1970s as Spain and the UK did not restore diplomatic ties until about 1986 or so.  The land border between Spain and Gibraltar has been open since 1986, and I am not aware of any specific temporary closures.

Incidentally today would be the opening day for the FIFA World Cup 2002, when France were to play against Senegal as the opening match for Group A.  I would find out about the result later that day.  

We woke up in time to have breakfast at the hotel, including a bowl of Nampy Wampy’s, catch a taxi to the ferry port and then take the ferry to Algeciras, back in Europe.  We boarded a 10 AM ferry and were in Algeciras about 11 AM.  The car was still in its spot that we left it in the parking garage.  We had to pay to be let out.  I think the fee was the equivalent of 80 dollars.  Dad had a bit of a mishap with his prescription sunglasses but he had a screwdriver to tighten the handles the way he wanted.  Then we drove off.  He did not like listening to the BFBS FM radio station, so I made a note of its frequency so that I could listen later.  

We drove along the A-7 which is toll-free between Algeciras and La Linea de la Concepcion.  We turned onto CA-34 and went as far as Avenida del Ejercito to avoid the long lines into Gibraltar.  We had reserved one night at the parking garage at Plaza de la Constitucion.  We entered at the south end, parked our car underground and took our luggage to the border across the Avenida Principe de Asturias.  We passed the passport control station just fine.  We boarded a bus that would take us at least to the Market Place terminus not far from Roy's Fish and Chips.  The bus was a former UK bus with the steering wheel on the right, and was retrofitted with doors on the right.  When I returned in 2017, Gibraltar was using more conventional busses meant originally for continental Europe right-hand traffic use.  Two things strange about Gibraltar were that traffic was on the right and speed limits were posted in kilometers an hour, quite different from the UK which drives on the left and speed limits are in miles per hour.  The give way signs had the words "Give way", where in Spain and most of continental Europe they are just a plain downward triangle with a red border.  Traffic signals are more or less the same as they are in the UK excluding Jersey.  A few minutes after the bus left the airport terminal stop, it crossed the runway and passed the roundabout that intersected with Devil's Tower Road, and then Glacis Road to end at Market Place.  

After the bus dropped us off at Market Place, we walked along Main Street to the Bristol Hotel, close to the anglican cathedral at Cathedral Square and Bomb House Lane.  We checked into the Bristol Hotel, left our bags, and walked to the Cable Car base station, past the Magistrates Court, where on 20th March 1969, Yoko Ono and John Lennon were legally married.  We all went up with the cable car to the top of the rock.  For about 45 minutes, we were on the top of the rock of Gibraltar, and we could see into Algeciras, into Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea.   Along the way we could see the tailless apes.  We did not try to pet them as they are wild.  They did not cause us any trouble but I have heard stories about one of them taking a tourist's camera and smashing it to bits.  That did not happen to me, thankfully.

We went down the cable car and walked back to the hotel to rest.  I went into town and agreed to be back by 6:30 PM.  I went to the Market Square to see if I could buy some music CDs.  I ended up buying "She wants you" by Billie Piper, "No matter what I do" by Will Mellor and the debut CD by Sophie Ellis Bextor "Read my lips".  I remember Sophie Ellis Bextor with "Groovejet (If this ain't love)" and "Murder on the dancefloor".  She had also released "Get over you" which was being played on the local radio stations but was not on the CD.  I was disappointed that I could not remember the band A-Ha and their latest CD "Lifelines", and I could not look them up since Google did not exist and my cellphone was only a monochrome Siemens S40 that would obviously not be able to show Google as we know it in the mid 2020s.  I would have to wait until the 5th June to try again, I would have better luck then.

About 7 PM we went to the Mumtaz Indian restaurant on Cornwall's Lane.  It was on a narrow street, and was a nice hole in the wall restaurant.  I had a pint of Kingfisher and the mixed tandoori grill, which was a couple of chicken wings, ground lamb about the size of a bratwurst, rice and vegetables.  It was very good.  About 9 PM we walked back to our hotel and went to sleep.  

I woke up again about 10 PM and turned on my radio to tune in BFBS FM.  BFBS is the British Forces Broadcasting Service, which still plays pop music for the troops stationed in Gibraltar and many other places in the world that have a British presence.  The first thing I did was record a segment where Pele of Brazil was being interviewed by a BFBS staff member about the 1958 FIFA World Cup that was played in Sweden, and Brazil had won the cup that year.  I have it still on a C-90 cassette.  The next thing I recorded from BFBS was about 90 minutes of "The Session" by the Ministry of Sound featuring Above and Beyond.  It featured music by Fragma, Sylver, Sono, Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo and Ascension.  The set ended with "For a lifetime" by Ascension before the 11 PM news was read.  

To answer about the result of the Senegal vs France opening match for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Senegal beat France 1 to 0.  France had won the 1998 FIFA World Cup against Brazil.  The game was held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, about 62,000 were in attendance.  Bouba Diop scored the only goal at the 30th minute.  It was quite an upset of a game.  

Her Majesty the Queen’s 50th golden jubilee was being planned for later in the following month.  She would have begun her reign in 1952 and 2002 would be 50 years following that.

I recorded some more music the next morning.  We would leave Gibraltar by taxicab and cross at the airport into Spain to collect our car and drive to El Puerto de Santa Maria by the A-381.  And then we would see a bullfight in Sanlucar de la Barrameda.  To date, that was the very last bullfight I would see ever since.  I hope you will join me even if you do not like bullfighting.

Hasta manana y buenas noches!