#~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!

[greenbagjosh]

30 May 2002 - day visit to Tetuan and Tangier, Morocco - two hour time change - tea, tadjines and carpets

Buenos Dias!  Sabah alkhayri! (صباح الخير!)  صباح الخير!

Today would be 20 years since we went from Ceuta to Tetuan, Tangier and back through Fniedq in Morocco.  It was an interesting bus ride and the journey reminded me of times in the 1970s that I went to Morocco.

We woke up about 7 or 7:30 AM and went down for breakfast about 8:30 AM.  Unlike the breakfasts in Sevilla, the ones at the hotel in Ceuta were included as was dinner.  There must have been at least ten choices of sliced meats, some including actual pork, fresh fruit, bread rolls, cheese and even cereal including "~Nampa Zampa" - Spain's answer to Kellogg's Cocoa Puffs, which we somehow called "Nampy Wampy".  We enjoyed the hotel breakfast and by 9:30 AM we were ready to board the tour bus to Tetuan.  All of us had our passports ready.  The bus arrived and it was early, the rest of the tour group had not yet arrived.  The bus had a driver who was a resident of Ceuta, and the tour guide spoke Spanish, Arabic and also English.  We drove to the east part of Ceuta, on Avenida Martinez Cadena, past the Torreon de San Jeronimo, then on the loop of Monte Hacho and past the Punta Almina lighthouse, Isla de Santa Catalina, Parque de San Amaro, past the Maritime Park of the Mediterranean Sea, and the Ceuta ferry port, where the rest of the group would join the bus.  The group came from Algeciras and most of them spoke Spanish.  I think my family was the only part that spoke mainly English.  

All the people from the ferry that joined the bus in Ceuta, had their passports with them.  The bus drove to route N-352 and followed along to the customs at Beb Sebta, first it was inspected by the Spanish Guardia Civil before going through the border.  The tour guide told everyone that photography and videotaping of the border crossing was prohibited, and until we passed Fniedq in Morocco, no photography would be allowed.  The crossing took about fifteen minutes.  I had my Aiwa HS-JS 479 radio with me, and could record off the AM and FM frequencies, though the sound levels were not very strong as they are in Europe and the USA.

Somehow after we crossed from Ceuta into Morocco, we entered a GMT time zone, where instead of being two hours ahead of GMT, we were exactly at GMT, as Morocco had not started its daylight saving time for the year.  Years later when I visited in 2017, Morocco was using daylight saving time and the time change was only one hour from Ceuta.  At the border crossing, our passports were taken in a large plastic bag, and were held in the border crossing office.  Along the way, the bus stopped at Fniedq to make a drop off.  No one except the bus driver and tour guide had any idea what was in the bag, but it was not our passports.  

The bus drove mostly along the east coast following N-16.  We passed by the statue of Aladdin.  It was at a resort close to M'diq.  Road signs were in Arabic and French.  The stop signs were in Arabic.  The bus stopped at Bab al Okla, where the big gate to the pedestrian zone was located.  Everyone exited the bus except the driver.  For the next two hours, we would walk through the old part of Tetuan.  Most of the buildings had stores selling vegetables, meats, grains, spices, paint powder, plastic products, fabric, even clothing.  Some of the streets were narrow.  The tour guide told us to not wander away since the streets can be confusing to navigate.  Later on we would be approached by locals trying to sell their products, speaking to the tour group members in Spanish and English, and the tour guide told them in Arabic to leave us alone.  

We had seen much of the Christian and Jewish quarters of Tetuan when we were led to Michouar Square.  That was the location of the Royal Palace, which had many Moroccan flags hanging.  Another building had a metalwork that was made into the coat of arms of Morocco.   We were led farther to a shopping complex, where we were separated according to English and Spanish speakers.  We were led to a carpet sales room.  One person was telling us about each carpet, and the other handled the carpets, rolling them out onto the floor.  If we wanted to buy a carpet, we had to say "Waha".  To say no, we had to say "lah" ( لا ).  I think we went through fifty carpets, and we did not see one single carpet that we wanted to buy.  My second visit to Morocco, in August 2017, I bought a rug and a few tablecloths.  If you bought a carpet at the shopping center, they would include the shipping price as well as the cost of tarpaulin.  Shipping time would be within a month or so as it would be sent to the USA by ship.  

We finished our shopping but had to go downstairs to another shop where they were selling clothing and tadjines.  Tadjines were conical earthware pots that consisted of a plate and a cone which was meant to steam couscous and whatever else would be served with it.  We would get our own tadjine later on.  After shopping, everyone was led to a restaurant with large group tables.  I think it was about 12:30 PM GMT+0.  Our lunch was chicken couscous with seasonal vegetables.  It tasted excellent.  We also were offered mint tea, and could additionally buy 7Up at additional cost.  

After lunch, we were led to Bab al Okla where the bus was waiting.  The bus would drive to Tangier.  The bus drove out of Tetuan by the N-13 to the western branch of the N-12.  Most of the time the N-2 was two-lane and the speed limit was 50 mph or 80 km/h.  The A-4 and A-6 had not been built yet.  We drove as far as the N-2 would go.  The bus drove past the Grand Socco and dropped us off somewhere along Rue d'Italie.  Then the tour guide led us into the Medina.  The streets were wider than those in Tetuan.  There were more sellers that came up to the tour group and the tour guide had to tell them to go away.  We were led to a place that sold Moroccan clothing, tadjines and other typical Moroccan souvenirs.  I was able to buy postcards and send them.  Everyone had finished about 5 PM before we had to go back.    

The bus back was parked just off Avenue Mohammed VI.  We boarded the bus back.  It drove mainly on the N-2 to N-13 and N-16.  About 6 PM the bus had stopped for one last opportunity to buy a tadjine.  My father had picked one and I think paid $250 for it.  The bus was at the border with Ceuta about 6:15 PM.  We crossed into Ceuta about 8:30 PM which was 6:30 PM GMT+0.  The bus dropped off the ferry passengers and then went back to the hotel to drop us off.  We were pretty much almost worn out, so we went to our rooms and rested a little bit.  I was ready for some more Cruzcampo.

At 9:15 PM we went down to the restaurant to have some drinks before supper.  It came with the usual gazpacho and set price menu.  I ordered the “tocino de cielo” which is similar to flan but made with egg yolks and the byproducts of sherry production and is available only in southern Spain as well as Ceuta.  It was really good.  We did not do much that night.  

The next day we would return to Europe and spend just one night in Gibraltar.  Although Gibraltar belongs to the United Kingdom, it is not as one would expect, in spite of its apparent similarities to England.  I hope you will join me then.

Buenas noches!  Tab masawuk! (طاب مساؤك!)