Golden Gate Park

If you go to San Francisco, besides wearing flowers in your hair, you must go to Golden Gate Park.

"Developed in the late nineteenth century, many years before the neighborhoods that surround it, the park offers over one thousand acres of gardens and forest, complemented by some of the city's best museums."

Cathy has noted that the San Francisco City Guides (soon to be our BFFs) offers a tour of the Japanese Tea Garden on Monday's at 9:30 a.m.  Yeah, it's a little early, but we should be able to get a seat on the cable car (do workers use the cable car?) just after 8 in the morning.  Then we can choose the bus (5L) or the N light rail (and we may not get a seat) to the north or south of the park and walk .3 or .5 miles to the tea garden.

Wouldn't that be a perfect way to start a day in the park?  The Tea Garden was created for the 1894 Columbian Exposition as the Japanese Village along with the Moorish Village, the Turkish Village, the Vienna Prater and others. After the exposition and more than two million people, two features were permitted to remain, the Art Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden. The Art Museum was eventually torn down in 1936.

The Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park, 1894

Somewhere there must be a photo of us as kids at the Japanese Tea Garden.  I don't remember that we ever had tea because it was always too expensive, but we admired the koi and climbed over the arched bridge.  And I don't remember it as near as crowded then as it was last time I visited. But at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning it shouldn't be too bad.  Do you think the cherry trees will be in bloom?



And after the tour (and hopefully some tea and a fortune cookie, invented here for the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915),  we can check out the magnolias in the Botanic Garden just across the street.  They have a free magnolia highlight map we can pick up or download.

Cathy remembers the California Academy of Sciences for the stuffed gorilla that terrorized her childhood, but it's been revamped, and now offers a Rainforests of the World dome, a 90 ft in diameter space with a pathway that winds up three flights around trees and past animals.  And they have a Living Roof with over two acres planted with native Bay Area flora.  Unfortunately, it's very expensive at $25 each FOR SENIORS.  Maybe we can find a deal?  Maybe we'll just look at what we can see of the building, designed by Renzo Piano of  Pompidou Center fame.  The bulk of the old building was razed for the new.

de Young Museum

And on the other side of the Concourse is the de Young Museum which has its origin in that 1894 Exposition.  It's was also razed and rebuilt from the ground up between 2001 and 2005, and I haven't seen it at all.  It's a lot cheaper at $7, and they have an exhibit on the Building of the Bay Bridge based on photographs taken during the 1930's by Peter Stackpole and supplemented with prints and drawings of the Bay Bridge construction by his contemporaries, many of whom earned their living under the auspices of San Francisco’s Federal Art Project.

Then somehow or another using SF Muni we can get ourselves to the Beach Chalet facing the Great Highway between the two windmills.  "Come to the Beach Chalet for one simple reason to see the Lucien Labuadt murals on the first floor. The restaurant was funded in 1936 by the WPA. In those days the first floor was a lounge, changing rooms and the restaurant was the top floor (as it still is today).
The art is impressive and tells the story of 1930's San Francisco. Don't miss viewing the decorative tile work and the carved magnolia-wood balustrade and newels in forms of sea monsters, octopus and mermaids. The whole building is a delight to view and should not be missed by anyone visiting the bay area." 

Somebody says it also has good beer!  I don't think we can wait that long for lunch, but maybe a picnic lunch and a beer (or something) here?

Monday at the Japanese Tea Garden?

I was reciting the walks offered by the San Francisco City Guides on Sunday, March 9th, to Fernando.  When I was ready to go on to Monday, he gasped: "All those were on Sunday?  How many are there??"

In addition to the Precita Eyes Mural tour in the Mission on Sunday, there are two given by the City Guides: Mission Dolores Neighborhood at 11 am, and Murals and the Multiethnic Mission at 1 pm.

Shall we move on to Monday?  Shall we start out with a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden at 9:30, when we don't have to pay admission?  Our only challenge is getting there by 9:30.  It will take us about 50 minutes on public transportation, taking the Powell-Mason Cable Car to Market and then the N Light Rail or the 5L bus to the edge of Golden Gate Park and then walk a half mile or so to the Garden.  We could take a taxi but the TaxiFareFinder gave me a $26.09 estimated fare from the apartment to the Tea Garden and that would use up our lunch money...

There are also Monday tours of Chinatown at 10 and 1:30 (do we know all there is to know about Chinatown?), Fisherman's Wharf at 11 am and a Baudy & Naughty history of professional women at 11 am.  Sunday definitely offers a lot more tours.  Someday when Fernando retires, we'll fly midweek and stay over the weekends.  Although there are also a lot of tours on Friday (Saturday we're flying out.).

On Tuesday we could do downtown walks:  at 10 am they offer Rising Steel: Two Centuries of San Francisco Architecture (I've always liked San Francisco's buildings).  But at the same time they have Controversial Murals of Rincon Center, so we'd have to choose.    And then at noon they have an hour-long tour of the Ferry Building (Tuesday is also a farmers market day) and at 1:30 pm they have Historic Market Street, which starts pretty much down at the Ferry Building (so one could do both).  We might be toured to death at this point.

On the other hand, Tuesday is the only day they seem to offer Castro: Tales of the Village while we are there and that is at 11 am.  Should we explore the Castro instead?  Oh, Jiminy.  Maybe we should stay two weeks.

On Wednesday would you like to do Tastes and Tales of North Beach at 11?  Or Nob Hill at 2 pm?

On Thursday will we finally make it to the Golden Gate Bridge and take the tour at 11?  Or do we check the weather first?

Friday we'll have to see and do everything we missed.

Fortunately we don't have to sign up for any of the tours ahead of time.  Just show up at the designated time and place.

Instead of Coit Tower

Penny just informed us that Coit Tower will be closed for renovation while we are there.  That means we don't get to see the murals, although I think we took plenty of photos of them the last time we were there (finding where we put them will take some searching).  In addition to the Mission District Murals, we could also visit the Diego Rivera mural at the San Francisco Art Institute, which isn't far from the apartment. 

And then track down another one that Fernando and I haven't seen, "Pan American Unity" at the City College of San Francisco, which is a bit far away and entails a ride on BART.  I wonder if there is anything else to see around Balboa Park.  The San Francisco City Guides has a Bungalow Tour of Westwood Park which is nearby so that might be something to explore.

There is a third Diego Rivera mural at the old San Francisco Stock Exchange, now The City Club, on Sansome Street in the Financial District.  The San Francisco City Guides has a tour but only once a month and by reservation only.   The Art Institute says that it is open for public viewing Monday–Friday from 8–10:30 am and 3–4 pm but they suggest you call ahead to confirm: 415.362.2480.

We will, of course, climb to the top of Telegraph Hill just the same.

Found sf: Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive

I enjoy learning about San Francisco history.  Perhaps because my history with San Francisco is so episodic, yet has created such strong memories; perhaps because I just like history.  Perhaps because as we grow older we have longer personal histories and a greater perspective on change.

So I was thrilled when I stumbled (as one does on the Internet) the vast pictorial resources at
Found sf:  Shaping San Francisco's Digital Archive.  "Comprised of over 1,400 pages, and 2,500 historical photos, the wiki-based archive FoundSF.org is the product of hundreds of contributors, regular people who were compelled by the chance to investigate some piece of this City's past."  And don't expect a scholarly approach in all articles.  There is a definite San Francisco liberal bent.

 If we don't get totally lost and overwhelmed with all those resources we can learn a lot more about all the places we intend to visit.  Documents are indexed by Decade, Neighborhood, Population, Theme and Tours (including a food tour!!)  And if we want we can even contribute to the archive when we're back home after our trip.

Want to see how North Beach has changed?

1856 view of North Beach from near Telegraph Hill, the prison ship Euphemia is visible, docked along the far edge of the cove

 Want to know how much downtown has expanded into the bay?

1851 cove map closeup. The shadowed area is roughly the outline of Yerba Buena Cove when the city was founded and there are more than 70 old wooden ships buried in the old cove that is now part of the city.

And how?     

Collage depicting ships piled into Yerba Buena cove by Satty, from "Visions of Frisco" edited by Walter Medeiros, Regent Press 2007
During the height of the gold excitement, there were at least five hundred ships stranded in the harbor, some without even a watchman on board, and none with a crew sufficiently large to work her. Many of these vessels never sailed again. Some rotted away and sank at their moorings. (Herbert Asbury in "The Barbary Coast")

 We were talking about stereographs.  The site has a collection of images, and they are fascinating because they shimmy, and you can imagine yourself in an earthquake....1906 or 1989?

Golden Gate from Telegraph Hill (Photographed by J. J. Reilly)

Oh my, Oh my......I could spend the whole day here!  Year?  And I mean to return to this site for a look at Coit Tower and New Deal murals so stay tuned.

Walking San Francisco

That is the point of going to San Francisco after all, isn't it?  We might not make the "Bay to Breakers" 12k footrace on May 18th but it is nice to know that one can cross the peninsula in 7.2 miles.  The Bay to Breakers course takes you from the Embarcadero down Howard Street, parallel to Mission and Market, then north to Hayes Street at 9th, south to Fell Street at Divisadero, and then into Golden Gate Park following John F. Kennedy Drive pretty much to the end at the Great Highway, which you might think would be Highway 1 but isn't.  John F. Kennedy Drive appears to have foot paths on either side of the roadway so one could walk it even without stopping the car traffic.  Of course, I'm not sure there's that much to see for the tourist unless we are longing for some greenspace after several days in the city and in that case we can keep the park in mind.

On the other hand, Penny found this Every Trail website that has One Perfect Day in San Francisco and it is a 7.1 mile walk.  Oh, wait, wait, wait!!  There's a California Coastal Trail that is 8.9 miles and runs from the Cliff House to the Golden Gate Bridge.  WOW!  That would be great!  except March is probably not the month to do it.

And then there are guided walks.  The nonprofit  San Francisco Guides offers several a day by volunteers covering all parts of the city.  They were begun by the San Francisco Public Library and are free, although donations are welcome.  For instance, on Sundays at 11 am there is a tour of Pacific Heights called "Billionaires' Row: Outer Broadway Architecture".  They even have one called "Russian Hill Stairways" but it is only offered periodically.  You can view the walks by date (you can choose March 7-13 from the dropdown at the top) or by area.

Penny has us scheduled for a walk in the Mission District already, and we really should go to mass first since I think the last time I went was when she and I snuck into a church near our apartment in Paris.  We don't have to stay for Communion since we're saving our appetite for La Torta Gorda.  Although I would like to cruise pass all those sausage restaurants on 24th Street...  Do you think we could eat out for two meals in one day?   I'm afraid we would be stuffed.

More walking in San Francisco - Mission District on Sunday?

Oh, Oh, Oh, look at all the walking tours listed on this Every Trail site for San Francisco.  And you can even download them to your iPhone.  Penny has got to try that on her NEW iphone which she has to admit to loving!

There are two walks for the Mission District, but after looking at a few it's questionable how useful these walks are going to be...but they do give a series of stops to anchor our flaneuring.

Mission District on Sunday
Fully rested after a peaceful night at the Airbnb at 856 Green, we take the #12 (Folsom/Pacific) at Pacific & Mason to the Mission. 

Of course, we have to have breakfast first, maybe fresh bread from one of the local bakeries.  Penny will be busy on Saturday scouting out the neighborhood and provisioning the apartment with the basics - bread, coffee, cheese, toilet paper.  Oh, maybe marmalade.  What else do you want?  She has found her old Bicycling San Francisco map and, unlike her other 20 year old guides, thinks it may still be accurate, even though the print seems to have shrunk.  So she'll use it to figure the least hilly route to a grocery store. 

Of course, it will also be after we've had dinner on Saturday when Cathy and Fernando finally get here from Pittsburgh, via Chicago, at about 8 pm (arriving SFO 6:50 pm).  Penny was thinking one of those pizzas from Tony's Pizza Napoletana, but after reading that menu she decided Camila would have to be consulted to decide which one to choose (Classic American 550 degree gas, Detroit 500 degree gas, CA style 900 degree wood, Roman 700 electric, Coal Fired 1000 (wow that's hot), NY 525 Rotoflex gas, Sicilian 550 gas, classic Italian 650 gas or 700 electric, or St. Louis at 550 gas.  And that's before we even discuss toppings.  Fernando still want anchovies?  Maybe we'll have salad.

OK, back to Sunday in the Mission District.

Precita Eyes Muralists at 2981 24th Street offers a tour on Sundays at 1:30
For students and those with a deeper interest in the history and context of Mission District muralism. This tour begins at our Center (2981 24th Street, near Harrison) with an informative slide talk covering the history of murals, the contemporary mural movement in San Francisco, and the mural painting process. After the presentation, your muralist guide takes you on a 6 block walk through Balmy Alley and along 24th Street, including St. Peter's Church and the digital murals at Galeria de la Raza. This tour takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

But before that we'll probably need sustenance and Cathy has scouted out La Torta Gorda at 2833 24th.  She feels this is a must for Fernando and the menu looks great to Penny too!  

And then after our mural tour we can sniff the Tartine Bakery at 600 Guerrero St. and if it's after 4:30 p.m. we can buy a loaf or a half for dinner later. We may have to phone ahead (Our bread is available everyday after four-thirty in full or half loaves. We accept pre-orders with three days advance notice and prepayment, you may place an order in the cafe or over the telephone by calling 415 487 2600. Phone orders are not confirmed until availability has been determined, payment accepted, and you receive a call back from our staff.)  WOW!

Think we should stick our heads in Dog Eared Books at 900 Valencia for a browse?

Perhaps we should have started the whole adventure with services at Mission Dolores (Dolores and 16th) for services in English at 8 and 10 am or Spanish at noon.  We can take inspiration from sister Susan and explore the cemetery where scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo were filmed.

Oh my, oh my and we still have to figure out how to get home!

Back to the Bargain Bites

I've gotten past the "dumpling" category in SF Gate's 100 Bargain Bites, learning in the process that there is a "Heart of the City" Farmer's Market at the UN Plaza above the Civic Center BART station on Sundays 7 am to 5 pm.  Maybe we can brave the winos in the tenderloin and visit this and Little Saigon at the same time.  I don't suppose the nearby main branch of the San Francisco Public Library would be open on Sunday morning...

Now we are on to the "Ramen" category in the Bargain Bites and halfway through the list.  Hapa Ramen is at the Ferry Building's Farmers Market every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm.  Unfortunately the other Ramen places are outside San Francisco which doesn't help us!

On to Thai to the Amphawa Thai Noodle House out on Geary just beyond Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond.  It looks pretty good in the Bargain Bite article.  How many Thai restaurants do we have listed?

Oh, oh, now we seem to be hitting a lot of holes in the wall that are in other cities in the Bay Area.  There is, however, a King of Falafel who says it has the best falafel and then shows a picture of gyro meat on a spit!  There's also the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, a Venezuelan restaurant specializing in arepas located in the Castro, but I'm not sure I want to pay $10.75 for an arepa.

Now we are in the sausage categories and I'm always a sucker for those.  They mention a Hungarian restaurant, Paprika, in the Mission District on 24th Street, offering German sausages, Czech beers and Hungarian dishes.  And then there is Pig and Pie, also on 24th Street in the Mission, which has its menu on a blackboard, always a charming touch, and Fernando could have tongue.  And also on 24th is a 3rd sausage place: Rosamunde Sausage Grill with 26 craft beers on tap.

Hm.  Did they have a Mexican food category?  Did I miss it?

PS: The Mexican restaurants were in Boyes Hot Springs, Larkspur, Oakland, and Redwood City so I didn't look them up.  I guess SF is too expensive for Mexicans to set up shop.

SF Gate's Top 100 Restaurants and Top Bargain Bites

Now this list from the San Francisco Chronicle should keep us busy.  Fortunately we can narrow it down just to San Francisco and they provide a map so we can look for nearby restaurants.  On the other hand, do we really want to go to the "top" restaurants?  They will be overpriced and we will be dissatisfied when we go home.  Plus there seem to be a dearth of them right around the apartment, except for Park Tavern and who wants to pay $12 for parsnip and kohlrabi soup, $9 for brussels sprouts chips and $14 for braised lamb "tounge".

They do list Piperade which is modern Basque cuisine by Gerald Hirigoyen, who has written some cookbooks that I've perused.  It isn't cheap with a la carte Basque Classics at $29, $38 for it as a 3 course dinner.  But it might be better than a run of the mill shepherder's Basque restaurant.  Hirigoyen also has a "tapas" restaurant on Montgomery called Bocadillos that's even open for breakfast!!  He must be catering to the financial market.  Of course his website says it is open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 10 am.  But that must be a typo...  He serves those boca sandwiches we got in Barcelona, but at a higher price, of course.   Poor Fernando, I think his Basque Hotel type restaurants have bitten the dust.  He'll have to wait for Noriega in Bakersfield.  Maybe we can revisit it with Vibe.

This morning I thought I would go peruse the San Francisco Chronicle to get myself up-to-date on things happening in San Francisco.  Unfortunately it is one of those publications that require a digital subscription to keep reading beyond the first paragraph!  Perhaps the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is still free because its subscribers are print people who don't do everything online.  The Chronicle article I wanted to read was about the SF MUNI pulling the cable cars and streetcars out of service for the 49ers playoff game on Sunday.  A lot of tourists are going to be disappointed!

And then the second article was on Onigilly, a fast food restaurant on Kearny Street which serves onigiri - Japanese-style seaweed-wrapped rice balls with savory cooked fillings, "Japanese Gourmet Rice Balls".  It appears you can get around the subscription requirement for the article if you come in through the backdoor via the Onigilly Twitter feed.  Onigilly also has a food truck at the Embarcadero for a "Samurai Snack".  That's some "cutting edge" food I could go for, although maybe not stand in line for; the three of us are too old for that.  The idea is similar to Sushi Fuku here in Pittsburgh except the rice is in triangles instead of rolls.


Now I'm looking at SF Gate's (the Chronicle) Bargain Bites.  There are 100 of those as well: the top 5 in 20 (!) categories, beginning with Bar Food (you have to be drunk to eat it).  Oh my gosh!!  Giordano Bros was inspired by Primanti's famous Pittsburgh sandwich!!  although the photo they show in this article is wings, not a sandwich...   Here's more on Giordano Bros with the appropriate photo.  It was started by a Pittsburgh couple and has a location in North Beach, not that we need to eat there. 

And HOORAY!  Bargain Bites even lists Tommy's Joynt, Daddy's absolute favorite (cheap and a large selection of beers).  I don't often get a pastrami sandwich, although Fernando still remembers a  little Jewish delicatessen out in the Russian district in the Richmond where we had a great lean pastrami sandwich a day or so before Willy was born.  He'll want me to ferret out that place or one like it.

One of the top 5 pizza places is Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza which is evidently the same as Tony's Pizza Napoletana except the first is a "slice house" and the second a full service restaurant.  And what is all this fascination with "coal-fired" pizza?

Bargain Bites lists 3 Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon (Ellis near Larkin in the Tenderloin) and the Lers Ros Thai restaurant is in that area as well.  Maybe a walk around (during daylight hours) would be interesting, if we can ignore the other tenderloin residents (Juan did not like them).  They also list Banh Mi sandwich shops.

One of the Chinese restaurants on the Bargain Bites list is the "House of Pancakes", Chinese savory pancakes that is.  It sounds interesting but it is way out in the Sunset District.  Then there is a Xi'an restaurant: Xi'an Gourmet in the Richmond, which won out over House of Xi'an Dumpling, a "typical dumpling/noodle house" on Kearny in Chinatown.  They do takeout but what fun is that when you have to do dishes afterwards?

Oh Golly.  In addition to "Chinese" the Bargain Bites has a "dumpling" category.   The Kingdom of Dumpling is also on Taraval Street out in the Sunset and its website starts out in Chinese and you have to choose English to read it!  Now that should be an indication of authenticity, right?

OK.  Got to finish packing up for the painters.

Eating Out in SF continued

The last 9 of the 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants.

Yank Sing's Goldfish Dumplings

I'm not sure about these cutting edge restaurants like Outerlands (a "surfer-chic" place located in the Outer Sunset) where they burn and char the ingredients, although I do like most of the vegetables they work with.  Lonely Planet says Outlands is worth making a detour for but for us it would probably only make sense if we were in the Outer Sunset already.

Now the Zuni Cafe has been around a while.  Do you think their chicken for two would serve three??  But it's out on Market beyond Van Ness.  Maybe it's not as far to Van Ness (and Tommy's Joynt) as it seemed when we were kids.

Izakaya Sozai:  I always wanted to go to an Izakaya but I don't know if I'm brave enough to go without Juan and Mandy along.

State Bird Provisions is another one of those wait and see restaurants that take courage.  Do I really want octopus with my lamb?

Yank Sing offers Deem Sum a la cart, literally.  They have loads of dumplings, one of the best things about Cantonese food.

OK.  I think these are the most interesting to me.  Now I have to go find another list from another publication.

 The Guardian has a list of the Top 10 Restaurants in San Francisco and 7 of eater.com's 38 are included: Bar Tartine, Aziza, Ichi Sushi, Mission Chinese Food, Namu Gaji, Nopalito, and State Bird Provisions.  The other 3 are Frances, Rich Table, and SPQR.

Oh shoot!  I see that Eater.com has a January 2014 version of the top 38 out.  One could go crazy looking at these reviews!

Eating Out in SF

Namu Gaji New Korean American

Oh, this will be exciting!  Lots of food from lots of places so I'm trying to get familiar with some of them.  One of the best things about visiting San Francisco as a child was eating out at foreign restaurants.  None are there any more, except maybe Schroeder's (which doesn't have potato salad anymore) and the Tadich Grill, which I don't remember being taken to as a child although I know Mother and Daddy went there.

I'm reviewing "The 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants, October 2013" from eater.com to see if there are any that we'd be interested in: not too pricey and not pretentious.  I'm not familiar with eater.com or with their lucky number 38 but here are some that look promising:

Lers Ros Thai doesn't seem too pricey and the dishes are nicely presented.  The servings aren't huge but we don't want to gain weight.

Bar Tartine from the Tartine Bakery people looks "interesting" with " ahead-of-the-curve Eastern European menus". Are we brave enough to try things like Pistachio dip with laver and crackers, Beef tartare with bottarga on koji toast, Smoked potatoes with black garlic, Kale with rye, seeds and yoghurt, Sprouted lentil croquettes with cauliflower and kefir, Carob mousse with goat cheese and black walnuts, chased down with a Candied beet mimosa or Sparkling riesling with charred lemon and fennel...  Or maybe we can just go to their sandwich shop for lunch.  They are big on kefir and located in the Mission District, two pluses in Fernando's book.

Then there's the pizza place: Tony's Pizza Napoletana which is only across Columbus a few blocks from the apartment.  Tony was the World Champion Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Naples in 2007 so his pizza should be good.

Namu Gaji (New Korean American) looks interesting from its photos but the menu descriptions aren't that appealing.  Maybe they will improve by March...

Nopa and Nopalito are popular but I don't know that I'm convinced, especially by the Nopalito take on Mexican food.  Anyway, they are over beyond Van Ness near Golden Gate Park and wouldn't be worth a taxi ride...Perhaps we could rent some bicycles!

The R&G Lounge is a Chinese restaurant that was featured on Anthony Bourdain.  It is on Kearny Street in Chinatown so it is relatively close by.  The menu looks like classic Cantonese and we have to eat Chinese at least once, right?  And they have a takeout menu too!

Perbacco is a Northern Italian restaurant with a lunch menu that has pretty much the same choices and prices as the dinner menu.  Their appetizers seemed priced a bit high but we could go there for pasta like Raviora (spinach pasta filled with roasted butternut squash) or roasted wild mushroom risotto.  Or maybe we could follow one of their recipe videos and cook at the apartment!  It's located on California Street in the Financial District, just down the block from the Tadich Grill.

Super Duper Burgers sound good to me, just like the falafels were in Paris.  Super Duper makes them acceptable by using Niman Ranch beef but they are reasonably priced at $6.75.  Not like some of the other frufru artisan burgers listed in GrubStreet's "The 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco".  I need fresh tomatoes and raw onions on my hamburgers but I usually have to supply my own sweet pickle relish...

Greens Restaurant: Camila and I went there a long time ago.  Sort of a San Franciscan Moosewood vegetarian restaurant.  I'm surprised it is on this list of mainly new restaurants.

Flour + Water sounds pretty interesting, especially its pasta tasting menu because it specializes in home-made pasta.  Although it sounds funny when they say at the bottom of the menu that "bread is available upon request".  Isn't that flour and water??  It's one of many of these restaurants that are located in the Mission District.

Mission Chinese Food (Lung Shan) has a branch in New York City.  I like the idea that there are NO RESERVATIONS but I'm not sure that I would like the food although Fernando might go for Grandma's spicy lamb dumplings and the tea-smoked eel, but the pastrami and beef brisket??  Here's a review by a four-year-old.

Commonwealth: San Franciscans must love their 6 course tasting menus for $55-$75.  It sounds interesting but I'm sure I would be full after 3 or 4 courses.  This one is also in the Mission District, which leads me to believe that all of the restaurants must have moved out of downtown!

La Ciccia sounds like authentic Sardinian, including botarga and the Sardinian honey (hopefully the bitter kind).  But it is the furthest away, in Noe Valley which would take about 48 minutes to get to from the apartment, first taking the cable car and then the J Light Rail to Church Street and 30th.

La Torta Gorda sounds like a good place for Mexican food and Fernando will be happy since it features dishes from Puebla.  Naturally it is in the Mission District but Fernando wanted to go exploring there anyway.

OK, I've made it through 29 of the 38 restaurants and the last 9 will have to wait till tomorrow.

San Francisco

Green Street Apartment

So we've decided to go to San Francisco for Fernando's Spring Break from March 8th to March 15th.  Fernando has to be back for class by Tuesday and we are using dividend miles so we can't be choosey about getting nonstops (we have a connection in Chicago going and in Phoenix coming back).  I was checking the nonstops on American and United and their fares were over $500.  Penny will be joining us and easily persuaded us to go the AirBnB route.  Hopefully she will get our Little Italy apartment before someone else snatches it up!

Since we'll be there a week, we'll need the San Francisco MUNI 7-day Visitor Passport ($29), which covers the cable car.  This will allow us to get up very early in the mornings just to hop on the outside for a thrill ride.  At the San Francisco International Airport  Information Booth (Baggage Claims) one can buy the passports as well as a map of the MUNI system.  Shall we take the BART from the airport?  It is $8.65 apiece to the Montgomery Street or Embarcadero Stations, and then we'd have to take a cab.  BART says the senior fare is $3.20 but I think you need a special card and need to be a local resident.  A taxi from the airport is $39 - $49 depending on the destination, although the TaxiFareFinder calculated it to be $54.45 to North Beach.

Shall we go to the San Francisco Botanical Garden?  Their magnolia's will be in bloom.  And how about some free walking tours of San Francisco by the San Francisco City Guides?  Maybe the "Controversial Murals of Rincon Center" on Tuesday, March 11th at 11 am?

Unfortunately we won't arrive on Saturday in time for the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building, but there are smaller versions on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am–2pm, but the number of vendors is much less.  What will we do for food in the meantime???

An Insomniac is attacked by Montezuma

Some nights I just can't sleep.  At all.  That was the case with Thursday night.  I even went out on the sofa bed in the living room to escape Fernando's snoring and that didn't work.  That evening I hadn't had any expresso and even had two beers!  So in the morning I was dragging myself around and then had an attack of La Turista.  I don't know if was the sandwich Fernando and I shared at the Marrakesh airport, or the fat tuna belly I had for dinner, or the tap water I drank here in Madrid (it should be safe, right?).  In any case this all put a crimp in our plans to explore Madrid and most of the morning I spent hunting for bottled water and napping.

We finally got off around noon, with a little help from Immodium, and took the Metro into Madrid.  First stop was the Museum of America, slightly north of the city center.  Fortunately I had bought a large map of Madrid because the normal tourist map doesn't cover that area and there are no signs for the Museum.  I think they need a Sophie Masloff for mayor, someone who would put in directional signs for the walking tourist.  All their directional signs are for cars and you have to search for the street signs which are placed on the sides of buildings, as in Mexico.  I think Fernando was slightly disappointed in the Museum but it was only 3 euros so not a big loss.  Afterwards Fernando wanted to see the Ciudad Universitaria nearby, thinking he could pick up a cheap ethnic lunch like in the U.S.  But again, there were only large buildings and not much in the way of small stores.

Since we bought the all day Metro card for convenience, we hopped on the metro (although it took us some time to find the station -- again no directional signs pointing the way to a metro station) back to the center of town and began exploring the tourist shops around the Plaza Mayor.  The place was hopping with tourists -- mainly Spanish tourists I swear, but we did enjoy a beer and some bread, cheese and salami at one of the tables in the square.  You say that's not great for La Turista?  Unfortunately there wasn't much of a healthy selection at the Museo del Jamon where we ate!

The rest of the afternoon we spent trying to follow a Frommer's walking tour of the older sections of Madrid which turned out to be quite uninteresting, following major thoroughfares with lots of cars.  It's hard to wander through Madrid streets and not get hopelessly disoriented.  Maybe I do like smaller towns like Burgos and Logrono.  I try to like Madrid but it isn't easy.

One thing I'll say about Madrid:  the air is quite clear so that the sky is very blue and the yellow and orange colors of the buildings are quite vivid.  The mornings and evenings are chilly but the sun gets quite hot at midday.  I should stare at the blue sky for some time before we leave because for sure there won't be much of that in Pittsburgh.  On the other hand, there will be rain and greenery.

Airport Hotels

Thursday, September 12:  We weren't expecting much from the Aparthotel Convenciones Barajas because it's just a hotel near the airport.  We just wanted a quick place to sleep and get off early on Saturday for our flight home.  It isn't bad at all.  It has a kitchen with a two burner stove, a microwave and a refrigerator.  Then it has a living room with a pull out sofa (in case someone else like Penny wanted to stay with us), a bedroom with two beds and a bathroom with a bathtub and bidet.  We are on the fourth floor and there IS an elevator.  There is a TV in the living and the bedroom for those who are concerned and there is wifi.

We ate dinner at a neighborhood restaurant, nothing special but it did have draft beer --everybody at the outside tables was drinking beer, not wine.  I ordered a salad of piquillo peppers and ventresca.  Fernando ordered bocadillos of morcilla, chorizo, torta espagnola and ham iberico.  Ventresca is the belly of the tuna and came in long strips -- it was canned just like regular tuna but quite good, not fatty like one would think.  Camila, do you remember Mr. Ventresca who gave private lessons in flute?  Or was that Vantresca?

After dinner we walked over to the metro station, El Capricho, to check out the one day tourist rates.  The area is quite nice, really a residential area, with bike lanes and running lanes, sidewalks and small one-way streets.  Not at all what I expected.  Everyone was out walking, running or biking.  It seems like a very healthy neighbordhood.

Saturday, September 14:  Just a few more notes about the neighborhood:  there aren't any little stores!  You can't run out and pick up a bottle of water or a coke or some tea bags.  Yesterday morning I was feeling poorly so walked around seeing if we could find some provisions.  I knew there was a mall nearby but with the freeways, it's hard to get from one side to the other.  We followed the walking path through a tunnel and were approached by a woman who apparently knew we were lost and asked if we were looking for Plenilunio.  I vaguely remembered that the mall had a similar unrememorable name and so she more or less took us there.  There was a supermarket in the basement so we could pick up our water and coke but it seems that a mile is a long way to go for a bottle of water.  On the other hand, Spaniards are much more used to walking than are Americans but you would think that with all the apartment buildings that have been here for 50 years, some Colombian or other immigrant would open up a little shop for odds and ends.  Maybe the city has zoning ordinances like the U.S.

Shopping the Souks

Yesterday (Wednesday) we had to complete any shopping that we were going to do so we headed out for the souks again.  It's actually quite fun since one gets lost every time and you can always find the same thing at another store so don't despair!  We met Aydin at 9 am because we wanted to get an early start.  But when we got down to Jemaa El fna, most of the stores were still closed:  shutters drawn down.  That made it quite pleasant and easy to walk but of course crippled our shopping plans.  So we wandered up and down, in and out, ending up on alleys (they are all narrow, about 12-15 feet across) where there were no tourists, an indication we were getting away from the Jemaa El fna.  Lots of good photo shots but the Moroccans either don't want to be photographed or want to be paid for it, so only Fernando had the guts to go ahead and shoot.

Aydin was looking for Babouches (leather slippers) and we were successful in that, even Fernando bought a bright red pair.  Then I got a wooden orange squeezer, appropriately out of orange wood (we'll see how it survives the trip home), and a wooden camel out of juniper root for my Christmas pesebre.  I also picked up a miniature tagine of blue and white pottery from Fez for Fernando's Aleppo pepper and a real rustic earthenware tagine for one serving for next to nothing which I hope survives the trip home.  But most of the morning was spent wandering (no, merci; no, merci) and learning how not to ask the price of an item unless you really intend to buy it.  No pricing of things simply out of curiosity or the store owner will follow you past several stores,  gradually lowering the price until it is a quarter of what he initially requested.  And still you know that he is making a profit.

Aydin had to be back at the EUSIPCO conference for a poster session in the afternoon so we sent him off in a taxi and we proceeded to the Artisan Complex where the prices are fixed and the goods are guaranteed to be good by the government (if that is possible).   We had been there the first day but only bought a map (which has turned out to be the best one so far), although we had seen several things that tempted us.  We discovered that there were more shops than we had seen on the previous trip, and no, we didn't buy a carpet but Fernando did get a new leather belt (has he been eating too much?).  So we ended up with painted mirrors, wooden bowls out of juniper, a copper lizard for my powder-room collection and a pair of bright orange babouches with sequins for me.  In my old age I seem to be buying a lot of bright orange.  I might have to change the color of our walls to match!

Eventually we had bought all we could carry and were ready to catch a taxi back to the hotel but a driver of a horse and carriage offered to take us back for the same price.  So we got our touristy fix.  There must be hundreds of these carriages and though they are much slower than taxis, who is in a hurry with this heat?  Now all we need is a camel ride.

Our afternoons are always spent on a shower and a nap and fortunately the hotel is very quiet (except this morning they are mowing the lawn).  We met Aydin at his hotel at 6 pm and we let him exercise his little Suzuki car with a trip south to the Carrefour.  It's only about 10 minutes away because the traffic is light but there really wasn't much to see.  What a disappointment.  I still remember the row of French cheeses in Toulon and probably hope to encounter them in other Carrefours.  The Carrefours in Colombia are a treat because of all the tropical fruits.  Here in Morocco, the produce is much the same as in the US and looked rather tired.  They did have a lot of Jerusalem artichokes, sold in the potato section.  This Carrefour is in the basement of the Almazar shopping mall which has its food court on the top floor.  Hardly anybody was there and apparently it is true that Moroccans eat at home.  Most of the Moroccans in the restaurants near the hotel were only drinking coffee or soft drinks.

Disappointed with the Almazar mall and not finding anything in the surrounding area, we headed back to our Hotel Row and ate at a Cafe specializing in fish.  Aydin had the fried fish platter, Fernando had swordfish and I had a Sicilian pizza (I could only eat about half of it -- it did have anchovies, so I did my fish part too).  A Moroccan nearby was drinking a bright green soda so we asked the waiter, who only spoke French and Arabic, what it was.  It turns out that you can have a little pitcher of mint syrup (no, it is not creme de menthe) to put in your soda water.  So, of course, we asked for some too.  Now I know what we can do with the Old Fedcal creme de menthe at Mother's!

Naturally after dinner we had to stop at another outdoor cafe (they all have outdoor seating areas) for coffee.  Naturally I didn't have any coffee because the night before, after an iced cafe mocha, I couldn't get to sleep until 2 in the morning.  Fernando ordered an ice cream dish with 3 types of ice cream and espresso poured on top.  One of the ice creams was hazelnut and quite good -- I had to help him with it of course.

Now it is Thursday morning, we have had our last buffet breakfast -- our last croissants and cafe au lait -- and we are waiting until 10:30 am when Aydin will come and take us to the airport for the 1:40 pm flight to Madrid.  The Aparthotel in Madrid has wifi as well so hopefully I will be able to post there as well.  We've had a good time here in Marrakech.  Hasta Manana!

A Day without Shopping

Yesterday Fernando and Aydin had their presentation in the morning so I stayed in the hotel, napping, planning the afternoon, reading, etc. waiting until 1 pm when I would go over and meet them at the Palais des Congres.  It was a long morning so at 11:30 I finally decided to take my book and go down and sit by the swimming pool.  I got all arranged in a nice chaise lounge and then checked my watch:  Wait!  it said it was 12:30!!  I had been looking at the time on the laptop which sets itself but has the Marrakesh time an hour behind what it really is.  Needless to say I had to pull myself out of my comfortable chaise lounge and go get ready for the walk over to meet them.  Now I have set the time manually on the laptop.

I was able to eat lunch with Aydin and Fernando at the conference (the woman said "no problem") so we got a free lunch, with the normal dishes: tagines and couscous.  The fish was quite good although it seemed more like tuna or swordfish rather than the salmon they said it was.  The various cooked Moroccan salads were OK but they had some lamb or goat jerky on top of the lentil salad and I ate it without realizing what it was.  I didn't know whether to spit it out (my first inclination) or chew it down.  Since I was a guest, I did the latter.  And I'm still here a day later without any ill effects so I guess it was OK.

Then, since Aydin rented a little car in Casablanca, he wanted to make use of it and we drove over to the Menara which is nearby.  It is a big olive grove fed by a pool which is fed by water brought down from the Atlas Mountains.  Unfortunately it was not much more than that, except for the camel rides out in front, and it was 2:30 pm and awfully sunny and hot.  We jumped back in the car and headed over to the new city to visit the Majorelle Gardens, created by a French painter in the first half of the 20th century, and then rehabilitated by Yves Saint Laurent.  The buildings were painted Frida Kahlo cobalt blue and there were loads of tourists there.  There are many tourists in town, most of them Europeans.  Majorelle had planted a lot of cacti and agaves from the Americas, as well as euphorbias from South Africa and bamboo from east Asia.  In Marrakech you have to water everything or it dies.  I think they get less rain than Fillmore because they had a rubber tree there whose leaves looked like they had never been washed off.  At least the Majorelle Gardens were shadier than the Menara, although they were enclosed in walls and there wasn't much of a breeze.  One needs a lot of breeze with the heat they have here.

After the gardens we wanted to get to the Saadian Tombs on the other side of the Medina but there is a slight problem with driving in Marrakesh.  There are NO street signs.  None at all.  Or at least none in English or French.  So you have no idea what street you are on.  We finally made our way around the Medina (you can tell it's the Medina because it is enclosed by walls) but when we finally arrived at 4:50 pm, we couldn't find a place to park and the tombs closed at 5 pm.  So we decided to skip it and just go look for a place for dinner in Gueliz, the new city.  Aydin's car, a Suzuki, is very tiny so we soon found a parking space.  Unfortunately we didn't realize they had pay stations like in the US where you get a receipt to put on the dashboard and so before we knew it, two guys were putting a boot on Aydin's car!  He ran back and paid a 50 dirham ($6) fine/bribe to them and then got a paid parking receipt (2 dirham an hour).

Now about dinner.  You know that Fernando is trying to be a vegetarian.  But he is also trying to taste all the meats on the six continents that he has now visited.  So he had chameau (camel) tagine for dinner.  It was chewier than beef but much the same.  Aydin had lamb (agneau)  tagine and I had a 7 vegetable couscous (although I only counted 4: eggplant, turnip, carrot and zucchini).  The tagines are really quite good, especially the ones with prunes and almonds, although we haven't tried one with chicken.  I even got myself a little rustic tagine at the market today, but that's another story!

Arrived in Marrakesh

After hours and hours at JFK, Madrid's Barajas airport and up in the air, we arrived in Marrakesh yesterday around 2 pm, although the exact time was hard to figure out because we didn't know what time zone we were in.  It turned out that Marrakesh is one hour behind Madrid so we are only 5 hours ahead of the east coast, not 6, even though my computer has the idea that it is two hours behind that.  The airport is very small:  there was only one other jet there, until the 12:35 pm flight behind us from Madrid arrived within minutes of ours (the 12 pm flight).  And you'll be happy to know that the little regional company that flew us for Iberia, Air Nostrum, charged for everything, including water!

Luckily there was a shuttle bus from EUSIPCO waiting for arrivals, so it took us to the hotel and we didn't have to hassle with a taxi.  Le Meridien N'Fis, our hotel, is a garden hotel, with only 3-4 story buildings surrounded by gardens filled with citrus trees, olive trees, apricot and peach trees, banana trees, yuccas, and lots of Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet), which, like the Land of Buddha, they mislabel as Datura...  Our room is nothing particularly special and the balcony is too narrow to stand on but the bathroom has nice tiles in it plus a bidet.  Supposedly we have wifi but it must be over a dialup connection since it is very hard to get the images on a page to load.  I'm not even going to try to upload photos and I hope I can publish this post to the blog!

Last night we ate at a restaurant nearby since we were way too tired to go exploring.  I had a selection of Moroccan salads which were cooked eggplant/tomato concoctions, cooked carrots, beets and potatoes, and the typical Moroccan salad of chopped cucumbers and tomatoes.  Fernando had a beef tagine covered with whole roasted almonds.  He was going to order a lamb tagine but there was a Moroccan family beside us in which one of the fathers had ordered the beef tagine and it looked so good that Fernando decided to order it too.  The family was two brothers from the Canary Islands and their wives and children.  They were Moroccans but were touring the country so they spoke Spanish as well as French and Moroccan.   We had beer but had to be seated inside to drink it.

Last night we didn't make it down to that crazy square near the souks whose name I can never remember, Jemaa El Fna.  We were too pooped and went to bed at 7:30.  Of course I woke up at 12:30 am thinking it must be morning...  I guess I need my sleep in increments of 5 hours.  Fortunately I had little trouble falling back to sleep until 7 -- there is no Muezzin around here to wake us for prayers!

We had the breakfast buffet at the hotel and it was wonderful!  Wonderful coffee with hot milk, fresh fruits, fresh orange juice, croissants, breads, cheeses, lunch meats, cereals, poached dried fruits, eggs to order, Moroccan crepes.  Of course it won't be as exciting tomorrow since I know what to expect.  Afterwards we met up with Aydin Akan from Turkey and walked into the Medina or old town.  We stopped at a government-run artisan shop so we'd have some idea of what we'd find in the souks and the prices and then headed towards the Jemaa El Fna but ran into this government worker who was going to take us there but somehow we ended up in a carpet store in the souks instead...  We looked at a few carpets and were able to wiggle out of the store before the tea came but couldn't avoid the owner dropping us off at an herbal store where we finally bought 3 bags of spices just to escape!  After that we managed quite well on our own, except I asked the price of a dozen shish kebab skewers, the guy said 250 dirham, then came down to 200, then 250, then 80 and so made a sale.  Then we found them elsewhere for 30 dirham, so Aydin bought a dozen of those.  Tourists never can win!

We had lunch at the Chez Chegrouni that is in every guidebook and it was OK but I think I am already tired of meat (and Fernando is the one that is supposed to be a vegetarian, not me).  Juan will be happy to know that I am drinking plenty of bottled water, and I have sworn off beer because it is really too expensive and of course they have no craft beer movement here in Morocco.  We will wait until Spain for that.

This evening there is a welcome reception for EUSIPCO here at our hotel.  That will be our dinner, assuming they let the wives in too, like they did in Turkey and Lausanne and not like they didn't in Glasgow!  Wish us luck!

Clear with a Chance of Rain

That's the Wunderground forecast for Madrid on Friday, September 13th -- maybe the rain is forecast because Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, although in Spain rain should be lucky.  There was no extended forecast for Marrakesh on the Weather Underground - just the current temperature so I couldn't put a Marrakesh weather sticker on my blog.  I had to go to Weather.com for a 10 day forecast, which predicted highs of 88 degrees and lows in the lower 60s, without a chance of rain.

I'm waiting for my Top 10 guide to Marrakesh so I can start planning for that city.  I'm not sure how far out from the Medina the hotel really is and whether the route into the old city is walkable.  Many of the locations are not marked on the Google map and there are few bus stops - they must depend on user input for much of the data.  Yet supposedly Marrakesh is the top tourist draw in Morocco.

I looked at a question posted in the Frommers Forum on Morocco and the respondents answered that the best place to stay was in a Riad, not a hotel.  Whoops.  Too late to change now!  We'll scope them out for the next trip.  The Guardian has a 2006 (!) list of the 20 best places to stay in Marrakesh, which says that 10 years before there were 25 riads and now there are 500.  (I've heard that figure before.  It's nice and round.)  But maybe after the craziness of the Medina and the souks, we'll want to come back to an international luxury hotel outside the old city.

Conde Nast Travel has a guide to Marrakesh, with a list of riads and also where to eat.  The links to the longer reviews are broken but can be found at "Where's medina? Restaurants in Marrakech".  Should we try Chez Chegrouni, facing the main market square, Jemaa el-Fna?  On Trip Advisor you can page through 72 photos of the restaurant and its food -- to see if you'd like it...  Oh, but look at this one: Patisserie Amandine.  It's number one on Trip Advisor and I wouldn't mind a few French pastries for breakfast or supper!  They have Moroccan pastries as well, including the Pastilla with chicken.  Trip Advisor has a lot more restaurants but the top rated ones are a bit expensive.



Maybe we could go to the Henna Cafe, learn Arabic and get a henna job.  These photos of Henna cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

Or maybe the Souk Kafe.
Or maybe Eveil des Sens which is in Gueliz, just north of the hotel, where supposedly they have a three course meal for 70 Dh .  I can see ourselves going there to eat rather than to the Medina.  It's not easy to add these restaurants to the google map, since they often aren't listed.

Madrid in 14 Hours

Do you think we could last from 9 am to 10 pm without a rest back at the hotel?
Maybe a nap in a park would suffice?

Casa Mingo

Frommers has four walks in central Madrid online.  The second one, La Latina and Lavapies, might be the most interesting -- fewer monumental buildings.  Or maybe we should just head for the pedestrian zones that are marked on the map, which I assume are meant for walking.

Frommers also lists some tapas bars that I've added to the map.  I saw a Dave's Been Here video on Casa Mingo which looks interesting but I don't know if we are ready to attempt cidra again, after our experience in Barcelona.  Well, we don't have to order a pitcher, a small glass will do, or some beer.  I always like roast chicken and they say that at the hour of dinner from Monday through Friday, they serve cocido upstairs.  I'm assuming that would be from 2-5 pm.  I could have the chicken and Fernando could have the chickpeas.

On the other hand, we really should stop by the Ham Museum, El Museo del Jamon, although I'm not sure I really like that much pig.  I wonder if they have salads, or a nice bocadito de atun.

As I was wandering through the google maps, I ran across Apartamentos Turisticos Matute 11, which are located in the center of town near the Museo del Jamon and the Mercado Anton Martin and look like a good place to stay if one wanted to spend a week in Madrid.  They are bookable as Matute 11 Suites through Booking.com.  It would be worth staying there just for the front door and it seems to be on a tiny street that couldn't support much traffic.  Obviously I'm preparing for more than one day in Madrid!  And we could do day trips to Toledo and Segovia.

Madrid

I'm looking for places to eat around the aparthotel Barajas outside Madrid.  The pickings are pretty slim and nothing comes up in a "search nearby".  We might have to stop by a supermarket and pick up something or eat at Bacadilleria Pans & Company.  I wonder if we'll need a car to get there...

We might have to take the Metro into town for dinner.  Or into a closer neighborhood with restaurants, like the area around the bull ring (Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas), which has bull fights on Sunday so we'll miss them.  There are some restaurants in that area that serve bull meat but some of the reviews accuse them of only wanting to make money.  There is a Basque restaurant, Ordago, which might be good.  And there is an Andalucian restaurant called Rincon de Jaen with several branches that looks like it would be good for tapas.  Yes, I think Fernando might like that one with Gamba Andaluza, Chopitos Andaluza, Calamares Andaluza, Chipirones Plancha con Ajito, Pijotas Andaluza.  Even if it only has a 3.8 rating on google maps.  I wonder if I should look up some of those words or if we can point to what looks good.  Chopitos are cuttlefish, chipirones are squid (also spelled txipirones), pijotas (or pijotitas) are young hake.  And then there are Carabineros (shrimp), Pimientos de Padrón (where did I run across those in the US recently?  San Diego?), Berberechos (cockles), Trigueros (asparagus), Mojama (salt-cured tuna), Chuletitas de Lechal (baby lamb chops).  Oh my!  And we're only spending two nights in Madrid?  But I notice that they don't have any txitxardinak - baby eels in garlic (anguilas).  When we were in Pamplona in 2007, all their eels were artificial (like are fake crabmeat) -- they'd eaten up all the baby eels.

On Friday we plan to visit the Museo de America, which is located near a university -- Fernando should like that.   We'll have to figure out the best way to use the Metro.  It's supposed to take 25 minutes to get from El Capricho (where the hotel is) to Ventas (where the bullfight ring and restaurants are).  That seems like a long way to go for dinner.  And to go from El Capricho to Moncloa (Museo de America) takes 40 minutes.  Oh, my.  I guess we are nowhere near downtown!  It's sort of like getting from Silver Spring to Downtown DC.  Fortunately all the travel is in zone 1 so we shouldn't be charged extra for staying out by the airport.  On the other hand, it would take 20 minutes to walk from the aparthotel to Pans & Company in the shopping mall across two major highways.  But I need to check out the shopping malls too...

Marrakesh in four days; Madrid in one...

Talk about whirlwind tours!
Fernando has a EUSIPCO Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco the second week of September.  Since it is at the beginning of the fall term, we have to limit the visit to one week, as usual.  Last year I didn't attend the conference with him when it was in Romania because I didn't have much vacation time left.  This year I have no such excuse.  We are spending a day in Madrid since our flight from Marrakesh connects there and the layover is 18 hours -- not one I'd like to spend in an airport.  So we are spending two nights in an apartment hotel close to the Barajas airport and then taking the metro into the city.

In Marrakesh, we are staying at the "highly recommended" hotel on the EUSIPCO website called LE MERIDIEN N'FIS.  I can't find it anywhere else so I hope it really exists...  It looks like a swimming pool resort but it is only a 10 minute walk to the Palais de Congres where the conference is being held so I think we will survive.  It has wifi and   I have a Cadogan guide from the library called Marrakesh, Fez & Rabat, and a cookbook called A Month in Marrakesh (so we'll know what foods to look for) and I just ordered the Eyewitness guide: Top 10 Marrakech (it better arrive by Thursday like they said).  That's all we'll have time for, if that, but the Top 10  should include a map.  I just hope we can walk to places from the hotel.  I tried locating places on Google Maps but unfortunately they don't offer a street view so I can't see what the neighborhood around the hotel looks like.

I watched the Jamie Oliver Food Escapes TV episode on Marrakesh on Amazon Prime and made Fernando watch it too because I found it very interesting -- naturally Jamie talks a lot about food. 

What can we see in a day in Madrid??  I have a list of mercados de Madrid -- we have to visit at least one.  And we picked up a map and another Eyewitness Top 10 guide to Madrid at Barnes and Noble this evening.  And I used to scoff at those New York Times 36 Hours In... columns!