On the mend

Thursday, 8 February 2024: I think I’m on the mend. I was a little dozy in the morning again, but in the afternoon, we went out for lunch, a walk, a (brief) museum visit and bike ride. So I can’t be too sick anymore.

Karen points out that we have so far gone back to restaurants that we discovered last year three out of the four times we’ve been out. It shows a lack of imagination and adventurousness, I suppose - but has produced good results. 

Today, it was Thai Mongkut in Carmen. There is also a branch in Ruzafa, about five minutes away, but we wanted a leg-stretch. So we hiked over there, about a half-hour walk through the centre.

City Hall Square, looking north

    

Market Square, Church of St. John of the Market

     I’m pretty sure that when we came here last year, they did not have a menu del dia. They do now and it’s excellent value: €15.90 for three courses and one drink.

There is no choice of starter. Everybody gets a trio of appetisers: a spring roll, chicken skewer in peanut sauce, and a ground chicken and calamari croquette. All excellent - and the croquette wasn’t fishy at all. Karen had a chicken and vegetable main over rice, I had Pad Thai. Both were very good and surprisingly generous with the meat. Dessert was a very firm and chocolate-y chocolate mousse with nuts crumbled on top. The wine was okay. We had an extra glass each. Total bill: €39-something - just under CDN$60. It’s more than we’ve spent elsewhere, but the food and ambience were also a cut above.

The service was fine. Our rather exotic-looking (possibly trans) main wait person spoke English, but seemed a little disapproving that we didn’t try harder in Spanish. I don’t blame her. We’re terrible. 

Once again, we were seated beside a table with a young baby, a cute and happy little soul, being cooed over by an indulgent auntie, I think. It’s an interesting space. We were seated against a glass wall that looked into the lobby of an apartment building with exposed stone arches that looked very old - 16th century maybe.

Carmen, previously unnoticed square

After lunch, we walked out to the river. It was a little overcast and breezy so sitting in the sun with our books wasn’t a great option. We walked instead over to the Museo del Bellas Artes, the historical art museum. It’s always free, so you can dip in and out. 

We looked at a special exhibit about the Spanish Academy in Rome, a place that apparently functions something like our Banff Centre for the Arts. Spanish artists go there for a period - not sure how long - at somebody else’s expense, and work on projects. The exhibit included examples of the work they’ve produced over the 150 years the institution has existed, plus narrative stuff about how it operates and its importance. 

You’d have to be a serious student of the Spanish art scene to really get a lot out of it. There were a few interesting pieces, but much of it, to my eye, was kind of mediocre. We didn’t linger long. 

I had wanted to look again at my favourite painting in the permanent collection, a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch of the Scourging of Christ. When we came a few years ago, it was missing from where it’s usually displayed. A small sign said it was out for restoration. Last year, it was back and looked even better than I remembered - restoration complete presumably. But today, it was gone again, replaced by the same sign, saying it was out for restoration. It’d be interesting to know the story behind that.

We walked part of the way home, then grabbed bikes and rode the rest of the way.  

Royal Gardens (next door to museum)

Friday, 9 February 2024: I went for a 4K fast walk this morning, but it seemed to take more out of me than usual. I guess I’m still recuperating from my suspected bout of Covid.

      Still, I later did a shop over at Consum, made dinner, read quite a bit of the latest issue of New Yorker magazine - and wrote in this blog, so I can’t be too sick.