Doors of Madrid

Whoa... I have been to Wales (which was great) and am soon to go to Switzerland (which I'm looking forward to) and I haven't told you about Madrid yet.    After that I'm hoping to have some "open" time here in London.    There are many things to do and many things I want to write. 

Today I did something that I found very interesting.  I interviewed the daughter of Ramses Wissa Wassef, since she happened to be visiting..  I didn't  write much about Ramses Wissa Wassef Centre in Egypt when I visited it earlier this year, even though it was one of the highlights of my visit.  At the centre, local villagers produce, among other things, large and amazing tapestries which they weave from their imaginations, without planning or preliminary sketches.   Here's a photo of just a part of one tapestry. The amount of detail and the subtle hand dyed colours and the sheer size of some of the tapestries, mean that I can spend hours just looking. 

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 Ramses Wissa Wassef, who died in 1974,  had extraordinary creative gifts and original ideas, and so I was excited to talk to his daughter. I felt so glad that my work gives me the chance to talk to such interesting people from time to time and hope I get the chance to write the piece, which is at present half commissioned. That is, the editor has said she really wants it but needs to find a place in her schedule.  .If it doesn't work out, I will try to sell it elsewhere. 

Not that this has anything to do with Madrid.  

Anyway I had managed to visit Spain many times without ever making it to Madrid, and when I finally got there last month, I loved it.  One of the things I noticed was the great variety of doors and facades in the city.  It's always fun looking at different doors, windows and shop fronts in cities, but Madrid's little back streets seemed specially full of surprises. I liked how so many shop or restaurant owners had painted over the shutters that covered their facades when the premises were closed. 

Some of the images were very striking, though I'm not sure that this one would REALLY entice me to eat in this restaurant..... 

Although thei restaurant below has a tiled facade (tiles are popular in Spain), the decorations are in fact painted on and show famous Spanish buildings and landscapes. I think now that I should have gone in to try the place, even if only to see what the decor was like inside. But I wasn't hungry at the time. 

The door below, white with brass decoration and an intriguing interior, has the kind of bold, proud appearance I always associate with Spanish design.  You just would never find an exterior door like this in London, and and it looks like a palace - yet it was just in some side street. 

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This, by contrast, could be found in many a city. It's the door of a little theatre and I liked the poster, which seemed to bring it alive. 

Many of the old doors are covered in graffiti. You might not like graffiti, but I thought some of it was pretty striking, like this door covered in gold and silver. 

Sometimes beggars sit at the doors of churches.  Here is the door of an old church not far from the centre. If the figure in the foreground doesn't seem that realistic to you, that's because it's a bronze statue of a young woman. I have a soft spot for statues which look as if they are doing everyday things - sitting on benches, leaning over walls, or, as in this case, walking along the street. 

I thought Madrid had some  funky little bars,  and "Tupperware," in Malasañais is quite well known.   There's nothing like a bit of 1960s psychedelia for brightening up the street. 

My hotel was the Vincci Via 66 on Gran Via, right in the centre of things.  Its decor featured twisty mirrors on the shiny black doors, a bit like distorting mirrors in a fairground. And there were silver armchairs in the rooms... and other strange things.  The overall effect was attractive, though odd, and I always looked forward to coming back to the hotel. 

And one day I noticed I had accidentally worn clothes that matched the decor.  

To and Fro, Wax Man and "Down the Nile from Cairo!"

It probably seems as if I've been zigzagging around like a lost bumblebee, with posts on Germany, Egypt, Suffolk and (soon) Spain all in a couple of months.  Of course the purpose of these is to write articles, and there hasn't actually been much time to spare for that little task.     But I have FINALLY sent in my story about Germany, so I'm tidying my German pictures away for now and preparing to write about Egypt.  

Before I do, I thought I'd share a few random images from the last German trip.  First, on the flight into Munich, I saw a weather front moving across the land.  Clear skies, bright sunshine, but the horizon shrouded in heavy rain creeping forward - you can probably see the shadows in the clouds where it is falling.   The sun was setting and it looked dramatic, and reminded me of a JMW Turner painting.

Next, some suitcases on the train between Munich and Coburg.    Not very exciting, you'll agree, but I was interested that you could lock your bags to the racks with that coin-operated locking system - something I always wish I could do on English trains. 

But there is a little story attached to this photo.  Some little tip-up seats are attached to the wall opposite the luggage racks and the toilet, and since the train was crowded we decided to stay on the tip up seats rather than struggle to find a seat in a compartment. 

The ticket inspector marched past, took our tickets, looked a little strangely at us, (I thought), and said, "Don't you want to sit in the compartment?"

"Oh, no, no, we are very happy here," we replied. 

He then gave us a VERY funny look indeed, but said nothing, handed back the tickets, tossed his head and continued on his way.   His manner seemed so strange that I took another look at the tickets. Only then did I see that the good folk at Rail Europe (who had comped the tickets) had  provided me with first class tickets and seat reservations.   

 We hastily transferred to First Class, but the ticket inspector no doubt told his family that evening of the mad English people who had first class tickets but preferred to crouch on tip-up seats by the toilets!

The third and fourth pictures shows Prinz Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.  He lives in an amazing striped dining room in the hilltop fortress at Coburg.   This was about the most eerily lifelike wax bust I have ever seen. 

I've got very close to his face in this picture which makes him look rather bug eyed, so here is a side view 

  He lived from 1737  to 1815 and was a famous army commander.  Apparently a good bloke, effective and popular, but really this gave me the creeps because he was so real looking.  To me, he looks dutiful, conscientious, represssed, and well meaning, but not the sort of person I can imagine sitting down for a cosy chat with, even if my German was perfect enough to do so.  

So that's my German trip finally out of the way, and I am continuing with the Egypt piece for the paper.   The present demonstrations are part of the ongoing Egyptian revolution,  and I doubt that they affect most of Cairo  and I hope they won't escalate - but the Egyptian Museum is almost on Tahrir Square and if I were in Egypt  now, I'd be waiting to see what happens next before visiting it.   So I suppose I will write my piece mainly about Giza and Thebes, which are well out of the mainstream.  

We've been invited to stay in the future in Cairo by some American friends who are currently building a house near Heliopolis. I'd like to stay with them and also visit Heliopolis (City of the Sun) since it is one of the places where my ancestors lived, way back in the Agatha Christie days.

  Inspired by my trip, I've dug out some old photos of them all and they include one entitled "Down the Nile from Cairo! 1922".    

Hardly the Nile, shurely - it looks like a sort of railway to me. What on earth can they be doing? I wish they were still here to ask.  It would be so interesting to talk to them. 

Comments on Comments, where will it end....?

I always love reading comments on my blog - who doesn't?   The last post got so many interesting ones that I'm going to give this post over to answering those that still need answering.  When I try to use the comments box,  my creaky old computer starts freezing and jumping about. Also,  I can put links and add  photos here. So this will be comments on comments. But I won't make a regular thing of it.

But first, this picture above made me do a double take when I arrived at Luxor airport.  A bit late for Christmas trees, surely?  I thought. Then I realised it was commemorating the Coptic (Christian) Christmas, which was celebrated in Egypt on 7 January.

I also spotted another snowman (not a Christmas one this time) staffing the activities desk at a resort hotel one evening.  I think you'll have to admit he looks pleasant and ready to assist.

And here are my replies...

Emm, your family background sounds so interesting. I don't know of any blockbuster family sagas about Jews but there must be a wonderful book to be written about the fortunes of a Jewish family moving around different countries over the centuries - did your ancestors pass down any stories?.

Lynilu. History did come to life, as the dry desert air has preserved so much (including bright colours) over thousands of years. Inside the tombs was remarkably colourful and pleasant, not dark and dank as I'd expected.

Jo,  Egypt's tourism is so important to them and most people desperately want more prosperity.   The Muslim Brotherhood (who got most of the vote in the elections) is aware of what tourism needs, and,I noticed they sent representatives to the Christmas service at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo on 7 January, so  "tolerance" has official thumbs up.

Jane and Lance, how nice to hear from you again, your comments are always thoughtful and thought provoking.   I was (from a selfish point of view) grateful to see the sights without the crowds, and this also contributed to my feeling of stepping back into the 1930s.  I hope you get to Egypt yourselves!

Dominic D, I haven't seen the first Indiana Jones movie, but that dining room was just MADE for movies.  I imagined men in suits and pith helmets, like old films of Howard Carter, (or, like you suggested, Malyss, some lovely Agatha Christie ladies and elegant detectives. )


And carrying on from that, Foolish Aesthete,  my own "family reminiscences" date firmly from the Agatha Christie period.  I kept feeling that certain places were familiar, a mixture of the old photos and all those movies, perhaps!   I wrote hieroglyphic notes to my friends too, as a kid, but we made up our own, were not intellectual enough to study the real thing I am afraid!


DeeBeeL,  such a brilliant idea to show kids real places that are related to their studies. It brings it to life as nothing else can.  There used to be educational cruises for kids though I haven't heard of those for years. Surely an opportunity for some holiday company!


GB, I'm really glad my post made you consider going to Egypt (though I have to say that it's not exactly quiet and restful there.)  I'm more likely to want to go somewhere if I anticipate seeing more than the tourist stuff and if there's a chance to meet the locals..  In fact, while in Egypt I fulfilled a longtime dream and visited the Wissa Wassef Art Centre. I will give it a blog post of its own later, but I'll just say now that I heard about the visionary creative Ramses Wissa Wassef years ago and was blown away by the tapestries (done by uneducated weavers) from his workshop when I saw an exhibition in London . That's one big reason I decided to visit Egypt myself and it was well worth it. This  tapestry shows stars and sunset I suppose. I forgot to ask the story behind it.

Thanks for the follow, Sprinkles!    And Librarian, I hope your sister liked the link.  Did she make a comment?  I remembered you as my camel got to its feet and it was like sitting on a nice big sofa.


Oh, Broad, now I know I have tasted perfection in Eggs Benedict. - T. had Eggs Florentine which were just as nice, (I tasted) and the orange juice was fresh squeezed too. And the Great Pyramid just outside the window...bright sunshine, blue skies, palm trees... a memorable moment.  I'm glad I took the photo to remind me.


gz, (and GB too) When I go to a place to write an article about taking a holiday, I try to remember that to the inhabitants it's the place where they get on with everyday life.  A life which may be very different from what we know and expect for ourselves, but still complex, messy, good, bad, fun - real life.  I can't be an expert after only a short time in a place, so all I can do is sum up what I discover, what I hear from local people, what I feel - the kind of travel writing I like to read myself


Thanks for the nice comment, Adullamite . I have rather got into 1920s popular music and have been considering attending a few jumble sales to see if anyone is chucking out a wind up gramophone. I wasn't exactly tempted by that one though because it was GIGANTIC! I could just imagine trying to get it back to England on the plane - or any way!


Bryce, I don't know if they name their camels but they seem to look after them well (unlike some of the poor working horses and donkeys who were as thin as their owners). So my guess is that they do name them but I will ask some of my Egyptian friends if they know.

 Isabel, I would guess it wouldn't seem very exotic to you, but I'm glad you liked the post! :)


Thanks for your comments, Linda. As I said on your Flowers on my Table  blog, I would like to change the background myself - it IS too dark - but first I need to update my computer. It really, really doesn't seem to like Blogger and is endlessly freezing and doing weird things. I'm still patting myself on the back at present that I managed to get the header photo behind the lettering, and not floating in some tiny size far away, or so huge that it takes ages to scroll down!


To be honest, Nick,  Egyptians seem to love food of all kinds, and they just haven't noticed that many of their starters, and things that poor people traditionally eat, are actually vegetarian. So it wasn't quite as hard as they seemed to think it would be to find dishes with beans and other pulses.  T's the vegetarian, not me, anyhow, although I don't eat much meat.

I'm thrilled you liked E. Nesbit's stories too, Christine.  She enchanted me as a child. I've helped introduce her books to some modern kids and glad to see that they love them, partly because the kids in them are allowed to go out all day and look after themselves, (a hopeless dream for many modern children, sadly) and also of course because the stories are so magical and intriguing.


Nice to meet you, red dirt girl, and now I've learned a new word, "tsotchke".  I found a lucky scarab in the sand by one of the Pyramids, which definitely qualifies as tsotchke, needless to say it wasn't an old one! :)


Louciao, camels are the ideal thing to ride on in dreams. I noticed that they have kind of squashy feet which obviously act as wonderful suspension, and as Librarian pointed out, they're a really comfortable ride.


Kay,  I already said something on your blog but I hope some other folks will pop over there and read your amazing post on the wonderful old gent you met when you were a travel agent. .


Thank you Stardust, your blog  is always full of inspiration for me,  and is one of the reasons I want to go to Japan someday, so I am glad we can inspire each other!


Yes,  Rowan, I was warned Egypt is one of the countries where it's wise not to drink the tap water too freely. I didn't get ill but I was horrified to see some of the poor people actually drinking water out of the Nile, I suppose they were used to it but - !!


As for cruising down the Nile, I am not much of a cruise fan normally- nothing but sea for days and days...... BUT I could see myself cruising on the Nile, because it's so wide and placid and sunny and interesting. So much of the country is is desert and life clusters round the Nile.  The colours are so wonderful - blues and pinks and violets, and there is a lot of bird life.

Sorry you couldn't comment in your own name,  Suzanne.  - I had that problem too. It may help by not checking the "Stay logged in" tab.  I'm watching to see what happens on 25 January too. There are bound to be ups and down but the election results are cautiously encouraging, so fingers crossed all round.


Elizabeth, glad you're planning a trip - I think going soon might make a good combination of bearable temperatures and lack of crowds plus some brilliant tourist incentives.   We met a couple in the Mena House who had been upgraded into a truly palatial suite without even asking for an upgrade. They were so thrilled they invited us over to tea in it! :)


I don't know figures for street crime in Luxor but can only say we walked around alone quite a lot and felt entirely safe. Even the hawkers weren't as bothersome as I'd been led to expect.   In fact, there were remarkably few, perhaps they're finding other ways to earn money now the tourists aren't here. Interestingly, we didn't see a single beggar.

As for the handover to civilian rule, if and when they reach THAT point I think a lot of people are going to be celebrating like mad, but I don't see the Army being very keen and so IMHO this problem could run and run. Several people told me that the Army is trying to sow discord, which might well be true, but if people are aware of it, they may be less easily manipulated.
Dominic R, I love Wales too, but I'm glad the post made you consider something different.  Imagining myself  somewhere different is one of the pleasures of reading about travel, so I'm delighted my writing helped you do that.

Hi,  Mimi and Klahanie, thank you very much for joining the blog and I'm pleased to have found and joined your great blogs too!

It is interesting,  Rurosha, that you've been there during previous disturbances, yet still think Cairo is second only to Tokyo in safety.  I haven't been to Tokyo (want to, though) but prior to the disturbances in Syria I'd have said Damascus was the capital city where I felt safest, so different to how everyone imagined Damascus here!

I reckon it's about the difference between an inherently dangerous place, like San Pedro Sula, and somewhere that's just a problem if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time - which in my experience is almost anywhere. 

By the way,  I want to follow your blog - I love it - but can't find any buttons to do so. Is this dear old Blogger again, or can you suggest some other way to do it?

AVCr8tur When I saw your comment I realised I haven't seen your posts recently even though I'm following you. I've just checked your blog and seen a whole lot of wonderful posts I missed about Taiwan and San Francisco.  Think I'll unfollow and then follow again, and perhaps that will do the trick.

Hi, Wendy, your web page is fun and so are your flickr pics. If you go to Egypt let me know what you think!


And thank you to Lina, Carlos, Rita, HARRYGOAZ, aka Penelope, AGATKA, Country Cathy, Happy Homemaker UK,  Josep,  I'm so glad you enjoyed the piece, and I appreciate your thoughts and remarks.  

Visiting Cairo

Cairo is a place my family have many stories about. We are not Egyptian or even Arab, but my dad was raised in Egypt (mostly) and my mother worked there, and elsewhere in the Middle East, as a young woman. Indeed, they met each other in Iraq and spent an extremely unromantic honeymoon travelling from Cairo to Suez. 

But I hadn't been there myself, unless you count a stopover on a slow trip to Australia when I was a kid, when my main memory is of a gully-gully man performing what seemed to me like impossible and amazing tricks. 

Anyway, returning now, yes, I did go on a camel  (above). You can see the back of its head in the foreground, as it plodded towards the Pyramids one evening.  It was very easy to ride, I was glad to find. Those big squashy feet seem to absorb bumps and jolts,  and you almost glide along.

And that's my shadow...yee-hah!!!!!!!!  I was being overtaken by a couple of the horses which tourists also like to hire. Although seems to me that if you have taken the trouble to go all the way out to the Pyramids, you might as well do it properly and hire a camel.

I hadn't known what to expect from Egypt.  It turned out that it blew my mind.  Even though I've been lucky enough to go to some amazing places, Cairo seemed special.  It gave me the feeling that I have hardly ever had before, of history going back in a continuous procession over literally thousands of years. It's bustling and chaotic and that is the way life has been for most of human existence, with people thronging the streets, selling whatever they can. Here people are selling flatbreads, funky laundry baskets and coat hangers, raisins, sweets, lamps....  I just snapped that through a gap in a bridge.

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Cairo bears the physical and mental scars of many years of corruption, bad planning and dictatorship, but it is also beautiful, and, as I said, I was constantly assailed by that feeling of life flowing on and on. Look at the picture below, which shows Islamic minarets, some of which date from the 13th century, rising from today's chaotic traffic, while in the far distance, a pyramid stands where it has stood for the past  four and a half thousand years. 

I wish I'd had the chance to spend more time there. I'd like to return one day. Anyway, on Mum's instructions, I made sure to go to the street where she had worked, very near Tahrir Square as it is now known. There, I found many of the elegant French inspired buildings that she'd described to me, now mostly very dilapidated. Sad to see in a way but I rather like forgotten and dilapidated areas.

I felt really sorry that I hadn't scheduled more time in the city, and I longed to explore this particular shop, which reminded me of one of those strange old antiquities shops that seem to occur so often in Victorian and Edwardian stories, like E Nesbit's children's book "The Story of The Amulet"  (it's a great story, by the way - read about it  here )

I had a very entertaining lunch with some colleagues in a laid back restaurant in the street. The restaurant's called Felfela, with plants and birds. It's one of those cafes you get in the Middle East where people sit around chatting half the day. I wish I'd got some photos of the food, which was excellent.  I'm told it is one of the few places in Cairo that caters for vegetarians - not wanting to eat meat is a concept that Egyptians seem very surprised by.

I didn't find the atmosphere in Cairo dangerous. Ordinary people, even very poor ones, seemed pleasant and decent.   Of course I would not have approached a political demonstration if I'd seen one (which I didn't) and there is still much to resolve as the anniversary of the revolution approaches on 25 January.  Western residents I spoke to said they felt that it was now as safe as any big city, but to me, the main cause for hope seemed that everyone I spoke to was united in their relief at being free from Mubarrak and in their determination to have a better Egypt, one way or another. Still, in an area so unstable, it is hard to know what is around the corner.

Anyway, although Mum was a bit sorry to find that the area she knew had gone down as much as it has, she was keen to hear about my more recent impressions, and we were pleased to find that she'd often been to social events at Mena House, where I stayed.   This historic hotel began life as a hunting lodge of Khedive Ismail, but quickly became popular with high society as a hotel and gathering place.  Mum remembers being very startled by an extremely large belly dancer she once watched there and she also remembered the fantastic view of the Great Pyramid. from what was then the entrance .......

but is now an immensely grand breakfast room

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The old part of the hotel has been used as a location for several movies, and you can see why.

I can't resist putting in the picture of my Eggs Benedict. which were recommended by a couple of the other guests. They said they were the best they'd ever had, and I thought so too.  If Eggs Benedict were poetry, these would be Byron.

:)

One thing that was rather sad is that the 2011 newspaper reports of city problems (which were very real at the time)  have now had a catastrophic effect on tourism even to faraway spots like Luxor where nothing at all has happened and life is very small-town.

Things are now improving, and visitors (many of them lured to Egypt by stunning travel bargains) are trickling back, but the dent this is making in the local economy is specially obvious in Cairo.  The big operators can afford to hang on and wait for things to get back to normal, but many other people who depend on tourism, from tour guides to camel-owners, are finding life very hard. 

Indeed, last week, in the middle of the high season, I had the Pyramids almost to myself.  Great for me as a tourist, but not good.