As in Alphabet, Inc., the Nasdaq-100 corporate parent of Google. I bought my first shares a month after the Hadron Collider opened (just to help you place the date), never thought when CERN started zinging particles in there that I’d one day regret my status as a fractional Google corporate owner. But, I did. My…
Madrid Impressions: Round Eight
As photographed at the Príncipe Pío mall on December 26. I was surprised, too. Spain’s little ones see Santa on TV, explained one Madrileña, clamor pitilessly to lobby the Bearded One for merch east of the Atlantic, too. Still a relative novelty in Spain, and not uncontroversial. What was so terrible about waiting for gifts…
(More) Spanish Film for Spanish Students
My stint as a voracious consumer of Spanish cinema has drawn to a close. I now own more than two hundred DVDs and Blu-Rays, have seen many more films through RTVE and Spain’s library system. The stint served me well. Listening is the language skill that matters most in my day-to-day expat life: understanding the…
Los Angeles Transit: a History
Or my interpretation of the history, at least, as shall be presented tomorrow at a meeting of Andén 1, a transit enthusiast group in Madrid. President Eduardo Gallego suggested the talk. I combed through my collection of transit-related books, articles and bookmarks, wrote up the remarks that follow. If I post now, I’ll have a…
El Transito de Los Ángeles: una Historia
O mi interpretación de la historia, al menos, tal como se presentará mañana en una reunión de Andén 1, un grupo de entusiastas del tránsito en Madrid. El presidente Eduardo Gallego sugirió la charla. He rebuscado en mi colección de libros, artículos y marcadores relacionados con el tránsito y he redactado los comentarios que siguen.…
Bruges, Belgium: First Impressions
Bruges is a small medieval city in Belgium’s West Flanders province, near the Atlantic coast. Even the grandiose “tourist wonderland” may understate. UNESCO named the whole durn city center as a world heritage site. Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, Fodors and TripAdvisor gush about Bruges unreservedly. ‘Why visit?’ answers itself. A better question for a retired…
Tourist Transit Travel in France
Spain may be a sightseer’s Shangri-La, but is still ranked only in second place as a global travel destination, justly or unjustly. The top spot belongs to France, and France is now my next-door neighbor. A Madrid-Paris flight takes about as long and costs about as much as a San Francisco-Phoenix flight I might have…
Visiting Chambord Castle by Public Transit
You now gaze wonderingly at the Château de Chambord, ordered up by King Francis I as a sixteenth century hunting lodge, today often regarded as the single most spectacular of the 300+ castles in France’s Loire Valley. The France tourist will find the château’s 440 rooms (and 282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases) on a 13,000…
Jardin Exotique of Èze Village, France
Last summer I named two Costa Brava gardens as the most spectacular yet seen in my travels, largely thanks to their spectacular bluff-top views of the glittery blue Mediterranean. I returned last week from a short trip to the French Riviera, feel honor-bound to add a third: Le Jardin Exotique got its start after World…
A Madrid bedroom community
The blue-shirted innocent at lower right above is about to enter Madrid’s Alsacia station: second to the last on the eastern end of the metro 2 line, in the city’s un-touristy outskirts. Alsacia straphangers can expect weekday subways every three to five minutes for a twenty-six minute shlep to the Sol transit hub in Madrid’s…