Yup. I hope it is what it needs to be.

Back in Madrid. Where it is also raining, still. Ah well, I can go off and hide at Mercado San Miguel, my favorite and see about tickets to Toledo tomorrow.

When I'm touristing, I look at the rain this way: it keeps the other tourists away.

I'm not surprised that it seems that Spain has a high turnout for demonstrations and nightlife -- there's like a 20% unemployment rate there right now, IIRC.

Today is community cleanup day in Somerville, so I'm thinking of getting my gardening gloves and heading to the nearest site in an hour.

It's a cognitive dissonance that I posted that about, uh, 4 hours ago?3? My computer is still on eastern, I'm on Madrid time.

Spent the better part of 45 minutes getting tickets to Toledo. You *can* do it online, but a) in spanish and b) everything suggested you needed to print, which is a no-go. Even if not, my spanish wasn't strong enough to decipher the Renfe site. Anyway, wasn't all bad.

Hostal is fine, if noisy. I can hear the elevator and the floors are that faux marble ceramic. OTOH, I listened to all of Segovia whoop it up for two nights, so. Also, there's a tub. And all sorts of places to buy a good soak, so I may indulge, since I won't use my tub at home.

Randomly found exactly the sort of pillow covers I wanted so couldn't pass those up. Also? Sill cold. So I bought a scarf. It's thai silk, so not spanish, but cheap and mother of necessity at work here.

I think I'm spoiled by the (free) tapas in Segovia. While I had some good ones here in Madrid, I usually had to pay for those. Will try to get off the beaten path a bit this evening. I leave just after 9am for Toledo and get back at 6 tomorrow.

My poor, poor feet.

Hmm, Prado is free about the time I get back from Toledo and near the station. Maybe I'll do a driveby. I've largely avoided museums on purpose.

I miss ita too.

Check out these two unexpected animal buddies.

that is a beautiful owl

I guess the upside of waking up stupid early on a Saturday is that I've already been sitting around for hours, and it's only mid-morning.

OMG, the game at the end of this Colbert cliip, with Magnus Carlsen, made me laugh really hard.

I also miss ita ! And I was glad to see her delete Hec's post last night.

ION, for all our fans of trepanation:

The Lost Civilizations That Pioneered Skull Surgery

The surgical procedure known as trepanation is arguably the oldest known medical operation in history, with the earliest known evidence for it found dating to about 12,000 BC in Morocco. A portion of the skull was removed for therapy or thaumaturgy — for instance, to reduce pressure within the skull, or to release evil spirits.

Scientists now reveal the Garamantians — a lost civilization in what is now southwest Libya — apparently practiced trepanation, the first time the operation has been seen in the Sahara. The Garamantians, named after their capital, Garama, flourished in the harsh central Sahara for nearly 1,500 years between 1,000 BC and 700 AD. They introduced key innovations to the region, including cities, irrigated farming, trade across the Sahara and a hierarchical, probably slave-owning society.

edit for typo....

Hmm, Prado is free about the time I get back from Toledo and near the station. Maybe I'll do a driveby. I've largely avoided museums on purpose.

I have heard from more than one reliable source that the Prado is more impressive than the Louvre.