Vermouth is Medicinal

Happy Customer

Another Happy Customer

Beautiful Brick Work

Great idea, they use half of a cork as a chopstick holder

Best Part of the shave

Straight Razor Shave, smooth as a baby's ass

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Like a Spaniard, drinking Vermouth

Four types of Tomatoes with 4 different Olive Oils 

Perhaps the best part of this vacation, is the break from our quotidian lifestyle. We aren’t on anyone else’s schedule. A typical day for us is me seeing tons of reminders of tasks to do on my computer or iPhone, Cathy researching dinners to make, creating shopping lists, etc. Habits formed about exercise, gathering mail, retrieving, and reading newspapers, doing laundry, washing dishes, you get it. On vacation it is all put aside, we are free agents. 

 

I often joke that Parsifal, our cat, only thinks of one thing: How can I have more pleasure than I am currently. When he figures it out, he does it. It might be moving to lie in our laps or going outside to sit in the sun, eating, whatever will make him happier. He is simply a pleasure-seeking animal. That is what this vacation is for us. No tour schedule just relaxing and do what we want on our schedule.

 

We finally decided to walk in our neighborhood and browse the stores. We found a small Japanese clothing store and each of us found a perfect garment. We continued our random tour and were thirsty and decided to go into a small restaurant for a Coke. It turned out to be a tiny very hip Japanese restaurant. They had a very clever idea that we have never previously observed. They sliced corks in half lengthwise and used them as chopstick holders. We will do the same upon returning  home. God knows we have enough corks!

 

I always like going to a real barber that knows how to do a real wet shave. First he covers your face with a salve then applys hot towels, finally when the skin is hot and moist applying lather and shaving with a straight edge blade. I always wish my dad had taught me how to use a straight edge. If I tried now I know I would inadvertently cut my juggler vein! Safety razor only for me.

 

We then walked to the Foundation Mapfre. The foundation supports all kinds of Art, and Social Awareness programs. Currently the foundation had 3 exhibits. To us the most profound was an artist we have never heard of before: Medardo Rosso. He was a sculpture who often worked from pictures of his subjects. He would make multiple copies of the sculpture changing his technique and materials. He thought sculptures should be like pictures or photos and only observed from the front. He was highly influential but not widely known. You might want to read about him. We liked his work.

 

A second exhibit was of a Spanish Painter Joaquín Sorolla. A Spanish Painter that painted beach scenes.

 

The third exhibit was of a current day photographer Mathieu Pernot. They have many of his photos, most very large size, some in color others black and white. He documents the destruction of war, people in prison, the dynamiting of buildings etc. Not exactly happy events but he is a whiteness to the world’s suffering.

 

This being Spain, we returned to the hotel for our siesta and see if Juan remembers how to make a proper Martini.

Unfortunately, Juan wasn’t on duty tonight. I had an inferior martini but I didn’t want to educate a different bartender. We did research that stated that Vermouth was a great digestive. So we switched to the national drink of Spain: Vermouth and it was quite delicious and possibly medicinal! We did our usual Facetime with Barbara all is well in San Francisco.

 

We had planned to go to Tapas restaurant but then decided we would just wing it in our neighborhood. Cathy’s stomach was a little off, so we decided to go for Grilled Chicken at a restaurant, near our hotel. We asked the doorman if he could recommend a tapas restaurant, we could go to first before we would go for our chicken. He suggested a nearby restaurant: Celso-Manolo. We intended to have a drink maybe a tapas and then go for chicken. We sat at the bar and started with Vermouth and a fantastic Tomato Salad composed of four different tomato varieties served with four different olive oils. After eating the tomatoes and drinking our Vermouth, we decided to order a bottle of wine and have dinner there. It was a wise decision. The place is friendly, and the food was great! It was an easy walk back to the hotel. We might very well return to Celso-Manolo again on this vacation.