Madrid is walkable, quiet, and doesn’t have that many cars. It has laws against making noise, like no honking your horn unless you are trying to avoid an accident. The atmosphere is relaxed and the people friendly. 

 

Madrid is so walkable, I have fist-sized blisters on the pads of both of my feet. I walked 14,000 steps: 10 minutes to the park, 15 minutes to lunch, 10 minutes back to the hotel, 45 minutes shopping, 30 minutes to meet Tad, our oldest son, for tapas, 30 minutes to dinner, and 10 minutes back to the hotel. Warning: Be prepared to eat tapas before every meal. 

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Our 4-day stay in Madrid to see Tad and his fiancée, Diana, at their new apartment turned into a 6-day stay because Margo, our oldest daughter, who is 4 months pregnant, and her husband were coming to visit Tad and Diana. Since Margo and Lou’s baby will be our first grandchild, the delay was an absolute necessity. Dena, our youngest daughter, and her fiancé, Zach, are in the USA  for a 5-day, 222-mile, 20,780-foot elevation gain bikepacking trip in Gunnison, CO. 

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Geoff did me the favor of going to the Museum of Madrid and reading the signs alongside the

paintings. In 1561 the King picked Madrid for his home base because it was in the geographic center of Spain, had good water, and a lot of fun bars on street corners. Just joking. The third reason is that it had flour mills to supply the people with flour. As a side note, Diana’s mother’s parents had a flour mill in Porzuna, south of Madrid. 

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If you go to Madrid, go to the Prado. The Spanish art shown at the museum is enormous and confident. It has very little religious art, which I think we can agree has been overdone. Instead, they ventured into the world of nudity, sex, and extraordinary human bodies. The nudity and sex you’ll have to see for yourself, but the extraordinary side warrants a few comments. 

The fashion of the day was people with unusual bodies. There was a six-year-old girl with extreme obesity. The King ordered the creation of two paintings. One with her fully naked and then another painting with a beautiful dress on. She might have been flattered to be the center of attention, but in my 21st-century mind, I found it hard to believe. 

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There were paintings of dwarfs and one painting called, The Bearded Lady, shows a woman with a full, long beard, her breast exposed, about to breastfeed a baby.  One black sculpture showed a person with a penis and breasts.  I believe the blending of male and female traits exhibited in many of paintings and sculptures is the origins of the questioning in LGBTQ. 

 

Our delay also increased our worries over the trip to Africa. After schlepping around Madrid in over 97-degree heat, I’m not sure I am physically up for the travel. Once I have gone shopping, I am exhausted. Luckily, Geoff has enough wits about him to get us from A to B, including a place to sleep once we arrive. 

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Worrying about Ebola has been replaced by Malaria. We take Malaria medication anytime we travel to a country with mosquitoes. Since Kenya and Rwanda are on the equator, we will start taking one of the pills later today.  In addition to Malaria, we have already been vaccinated against Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A and B, plus Typhoid, but we are still carrying 5 different medications for nausea, diarrhea, and various infections. 

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Then there is the risk of kidnapping. An Ethiopian Uber driver told us we’ll need both a guide and an armed guard while out sightseeing. The Uber driver’s answer to our astonishment was, ‘You are in Africa.’ 

 

Adding logs to the fires of anxiety, Geoff and I have read a small library’s worth of books on African wars, slavery, crime, etc. Oh well, today we board a 9-hour flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya. In Amsterdam, the sunsets at 10:05, in Nairobi, at the equator, it sets at 6:38.