Full Day’s Events: After my morning oatmeal and coffee, with some travel diary work and pre-packing, I was off to the underground trains by 830am. I had a better route to arrive at the miniature game company. In fact, the journey was extremely smooth. After the first leg I switched trains for the second leg which traveled through a rural area to the North of Madrid. Once I arrived at my stop, I picked up a chocolate pastry at the station diner and used their washroom. I walked through a light urban community and then through a nice quiet park, seeing a T-Rex as I went.
Once at the commercial park I had to go through a security kiosk, but once I mentioned the company name, he gave me directions and waved me through. Once I got to the door of the company I knocked, said good morning in Spanish, and waited. I called out again and, after waiting some more, called out again. After receiving no reply, I looked outside and saw a small intercom buzzer and buzzed it. With a short exchange via speaker someone came downstairs.
After explaining that I was here to get replacement parts and an unshipped model, then showing my order number and previous emails, they helped me by first looking through a big box of ready to be mailed shipping envelopes of replacement parts. Since my name was not on any of the labels, they got replacements from the warehouse floor. They also gave me a model to thank me for coming.
At the start of the conversation, they looked over my notes in English and Spanish, and when their fingers scrolled down the first page and got to the questions about the company’s status and situation they shook their head, waved their hand at it, and returned it back to me. Seems like the person can't or won't answer any of them. After thanking them I left to start the journey back to central Madrid.
The route back took a little longer, as I was on the wrong platform for half an hour, but by 130pm I had returned my big backpack at my apartment and was munching on another spicy trempo sandwich from the good vibe place a block away. I also had an apple pie slice, from the pastry shop Levadura Madre that we had desserts from the previous night, and walked to my next destination.
Where I was going was another place I was at two years ago, but couldn’t finish because of an early closure due to a holiday: the MAN. The Museo Arqueologico Nacional, or MAN, is the premiere archeological and history museum of Spain from pre-history of the Iberian peninsula to the early-modern age.
Isabella the second issued a royal decree to establish the museum in 1867 and was moved in 1895 to the purpose built building it is in today. Two years ago Natalie and I had gone through the magnificent protohistory, Roman Hispania, late antiquity, and the Medieval world (including al-Andalius) sections. The museum, back then, closed early (because it was a holiday) when we were in the medieval section so we rushed through that one and never got to the rest.
Three and a half hours later I finished at the MAN. I saw the missed areas of the Medieval and al-Andalius section and proceeded through the Medieval World Christian Kingdoms, Near East, Egypt and Nubia, Greek, money through time, and modern sections. I was astounded, just like I was two years ago, at the quality of the amazing items which had survived the years to tell their stories to people today.
-Decadrachm of Syracuse, late 5th century BCE, one of the few coins signed by its artist (Evainetos).
-Cabinet of ebony, verawood, pine, bronze, bone, tortoiseshell, glass, and marble. Made in Spain or Italy in the 17-19th centuries. The frount of the drawers are covered with painted plates of glass.
-Fall of the Rebellious Angels, Ivory, gilded copper, wood, and brass, circa 1700 in Naples Italy.
-Horus Falcon, basalt, 664-332 BCE
-Greek pottery in a very large room, divided by eras from 3000 BCE up until 150 CE.
-Saved ceilings and wall sculpture carved during the al-Andalus era.
I also, at a faster pace, revisited the sections I had seen before and smiled at the items that interested me. Such a great place to visit for those who like history. To see what was there in the sections I had already been to before, go to these links from two years ago (Background and Prehistory, Bronze Age and Greek Areas, Roman Iberia, Byzantine and Islamic eras)
After a rest, final pack, and chat about what we did that day, our place to go for supper was decided on: Garelos. It is a restaurant that specializes in food from Galicia, a region in the NW of Spain. We ate delicious food: Galician empanada (seafood pies), grilled scallops with citrus on the shell, grilled artichokes, monkfish and seafood salpicon (shrimp, scallops, and monkfish), with Galician cheesecake for dessert. 12.9km and 22 flights walked.
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