My friend Carl from the Bay Area of San Francisco recently met in Amsterdam for a bit of a European adventure. That is Carl to the right, waiting for a canal boat to show us the sites of Amsterdam. We were in Amsterdam almost enough time for Carl to shed some of his jet lag and see the Rembrandt's at the Reich Museum before heading off to Madrid.
In Madrid the adventures started. First off, we went to the American Embassy, where despite the secretary's best efforts, I was able to talk with someone and actually sign up for Social Security to start in August. From there, we headed to the Prado, which is a museum supreme. The El Greco's and the Goya's are all great, but our favorite, I think, was Bosch's Garden of Earthly Pleasures. It is so much different in real life, with the colors that just do not seem to reproduce well.
The next day, it got really good. After taking the subway to near the Reine Sofia Museum to see the Picasso's, I missed a step and fell flat on my face. Not only was Carl upset, the Spaniards near by were helpful in picking me up and dusting me off. All in all, not too bad, a sprained ankle, scraped elbow, bruised thumb, and cracked rib. That certainly was not enough to deter me from seeing Picasso's masterwork: Guernica. I remembered how much Fran loved that painting, when she saw it at the Metropolitan in New York City, and how overwhelmed I was when I saw it two years ago with her. The tears in my eyes were as much from the memories the sight brought as they were from the beauty of the painting, and the pain from the fall.
The next day I took things easy, but Carl went to the huge flea market, and was able to score a Vegamatic to go with his Set it and Forget it cooker. (He tells me they both work well!!) We also did a few quick turns around the hotel, located on Gran Via between the theater and red light districts. In the room, we watched some bull fights on TV, but the matadors always won.
After five nights in Madrid, we decided that it was really a four night city, and returned to Amsterdam. There we took life easy, trying to see as many of the sights as possible, and also relaxing on the canal boats that take you around the central ring of the beautiful old city. We also went shopping to buy t shirts for Carl's family, as well as promising looking little souvenirs in the typical tourist souvenir shops.
It was, most of all, good to have ten days with my good friend Carl, and to spend them seeing great art, wonderful cities, writing poetry, and creating new reminiscences for later visits.
Fran loved this plant, and loved this color, a gentler color than the one in our front garden. For two months, as she began to feel more and more tired, we would take short walks to where these were going, and she would take cuttings after cuttings, finally getting one to root and planting it in our side garden. 
