Today's postcard is not written on. It is a fountain in the Parque del Retiro, La Rosaleda or "Ritiro Park", The Rosary in Madrid, Spain. The park is located in the heart of the Spanish capital city, behind the Prado museum. 
This well-known park is the largest in Madrid and is 1.4 square kilometres. It has many fountains and statues in it, including the only statue in the world that shows Lucifer being thrown from Paradise. Carved by Ricardo Beliver in 1885.
Fountains have a great history in this city, since their river the River Manzanares has a low water level and people relied on underground springs in the summer. To make the water accessible, fountains and jets were made and people could collect their water there. These park fountains are not drinking water quality.
The New York Times publishes travel articles featuring a detailed itinerary, "24 hours in" different cities. They have one on Madrid, and it includes a visit to the Park on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. This park, they say, is a great place to take a run as it is flatly laid out and no dogs are allowed in.
While I was looking over the article I was surprised to find this visit on the itinerary, for 10:30 on Saturday: "Regalos Originales attracts serious postcard collectors, who patiently sift through the thousands of offerings — Italian postcards of Brigitte Bardot in the 1950s and 1960s are 50 cents (Calle Almirante 23; 34-91-308-1202). Ask for Silvia de la Torre or her parents, the owners. Try to persuade them to let you behind a curtain into the private rooms where the real treasures are to be found: shoeboxes filled with postcards from around the world, bookshelves of old movie posters, music boxes, oil paintings, toys, perfume bottles, cameras, thimbles, opera glasses, rosaries, cosmetic compacts, calendars, tins, all from another era. A half-century-old postcard of Niagara Falls in pastel colors is 5 euros; a poster for Dino De Laurentiis’s “King Kong” (in Spanish) is 12.
Not only is this blog based on a box of postcards - but I grew up in Niagara Falls!
The postcard photo shows the "rosary" or rose-garden in the park. Not the most famous part of the park, but some of the roses were obtained in mid-19th century and is considered a valuable collection of old roses. Throughout history, rose gardens were considered the ideal place for romantic encounters, often because they offered secluded spaces protected by a rose hedge.
In 2007, 73.8% of Spaniards said they were Catholic, although only 36% said they were practicing their religion. For Catholics, the rosary is a prayer said to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The rosary can be listened to (and downloaded) in Spanish at http://www.catholicaudio.blogspot.com/ It is beautiful to hear a familiar prayer in another language, and to know what is being said.
In the upper corner of the postcard is a picture of the city's coat-of-arms in foil. It shows a bear eating from a tree. Some people think it is an orange tree, but it is a tree often called a "strawberry tree" - the proper name is the Arbutus Unedo. The modrono fruit grows throughout the Mediterranean. The Latin name "unedo" means "I eat only one." The fruit is good eaten in high quantity and is sometimes cooked for jam. In the centre of Madrid there is a statue of the bear and the tree. The image also appears on man-hole covers.
This well-known park is the largest in Madrid and is 1.4 square kilometres. It has many fountains and statues in it, including the only statue in the world that shows Lucifer being thrown from Paradise. Carved by Ricardo Beliver in 1885.
Fountains have a great history in this city, since their river the River Manzanares has a low water level and people relied on underground springs in the summer. To make the water accessible, fountains and jets were made and people could collect their water there. These park fountains are not drinking water quality.
The New York Times publishes travel articles featuring a detailed itinerary, "24 hours in" different cities. They have one on Madrid, and it includes a visit to the Park on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. This park, they say, is a great place to take a run as it is flatly laid out and no dogs are allowed in.
While I was looking over the article I was surprised to find this visit on the itinerary, for 10:30 on Saturday: "Regalos Originales attracts serious postcard collectors, who patiently sift through the thousands of offerings — Italian postcards of Brigitte Bardot in the 1950s and 1960s are 50 cents (Calle Almirante 23; 34-91-308-1202). Ask for Silvia de la Torre or her parents, the owners. Try to persuade them to let you behind a curtain into the private rooms where the real treasures are to be found: shoeboxes filled with postcards from around the world, bookshelves of old movie posters, music boxes, oil paintings, toys, perfume bottles, cameras, thimbles, opera glasses, rosaries, cosmetic compacts, calendars, tins, all from another era. A half-century-old postcard of Niagara Falls in pastel colors is 5 euros; a poster for Dino De Laurentiis’s “King Kong” (in Spanish) is 12.
Not only is this blog based on a box of postcards - but I grew up in Niagara Falls!
The postcard photo shows the "rosary" or rose-garden in the park. Not the most famous part of the park, but some of the roses were obtained in mid-19th century and is considered a valuable collection of old roses. Throughout history, rose gardens were considered the ideal place for romantic encounters, often because they offered secluded spaces protected by a rose hedge.
In 2007, 73.8% of Spaniards said they were Catholic, although only 36% said they were practicing their religion. For Catholics, the rosary is a prayer said to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The rosary can be listened to (and downloaded) in Spanish at http://www.catholicaudio.blogspot.com/ It is beautiful to hear a familiar prayer in another language, and to know what is being said.
In the upper corner of the postcard is a picture of the city's coat-of-arms in foil. It shows a bear eating from a tree. Some people think it is an orange tree, but it is a tree often called a "strawberry tree" - the proper name is the Arbutus Unedo. The modrono fruit grows throughout the Mediterranean. The Latin name "unedo" means "I eat only one." The fruit is good eaten in high quantity and is sometimes cooked for jam. In the centre of Madrid there is a statue of the bear and the tree. The image also appears on man-hole covers.
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