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(how awesome is this sculpture in the lobby of Madrid’s Atocha Train Station? An awake baby head was on the other side.)

Still out in Spain….getting more used to the time zone (6 hours ahead of NYC) and pace (late mornings, afternoon naps, 10pm dinners)…but had a bad run-in with a shiesty gypsy who somehow managed to bump me so slightly and slip my blackberry out of my purse in about 3 seconds. The crazy thing is that I’m almost positive I know exactly which gypsies did it, they were parked on the same corner by the Reina Sofia Museum the next day too. This time, I gave them the ice grill and they left us alone…but obviously, my blackberry is long gone : (

On the plus side…not having my BB has been really liberating. For one, it’s forced me to look at the sights around me, without constantly relaying them to an audience back home. (And, being unreachable also means that I couldn’t keep checking for emails or calls that weren’t coming. Which was the emotional break I definitely needed on a personal level.)

Today we took the bullet train** from Madrid to Toledo, the old capitol city of Spain. Toledo was home to Christians, Moors (Muslim) and Jews, and you definitely see the influences of all 3 in the architecture, etc.

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(Me and Jules in Toledo, in matching Barbour jackets…rockin’ our James Herriott “All Creatures Great and Small” steez, lol.)

More from Toledo, and then foodie-heaven with crispy baby pig at Botin….after the jump

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(The Toledo city archive was this modern brass-like frame, added to an ancient stone building…def my favorite structure there)

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(there were small holes drilled straight through the outer wall, and that’s Jules’ eye on the other side of it)

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(Back in Madrid, we went to El Sobrino de Botin, which is allegedly the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the world. Hemingway was a regular, and Goya was a dishwasher. They specialize in roasted suckling pig….behind that man are rows of splayed crispy brown Babes and Olivias, waiting to be inhaled by me.)

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(the best part is that crunchy baby pig skin….behind it, is a hunk of tender, juicy shoulder)

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(Oh, Linda [and Jeff] Marcowitz…you bring shame to Bo (?), Illinois when you leave your tag on the bathroom door of Botin…and I bet you drew that dirty dilz on the right too! It’s a women’s bathroom, you cornhusker!! What female doodles cockenballs while on the pot!?….smh)

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(this Caixa Forum cultural center was designed by Herzog & de Meuron…totally amazing…the top is rusted steel that has lace cutouts, and then there is one wall that is completely planted, like a forest that was turned on its side. Herzog & de Meuron also designed the Prada building in Tokyo’s Aoyama district…one of the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen…look at it here, its like a quilted block of ice or soemthing.)

Ok…that’s all for now. Sorry to get all artsy fartsy…but, there is life beyond rap ; )

**(unrelated/related: why the frig don’t we have bullet trains in the US? So convenient and efficient.)