Stephen Drake-Jones is a former British History professor who has lived in
Madrid for several years and conducts walking tours of various types. He has a
passion for the history of Spain and how the British officer Wellington in effect
saved the day for the Spanish people, or something like that. In any event, for
$25 you join the "Wellington Society" which affords you a two hour walk with The
Chairman while he explains some history of the place including several clever
anecdotal examples. There were nine of us in our group, and The Chairman
proved to be an interesting fellow. He was charismatic, sensitive and somewhat
controlling and early on one of my comments almost got us off on the wrong foot.
He had told everyone to quickly form at one of his venues and listen carefullly as
he would not repeat this particular story. In the gaiety of the moment, I
responded "… do you promise?" and The Chairman gave me a steely-eyed
glare. I chuckled and said "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist" and he relaxed somewhat
while he put me down with "…it wasn't funny, either".
But we all eventually became fast friends for the evening as we finished up the tour visiting a couple of "tapa bars". These bars have the usual drinks but also provide tapas, which are somewhat similar to hors d'ouerves. In our case, The Chairman popped for some excellent Rioja wine, a tasty pâte and cheese with bread. After a second tapa bar visit, we also stopped off at a nice restaurant that The Chairman recommended for future visits and were served a small but strong apéritif. Finally, after we strolled through the Plaza Mayor (main square), The Chairman said the tour was ended but that he was going to have a nightcap at yet another small bar and anyone was free to join him or not.
We joined him there, in which among other stories he related how the Spanish mind is still in love with bull fighting. He explained that a young Spaniard who has tickets for the evening will be extremely happy during the day in anticipation, but that only about 5 times out of 100 will the fight be a good one. He went on to say something about the noble bull and that of course he would have to die anyway, someday, etc. I said "yes, that's true of us all, isn't it" and there was a long pause as The Chairman looked down, and I thought I had offended him again. So I tried to rescue the situation by saying "… a sobering thought …", but he looked up quickly and said "No, no, that … that's good …." and I felt much better. We strolled back toward the hotel and on a busy corner The Chairman suddenly bellowed something that sounded like "HORA!!!" and there were gypsies there and I thought at first he might have said "WHORE!!!", but no, and I never did find out what he meant as he continued on cursing the gypsies and pointing them out to us and telling them to go away. We finally bid The Chairman a hearty farewell, took some last pictures, and slept well under the pleasant spell of the wonderful Rioja!
