Emilia Landaluce

Updated Friday, February 16, 2024-23:59

Murcia, how good the food is!

The Buenavista Cabin.

The AVE to Murcia is one of the obvious proofs of those chaos of the autonomies that eat up both the right and the left. Not only is it that to get to Murcia you have to pass through Atocha after leaving Chamartín, but

the arrival is announced to us in Catalan

. Because? Because the route was designed to pass through Alicante instead of Albacete, which would have been logical. These million-dollar trifles should not distract us from the objective of going to Murcia. And visit, for example, the cathedral with

its very refined Vélez chapel

. Or take a walk stopping at the bars to eat seafood with

a fresh Estrella de Levante

. Or those vegetables that... let's not go into the transfer! But Murcia also has reference restaurants in addition to that tapas that are always pleasant. This is the case of La Cabaña Buenavista with two Michelin stars while still paying tribute to all Murcian gastronomy. The roe,

the michirones...

are reinterpreted without falling into gastronomic cheesiness... Murcia is not only beautiful as the cliché says.

More important than the Crown

Gallery of the Royal Collections.

Manuel Azañ

a said

that the Prado Museum was more important than the Monarchy and the Republic combined. Surely because it is proof of what Spain was. Without the need for plunder, by the way. Madrid's unrivaled museum offering is now completed by the Gallery of the Royal Collections, a project that Azaña himself started when the Republic was proclaimed and which all the governments of Democracy - from

Suárez

to

Sánchez

- and the two leaders have pushed to achieve.

of State,

King Juan Carlos

and

King Felipe

. The result is impressive. The treasures of Guarrazar in suspension, those of

Isabel la Católica

, the Carriage in which the Spaniards dragged

Fernando VII

crying long live the chains! The Gallery of Royal Collections is another complementary evidence to the Prado of what the Monarchy was like before its heritage became that of the nation and the risks that this entails in a plurinational State. And as a morbid element, the three-axle Mercedes that

Hitler

gave to

Franco

and that until now could only be seen on rare occasions in the Royal Guard barracks in El Pardo, is

also temporarily displayed .

To complete the plan, you can go to the Royal Palace and then walk to Casa Ciriaco to eat chicken in pepitoria.

Without Franco's grave

The Valley of the Fallen.

That Sánchez removed

Franco

has not made the Spaniards who visit him say Cuelgamuros. The Valley of the Fallen - despite the explanatory plates with which they will try to resignify it, re-explain it - will not cease to be an emblem of an era, of its architecture... as is the Arch of Moncloa. Sánchez's thing is as old as stones.

Hatshepsut

's successors

in Egypt also wanted to erase his name from the temple, but four millennia later no one has forgotten who the pharaoh-queen was who built it. The reference to the Egyptian temple has its meaning due to certain aesthetic and spiritual similarities - the afterlife - and because the Valley is also excavated in the living stone of Cuelgamuros. Some propose blowing up the cross. It would be a serious mistake.

The place is overwhelming whether or not you believe in God

, the country, the king, Franco; or whatever squeezes our throat...

Lewis OfMan

In the Encendinda House.

The Madrid cultural center, at Ronda de Valencia, 2, can boast of offering one of the most attractive cultural programs in Madrid. Especially when it comes to music. Next February 28,

Lewis OfMan

, stage name of the Frenchman

Lewis Delhomme

, will perform, one of the most interesting musicians beyond the closed circuits of the mainstream. Lewis OfMan is cool - this is not a subjective impression - and provides a sound full of nuances, ironies and very different inspirations: from photographs to Italian music of the 70s. He himself defined his music in Apartamento magazine as

melodic groove

, which is not I know how to translate. His best-known songs (go to Spotify to get started before the concert) are

Hey Lou

,

Frisco Blues

and

Highway

, although my favorites are

Boom, Boom, Dancy Girl

from his album

Sonic Poems

. Listening to it produces a kind of joyful excitement, as if things were suddenly going to turn out surprisingly well in a world without losers. That should be happiness.