We are back on the train, waiting for it to leave the station, so I have time to update my diary.
We had a successful trip. On Sunday we checked into the hotel right away. It turned out that for some reason I had booked a room accessible to the disabled, which basically meant that there was a chair contraption in the shower and a number of emergency cords throughout the room. Aside from these unusual implements, the room was spacious and well-fitted with the essentials; it even had a kitchenette. It was all brand new as this is a newly launched chain. It wasn't raining so we headed out into the city centre to look for a summer dress for my wife, for that wedding we're going to attend. She didn't find one, predictably, but she found a blouse "in Victorian style" (her words) which she fell in love with. It is my understanding (that is, I saw it in memes) that the Victorian era is women's Roman Empire, in terms of obsession.
In visiting different stores we ended up walking for too long and my wife's feet started to give in. We decided to rest in a pub not far from our hotel and had a couple of pints there. It was a nice pub underground that looked like a tavern, with wooden benches, a huge fireplace and various animal heads hanging from the walls. From what I learned at a museum (more on this below) the area used to be called "Winetavern street" in the middle ages, owing to the concentration of taverns there; thus maybe the look was a tribute to that. We spent as long as possible there to give my wife's feet a chance to recover and then we went and had dinner at a tapas place she had booked in advance. The food was very good but also very fatty: we had chicharrones, croquetas with jamon (we always do when they are on the menu), some spanish sausages, some lamb liver with garlic, and octopus salad and some fried aubergines with honey, cut into long chunky strips. From what I could tell, the restaurant is the brainchild of a lesbian couple who fell in love with Spain; well done, I say.
After the restaurant we went to a pub in a stone building; it claims to be the oldest pub still in operation in the entire country, which I am sure many others do. There was a folk band playing traditional music inside, but we sat in the courtyard so I could smoke. The music made us think of Modena City Rambler's song "In un giorno di pioggia" and we talked about how it's such a beautiful ode to the country it's a shame the locals don't know about it. We even spent some time drafting a translation. We also talked about Sidney Sweeney, for some reason: my wife loves her, unlike most women; I too think she's cool. I have not been sleeping much lately and it caught up with me that night: I fell asleep like a rock once we made it back to our room.
The next day we left around 10am to go have breakfast in a cozy little place we had chanced upon during our last visit. It's quite narrow, covered in wood paneling and with various knick-knacks crowding the shelves; the chairs and the tables are made of wood and are all uneven. I had a croissant with eggs and bacon and my wife had a bagel with pretty much the same things. After breakfast we wanted to visit the museum of Archeology, but it didn't open until 1pm, so we decided to kill some time by visiting a small market/bazaar in a covered gallery nearby. I spent the whole time rummaging through the shelves of a used bookstore (the same one where I bought the book I'm currently reading, "The Travels of Ibn Battutah") and my wife found a quirky boutique she loved. She bought a blue basque to add to her collection and a pair of unusual rings; I bought a book containing the Vinland Sagas and a copy of Giovenale's Satyres. Despite this detour it was still a while until the museum would open and it was raining; we waited painfully in the roads nearby and entered as soon as they opened the gates.
The museum was larger than I expected and full of artefacts. I misjudged the size and ended up spending too much time on the initial part of the exhibition, so much so that I didn't get to see the rest. I saw many remarkable things nevertheless. The first part displayed various tools (axes, hammers, pins etc) and showcased their evolution: from stone to copper to bronze to iron; with designs and workmanship growing increasingly sophisticated. The most impressive to me were a set of polished stone axes made of jadeite that had been imported from the italian Alps; this meant that there had been in place a Europe-wide trade network about 6000 years ago. Think about that. There was also a massive canoe made from a single tree, 15 meters long but narrow enough for a single person; it dated back to 2000 BC and had only survived because it was submerged in a bog. The rest of this part of the exhibit focused on gold metalworking, but the next part was more interesting: it was an exhibition of the famous bog bodies. I was quite surprised to see them exhibited to the public, as I had always assumed they would be locked away in some freezer for preservation purposes. If you have the chance you should go and see them, as they are strikingly well-preserved. You can see their hair, nails, even their facial expressions: it's eerie and awe-inspiring at the same time. One of them is just a torso but is most interesting in that its nipples were sliced off. Apparently, the lords displayed their subjugation and allegiance to the king by kissing his nipples, which means that the torso belonged to someone with a potential claim to the throne and that the murderer(s) had mutilated him in order to cut him out of the rat race. I'm reminded of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, who cut off the hair of potential rivals in the family to similarly prevent them from being able to claim the throne. Early medieval kings were very bizzarre magical figures.
I ended up spending 3 hours straight in the museum, until I started to feel tired of standing for so long. We had a quick pint in a pub nearby and then had a very early dinner at a ramen place, in view of the Jesus & Mary Chain concert being at 7pm later that evening. The ramen was very good and filling; we both had tonkotsu ramen, but mine was spicy. When we were leaving we unfortunately got into an argument: I wanted to go back to the hotel to leave my backpack behind, while my wife wanted to go straight to the concert venue to grab seats. I always regret our arguments immediately, even during the arguments themselves; but it's hard to have the foresight to avoid them all the time. I caved (as I always do*) and we went to the venue 30 mins before the supposed start of the show. [* Maybe it's wrong of me, but I can't stand being mad at each other over what is ultimately a trivial matter.] It turns out that they only opened the doors at 7pm. We joined a queue that went around the back of the venue and then were told we were in the wrong one; joined the correct one and finally entered. The venue was an old-fashioned theatre complete with balconies, chandeliers, stucco and so on; very charming. We sat in the upper circle (all other places were sold out) and patiently waited for the venue to very slowly fill up. It was about an hour before the opening act started playing. It was a band named Aircooled (excellent choice of name if you want your fans to be unable to google you; why not call yourselves "how to lose weight fast" at that point), which I found boring; I almost fell asleep. It took a while after the end of their set for the main concert to start: I think it was a bit past 9pm when it finally did. In any case, they brought the house down with their thick walls of noise and the jangly guitars, which had us both very surprised, considering they are about 60 or so. The singer's voice hasn't aged one bit and they had a lot of energy overall. It was a really great concert and they played most of their classics, which drove the audience wild. There were a few weirdos in the audience, the most prominent one being an unremarkable looking guy in a flat cap who started flailing his arms like a madman and shouting in bursts; the security had to tell him to calm down (as we were in a seated area) and he sat down hiding his face in his hands for a while to recollect. Looked like someone who has been lonely and undersocialised for too long, which made me a little sad for him. After the gig we cooled down with a pint in a fancy pub nearby (it was 11pm at this point) and went back to the hotel.
Today we woke up around 9am, showered, got our bags ready and checked out of the hotel. We had breakfast in a small cafe (I had a fresh croissant and my wife a carrot cake muffin) and quickly headed for the nearby museum on the medieval history of the city, because the weather was awful (rain and the inevitable bitterly cold wind that has been with us for the past month). This museum did not have many artefacts and relied more on various displays and recreations. I did learn quite a few things, so it was ok overall. I was happy to see a mention of the Orkneyinga Saga in one of the panels, which I have read a few years ago and really enjoyed (think Game of Thrones without the boobs). I can't single out what was best though - nothing really stood out to me. Maybe the fact that they used to build houses with floors above the ground one that extended over the street, so that there used to be some shelter from the incessant rain for pedestrians - something sorely needed nowadays but that has mostly disappeared, which is insane.
After the museum we went back to the cozy place I mentioned before and grabbed lunch (a feta and spinach pie and a chorizo and cheese tart); as we left it stopped raining and a bit of sun shone through the clouds. We collected our luggage from the hotel and headed to the station. I spent so long writing this that we are almost home.