50 Cities of the World #18 Madrid

Today we are checking-in a city quite near me.

Today we're going to Madrid!

You might not know but we used to be a bunch of kingdoms in Iberia and one of them settled first and back in 1143 Portugal was born.

The rest of the kingdoms kept fighting each other until they were united under the name of Spain.

That's how we got to be two countries in this peninsula.

But! Spain never stopped wanting us and for that dream they've built the city of Madrid quite in the middle of the peninsula.

They thought it would be the capital for us all. You've missed it!

We had some issues and we got under Spain domain once again (family problems as usual...) and then back in 1640 we put them to run and we were independent again!

So...I just told that to explain why Madrid is in the center of the peninsula, like stated in the card back, the equi-distant thing.

Not going under any more likings/dislinkings ;)


Madrid has great monuments including the palaces that are the home to their royal family.

During the Franco era they did not have a king but after his fall Juan Carlos took the throne again and a couple of years ago he's son got to be the new king.

It is a foreign and quite medieval thing to still have a king/queen for some outer Europe people. But I must say that I still like it. It has all to do with our history.

They don't rule like before. But they are a figure to look up and unite people. That's why Monarchy got popular again in this last past 10 years or so.


 Like I said in many other posts I prefer cities by the sea or river. So, if you are like me Madrid will seem too hot and dry. If you go there in the middle of the Summer you will have very high temperatures.

But you'll have lots to see!

And don't forget to try some paella and tapas.


I won't talk about football here because I'm all Barcelona fan so I don't have nothing to do with Madrid teams ;)


Check Madrid's wiki page for more info.

50 Cities of the World #17 Naples

Look who's ready to travel a bit more!?

Today we're going to Naples.

It's funny the details in this card. The see, the bay, the houses, the people, the volcano...

Just to try to sum it up to you, of the beautifulness of Naples look at this colours:

I think I've already said before but I'm all for by the river/sea cities.

Napoli  is an Italian city in the Campania region.

If the card was printed today I bet that in the back this would be stated (from wiki): "Naples has appeared in episodes of TV serials like The Sopranos"

But when this was printed what matters were not XX/XXI century stuff but what really matters (joking).

We are told that Naples has a great museum with archaeological treasures form Pompeii.

Pompeii is well known for being completely destroyed by a volcano eruption like never seen before. They found 'people' in the same position they were at the time. Some in their routine tasks.

Quite the story! Just check Pompeii history at its wiki page.


Of course that the best I know from Naples is its football team. Especially mister Fabio Cannavaro. What a player!



Naples is not Venice but has lots of water too. So if you like it just book it at go there.

More info on Naples wiki page.

The game of Wallet Card - Tea time

And also the time to read all your great blogs.

LEGO - minifigures Series 13

Look look! It seems Series 14 is coming out soon but only now I got my hands on some Seres 13 packs!

I know there is the possibility of buying the entire Series on LEGO shop but not only it is quite expensive and I don't have enough space to put all the figures and besides...opening packs and not knowing what is inside is one of the great sensations of collecting.

At least for me.

And so...instead of going to LEGO shop I went to other shop that sells lots of fun stuff including LEGOs to get the packs.

When I asked the seller for 2 packs she asked me in return 'Which minifigures do you want?'

Soooooooooooo I don't know how, probably by the pack item number, they know what is inside each pack and they have them numbered.

Soooooooooooo against all odds I bought the packs already knowing what was inside...

I'm sorry...not sorry.

Maybe I'm starting to change my mind...

 And so I choose the Egyptian Warrior which reminds me of The Mummy, film I loved.

And of course, I could not go without choosing The Sheriff.


The worst part of this is that each pack costs 3.5€ which I think is around 4$. That's too much! After buying these I wanted more but don't know if I managed my budget to accommodate it. That is almost the price of one of the smallest LEGO set box.

The game of Wallet Card - March

I'm getting ready to start my fantasy season. I already have a team:

Line Up (default)

• Brian McCann
• Victor Martinez
• Jason Kipnis
• Matt Carpenter
• Hanley Ramirez
• Shin-Soo Choo
• Starling Marte
• Giancarlo Stanton
• David Ortiz

Bench (default)

• Michael Cuddyer
• Erick Aybar
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia
• Wil Myers
• Nick Castellanos
• Rusney Castillo

Pitchers

•  Oakland Athletics

 Now I just need to check and see if I have cards for them all.

50 Cities of the World #16 Venice

Welcome to the city that seems more like an island. Well, lots of islands: "group of 117 small islands separated by canals and linked by bridges"

Welcome to Venice.

Ahhhhhh Venezia!

You have all that water to amaze you.

Even if you go there with Indiana Jones in mind (The Last Crusade people!) or simply to live the wonderful Venice Carnival. It doesn't matter because Venice looks great both ways.

As the card back states, Venice was and still is the 'pearl of the Adriatic".

For what I've searched, the card pictures the St Mark's Campanile situated in Piazza San Marco. The rest is probably a representation of the Grand Canal where you can see the views on a gondola.



If you wan to try and travel to Venice  please check lock weather report. They have this thing of getting a bit (even more!) under water sometimes.



See more int Venice wiki page.

2012 Panini Cooperstown - lets visit the HoF 7

Today's an other day at the Hall of Fame.

And today's I can say that I know almost all the players! Just missing Bert Blyleven and Walter Alston.

Love Joe DiMaggio for obvious reasons (GOOOOOOOOO YANKEES!) but the highlight goes to Roy Campanella with a great photo!

But then again...is just me or there is a swing behind Joe DiMaggio!?

I see swings all the time...!!!

Highlight too for mister mustache Blyleven. Facial hair is always good to see in a baseball card.