Tag: solar eclipse

Total Eclipse of the Heart, Day #6.  “How Can You Live Like This?”

by reissmd, posted in Madrid

I awoke this morning and got out of bed with great difficulty.  I checked the forecast and it said a high of 97° and a low of 77°.  Out of curiosity I checked the temperature for Hermosa Beach and saw the high was expected to be 77°. As they say, “There’s no place like home”

Erica took a poll asking us what would we like to do and where we would like to go today.  She made a variety of suggestions. I voted for anyplace with air conditioning.  We finally agreed to go to Retiro Park.  This is a beautiful park with a variety of vegetation, wildlife, and water.  I’ve been there a number of times and I never tire of going there. Well maybe I would make an exception on a day as hot as today.  When we arrived at the park we found out that the authorities had closed the park due to safety concerns. 

Disappointed that we couldn’t tour Retiro (although we did spend some time looking at it from outside the fence) we needed a back up plan. I was already exhausted but suggested we return to the water park and the group agreed. Soon after arrival I got soaked and my attitude and energy level were completely different. It was a fun time and getting cooled down was superb.

After drying off we went to visit a new friend.  A magician named Augustin who we met at the Magic Live Convention in Las Vegas earlier this month. He invited us to visit him at his home magic museum.  Upon entering Augustin showed us an incredible array of magic memorabilia filling every room and hallway. Even much of his ceiling was covered.  After that he gave us a very impressive 25 minute magic show.  He did some great sleight of hand and card tricks. It was impressive and funny.

Here we are with our new friend, Augustin Dalvi. Notice the pen sticking through Julian’s ear.

Tomorrow will be a sad day as David and Julian will be returning home. It was so great that they could join us. I suspect tomorrow will be a boring blog day because I am looking forward to spending the entire day at the pool.

Ciao.

Total Eclipse of the Heart Day #3 “A Day of Exploration”

by reissmd, posted in Burgos, Spain

Today we left Madrid and headed to the city of Burgos in order to see the solar eclipse.  The big event will occur on August 12, 2026 at 8:29 PM local time. This will be our 3rd eclipse experience.  In 2017 we went to Nashville, Tennessee and saw a spectacular view with the moon blocking about 98% of the sun, then suddenly clouds rotated in front, eliminating our view of totality. I was very disappointed especially after hearing from friends who saw the total eclipse just a few miles from where we were located.  

In 2020, a trip to Chile was canceled because of Covid.

In 2024 we had a much better experience in Dallas, Texas.  We saw totality but the real show was my son, David, and his wife, Robyn.  With Robyn driving and David navigating we drove from location to location to find the perfect vantage point.  You have to understand that I am talking about Stanford and Harvard graduates (David from Stanford and Robyn from both).  Needless to say listening to them discuss the pros and cons of each viewing site was like hearing two people speak in a foreign language.  The only thing I understood was “Get in the car!  We’re going to a different spot.”  We finally settled in the parking lot of a strip mall where we had a magical experience.  I especially enjoyed hearing David describing some subtleties of the eclipse (sorry corona, crescent shadows, prominences, and shadow bands are not parts of my regular vocabulary). 

Today was a day of exploration.  We needed to find the perfect spot from which to see the eclipse.  David researched on the internet some recommended viewing areas. The first one was San Isidro park. On paper it looked like a great location but access would be difficult.  We read that the city was limiting the area to 8,000 people and entrance would be by city bus or a 45 minute walk.  That was not a very attractive description.  The next spot was Castillo de Burgos.  Again the visitors will be limited (2,000 at this location).  This was a lovely area with lots of beautiful trees dominating the vista.  Trees blocking the skyline were not exactly what we were looking for.  We then headed outside the city away from buildings and other visual obstructions.  Luckily we came upon a beautiful area on a hill with an unobstructed view adjacent to a tile company.  We happened to meet the tile company owner, Rodrigo, who welcomed us to his workspace. He asked a few questions and gave us some guidelines (He wanted us to be sure not to drive on certain parts of the property).  We were very excited. We found the perfect viewing location but realized we would need supplies. We headed off to Decathlon, a local sports supply store.  We bought an umbrella for shade, a plastic hand drill to make a hole for the umbrella, chairs, and an ice chest.  We then went to pay for our purchases.  It was a self-check out counter so I reached for the scanner gun but the clerk stopped me.  Instead she instructed me to put all the items into a bin in front of the register. See below. 

The register calculated the price of every item including some that I can’t even see in the picture. Very impressive.

I then messaged Patrice that we finally were on our way back to the hotel.  She replied “Look what I just saw” and sent us this picture. See below.

This is from a terrace near our room and it has a perfect view of the sun at 8:29 PM (the time of tomorrow’s eclipse), We have a similar but not as panoramic view from our room.

So David, Erica, and I spent about 3 hours looking for the best spot to see the eclipse when we already had the perfect place to see the eclipse and it was at our hotel.   The only remaining question is will we have to fend off hordes of other hotel guests to see the eclipse.  I will let you know tomorrow. 

Ciao