I am in the Casas de los Suenos; it is a small boutique hotel, whose owner is a dedicated arts collector. Each room, each nook and corner both indoors and outdoors is filled with art: paintings, watercolors, prints, sculpture, some maybe too modern and some maybe painted in the 40s of the last century...
I love it all. I am drinking in this summer night, the stars that so rarely could be seen in Seattle. The closest to the feeling - I am 15 and I am back in Tashkent....
Back to the road trip: I hardly noticed the road to Albuquerque - it took us less then an hour. We arrived to our hotel around 11, but they took us in immediately - the rooms were ready. We got a short tour of the hotel and a little art talk... Our suit is called I-66. It has a kitchen with a gas stove, full size refrigerator, a coffee maker, a kettle, plates, cups, silverware...
The sitting room has a TV and a sofa bed; the other room is a bedroom with a queen size bed. There is a closet for suitcases, and a bathroom. Everywhere one notices little art pieces - traditional tiles in the bathroom, hand woven pillow cases on the couch, original paintings on the wall.
The Old town is about 300 feet away - literally, one crosses the intersection of the Central Ave, walks to the end of a small block and turns right: old town! Here you gasp entering the plaza and facing San Felipe Cathedral for the first time. The screeming bright colors overwhelm you: the deep indigo of the skies, burning yellow of the walls of the cathedral, intense green of the trees and accents of red, turquoise, white, orange everywhere - cheerfully painted window frames, bundles of chili peppers, embroidered blouses, shiny glazed pottery...
We wondered in and out little patios that brim with art galleries, little chapels, small cafes. Dad got a metal flask that says New Mexico, and Mom got two hand woven Navajo pillow cases that look like they could have been made in Turkmanistan. We had lunch/dinner at the High Noon restaurant. The building dates back to mid-18th century. Food was excellent, ambiance - beyond compare.
I also managed to run through the Art Museum, worth seeing!
Later we took a car ride about the city - we wanted to see the downtown, some real houses... what are the schools like, the streets, the office buildings... It was a good thing - now we understand that Albuquerque is a normal big (1,200 million people) American city. When you are in the Old town you forget all about it - and are transported 200 years back.
One and only disappointment: the ABQ trolley was not working till August 13. Their web site is impossible to navigate, you hit "page cannot be found" at every step; their telephone is not a way to communicate - you can only hear when they do not operate. Oh, well... we survived!
Later we took a car ride about the city - we wanted to see the downtown, some real houses... what are the schools like, the streets, the office buildings... It was a good thing - now we understand that Albuquerque is a normal big (1,200 million people) American city. When you are in the Old town you forget all about it - and are transported 200 years back.
One and only disappointment: the ABQ trolley was not working till August 13. Their web site is impossible to navigate, you hit "page cannot be found" at every step; their telephone is not a way to communicate - you can only hear when they do not operate. Oh, well... we survived!
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