Claudius Ptolemy, the Egyptian astronomer and mathematician, changed the vision of the universe and tried to explain scientifically the mechanics of the stars.
His theory, although wrong, had significant influence until the sixteenth century. Along with Erástotenes and Strabo, was also one of the great geographers of the Ancient times.
There is a new place in Bilbao, full of globes, armillary spheres, maps, prints, ..., where time seems to stop, and where the name of Ptolemy takes a new meaning.
A place to admire the genuine works of art, with a past that tell us, a place to learn ... full of light, with few concessions to the artifice, which focuses our attention on the exhibits.
Some time ago that the sight of The Grand Canal from San Vio, 1723, and whose original is in the Thyssen Museum, went us to the streets and canals of Venice.
Now, close up, a nineteenth-century engraving, which represents the same channel, albeit with a different perspective, created by the Master just two years later, around 1725.
I wanted to visit this gallery to see "The Polish Rider," the enigmatic picture attributed to Rembrandt. This canvas is displayed next to one of the most interesting self portraits of the Dutch painter.
This table provides a novel title to Antonio Muñoz Molina, and as the writer says in "Windows of Manhattan," visit this collection is like escape from the bustle of the city, share a secret, a gift. 
Only the three Vermeer's hanging in one of the corridors in front of the majestic staircase worth the visit.
These three tables show the palette, blue and yellow, the stoat, the entry of light from the left, the prominence of the glass windows, the maps, their messages hidden in pearls, letters, musical instruments, music sheets ... , we speak about courtship, adultery, certainly complicity, rigid moral and social position.
There is a small trompe l'oeil of Liotard in the corridor overlooking the central courtyard, next to a portrait by Ingres, which makes us look twice for see this is not a sculpture, but a drawing.
A house-museum, which has retained its familiar character residence, which enjoys and lets you enjoy the elegant portraits of Wistler, the only American artist that Henry Frick considered worthy of the future museum (with the exception of Gilbert Stuart, chosen for their portrait of George Washington), together with those of Gainsborough, Van Dyck, Titian ... 
The museum is a perfect mix of furniture, European paintings and sculpture, and is due to the selection of authors and for it's small size.
Mr. Frick wanted "a small house, full of light, air and land, a comfortable house, simple, tasteful and hold." The architect Thomas Hastings, will work later in the New York Public Lybrary, and interior designer Sir Charles Allom chose the English style of the eighteenth century.
How Not to mention the Hall, where a San Jerónimo by El Greco stands between two portraits of Holbein, one of Thomas Moore, another of his mortal enemy, Thomas Cromwell, responsible of the execution of the author of Utopia, Moro, because his refusing to sign the record that turned to Henry VIII head of the new Anglican Church.
By whom felt more sympathy the artist?, says the guide of the Frick Collection, you will have to decide for yourself!
In The Pea Green Project, it's an unusual to comment on technological issues, however, we believe that the occasion deserves.
We tested the new version of Google Earth, with special attention to the images obtained in The Prado Museum. It's really spectacular, and the degree of definition of the images is undoubtedly incredible.
It is certainly not like to contemplate the paintings in its physical location, and it is not as exciting as being in front of any of these fundamental works, in this case for the History of Painting.
Nor can properly appreciate the different textures of the canvas, or produce that feeling of "almost able to touch" the work.
However, this method has its advantages. The level of approximation is achieved, and therefore the detail that you can view is spectacular, with the addition of viewing whenever you want, no molested by other visitors, the museum's schedule ...
Sometimes we might even settle the poor lighting that could have the works, and in many museums, is a serious disadvantage when it comes to appreciate, especially painting.
Also for many people who, for various reasons can not travel and admire onsite parts, is a very attractive tool. We always will defend, if possible, ideally, learn by first hand what interests us, and judge for ourselves.
It is true that we must seize the advantages that technology provides us, and sometimes a virtual tour is better than nothing.
There is reverence, respect, admiration in the way we treat books, sometimes as a source of pleasure and as an object of worship.
Touring the British Museum Reading Room, where there are still traces of Kipling, Gandhi, Karl Marx ..., or the New York Public Library, is strolling through the temples of reading, stories of coffers and treasures, places where books are revered, where silence is required still, calm, an oasis in the city center.
In an increasingly virtual world, we can travel to the past touching editions of admired authors, London, Faulkner, Dickens, Austen ... watching the old tokens stored in those boxes with thousands of small drawers waiting to be discovered, breathing more slowly, expecting all that accumulated knowledge came to our mind. 
There is something magical when you read a book that has gone through other hands, be the same as Vargas Llosa in the foreword to "Madame Bovary" in which there are fictional characters that make us more some real people.
The other life of books, books marked, annotated, underlined, like Napoleon after reading "The Prince" by Machiavelli, or Proust or Virginia Woolf by reading the "Letters of Madame de Sevigne," small marks on the sheets, underlined ...
Hobbies that each reader leaves the reader in the book are another form of love, of giving other lives, a path for future readers.
Enjoy, read!
The Diner is an important part of American History; not only of the history of the restaurants, but of culture and life in the United States.
Born in Providence (Rhode Island) in 1872. At first it was carts for lunch were drawn by horses along the city streets, and sold food to the workers.
Cars were abandoned when their owners began using disuse trams as a restaurant in a fixed place, which meant a huge improvement for customers.
Subsequently, the diners were built by companies in New England, taking the style of wagon train thanks to the well accepted for streetcars.
The interior was really comfortable, with rounded corners, comfortable places to sit, a long, narrow space that surrounded and protected to the customers.
The golden age of the diner stretches between '30s and '50s in the twentieth century.
Arose on the highways, and on the outskirts of cities, but also in the center of the small villages and were open 24 hours a day. In addition to the speed of service, the atmosphere and the family meal, made them immensely popular.
Its decline began with the rise of fast food restaurants in the '60s and the availability of food for "take away", today replaced by a laconic "to go".
However, a revived interest in simple and good food, a certain "nostalgia", have allowed some of the original diner, and other, more modern, but built in the style of the olds, still in operation.
In New York, we tested the Empire Diner, was built as the "modern style" in 1946, with a metallic outer edges and curved conveying speed and efficiency, like the new trains that ply the country at that time.
It is an icon of the city, highly recommended to make contact with the world of the diner. 
In the boundaries of Death Valley, there is a population, Beatty, which is advertised with the slogan: "Why go to Beatty, Nevada? Because no one will look for you there. Relax."
Here we find, inside the Stagecoach Hotel & Casino, a place that, while not a typical diner, decor and food are certainly in that category.
Like the waitresses with their incomprehensible jargon, and her accent, even more incomprehensible.
Still palate with pleasure the splendid and huge "Denver" omelettes. A place that, Beatty, very interesting to explore the magic of Death Valley, but not a drain to our pockets.
Already in California, King City, on the way to Salinas, the city of Steinbeck, a huge truck parking made us pause.
In Spain, where it's said that where truckers stop, eat well. We think that perhaps the same would happen in USA.
There, a usual sheriff, opened the doors of the Wild Horse Cafe, "Home of the Burger Trucker."
Great burgers, buckets of coffee, guys with cowboy boots and hats. Books about "bad girls" of the Far West and other curiosities in handmade editions. Stop here!.
Walking the 49, along the path of gold in California, we came to Placerville, where Mel's is a classic Drive-In, born around 1947.
Diner food, with few concessions to modernity, and something that always draws attention to the Europeans: breakfast at any time.
Who is going to breakfast at four in the afternoon?. You, sure.
On the coast, between dunes of white sand, surfers and watchtowers, we find the Rock & Roll Diner, modern, developed in the style of the old, in a railway carriage, and with the typical diner menu with a Californian accent .
'50s in Frisco are represented among others by Lori's. The first was opened at 336, Mason St. in 1986, with rock 'n' roll, Coca-Cola, Elvis and Marilyn as identity.
We tried the location at 149 Powell, near Union Square, with a Chevy Bel Air, and an Indian motorcycle for decor. 
One more diner is located at the Ghirardelly Plaza, another must in San Francisco, with splendid views of the bay and the Golden Gate.
Also in San Francisco, we call attention to the Fog City (nickname of the city) Diner in the 1300 Battery St., an icon, also in "modern" with the touch of class that is expected from this city, and warns that, as soon as you enter, in its atmosphere, its own service for a great restaurant and their dishes, sophisticated, like the World Famous Red Curry Mussel Stew, Chilled Oysters on the Half Shell, Dungeness Crab and Cioppino with prawns, mussels and local fish, with grilled sourdough, to give a few examples.
The parking requirements forced us to use less time than it normally invest in to enjoy a meal, so we will have to return because the menu is huge!.
In any case, worth close to a lot of money that exist in cities and towns of the country, if possible one of the survivors and try to capture something of the essence of authentic diner and also a time that undoubtedly many Americans yearn for.
Further information: American Diner Museum
In Southeast Asia, at the confluence of the territories of Burma, Laos and Thailand, borders, often become confused, hardly recognizable, and although it is a militarized zone, it is relatively easy to cross the line in every way.
This is a place of great natural beauty, matched only by the enormous ethnographic diversity: tribes such as Lahu, Karen, Blue Hmong, White Hmong, Sgaw, Akha, Mien, Lisu or Lawa, among others. 
This is a dangerous place too, where armed incidents are frequent, where, despite government efforts, the opium trade is still alive, a place of passage of refugees fleeing harassment by the military dictatorship in Burma, or disaster natural, a sort of administrative limbo, where residents have an unclear legal situation.
We saw them, our passports "abducted" by officials rather than doubtful, when we enter in Laos or Burma, leaving behind our identities, and becoming subject anonymous ...
This is a place where, paradoxically, the influx of tourists is essential and often is the only source of money for villages.
The best conditions of life, yet so very far from Western standards, are in Thailand, where these people have a substantial degree of autonomy, or abandonment, as you look, so that tourism is a core support for subsistence, and a time, a conviction for many members of these societies, especially for wom
en.
They are, women, which assume virtually all responsibility, being the most extreme case of women of burmese ethnic Padaung, due to its infamous tradition of placing rings in the joints and the neck of girls born on Wednesday Full Moon ...
Visit villages of the ethnic group, implies a moral dilemma for many travelers.
Also for us it was, no doubt, but our visit to a village of this tribe in Burma, where tourism revenue is not coming, and talk to these women, seeing their faces and hear their approach, made us think much about The Western habit of judging the rest of the world based on our values, without hearing the other party. 
On the one hand, tourism is not conducive to abandon this practice, even women of other races, or born at any time, adopt this ritual, because for families is a secure source of money.
It is also true that the inhabitants of these villages, without the revenue from tourism, would see their future as a people committed to the very short term, since its integration into the social and political structure of Thailand and, ultimately, Laos , seems very complicated. 
Some villages are exclusively inhabited by members of one ethnic group, in others, several.
Villages are richer, more life, more children, but sometimes it's easy to think that these are places designed as "ethnographic park", it does not.
Respond simply to a matter of administrative convenience, and policy by governments.
Anyway, all of them, regardless of the ethnic group to which we refer, women are the economic base of the village, and those that perpetuate ethnic group, although this situation, far from giving a position of privilege, puts in an inferior position that lasts, because, for too long.
At the eastern end of Rapa Nui, is this group of moais, the most impressive of the island, called Ahu Tongariki.
The majestic statues stand facing the sea and the volcano Maunga Pu A Kaitiki.
Easter Island, Rapa Nui, is an exotic destination in itself, apparently locked out of space for the unexpected. However, there is much more, and often depend only on us to find it.
Similarly, in this technological world, impersonal and computerized in which we are immersed, "travel" to other countries, answering the daily mail, "talking" with people from very different and far places.
It is therefore surprising and is a joy to receive, as has happened today, a real postcard from the edge of the world, from Rapa Nui.
Thanks!
