Madrid, Holbein Exhibit, Dickinson's Inner Space, Gothic Novels & More: Endnotes 01 April

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

This is a sunset view of the Gran Vía in Madrid, Spain. It’s sometimes called the ‘Spanish Broadway,’ in recognition of its theaters, hotels, shopping, and vibrant nightlife. On the far left in the photo is the Telefónica Building, the first European skyscraper, built between 1926 and 1929. The Metropolis Building (Edificio Metrópolis) in the foreground is a stunning example of the French, Beaux-Arts style. The cupola is decorated with 30,000 leaves of 24-carat gold; the columns just below display statues representing mining, agriculture, industry, and commerce. Across the street is The Principal Madrid Hotel, topped with a stunning rooftop terrace (La Terraza) that serves up romantic views of the Metropolis. BRB, heading to Madrid.

• A beautiful essay about stained glass in Lviv, family, love, art. ‘The blast was a dream, but the window is real. Every day since the late summer of 1992, it waits to catch just the right light in the lobby of the Grand Hotel in Lviv, in the western region of Ukraine known as Galicia. And then it glows.’

• World Central Kitchen is still a great place to make donations to help feed Ukrainian refugees at the borders. There are 41 active border crossing locations; they’re serving 250,000 hot meals in six countries every day — more than 3.5 million total so far — and working with restaurants in Ukrainian cities to feed locals there. You can donate to support the effort here. Poland’s Universal Reading Foundation is raising funds to put Ukrainian-language books into the hands of Ukrainian children uprooted by the Russian invasion; click here to donate.

• Emily Dickinson was the queen of mining her internal space. ‘As she gradually withdrew from the social world, Dickinson became a remarkable transcriber and translator of inner experience – what in 1855 she called “a solitude of space” (in lyric number 1,696) – and her interior tracings often yielded extraordinary poems.’

• I had no idea I didn’t know the true meaning of the word decimate. Neat!

• 50 States, 50 Cuisines: Condé Nast Traveler makes a case for the food worth traveling for in every state. ‘Our goal was to highlight a cuisine worth traveling to each state for, much of which you truly can’t get anywhere else.’

• This video is very cute and informative.

• These architectural drawings of Japanese hotel rooms are very pretty and a little bit whimsical.

• Have you ever ridden on a paternoster elevator? There are a few here in Prague.

• Menus from restaurants in 20th-century London are so charming.

• During the pandemic lockdown, author Amber Sparks wrote this affecting short story. ‘The depression and sadness of this moment felt like such a block to creativity that I felt haunted — and then I realized I could write a story about that. And that’s where this story came from.’

• My personal catnip: 7 Gothic Novels with Creepy Estates.

• From everybody’s favorite indie bookshop, The Novel Neighbor, Oscar gowns as book covers:

• Vogue has a compelling interview with author Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad) about her new novel The Candy House.

• Artist Javier Pérez transforms regular ol’ brown, currogated cardboard into adorable, delightful, clever art. More on Instagram!

• Do you know about the Planet Word museum?! ‘As you enter through our front gates, your experience begins beneath a mesmerizing Speaking Willow tree that sets the stage for what you’ll encounter in the museum. You’ll hear murmurs in hundreds of languages as you pass under the branches of this unique sculpture…’

• The Third Man Guide to Vienna. ‘Don your fedora at a jaunty angle, turn up the collar of your winter overcoat, strike up the zither music and join us as we plunge headlong into the underworld, alleyways, nightclubs, and sewers of post World War II Vienna, on the trail of Orson Welles’ enigmatic gangster, Harry Lime.’

• I’m extremely into the portraits painted by Hans Holbein; the catalyst was Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, but my love for Holbein’s work has now taken on a life of its own. The Morgan Library & Museum in New York is currently hosting a luscious exhibit of Holbein’s works. For those of us who can’t get there in person, the online experience is really damn good.

• Related: I thoroughly enjoyed this in-depth look at Holbein’s portrait of Christina of Denmark.

May you be completely distracted by something awesome this week.

Top image courtesy of Florian Wehde/Unsplash.