Granada!

What is it about Granada that makes it so special?  There is a certain spirit of life that makes this one of the favorite cities we visited.  Actually, we visited it twice on this trip -- for two days last week and then again with our Sister Cities group this week. 

  Both visits were good, but the best was last week when we just wandered about by ourselves exploring places and sampling wine and tapas in some small bodegas and tabernas.
 

Last week, one of the things we enjoyed most was a walking tour through the old Albayzin Muslim quarter on a hill facing the Alhambra.  This section winds its way up narrow cobblestone streets.  We would have easily become lost there but we went with a guide, a beautiful young Spanish woman named Isabel.  (Wendell liked this tour the best naturally).  There were only two other people on our tour, a couple from Madrid.  They spoke no English so Isabel gave the tour in both English and Spanish.  As we climbed our way toward the top of this neighborhood we learned about the history of this area and heard some interesting tales.  

The view from the top was truly spectacular as we faced the great Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada mountains and their snowy peaks in the background.

This week we returned with our larger group to visit the Alhambra.  It took us about two and a half hours of walking to explore this massive complex.  From the outside the red walls and towers of this fortress/palace seem plain, but once we passed inside we found many beautiful rooms and gardens with amazing stone, tile and woodwork done in the most graceful and lacelike shapes and patterns.  

We were provided with a very good guide (this time a handsome Spanish man named Frederico --Barbara liked this tour naturally).  He obviously cared about this place and shared his information with enthusiasm.  One technical touch that enhanced our enjoyment was the use of individual headsets that we used so we could hear everything he said clearly even though there were a number of other tour groups in the area at the same time.

After this exhausting tour we went to a restaurant where we relaxed with our luncheon vino and many dishes.  It was the 85th birthday of one of the women in our group so she was treated to a special birthday cake (the same kind served to the Pope on his visit here.)  We all had a share of this light and creamy treat. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at an outdoor café sipping coffee while others shopped or toured more this the city

Antequera

Antequera

Antequera proved to be just the right sort of place we had been looking for.  It is a very ancient town of about 45,000 people.  It is rightly called “the heart of Andalucía” because it is virtually at the crossroads of that beautiful land.  After seeing it we decided to stay there for three days.

We stayed in a small hotel in the historic district.  From our window we could look out and see the alcazaba above us and hear the church bells from a nearby church (there are 32 of them in Antequera) chime the quarter hours and toll out the hours. 

It was a great place for strolling around.  The buildings are all white, as is the case with many Spanish towns in this area.  The town is surrounded by some very unusual rock formations.  One of the largest, and visible from most of the town, is shaped like the head of a woman lying facing the sky.  

Near the edge of town are some ancient burial mounds.  These megalithic tombs, called Dolmens, are made of rock and covered with tons of soil.  They date back to around 2,500 BCE.  Barbara found it interesting that they are aligned, not with some celestial object, but with the strange rock formation we mentioned.  Apparently that rock had some significance to those people.  It certainly looked dramatic to us.
 

After getting some necessary “down time” to rest and renew ourselves we visited the local Plaza de Toros (no bulls, no fighting while we were there, just interesting shapes to see).  We then decided we were ready to hit the big city again.  Off to Granada for our next stop.

Antiqua y Nuevo

We just got to Toledo.  Wish we had a few more days here.  From our hotel room window the vista included an ancient church steeple, many aged tile roofs, satelite dishes; just a wondrous visual cornucopia.

Seville

After our stay in Jerez we moved on to Seville for a brief stay.  We arrived on a Sunday and spent an afternoon strolling with many other people, looking at some of the main sights in the city. 

We stopped into the cathedral which is gigantic.  This photo of people worshiping there will give you some idea of the scale of the building.  Among the royal tombs there is the mausoleum of Christopher Columbus.  Whether on not his remains are actually there is open to debate; we decided it didn’t really matter to us one way or the other.



Next to the cathedral is the famous tower, the Giralda.  It is possible to climb it by a series of ramps that were built originally so that the guards could ride their horses to the top.  I’m sure the views from the top were magnificent, but we decided that we enjoyed looking at it from the bottom just as well.

 


The highlight of our stay in Seville was a visit to the Alcazar there.  It has been the home of both Moorish caliphs and Spanish kings.  We saw some beautiful delicate tiles and stonework there, along with some lovely pools and gardens.  Even with many people around it was a very peaceful place.


At this point we were longing to go to a smaller town.  The grand cities are very interesting; but we were looking to experience some smaller places too.  One town we had thought to visit proved to be a little too difficult to reach without a car.  So we consulted our map and guide book and decided to head to Antequera.  More about that interesting place soon.

Still alive and breathing

We are still alive and well in Almunecar.  This have been so hectic that we have not been able to keep up.  We are going to try to catch up during our "free" date but no guarantees. 

After Dinner Friday Night

One time, several years ago, I was walking on the beach when there was a strong wind and loud crashing waves.  The sound washed away all awareness of other things and created a loneness and internal quiet that were almost unparalelled.  Spain can be a lot like that.

Right now I am sitting in my hotel room Friday night with the window open, sounds of voices from the restaurants and tabernas below enjoying their dinners, their friends, their wines are creating currents  which blend together into an upbeat  sea of sound that can create that same feeling of solitude, yet at the same time invite one to join in the waves of liveliness. 

weh

Last Day in Jerez

We decided to spend three days in Jerez.  While there we toured the Gonzalez-Byass Bodega makers of sherry and brandy including the famous Tio Pepe.  It was a pretty inclusive tour.  We rode to several parts of the bodega on a tram.  They do not make their wine at this site but rather distill the wine into the various sherries and brandies.  

There was a tasting at the end of the tour.  We shared a table with a couple of young English women who were on holiday from their jobs with Shell Oil in Scotland.  We had a nice chat together while we sipped several sherries and shared some tapas.

Another thing we did in Jerez was to tour the alcazar (fort/castle) from the Moorish times.  One of the most interesting parts of that visit was a demonstration of their camera obscura.   The camera consists of a large white disk (big enough for a dozen people of stand around it) in a totally darkened room.  There is an opening in the ceiling  leading to a light well in which a mirror and a large lens are mounted.  The angle of the view is controlled by moving the mirror at the top of the building  The mirror can be turned in an entire circle to give a view of surrounding city.  By shifting the disk up and down is was possible to focus on places either near the building itself or on parts of the city many miles away although the relatively simple lens could not zoom.  It was fascinating to see. 
 

This is an photo of a cathedral which was next to the alcazar taken the previous day from outside.

This photo is the image on the screen of the camera obscura taken when the operator focused in on the dome of the church.  The colors were soft but extremely clear.  When we first saw it, there were pigeons flying around which we thought were flies within the room. 

On the web there are many sites which talk about cameras obscura and show a lot of images from them but we were unable with a quick search to find any diagrams which showed clearly the way this particular one worked.  We may try to experiment with this concept after we get home.


The next day we took a quick trip to Seville which we will describe as soon as possible. 

¡He perdido mi bolso!

From weh:

When I travel, I find carrying things in a shoulder bag a lot easier for me.  My camera, maps, notepad, pens, and even meds are more accessible and more comfortable that way.  

We are now in Antequera, small very beautiful, historic and hilly  city in the heart ofAndalusia.  Yesterday morning, we were late for the start of a city tour by a cart like a golf cart and ate our typical breakfast of coffee con leche,  zumo de naranja (orange juice), and a tostada (a toasted roll).  We left the cafe in a hurry.  When we got started on the tour (more on that later.)   I did not have my "bolso."  For some reason I had my camera in hand, though. I thought in our hurry to get out of the hotel I had left it in the room.  


When we got back to the hotel later in the day, it was not there.  What a sinking feeling.  There was nothing irreplaceable in it, the bag itself probably being the most valuable thing.   

After a short but sincere prayer to St Anthony, the saint of lost things, who has helped us out several times in the past, I went to the cafe next door where we had eaten breakfast.

Fortunately it was there.  

Thanks to St Anthony and the cafe staff.


Whew.


weh

Flamenco

Last night and today we are in Jerez de la Frontera.  This is the home of sherry and one of the most famous equestrian schools in the world.  We made a visit to some of the standard tourist sites, a sherry bodega, the local cathedral, the Alcazar etc.  They were all very interesting and we will fill you in on them as time permits. 
   

Jerez also claims to be the home of flamenco.  This is open to questioning as is the origin of the art form itself.  Jerez is at the end of a two week flamenco festival which occurs this time each year.  There are many different forms of flamenco from very informal performances to significant theatrical events.  (See the Wikipedia entry for a broad view.) 

Tonight we saw a theatrical performance by Maria Pages and her company.  She is a world renowned artist and gets rave reviews wherever she goes.  She has several videos on YouTube including the one at the following link:

http://www.mariapages.com/en_videos.html 

This will give you an idea of what we saw but it does not come near capturing the power and fire of the show we saw tonight.

 Although Barbara is an afficianado of ballet, classical music, and especially opera, I am not.  Before we went to the theater, I recalled the one live flamenco show I saw 47 or 48 years ago on a dinner date with a student dental hygenist.  I do remember I enjoyed the energy and passion of that show.  

The performance this evening was absolutely engaging.  The Spanish guitar played aggresively and firmly combined with voices, often plaintive and always passionate, complemented the rhythms of the booted feet and the palmas (hand clapping).  The round, deep tones of a bass added another layer.   Then, of course, was the visual effect.  First in the ensemble performances, eight dancers, four men and four women, moved with precision and grace, their costumes flowing with them,  yet each movement was powerful and passionate.
 
The principal dancer, Maria Pages, first appeared in black tights.  Her body was a powerful instrument played with grace, agility, and energy.  Her later appearences  included the more traditional costuming one thinks of with flamenco.  Each of them flowed gracefully yet powerfully and precisely, again expressively and sultry. 
 
At the end of the show, the audience, obviously more knowlegeable than I, clapped and stomped in a flamenco style, as the troupe made repeated curtain calls for 5 or 6 minutes.  

After a short and very upbeat encore it was over.
Much of the audience milled around in the lobby and in a small plaza outside the theater.  They, and we, had all been part of something very special.  

weh

Ronda

It has actually been some days since we've been in Ronda. We have fallen behind in our blog; but this just means that we have been busy seeing Spain.  We're trying to catch up now.  Ronda is a beautiful place well worth visiting.  Our visit there included both some high and low points in our travels.  Let's get the low points out of the way first -- we had some laundry done at the lavanderia and all of our "good" clothes turned to a dirty shade of grey in the dryer.  Who knows what was dried in there before our things?  Thankfully, we are finding that we are able to wash most of the grey out by repeated washings.  The other low point was our hotel.  The staff there was very friendly and helpful, but we had no heat in the room at night and nights in the mountains there are cold.

However, the city itself is very interesting.  Barbara wanted to visit it because the film of the opera Carmen with Placido Domingo had been made there. 

 It also has a dark history during the Spanish Civil War when a group of people were beaten and then thrown to their deaths over a bridge into a deep gorge.  This incident is described in Hemingway's book For Whom the Bell Tolls. The gorge is indeed very deep and dramatic.  This photo shows only about a third of the depth of the gorge.  It was nearly impossible to capture it fully.

Toro de Stone

The city itself is lively and a good place to stroll along the old streets and to see the bull ring.  






This stands in front of the Plaza del Toros (bull ring).
He, of course, is not alive except in one's imagination.  One could say it is a lot of "bull."




Thanks to the advice from a hotel staff person, we found a very good place to have tapas in the evening.  Next blog will be about Jerez where we experienced both sherry bodegas and an exciting performance of flamenco.

Misc

We are sorry we did not get your comments added until this point.  We will try to stay current.  I also added another page (see top of blog) where we will try to recount our interesting food experiences.

Cooking Class

 
The day of our cooking class began with a breakfast of cafe con leche, orange juice and croissants at a table with a dramatic mountain view.  


 
Our hostess Evelyne does mostly French cooking so she had asked a friend of hers, Juan Carlos to conduct the class.  She had invited several friends to join us, so we were a group of about seven.

Juan Carlos sautes vegetables observed by Collette and others

 
We began at 11, and Juan Carlos directed us in making four different Spanish dishes -- meatballs of beef and pork served in a vegetable sauce, pork cheeks (!) (yes they were tender and delicious), some cod fish in a cream sauce stuffed into cooked red peppers, and grilled chiroso and blood sausages with a tomato-onion salsa served on toast points. 

As we chopped and cooked the various dishes, we sipped on white wine.  We discovered that wine is an important element in European cooking, as much in the cook as in the food.   It added to our enthusiasm if not our competence.  

 
At lunch we were joined by Evelyne's mother and we had a lively conversation in a mixture of Spanish, French and English as we enjoyed the dishes we had made followed by fresh mandarin oranges for desert.  Even though our Spanish lacks a lot, we all managed to communicate and have a good time together.

Cordoba to Marbella

We toured the Mesquita in Cordoba yesterday morning.  It was a Moorish Mosque which was taken over when the Christians recaptured the city in the tenth century. 

The building exterior remains very much the same and the bones of the building's interior are much the same.   (our hotel was on the right side of this street)

                                                                                     






Inside, it is a vast series of arches and posts of white and red.The center of the building was transformed into a cathederal and numerous smaller altars where built around the building.

The minaret was changed to a bell tower.  Some of the original bell mechanism from the 900's is on display in the building which was originally built when the Moors invaded. 












Cordoba seemed like a very interesting and open city but we were not there long enough to see much beyond that historic district. 


We took the train to Malaga and then the bus to Marbella for the cooking school.  Marbella is one of the most exclusive and wealthy cities in the world with "homes" of many world leaders.   Vladimir Putin reportedly just bought one here. 

There is one owned by the king of Saudi Arabia that is a replication of the White House.  It has a staff of about 320 when he IS NOT HERE. 

Our hostess and cooking teacher picked us up at the bus stations.  She lives in a quite large house in a golf community.  Last night we went to the historic area of Marbella and had tapas at a couple different "bars"  If they serve tapas and not necessarily full meals they are called bars or tabernas rather than restaurants.
 
They drive like crazy here.  I am glad we did not rent a car for the whole trip although we may still for a day or two out in the countryside.

Today we cook.

Second Day in Madrid

Today is already Monday.  We are on our way from Cordoba to Malaga then to Marbella for our three days at cooking school, two days of cooking actually but three nights there.

Saturday in Madrid was a warmer day.  We were both still very tired and were  a bit testy with each other.  We did get to do a couple of things that Barbara really wanted to do:  See Picassa's "La Guernica" and attend the Zarzuela performane of "El Gato Montez"

Museo Reina Sofía

The "Reina Sofia" museum was only a short walk from our hotel.  When we got there, there was no wait whatsoever and we went right it.  It was relatively inexpensive, also.  If you have nev­­er seen the painting, it depicts Picaso's view of the horror of war in black, white, and greys, particularly the bombing of the town in northern Span.  You can find a history and more information about the painting at numerous sites on the internet .  It is an extremely powerful painting and large size adds to the  emotional impact of the experience.

On the plaza in front of the museum were numerous restaurants.  While we were there a very accomplished street band played music ranging from Brazilian to American blues.  They were quite entertaining.  After an outdoor lunch of a sandwich and (of course) a beer, we returned to the hotel for a well earned siesta. 

Zarzuela is a Spanish form of opera.  It is more focused on Spanish stories and themes and the style includes dancing which is stylistically similar to flamenco (at least in this performance).
  
Before the performance, we stopped at a nearby taberna and had coffee to keep us awake and welcomed with another ham tapa.  The ham here is much different than we are accustomed to.  It is salt cured, very mellow and rich flavored.  I understand it is one thing most people would like to take home from Spain.  Unfortunately, unpackaged meat products need special licenses to import. 

Teatro de la Zarzuela

The performance itself very well done for an extremely enthusiastic audience.  Although we had "cheap seats" with relatively restricted leg room, we had a good view of the stage and the  music and voices were rich and moving. 




Sunday morning we took the train to Cordoba.  I happened on to a bargain rate for an excellent hotel. More on that later.

Unfortunately, when we got there and esconced comfortably in our room, I checked my email and found the sad news of my Unccle Elwin's passing.  He was 91 and just plain wore out.  I was fortunate enough to spend a couple weeks with him in the past year.  I will miss him.

More later.
Wendell & Barbara

A Good Day

We made it to Madrid today.  The flights all went well.  We had plenty of time so, of course, there were no problems along the way despite the fact that all the flights were totally full.  Many thanks to our neighbor, Pete Landry, for the lift to the airport.   

After we arrived at the airport in Madrid and easily found the bus to the Atocha train station, very near our hotel.  Having had little sleep, we did not focus well when we got to the train station.  We could not locate the information or tourist office in the station and ended up taking a taxi for 8 euro's for what could have been a 8 minute walk to our hotel.  So be it.  At the hotel we wanted just to leave our bags (it was about 10 AM local time) but the desk clerk just checked us in early.  We must have looked like a couple tired old "turistos" astray in the big city. 

Then the fun started.  I discovered that I did not have my meter to check my blood sugar.   I remember taking it out of the case where I had packed it just before we left and must not have put it back in.  I had everything else except the meter itself. 

A quick trip to the pharmacy and a good chance to practice Spanish resulted in an estimated price of 89 euros for a new one and much more for test strips for it.  I declined. 

In the early afternoon, we took a bus tour around central Madrid.  Man, are they proud of their architects!   There are some very interesting buildings but after the first twenty or so, interest wanes with no sleep and increasingly cold temperatures.
 
But a long siesta improved our outlook considerably.  After sleeping, we went walking from the hotel looking for a tapas bar.  On the way we stopped at another farmacia .  The farmista spoke "un poco Ingles" and we with our meager Spanish managed to reach a good  solution to my meter problem. 

We asked her about any local restaurants.  She suggested a couple, one of which was a few doors down the street from her shop.  We went to check it out.  They had no menu, spoke no English but said they could do "pescado o carne con ensalada mixta."  They obviously were primarily a tapas bar, a little neighbor hood family place where the locals stopped in for a drink and a tapa.   People were laughing and having fun.

We chose the fish.  They put out a pretty tablecloth for us.  We ordered a "cerveza de barillo" and the young lady asked us if we wanted chilled glasses.  We, of course, said yes. 

 El Parque Restaurant

 

 

While waiting for the dinner we were served tapas of ham and bread sticks (kind of).  The ham was very good.  The dinner came, a simple mixed salad with a olive oil and vinegar dressing which was the best that I have ever had.  Somebody told us that the olive oil here was the best in th world and now I believe it.  Every thing in the salad was fresh and flavorful.  Even the head lettuce actually tasted good and the tomato tasted like a tomato should. 

The simply breaded and fried fish was very tasty.  We finished with a small piece of flan covered with a honey and rum sauce.  Muy delicioso. 

As we were getting ready to leave, the bartender, the son of the older lady who seemed like the family head, invited us to the bar for an apertif on the house.  We accepted and he poured a cream chocolate liquour for Barbara and a coffee liquour for me.  His mother came behind the bar and took those away.  She poured a generous drink of the smoothest and most flovorful port I had ever had.  It was grand.
 
We communicated well, even though they spoke no English and our Spanish is marginal, at best.  We talked for a while, finsihed our drink, saluted, as they do in Costa Rica, "la pura vida" (the good life) and left feeling that we had made some friends, even if we never see them again.  And that is what, for us, this trip is all about.

It was a good day.

weh