Adios, Espagne

Madrid, Terminal T4

Thursday, October 26, 2017, Arlington, Massachusetts--The vacation was wonderful.  We enjoyed it immensely.  The trip to Boston yesterday was relatively uneventful, a small delay at the airport while a piece of navigational equipment was replaced.  Easy Lyft ride to daughter's home and a welcome by grandsons.  

We enjoyed our last dinner at Nimu, in the Chueca barrio in Madrid with friends Tim and José Carlos, whom we had met in Chile a few years ago.  The food was good, even if some of the dishes were not particularly novel.  John really enjoyed a new-to-him dish of "veal cheeks" which was a combination of tripe, veal meats, chorizo and black pudding in a thick gravy.  Ben enjoyed another version of butterfish. We completed the meal with an excellent smooth albariño.   

Tuesday we also walked the neighborhood we had stayed in and then packed.  Back to Washington on Saturday.

Granada, Alhambra and back to Madrid

Monday, October 23, 2017, Granada, Spain--Granada is grand, and it's been quite an experience spending almost five hours walking the paths and the palaces of the Alhambra, the residence of sultans and kings.   Some pictures explain the overwhelming grandeur of the palaces, and the beauty of the gardens from the intricate ceilings and archways to the manicured pathways and even special bannisters down one path to carry a stream of water. 

Barry Simpson and Ben

One of the really fine things about this trip to Andalusia is that we have not had to worry about anything.   Becoming a "client" of Barry Simpson, of YourAndalusia.com made the trip so easy.  He managed the hotel reservations, made recommendations for restaurants, drove us hundreds of kilometers (along excellent roads and narrow city streets), and kept up a friendly running commentary of all we were seeing.   An ex-pat Scot, he also has a delightful accent. 

Besides the Alhambra yesterday, we spent a major part of the morning at the birthplace of Federico Garcia-Lorca, who was born near Granada in 1898 in the village of Fuente Vaqueros, became an influence playwright and poet in the 1920s and was murdered by a Falangist squad during the Civil War in 1936.  His body has never been found.  While he only lived in the house we saw until he was seven, it has been restored by his younger sister and includes a very fine small museum on the cultural scene of Spain in the interwar period.

Churros and Chocolate, local delicacy

In Granada, we explored several barrios, which included the magnificent cathedral, a perfume museum, the Moroccan shopping lane and a fountain in one of the major plazas that portrayed androgynous grotesques.

We completed our trip to Granada with a night of flamenco at the Jardines (Har-dinn-eth) de Zoraya, on a hillside above the city.  In the small world category, we were seated next to a couple from Washington, who live about a mile from us and have mutual friends!

Now to the AVE train to Madrid from Malaga. 

Mezquita and Mountain Snow

Above the mihrab

Sunday, October 22, 2017, Granada, Spain--Yesterday was, we think, the crowning jewel of the trip so far.   In Córdoba, the Mezquita, the original Ommayyid mosque built on the grounds of a christian basilica, then turned back into a cathedral when the christians took over the kingdom of Granada in the 13th century, is a world historical site--deservedly so.

Walking around the rows of columns, coming to the mihrab where the imam preached, and then turning around to face a huge, though not as huge as the mosque, cathedral plunked down in the mosque's center, is a trip through centuries, and different views of art and decoration.

Mezqjita columns

At the Mezquita

From the muslim prohibition on portraying humans in art to the christian exhuberance of statues and paintings is a cultural dichotomy that we have only seen here on such a scale.

Patio atelier

Alcazar Mosaic of Oceanus

Ben at the Alcazar

Córdoba also has a fair-sized Alcazar, which we toured, built over Roman ruins.  The excavators found number of mosaics which are now in the interior museum.  The city also has sections where the interiors of the homes, patios, have been opened for artists' ateliers.   They are decorated with walls of geraniums and other flowers, and used not only for art but also for parties during a May celebration, called "patio week."   It had 1-million visitors last year.

Snow on the Sierra

From Córdoba we drove east through olive grove after olive grove, with castles perched on some mountains, observation towers on others, all dating from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to Granada.  Thanks to Barry, we had a view of the snow covered Sierra Nevada, brought on by two days of rain at lower elevations.

Today we have a full schedule, but last night, after so much walking, driving and talking we decided to dine in the hotel, the NH Victoria, and were pleasantly surprised by the food, braised beef for John and cod filet for Ben.  An early night.

From Anchovies to Sea Anemones, Cathedrals and Caliphs

Sea Anemones with eggs

Saturday, October 21, 2017, Córdoba, Spain--John got his anchovies on Thursday night at a tapas restaurant on Calle San José in Seville, along with chicken, cod in a tower with eggplant, small calamari and stuffed zucchini flowers.  La Bartola.  We enjoyed a Rioja Riserva with them.  Following along the same line, dinner last night in Córdoba at Regardera was even more fish-related.   Along with a Majorcan red wine, which was excellent--named "12 volts," it was not battery acid--it opened beautifully and went with the four dishes we ordered to share:   anchovies on spinach with a red pepper couli sauce, tartar of butterfish on teriyaki sauce, tartar of tuna with warm mashed potatoes, and the most interesting dish, if not the tastiest--deep fried sea anemones on a bed of scrambled eggs and kale.  Deep fried anemones have a similar taste to fried clams, nice but not that different in taste.  


We began yesterday with two hours at the Seville Alcazar.  It's the oldest still-inhabited royal palace in Europe.  The Spanish royal family uses it as its residence in Seville when they are there.   It was built by a Christian king, Pedro the Cruel, but the base architecture is entirely Muslim.  They were the better craftsmen.   Additions in later reigns brought gothic architecture to the additions, but the basic palace is mudéjar architecture.

The place is splendid.  From the intricate plaster designs to the colors to the ceilings representing the heavens, it is overwhelming.   

From there we stopped to look at the battery operated trams that run nearby and charge themselves at each stop so as not to require wires above the streets (Why don't we do this on H Street NE in Washington?).

Córdoba

Then off to Córdoba, the place where Christopher Columbus got permission and three ships to sail to the Americas from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle.  

Synagogue interior

We spent the final hours of the afternoon walking the old Jewish quarter, where the prominent and powerful Jewish families advised royal families, both muslim and christian, until Ferd and Issy kicked them out in 1492.   It is a barrio of narrow twisting streets, with one remaining synagogue built in the early 14th century, now a museum, that is small but fascinating with its Hebrew inscriptions.  It was restored to its existing state in 1889, having been a church, storehouse, and with a number of other uses over the centuries.  Nearby is a statue of the great Jewish philosopher, Maimonedes, who influenced St. Thomas Aquinas, and a square named in his honor.

Maimonedes

Our hotel, the Eurostar Palace is super modern, even to the bathrooms with their double showers and whirlpool baths, and perhaps the most up to date bidet we've seen.  All built for bodily cleanliness.   Clearly bidets are returning to the scene as they have been in every place we've stayed in Spain.  Ben thinks the entire room is designed on a sexual scheme!

 Today to the Córdoba Alcazar and the Mezquita.

Roman Bridge at Night

Ronda in the Rain, Seville in its Grandeur

Thursday, October 19, 2017, Seville, Spain--The past two days and nights have been incredibly full.  In the middle of the night on Tuesday, the wind blew our window open in the midst of a huge rain and thunderstorm, waking John up.  He raced to close it as the pelting rain began to smatter on the window and the heavens lit up with lightening.  Quite a sight at 3 AM. 

Our room was in the
middle of the cloud

Used once a year!

By dawn, at 8:30 AM--it's strange being at the western end of a very large time zone, daylight is really screwed up--the rains had turned to off and on and the lightening had gone.  We breakfasted with fog moving up the Tajo gorge and made decisions for the day.  Ben headed off to a local art museum in honor of Joaquin Penado, who had grown up in Ronda and left to pursue his art work in Paris in 1940 and did not return until the late 60s. He became friendly with Picasso presumably in Paris and was a neo-cubist.  John headed off to the Bull Ring to see where modern bullfighting began in Spain in the mid-18th century.  Both were excellent for the respective attendee.

Following that we lunched at an organic restaurant, Biopicnic, on a salmon bocadillo, and then were picked up by tour director Barry Simpson of Your Andalusia and headed off to Seville. 

The view from our window

Seville is magnificent.  It's a relatively large city, about 700,000, the fourth largest in Spain, and the site of the Spanish court when the last Muslim kingdom in Granada capitulated in 1492, and coincidently 
Columbus sailed for the New World. 

Celebrating Columbus

Columbus has a a mausoleum in Seville Cathedral, though there is some doubt about where he is actually buried--Madrid, Santo Domingo, Havana or here. He brought great wealth to the city but that ended when the river silted up and the boats began to anchor at Cadiz on the shore. 

The cathedral is the third largest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome and St. Paul's in London.  It's enormous and excessive, almost mad in decoration and design.   The belltower is an old minaret, but the cathedral itself is post-Muslim.   There is no easy way to describe the grandeur of the place, the ostentation of the decoration, or the gold, but it is a site to see and enjoy.

Barrio Santa Cruz
street scene

-Today we also did a tour of the city on foot, seeing the Torre d'Oro on the river where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand decreed that all ships from the New World would dock and unload their treasures; the financial building that headquartered the merchants making a killing from the Americas business; the old Jewish quarter, the Barrio Santa Cruz, from which the Jews were kicked out in 1492; and, the site of the Ibero-American Exhibition of 1929, whose architecture is an overblown collection of bits and pieces reminiscent of American 1920s movie theaters or the grossness of San Simeon.  This is not a city that does anything quietly.

Wild white pidgeons

Plaza de Espagne,
1920s architecture

We dined last night at the San Marco restaurant where we enjoyed carpaccio of ostrich, pâté of scorpion fish with grilled shrimp, then roast pork and grilled sea bream.   Our wine was a local, a Borsoleta, a combination of temperanillo and cabernet sauvignon with a touch of petit verdot, 2015.  Tonight we will eat tapas.  White anchovies, John hopes.

Aparecida and AVE

Sunrise 8:30 AM

The train did 294 really.

October 17, 2017, Ronda, Andalusia--We arrived in Ronda about 1 PM after a 90 minute drive from Malaga Station.  The AVE high speed train brought us from Madrid at speeds up to 294 kmh, though John only got a picture at 270.  We watched the sun rise after 8:30AM from our train window after rising at 5:45 to catch it from Madrid.  No problems but very early.

Yesterday, John's birthday, was quiet until the evening.  We lunched on a couple of very nice salads at a restaurant founded in 1870 downtown, with a plate of black puddings, like English black pudding but held together with rice. 

Birthday dinner with Tim

Meringue Birthday Cake

Chocolate Egg

Then for the evening Tim had made reservations for dinner at La Bien Aparecida, a superb restaurant with an excellent wine list.   Ben chose Paletilla de Cordero, an outstanding Godello white with a lemony bouquet.  The food was up-to-date Spanish varying from exquisite pre-appetizer amuse-bouche of miniature bocadillos of steak tartar, light and fluffy ham croquetas, and mussels in a silver colored coating.  We joined these with a lovely cava.  Next we had an anchovy and red pepper lasagna which was vertically arranged without pasta. The meal progressed to a casserole Madrileño style for John, which was a mixture of various kinds of variety meats, except liver and kidneys, with small pieces of beef in a thickened tomato broth.  Ben had a monkfish filet which was artfully and exquisitely plated  and tender, unlike any monkfish he has had anywhere before.   Tim had lamb shoulder chops with a sweet sauce.  Dessert was the pièce de résistance.  To celebrate John's birthday Tim ordered a meringe over a lemon tart with fresh mango--and a candle.  To accompany this we had a chocolate egg with a hard shell filled with runny fudge.  The finishing touch, Madrileño style, was a round of light gin and tonics with lemon peel and a red berry.  G &T's are the fashion in Madrid to finish excellent meals.


We were met in Malaga  by our tour director, Barry Simpson of Your Andalusia, who is our historian, information source and driver for the next few days as we travel the country with just us in his SUV. 

We have spent this afternoon wandering Ronda, a smallish hilltop town that goes back to Roman days being situated high above a river gorge.  It's full of winding little streets and churches and other buildings dating from its long history.   We lunched on grapes and bananas after last night's feast, while visiting various sites ranging from a 13th century minaret changed into a church tower, and buildings dating from the 12th through the 18th century lining the streets.

Church tower

Muslim Minaret Door

We even watched a drone taking pictures up and down the gorge, controlled from a computer in the hands of a photographer on one of the bridges.

Picture-taking dr 

Muslim Bath Ruin 

Our hotel suite overlooks the Tago, gorge, of the river and we can see the mountains far in the distance. 

  

El Escorial

October 16, 2017, Madrid--Yesterday was our day trip to El Escorial, the huge summer palace and monastery built by King Philip II  in the 1580s.  There is no doubt it's a major historical site and significant part of our world architecture and art heritage.  No pictures are allowed inside, but the frescos, art, and basilica are magnificent.  Benvenuto Cellini's "Christ Crucified" statue is incredibly moving.  We both thought, though,

that the library was the most interesting part of the building--built to spread knowledge with numbers of 16th century books on the shelves.  The art work on the walls of the various Kings of Spain and the ceiling depicting the seven areas of knowledge are truly close to perfection.  The frescoed ceiling is, in our opinion, one of the greatest works of art.

We visited the tombs of the Spanish kings in a marble room deep in the basement, and the rooms of the kings' palace with their views of the renaissance gardens.

Lunch followed at the Cafe Central on the Terrazza Los Jard
incillos with a very entertaining Bulgarian waitress with plans to work next in London.  Working on her English as we work on our Spanish.

The buses to and from El Escorial are intercity buses with comfortably seats for hour-long journey.  They leave from central Madrid about every 20 minutes and at €4.20 is a good cheap price.  It's a ten minute walk in San Lorenzo de Escorial to the palace and monastery. 

The town is, of course, dedicated to tourists, but the people are friendly and the space offers enjoyable views of the surrounding mountains.

Dinner at home last night.  Tonight our last night in Madrid before we head south.  We expect a quiet day today.