Over the hills and through the olive groves to The Alhambra we go...

We left the hostel in Seville early on Sunday morning (well, it was 8:00 AM which is early for Spain) and wound through the tiny streets to the bus station. Then it was a three hour bus ride through land that looked a lot like Southern California (specifically on the 101 near Santa Maria and Lompoc) except for the olive trees...mile after mile of rolling hills and olive trees. This is the olive oil capital of the world with 10% of the world’s supply coming from the Jaen Province, alone. It’s beautiful but it does get a little monotonous after awhile. Heather slept and I read up on our next destination, Granada, a spectacular town of around 250,000 at the base of the Spanish Sierra Nevada mountain range…a place with an incredible history. This was once the land of the Moors who lived in this region until they were conquered by the forces of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492 (a big year for Spain all around). Granada was the last stronghold of the Islamic rulers but they eventually surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, as they were called at the time. The Muslim influence can still be felt today in the architecture, restaurants, shops and dress of some of the inhabitants. A walk down some of the tiny streets and alleyways of the Albaicin, the old Arab section of the city is like a walk through the streets of Morocco which, by the way, is only a few hundred kilometers away across the Mediterranean. Granada is a fascinating mix of cultures that you rarely see anywhere else. See what I mean right here: http://www.travelinginspain.com/granada.htm


We arrived around noon and took several city busses up to our hotel located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near the front gate of the Alhambra. The Alhambra is the major attraction in this part of Spain with over 6,000 people a day from all over the world visiting this combination of fortresses, palaces, gardens and courtyards. We visited The Alhambra at around 3:00 that afternoon and spent the next four hours in another world. It’s difficult to describe because The Alhambra evolved over the centuries as new rulers moved in and added on or revised existing structures to suit their needs at the time. The actual sight and some of the ruins date back to the Roman era. It became an Islamic fortress beginning around 900 AD and then in the 13th &14th centuries, the Nasrid emirs converted it into a fortress-palace along with a small adjoining town. In the latter half of the 14th century, Mohammed V then built the magnificent Palacio Nazaries (are you following all this?). When the Spanish conquered Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella set up shop in the Alhambra adding their touches and eventually Carlos V built a new castle on the grounds which he never lived in but it eventually became a museum. You see…this does get a little complicated. The interesting thing is that the whole place fell into complete disrepair in the 18th century and became a home for beggars and thieves until Washington Irving re-released his book "The Alhambra" which sparked international interest in the place. It was declared a National Monument in 1870 and since then a huge restoration effort has taken place. It all makes for a rather confusing time with the audio guide. We finished our tour in the Alcazaba or fortress portion of the comples and climbed the watchtower around 7:00 PM to catch one of the best views of Granada…incredible at that time of day. Check out the shot above of Heather and I basking in the glow of The Alhambra. For a much better description of the place (and more pictures!) click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra

Monday morning we were up at the crack of, well, nine or so and then spent a lazy day touring Granada then headed back to the bus station for the 6 hour ride through the olive groves back to Madrid. I spent the night at Heather’s place then it was to the airport Tuesday morning and now I’m somewhere over the Atlantic wondering where the time went. It all went by so fast!

That, my friend, brings us to the end of the blog and, if you’re reading this, you’ve hung in there to the very end. I hope you fund the trip interesting.

For me, it was an amazing time. Rarely does a father get to spend a whole week hanging out with his daughter. She has grown up to be a terrific person and she did a wonderful job of showing me around. I’m really going to miss her and her new home. Hemingway once in a letter called Spain "the last good country left” and he was referring to what he experienced years ago. It’s still a beautiful place with an amazing past, great art, music, fashion, food and wine but now it’s much more. Today, it’s also young, hip and full of beautiful, fun, exciting people. It moves with a real optimism and vitality. After spending just a brief time there, I definitely think that, when it comes to Spain, we ain’t seen nothing, yet!

Hasta la vista!

The Fierce Flamenco...

Bullfighting, tapas, flamenco and the guitar all began in the Andalucia region of Spain. This is the southern most part of the country and quintessential Espana. We arrived in Seville, the capitol of the region around noon on Friday after a three hour, high-speed train ride from Madrid. Heather had found a great hostel (in an MTV travel guide) in Bario de Santa Cruz in the heart of the old city that wasn’t far from the cathedral, La Giralda, and the Alacazar, all the sights you simply must see when you are in this city. We spent the afternoon walking around and after a brief siesta, we did some more sightseeing then hit the tapas bars for dinner. If you would like to check out Seville, click here:
http://www.red2000.com/spain/sevilla/index.html

You can’t visit this part of the country without seeing flamenco. According to Wikipedia, “Flamenco is a Spanish term that refers both to a musical genre, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance genre characterized by its audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear. Flamenco embodies a complex musical and cultural tradition. Although considered part of the culture of Spain in general, flamenco actually originates from one region: Andalucia.” As you might imagine, there are a lot of places for tourists catch a performance but Heather has a friend, Okado, who studied in Seville for five months and he gave us the address of a club called “La Carboneria” which was the place to see the real thing. We had the address but finding it was another matter. We wound through the tiny streets and walkways for what seemed forever trying to read the street signs and figure out where we wer on the map. The club didn’t have a sign out front so you really had to know what you were looking for and we didn’t. Finally, we arrived at a nondescript, red door with the number 18 above it and said “this must be the place”…it was. Inside there was a huge crowd waiting for the next performance. We grabbed a couple of cervesas and sat down just in time for a big, heavy set woman dressed in a purple dress to take to the stage along with a guitar player and singer. A hush grew over the crowd…the guitar player began with a strong, powerful melody…then they began clapping…then the singer began almost shouting the lyrics and finally the woman stood and danced. She was fierce. She stomped and clapped and swirled…it was mesmerizing. This was a woman with issues and obviously a few scores to settle. She looked like she could dive into the audience and wipe out the first two rows in an effort to right passed wrongs. It was terrific. Remind me never to cross a flamenco dancer. Heather took a great shot which is posted above and for a little more on flamenco, check here: http://www.andalucia.com/flamenco/

Saturday, we took in the major attractions of Seville beginning with the Cathedral of Seville and La Giralda. The cathedral is the 3rd largest in Europe behind St. Peter’s in Rome and the Cathedral of London. From the outside it looks fairly large but you really don’t get an idea of the size and grandeur of the place until you enter. It is absolutely magnificent. Inside you’ll find the tomb of Christopher Columbus that dates back to 1902. In 1899, bones were brought back from the Caribbean that were thought to be that of the explorer and placed in the tomb. The Dominican Republic, however, also claims to have the Chris’s bones buried beneath a monument in Santa Domingo. They did a DNA test in 2003 and found that the cathedral bones match that of Christopher’s brother, Diego, who is also buried in Seville so they are the official remains. Since the bones were moved several times over the years, however, it’s possible that both locations may have part of the explorer. Fitting since, throughout his life, he had a least one foot in the new world. Here is an interesting interactive site that will give you some good shots of the cathedral, as well as a map of the city,
http://www.sevillaonline.es/english/seville-city-centre/cathedral.htm

Attached to the cathedral is the bell tower, La Giralda. At 320 feet tall, it was the tallest building in the world at one point. It was built in stages with the first part, (the Islamic section) being started in 1184. They built ramps, not stairs to the top so men could ride horses up the tower to ring the bells. The view is the best in the city. Here is some more on the tower: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/spain/seville-giralda.htm

After a little lunch, it was on to the Alcazar also known as the Royal Palace of Seville. The structure began as a Moorish fort and became the eventual home of monarchs including King Ferdinand and Isabella, known as the Catholic Monarchs. It was here that Christopher Columbus pitched his idea for a trip to the Indies going to the West from the Iberian Penninsula…”Look I know you may think the world is flat and all but I’ve got this great idea for a new way to the Indies”. He was obviously a great salesman. You can check out the Alcazar right here:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/spain/seville/alcazar/alcazarindex.html

Later in the day, we rented bicycles, rode along the river and toured the rest if the city and early Sunday morning we took a sleepy bus ride to Granada. Check back Wednesday for tour of the ancient palace made famous by Washington Irving, Alhambra, then it's back to Madrid and back home.

Hasta la vista!

When in Madrid...

First, the bullfight…my first. A bullfight in Madrid is an event, a spectacle, and a place to see and be seen not unlike sporting events in the US except that here you know the outcome…the bull dies. At a bullfight, however, it’s not the end that counts; it’s how you get there. In this sport, it’s the skill and bravery of the matador that the crowd comes to see. They come to watch a man (and sometimes woman) face a big, charging beast with horns and subdue the animal with a grace and elegance. I’m not taking anything away from the people who practice this sport. It takes big “cojones” to pull this off and look good doing it. Each time a matador enters the ring; there is a very definite possibility that he or she could get gored and die. It’s like a very dangerous form of ballet.

I arrived at Plaza de Toros at around 5:00 and outside the arena, there were vendors selling T-shirts, souvenirs, drinks and snacks. I went inside to find my seat, which was a pretty good one, in the shade and just below the Royal Box. At 5:30, the band begins with the flourishes that signal various aspects of the pre-fight ceremony. First the cuadrillas (team) of toreros (bullfighters) enter the arena with their pink and yellow capes, dressed in their spectacular costumes, each hand-sewn garment costing thousands of Euros. There is a brief parade around the ring then all but the cuadrillas leave and the first bull enters and charges various bullfighters positioned around the ring. Then the picador enters the ring on horseback, stabs the animal in the back with a lance and leaves the ring. The matador, star of the bullfighters, then begins to dance with the bull. At various times banderilleros stab banderillas into the bulls neck further weakening the animal. This is followed by more bullfighting. The matador then stabs the bull with a sword through the nape of the neck and into the heart…the bull falls…the matador bows…the crowd applauds…they drag the animal from the ring…the cuadrillas reassemble… a new bull enters the ring and it starts again. Each fight takes around 20 minutes. That’s a gross over-simplification but you get the idea. For a much better description, click right here: http://www.madrid-guide-spain.com/madrid-bullfight.html. And, I did feel sorry for the bull. I’m from California.

Earlier, we took a tour of Palacio Real or Royal Palace. There isn’t anything like it in the States. The Palacio Real was ordered by Bourbon King Philipe V in the 18th century and completed by Carlos III. The palace tour includes just a fraction of the more than 2,000 rooms (more than any other palace in Europe) and the sights are spectacular. After viewing the opulent way the royals lived you wonder why there weren’t more revolutions. Today the King and Queen of Spain live at a more modest country estate and the Palacio Real is used only for state occasions. It’s an amazing place. Check it our right here:
http://www.travelinginspain.com/Palace.html

After the Palacio, Heather had a class and I continued my tour of the great art museums of the world by visiting the Reina Sofia, the home of Picasso’s Guernica. This is the painting that was commissioned for the Spanish pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937 (the height of the Spanish Civil War) and depicts the bombing of the village of Guernica by the Luftwaffe on behalf of Franco. It is a very powerful painting and the surrounding Picasso exhibit makes it a must see when you are in Madrid. For more on the Reina Sofia, click here: http://www.spanisharts.com/reinasofia/reinasofia.htm. Art in Spain is truly amazing. A person could spend weeks or months seeing what exists in just the three museums I visited. If you come to Madrid, give yourself plenty of time to take it in.

Finally, it was time for a little R & R at one of the world’s great parks.
“The Retiro” formally known as Parque del Buen Retiro is a beautiful place originally developed as a royal retreat by Queen Isabella in 1505. King Phillip moved the royal court to Madrid in 1561 and the retreat was eventually expanded to what it is today. It remained off limits to the commoners until it was eventually opened to the public about a century ago and now El Retiro has become the heart of the city much like Central Park in New York. The park has over 130 hectares of woodland (1 hectare equals roughly 2.5 acres) and it’s home to over 15,000 trees. Here’s an Arial shot from Google Earth to give you an idea of what the place looks like.


If you have some time, go to Google Earth, http://earth.google.com/
enter, “Parque del Buen Retiro, Madrid Spain” and take a look around.

The green area in the top area of the picture is Estanque del Retiro, a huge artificial pond which served as the sight of naval displays back in the day and where you can now rent rowboats and put on your own display.

That's it for now. I'm writing this while we're on a supertrain to Sevilla. We're spending the next two days there and then it's on to Granada. Check back Monday for...

- The sights of Sevilla...
- Fun with Flamenco...
- And, I think this is our stop.

Hasta la vista!

Botin, Bulls and Big Art...

A restaurant that is nearly 300 years old is a difficult thing for a person from Los Angeles to wrap their mind around. Los Angelinos are pretty much in awe of a 7-11 that was built in the 70’s. Monday night, we went to Restaurante Botin which first began serving the people of Madrid in 1725 and, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the oldest restaurant in the world. It’s still owned by the original family that opened the place back then and Ernest Hemingway called it one of the best restaurants in the world. He should know as “Hemingway ate and drank is as many places as George Washington slept in”, to quote James M. Markham of the New York Times. The restaurant serves several traditional Castilian dishes like Roast Suckling Pig which is prepared and served with the skin just like they used to do it back in the day…the “day” being back in 1725. We ordered the pig along with white asparagus and salad and it was delicious. It should be, they’ve had almost 300 years to get it right. After dinner, we strolled over to the Chocolateria San Gines where we had churros that you dip in a thick dark chocolate. Check out the churros right here: http://www.kitchenchick.com/2007/06/chocolatera_san.html
It was an amazing way to end the day. I then headed back to the hotel and lapsed into a coma…it had been a very long Monday.

Tuesday morning, we were off to tour the Plaza de Toro which is considered the finest bull ring in the world…not the largest (it has only 25,000 seats and Mexico City has a ring that can seat 44,000) but finest because it attracts the world’s best matadors and bulls. The ring is a huge brick structure that was built in the 1920’s and is also the place to see other big events such as concerts (the Beatles and Stones have both played the venue) and they were setting up for a concert Wednesday night when we toured the arena. Bullfights are the main attraction, however, and our tour guide gave us the low down on this sport that is such a big part of the Spanish culture. We also took a tour of the Bullfight museum that is also on the grounds. As you know, the idea is for the matador to kill the bull within 20 minutes by thrusting a sword through the animals heart from very close range. This is the way things usually turn out but not always. Sometimes the bull gets lucky and it’s the matador that’s dispatched. As you might imagine, this is a high-risk sport for all concerned and every bullring has an infirmary to treat gored matadors. The bulls aren’t so lucky. They’re butchered and sold to high-class restaurants in the city. At one point, there were so many matador fatalities, that several countries tried to ban the sport but in Madrid it’s as much a part of life as the NBA in the states. Bullfights are even televised (can you imagine what PETA would do in the US?) In Spain you don’t go to a bullfight, you “go to the bulls” and I have a ticket for one of the final events of the season on Thursday night. I’ll let you know how it goes. If you would like to learn more about the sport, click right here:http://www.madrid-guide-spain.com/madrid-bullfight.html
Hemingway was a big bullfight fan. He took his pregnant wife to see one in 1923 because he wanted his unborn child to be exposed to the event…an odd guy that Ernest. He ended up falling in love with the sport and in 1932, he wrote “Death in the Afternoon” a non-fiction book that became the definitive word on the subject. The man had a way with titles, didn’t he?



Here’s a shot of Hemingway with the bulls. For such a fan of the fight, it looks like he had a pretty cozy relationship with the opposition.




Today (Wednesday) was art day. Heather had several classes today so I tried to take in as much culture as possible. I just got back from touring two of the top art museums in the world; the Prado, http://www.museodelprado.es/en/ingles/and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza or simply the Thyssen, http://coleccionctb.museothyssen.org/. Today was a sea of Goya, Valazquez, Rubera, Rafael, El Greco, Picasso, Monet, Manet, Ruben, Renoir, Gauguin, Dali, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Van Gogh and I could go on and on. It was absolutely overwhelming. My eyes actually hurt from looking at artistic masterpieces and I don’t think I can face another royal portrait or religious image for at least 24 hours. Tomorrow we’re going to at least try to catch Picasso’s Guernica at the Reina Sofia which is also in the neighborhood.
That’s it for now. Check back Friday for…

o A look at the Royal Palace.
o One of the world’s great parks.
o And, the bulls…up close and personal.

Hasta la vista!