ComfyShoes's Trip to Spain: Trip Report
May 24th, 2007, 02:10 PM
#42
Guest
Posts: n/a
Lin, Thanks! I remember your help with Casa de la memoria. Really appreciated that.
Day 8: To Sevilla, and in it….
We armed ourselves with Jose’s Campsa guide which was as easy to understand as a forest trails map! The thing was way too detailed, and close to large cities you really had to learn to make sense. Actually, as I found out after almost a week!, it has all the information but it is just laid out very different from American Road Atlases.
From Madrid, we took M-40 (a beltway around Madrid) to A-4 (highway) to Route R-4 (toll road where, unlike in the States, there was not a single soul but us driving south! good for practising driving our tank!) to back to A-4 past Aranjuez. Roughly 500 kms of it, and you are in pretty Sevilla. The change in the landscape was amazing, and it changed from hilly/mountaineous, to flat, to really hilly, to mostly flat. Olive trees and vineyards dotted the farms adjacent to the highway. Maribel started discussing basics of wine grape and table grapes, discussed the size of trellis used for various uses of the grapes, and then revealed that her grandfather owned a large vineyard in Valencia. I was just mesmerized by her understanding of grapes and wines. Small, cute windmills appeared on occasions.
We passed a very pretty hilly area called Parque Natural de Despeñaperros. Despeñaperros is a magnificent sheer-walled rocky river gorge that forms the backdrop of the most dramatic gateway into Andalucia. As the only natural break in the 500 km-long Sierra Morena, it used to be one of the main routes into Andalucia from the north and Madrid. Today, it is occupied by the A4 motorway and the Cadiz-Madrid railway line. Some believe that Despeñaperros was named after a battle, since Despeñaperros could mean the throwing over a cliff (despeñar) of the dogs (perros, or the Moors). For others, the name comes from the cliffs themselves, the despeñaderos. Frequent warnings of "Blancos de Niebras" (fog! At 1:30 pm!) appeared. Spanish highways are as good as American highways except that they sorely lack frequent "Scenic View" stop points in a place as gorgeous as this forest (they also don’t tell you how much your toll is until you pull up all the way to the window! They need to change that because it is so inefficient.... That’s another story).
On the way to Seville, we stopped at a reststop, south of Bailen, and had a surprisingly good four-course meal. The quality of the food simply doesn’t compare with the junk we get along American Highways, and frankly, at least I was thankful for it! Heck, there was even a view of a large sheep farm at a distance! I did not write what we ate, and do not recall (my credit card receipt has four "menu plates", one sopa de picadillo, one pisto manchego, and drinks) what it was except it was quite filling and good. The Maitre’D asked me in English, "you like few" and it took me several "perdon" to understand she meant "food". When I understood it, I promptly confused "mucho gusto" and "gusta mucho" (nice to meet you versus liked it a lot) and left the restaurant feeling like a fool
On the way in, we stopped in a little town called Carmona. Located on a low hill overlooking a fertile plain, Carmona is a picturesque, small town with a magnificent 15th century tower built in imitation of Seville's Giralda. This is the first thing you see and, it sets an appropriate tone for the place. Not surprisingly, given its proximity, Carmona shares a history similar to Seville, and was an important Roman city which, under the Moors was often governed by a brother of the Sevillan ruler. Later Pedro the Cruel (!) built a palace within its castle which he used as his royal residence in the country. At the entrance to the town was the Puerto de Sevilla, a grand but ruined fortified gateway, which led to the historic old part of the city. Within the wall, narrow streets meandered past Mudejar churches and Renaissance mansions. Further ahead, was the Plaza San Fernando which was comparatively small but dominated by splendid Moorish style buildings. You can take some great shots of andalucian residential streets here. We briefly visited the Parador which looked great! This town must be a great place to stay if you don’t mind the 30 km drive to Seville, a sort of mini-Seville.
With the stops, it took us nearly nine hours to get to Sevilla. In Seville, we arrived in our Hotel (Hotel Al Minar) which is located less than 200 steps from the Cathedral, had a large shower (thank goodness...! I had found that it was impossible for me to wash my feet without bumping the door open!), and comfortable beds. Alminar (www.hotelalminar.com) is a new hotel, opened in 2005 in one of Seville´s most classical buildings that for more than half a century belonged to Foronda, the leading company in Spain for hand-made bright silk shawls and Flamenco dresses. Since we arrived at almost Seven O’clock and had a reservation for supposedly authentic Flamenco dance at Casa De La Memoria at 7:30, we were quickly whisked away to that place by the kind Hotel Desk Clerk.
Flamenco at Casa de la memoria was very interesting and private-feel affair. Only 100 guests were allowed. The lead singer (forgot their names) started a haunting melody and the others started clapping rhythmically. The lead dancers (a man and a woman) were quite a treat to watch! The woman specially Just kidding. The flamenco was very very good, from my significant past experience of exactly two! previous performances Jose gave it an eight on a scale of 1 to 10 which means they thought pretty highly of it too! Kids and DW loved it. DW thanked me, for the first time!, for being so meticulous in the trip planning and picking this place. Credit goes to many of you!
For dinner, too tired to pull out my detailed itinerary, we simply asked the Hotel Manager for a dinner recommendation, and she graciously and very confidently sent us to a tapas place (I don’t recall the name) on Plaza Santa Maria de la blanca. It was crammed full of students! We all complimented ourselves for looking much younger than our age, and since we were hungry and the food was great, dove right in. I only remember a very filling Paella, much Jamon Serrano, a good mixed salad, calamari, pulpo (no one makes octopuses like the Spaniards do.... take my word for it!), croquette, and the like.
On the way back, I was mesmerized by the ambiance of this beautiful city! It reminded me of Plaza San Marco in Venice. Lots of happy tourists and locals, great food, amazing weather with gentle breeze, and marvelous aroma of orange tree flowers! We stopped to take night pictures of the buildings on Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes (Cathedral and the Jiralda etc). The contrast of the lights from the Cathedral, the Jiralda, Palacio Arzobispal, and other buildings was simply amazing. As I was setting up the tripod to take night pictures, two women stopped and started looking at what I was trying to do. As one of them started waving in front of my camera, I looked at my wife’s admonishingly serious looks, realized she didn’t think it was funny!, and promptly went back to ignoring everything else but my camera Those pictures came out so good that I have four of them enlarged, and put on my office wall. Today, within the first two hours of putting them up, I have had nearly ten people say "wow!".
Back at the hotel, we made sure to thank the manager for sending us to an age-appropriate place I found that despite the darkness, I could see she turned red and then profusely apologized for a few minutes! But as I said, the food was good so it didn’t matter. Anyway, we were also too tired from the drive to care and had a good, restful sleep.
Next day: Sevilla!
Day 8: To Sevilla, and in it….
We armed ourselves with Jose’s Campsa guide which was as easy to understand as a forest trails map! The thing was way too detailed, and close to large cities you really had to learn to make sense. Actually, as I found out after almost a week!, it has all the information but it is just laid out very different from American Road Atlases.
From Madrid, we took M-40 (a beltway around Madrid) to A-4 (highway) to Route R-4 (toll road where, unlike in the States, there was not a single soul but us driving south! good for practising driving our tank!) to back to A-4 past Aranjuez. Roughly 500 kms of it, and you are in pretty Sevilla. The change in the landscape was amazing, and it changed from hilly/mountaineous, to flat, to really hilly, to mostly flat. Olive trees and vineyards dotted the farms adjacent to the highway. Maribel started discussing basics of wine grape and table grapes, discussed the size of trellis used for various uses of the grapes, and then revealed that her grandfather owned a large vineyard in Valencia. I was just mesmerized by her understanding of grapes and wines. Small, cute windmills appeared on occasions.
We passed a very pretty hilly area called Parque Natural de Despeñaperros. Despeñaperros is a magnificent sheer-walled rocky river gorge that forms the backdrop of the most dramatic gateway into Andalucia. As the only natural break in the 500 km-long Sierra Morena, it used to be one of the main routes into Andalucia from the north and Madrid. Today, it is occupied by the A4 motorway and the Cadiz-Madrid railway line. Some believe that Despeñaperros was named after a battle, since Despeñaperros could mean the throwing over a cliff (despeñar) of the dogs (perros, or the Moors). For others, the name comes from the cliffs themselves, the despeñaderos. Frequent warnings of "Blancos de Niebras" (fog! At 1:30 pm!) appeared. Spanish highways are as good as American highways except that they sorely lack frequent "Scenic View" stop points in a place as gorgeous as this forest (they also don’t tell you how much your toll is until you pull up all the way to the window! They need to change that because it is so inefficient.... That’s another story).
On the way to Seville, we stopped at a reststop, south of Bailen, and had a surprisingly good four-course meal. The quality of the food simply doesn’t compare with the junk we get along American Highways, and frankly, at least I was thankful for it! Heck, there was even a view of a large sheep farm at a distance! I did not write what we ate, and do not recall (my credit card receipt has four "menu plates", one sopa de picadillo, one pisto manchego, and drinks) what it was except it was quite filling and good. The Maitre’D asked me in English, "you like few" and it took me several "perdon" to understand she meant "food". When I understood it, I promptly confused "mucho gusto" and "gusta mucho" (nice to meet you versus liked it a lot) and left the restaurant feeling like a fool
On the way in, we stopped in a little town called Carmona. Located on a low hill overlooking a fertile plain, Carmona is a picturesque, small town with a magnificent 15th century tower built in imitation of Seville's Giralda. This is the first thing you see and, it sets an appropriate tone for the place. Not surprisingly, given its proximity, Carmona shares a history similar to Seville, and was an important Roman city which, under the Moors was often governed by a brother of the Sevillan ruler. Later Pedro the Cruel (!) built a palace within its castle which he used as his royal residence in the country. At the entrance to the town was the Puerto de Sevilla, a grand but ruined fortified gateway, which led to the historic old part of the city. Within the wall, narrow streets meandered past Mudejar churches and Renaissance mansions. Further ahead, was the Plaza San Fernando which was comparatively small but dominated by splendid Moorish style buildings. You can take some great shots of andalucian residential streets here. We briefly visited the Parador which looked great! This town must be a great place to stay if you don’t mind the 30 km drive to Seville, a sort of mini-Seville.
With the stops, it took us nearly nine hours to get to Sevilla. In Seville, we arrived in our Hotel (Hotel Al Minar) which is located less than 200 steps from the Cathedral, had a large shower (thank goodness...! I had found that it was impossible for me to wash my feet without bumping the door open!), and comfortable beds. Alminar (www.hotelalminar.com) is a new hotel, opened in 2005 in one of Seville´s most classical buildings that for more than half a century belonged to Foronda, the leading company in Spain for hand-made bright silk shawls and Flamenco dresses. Since we arrived at almost Seven O’clock and had a reservation for supposedly authentic Flamenco dance at Casa De La Memoria at 7:30, we were quickly whisked away to that place by the kind Hotel Desk Clerk.
Flamenco at Casa de la memoria was very interesting and private-feel affair. Only 100 guests were allowed. The lead singer (forgot their names) started a haunting melody and the others started clapping rhythmically. The lead dancers (a man and a woman) were quite a treat to watch! The woman specially
Just kidding. The flamenco was very very good, from my significant past experience of exactly two! previous performances Jose gave it an eight on a scale of 1 to 10 which means they thought pretty highly of it too! Kids and DW loved it. DW thanked me, for the first time!, for being so meticulous in the trip planning and picking this place. Credit goes to many of you!For dinner, too tired to pull out my detailed itinerary, we simply asked the Hotel Manager for a dinner recommendation, and she graciously and very confidently sent us to a tapas place (I don’t recall the name) on Plaza Santa Maria de la blanca. It was crammed full of students! We all complimented ourselves for looking much younger than our age, and since we were hungry and the food was great, dove right in. I only remember a very filling Paella, much Jamon Serrano, a good mixed salad, calamari, pulpo (no one makes octopuses like the Spaniards do.... take my word for it!), croquette, and the like.
On the way back, I was mesmerized by the ambiance of this beautiful city! It reminded me of Plaza San Marco in Venice. Lots of happy tourists and locals, great food, amazing weather with gentle breeze, and marvelous aroma of orange tree flowers! We stopped to take night pictures of the buildings on Plaza Virgen de Los Reyes (Cathedral and the Jiralda etc). The contrast of the lights from the Cathedral, the Jiralda, Palacio Arzobispal, and other buildings was simply amazing. As I was setting up the tripod to take night pictures, two women stopped and started looking at what I was trying to do. As one of them started waving in front of my camera, I looked at my wife’s admonishingly serious looks, realized she didn’t think it was funny!, and promptly went back to ignoring everything else but my camera
Those pictures came out so good that I have four of them enlarged, and put on my office wall. Today, within the first two hours of putting them up, I have had nearly ten people say "wow!". Back at the hotel, we made sure to thank the manager for sending us to an age-appropriate place
I found that despite the darkness, I could see she turned red and then profusely apologized for a few minutes! But as I said, the food was good so it didn’t matter. Anyway, we were also too tired from the drive to care and had a good, restful sleep. Next day: Sevilla!
May 26th, 2007, 05:51 AM
#46
Guest
Posts: n/a
Lois and Joyce, I am bowing as gracefully as I can, to you both.
Day 9: Beautiful Sevilla...
It was Sunday. It didn’t dawn on at least me to make sure whether or not all the places we wanted to see would actually be open! This would create logistics problems over breakfast a little later! I was up very early, at 6 am! Since I couldn’t sleep, I decided to go for a walk near the Cathedral. It was quite a contrast from the night before, and deserted at this unearthly hour in, of all places, Spain that sleeps so late as is Everything was just as pretty, just no people. As I walked back in, the manager from the night before was still at her desk. I commented that she really needed to stop working so hard, and we started to chat. A bit younger than me, she told me the origins of her excellent English, where she lived, how many hours she worked, why she worked all nighters, and what she thought of Seville. At some point, she made an awfully sorry face and said that she always wanted to have a british accent but unfortunately, had an American one I simply didn’t have it in to break her heart and say that she had neither To be honest, she spoke very well and was extremely helpful. I also highly recommend the hotel.
Around nine am, we checked out of the hotel, leaving our luggage there. We walked over to a little Café on Avenida De Constitucion called Café India that served Croissaints, breads, and the like. I had a great napolitana and a coffee, and the family ate similar stuff. It finally dawned on me that Spaniard don’t really eat breakfasts, well nothing of the size I am used to, because their dinners are so late —and oh so good-- that you really don’t feel like eating anything when you wake up! As I started discussing what we should consider doing, we realized half the places were closed on a Sunday morning! We quickly contemplated which places we "could" visit and decided to go to the Alcazar first.
Seville Alcazar is an impressive must-see place. It's easy to be fooled into thinking this is a Moorish palace since some of the rooms and courtyards seem to come straight from the Alhambra. Most of them were actually built - by Moorish workmen – but for King Pedro "the Cruel" (talk about a nick name!) of Castile in the 1360's who lived in and ruled from the Alcazar. Pedro embarked upon a complete rebuilding of the palace, employing workmen from Granada and utilizing fragments of earlier Moorish buildings in Seville, Cordoba, and Valencia. Pedro's work forms the nucleus of the Alcazar as it is today and, despite numerous restorations necessitated by fires and earthquakes, it offers some of the best surviving examples of Mudejar architecture. I personally thought Patio de las Doncellas (Courtyard of the Maidens) and La Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) were the most impressive parts of the Alcazar.
We also saw Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla (Bath of Lady Maria of Padilla). These are replenished with rainwater tanks beneath the Patio del Crucero. The tanks are named after María de Padilla, a woman much wanted by Pedro the Cruel. Apparently, Pedro fell hard for María, and had her husband killed! What a cruel man! I must add this is a story I have heard so many times in so many places, something to think about so far as men and women in middle ages. Obviously, Bryan Adams’ song "To love a woman" hadn’t been sung then otherwise Pedro could have better pointers than simply killing the poor woman’s poor husband. María resisted his advances and poured boiling oil over her face to disfigure herself to stop Pedro's pursuit. She became a nun and moved to a convent afterwards. She is regarded as a symbol of purity in Sevilla.
I keenly remember this amazing fragrance wafting through the air, every where we went in Seville and most of Andalucia! I initially thought it was the perfume that women were wearing but was told to me that they were the flowers from the numerous Orange trees everywhere. It for sure was quite a contrast from cold, snowy Midwest! Maribel explained the types of Andalucian oranges, that they are actually quite bitter, and mostly used by British companies to make jam (which as I later found out, still contain some bitterness despite all the added sugar). Although in her mid-60s and a housewife all her life, Maribel is very impressive to me in her knowledge of businesses, and happily went on to describe what specific British companies produce roughly what percent share of jam using Spanish oranges! I told her she would do a better job of setting strategic initiatives in my company than many of its senior people She happily giggled like a ten year old.
After the Alcazar, we walked over to the Bullring, took some pictures, decided not to go in its museum, and instead found ourselves talking an guided, open bus tour. The kids, patient as they were, love that sort of stuff (where you don’t have to walk!) and so did we because man, it was hot! Slightly windy but hot! My first guided bus tour turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be. It was supposed to be an hour long ride but after about 15 minutes we found ourselves stuck in traffic across from a main square where a very large number of children and adult bicyclists were crossing. And they kept coming and coming! For a whole 30 minutes!! To be honest, I was actually enjoying sitting in the sun in this amazing city with nothing to worry about! Then we had some impromptu stage performance.
An Andalucian man, who was there with his family of late-teen and early-20s daughters, got up, stuck four! fingers in his mouth, and started making the oddest whistle I have ever heard!! Between his angry expressions, the whistle, the never ending bicyclists, and the scenary, I have to say I actually started giggling. I told my wife if he would teach me how to make that sound and in exchange I will teach him whistling with two or one finger in his mouth which are shrill"er" and far louder although they lack the various notes he was producing. DW said to stay put and not try to be a clown everywhere. One of his daughters, who may have understood DW's english, gave me an amused look but with a nice smile, still prompting me to look elsewhere. Finall... finally.... the bus started moving again, and the narrator began a monologue in English. BUT.... ten minutes later, we met the same group of bicylists, and boy! I have to say I was really looking forward to the Andalucian man’s reaction this time! Sure enough, he got up, uttered very angry sounding words (I didn’t understand at all), made his whistle, and then stomped out of the bus with his family. I told DW that this was the most fun I have ever had in a guided bus tour. Which was true. I did have fun, and this was also my first bus tour, ever!! Fortunately, this time, the bus resumed its ride and moved on complete its journey in nearly two hours. Despite the delay, the bus tour was a good way to get to know the city and see most landmarks (from the outside) with walking too much.
Since it was Sunday, Josele’s highly recommended restaurant Enrico Becerra was closed! Rats! Even my wife seemed disappointed that we weren’t going to "the Fodorite recommended restaurant"! So, we stopped for our two hour lunch in a newish looking (but good) restaurant near the bullring called Restaurant Gran Coliseo. My credit card bill shows several "combo" plates, a mixed salad, a capricho salad, frito variado (very very good deep fried fish and seafood, and enough to feed a whole family in each plate!), Gazpacho Andaluz, coffee, several desserts, etc. All I remember is it all tasted yummy Let’s move on!
After the lunch, we headed off to the Cathedral which opened (on a Sunday) at 3 pm. The Cathedral of Seville, formally Catedral de Santa María de la Sede was begun in 1402, with construction continuing into the 16th century. It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals (Saint Peter's Basilica not being a cathedral) and also the largest Medieval Gothic religious building, in terms of both area and volume. Its central nave rises to an awesome 42 meters and even the side chapels seem tall enough to contain an ordinary church. Its main altarpiece is considered the largest in the Christian world. The interior, with the longest nave in Spain, is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. The lifetime's work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, this is the ultimate masterpiece of the cathedral - the largest and richest altarpiece in the world and one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving anywhere. The Cathedral also has a large collection of religious jewelry items, paintings and sculptures, along with the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The builders reused some columns and elements from the mosque, and most famously the Giralda, originally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. The Giralda is the city's most famous symbol.
This cathedral was built to demonstrate Seville's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista. During the planning of the cathedral's construction, a member of the chapter was recorded to have commented "we shall have a church so great and of such a kind that those who see it built will think we were mad." Well, I don’t know if they were mad, but it is one impressive place. In fact, so impressive that my camera decided to stop working (no battery juice left!) after the first picture inside (with a flash)! Standing in the line to go to the top of the Giralda, I was wondering if I should leave the place and run to the hotel to get the spare battery that I had stupidly left in the luggage but looking at the hordes of people outside, I decided not to.
So, we all climbed an easy 40+ meters without a single stop (it is almost a handicap accessible! ramp almost all the way), I opened my camera bag, put the long lenses on, turned it on, and hit the shutter button. To my amazement, since I wasn’t using the flash, it worked perfect! There is such a thing called God after all! I took as many pictures from all four sides as I wanted to take, and as I told my wife "last picture I want up here", it died again! But no problems, I had what I wanted. Let me summarize my experience up there by saying Seville city view is absolutely gorgeous.
We all walked down (ran is more like it... Have you tried to keeping up with kids going down in a tower when they are having fun?) swiftly but politely passing old ladies and men on the right. We made it out to the sun, and met Maribel and Jose who having done La Giralda before, were enjoying the sun and the sights.
It was nearly six o’clock so we headed out of the city to our timeshare in Mijas Costa, a terribly touristy place as we will find. It took us three tries, and much verbal abuses to Campsa Guide publishers, to get out of the city but we did!
Drive to Mijas-Costa involved driving on A-4, then A-92 towards Granada, then A-45 towards Malaga, and finally A-7 to Mijas-Costa. A-45 and A-7 reminded me of the famous Highway 1 near San Francisco with sea on the left, and mountains on the right. Pretty drive although with very sudden entrances to the highway! Basically, a highway (with an average speed of nearly 120 kmh) where people were at Stop signs at ninety degree, and occasionally suddenly came in front of you at slower speeds. Somehow it all worked fine. I really have no complaints of Spanish highway. As good as they can be.
Anyway, we were exhausted by the time we arrived in Mijas Costa. The timeshare there is owned and managed by Clube La Costa, an entity that manages 3,000 similar units across Europe and elsewhere, and was as good as Hilton Group Condos (some Europeans find the word condos very funny.... do you know why?) in the States (that we own and had exchanged from). The Spanish man behind the counter reminded me of Mr. Bean, and every time he would sneeze (which he did often), I felt like telling him "have others told you that you look like...". I think it was good I didn’t mention it! I say this because the man had five flags on his nametag (signifying the number of languages he spoke) and he could have cursed me in three languages that I won’t have understood! Thoughtfully, they had left us a fridge full of enough breakfast items (eggs, water, bread, milk, etc) so we didn’t have to worry about it all right away. Our unit was a two bedroom – two bath unit with a sofa bed that overlooked the azure blue Mediterranean AND a nearby lighthouse! Comfortable, nice unit that as is customary in Spain, lacked a drier but came complete with a cloth rack.
After a hot, hot shower, I turned on the TV and was delighted to find WorldCup Cricket, live! As a kid, I grew up absolutely loving cricket, played it until I went to College, had classmates who played for the national team, that now are major power brokers in that game, and was glued to it for half an hour before heading off to sleep another night’s good sleep.
Advice: Sunday is not monday. Or tuesday. Or wednesday. Or any other day Plan well!
When in Sevilla, do as "Sevillans" do. Slow down and smell the air. In Sevilla, it is good to smell that air, because it smells wonderful
Listen to Bryan Adams’ song on "when you love a woman".
When you see someone stick four fingers in his mouth to produce whistle with multiple notes, don’t ride a bike in front of his bus.
Lastly, never make fun of people who speak more languages than you do.
So, who's still with me and reading my report? Tell me.
Day 9: Beautiful Sevilla...
It was Sunday. It didn’t dawn on at least me to make sure whether or not all the places we wanted to see would actually be open! This would create logistics problems over breakfast a little later! I was up very early, at 6 am! Since I couldn’t sleep, I decided to go for a walk near the Cathedral. It was quite a contrast from the night before, and deserted at this unearthly hour in, of all places, Spain that sleeps so late as is
Everything was just as pretty, just no people. As I walked back in, the manager from the night before was still at her desk. I commented that she really needed to stop working so hard, and we started to chat. A bit younger than me, she told me the origins of her excellent English, where she lived, how many hours she worked, why she worked all nighters, and what she thought of Seville. At some point, she made an awfully sorry face and said that she always wanted to have a british accent but unfortunately, had an American one I simply didn’t have it in to break her heart and say that she had neither To be honest, she spoke very well and was extremely helpful. I also highly recommend the hotel. Around nine am, we checked out of the hotel, leaving our luggage there. We walked over to a little Café on Avenida De Constitucion called Café India that served Croissaints, breads, and the like. I had a great napolitana and a coffee, and the family ate similar stuff. It finally dawned on me that Spaniard don’t really eat breakfasts, well nothing of the size I am used to, because their dinners are so late —and oh so good-- that you really don’t feel like eating anything when you wake up! As I started discussing what we should consider doing, we realized half the places were closed on a Sunday morning! We quickly contemplated which places we "could" visit and decided to go to the Alcazar first.
Seville Alcazar is an impressive must-see place. It's easy to be fooled into thinking this is a Moorish palace since some of the rooms and courtyards seem to come straight from the Alhambra. Most of them were actually built - by Moorish workmen – but for King Pedro "the Cruel" (talk about a nick name!) of Castile in the 1360's who lived in and ruled from the Alcazar. Pedro embarked upon a complete rebuilding of the palace, employing workmen from Granada and utilizing fragments of earlier Moorish buildings in Seville, Cordoba, and Valencia. Pedro's work forms the nucleus of the Alcazar as it is today and, despite numerous restorations necessitated by fires and earthquakes, it offers some of the best surviving examples of Mudejar architecture. I personally thought Patio de las Doncellas (Courtyard of the Maidens) and La Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) were the most impressive parts of the Alcazar.
We also saw Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla (Bath of Lady Maria of Padilla). These are replenished with rainwater tanks beneath the Patio del Crucero. The tanks are named after María de Padilla, a woman much wanted by Pedro the Cruel. Apparently, Pedro fell hard for María, and had her husband killed! What a cruel man! I must add this is a story I have heard so many times in so many places, something to think about so far as men and women in middle ages. Obviously, Bryan Adams’ song "To love a woman" hadn’t been sung then otherwise Pedro could have better pointers than simply killing the poor woman’s poor husband. María resisted his advances and poured boiling oil over her face to disfigure herself to stop Pedro's pursuit. She became a nun and moved to a convent afterwards. She is regarded as a symbol of purity in Sevilla.
I keenly remember this amazing fragrance wafting through the air, every where we went in Seville and most of Andalucia! I initially thought it was the perfume that women were wearing but was told to me that they were the flowers from the numerous Orange trees everywhere. It for sure was quite a contrast from cold, snowy Midwest! Maribel explained the types of Andalucian oranges, that they are actually quite bitter, and mostly used by British companies to make jam (which as I later found out, still contain some bitterness despite all the added sugar). Although in her mid-60s and a housewife all her life, Maribel is very impressive to me in her knowledge of businesses, and happily went on to describe what specific British companies produce roughly what percent share of jam using Spanish oranges! I told her she would do a better job of setting strategic initiatives in my company than many of its senior people
She happily giggled like a ten year old. After the Alcazar, we walked over to the Bullring, took some pictures, decided not to go in its museum, and instead found ourselves talking an guided, open bus tour. The kids, patient as they were, love that sort of stuff (where you don’t have to walk!) and so did we because man, it was hot! Slightly windy but hot! My first guided bus tour turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be. It was supposed to be an hour long ride but after about 15 minutes we found ourselves stuck in traffic across from a main square where a very large number of children and adult bicyclists were crossing. And they kept coming and coming! For a whole 30 minutes!! To be honest, I was actually enjoying sitting in the sun in this amazing city with nothing to worry about! Then we had some impromptu stage performance.
An Andalucian man, who was there with his family of late-teen and early-20s daughters, got up, stuck four! fingers in his mouth, and started making the oddest whistle I have ever heard!! Between his angry expressions, the whistle, the never ending bicyclists, and the scenary, I have to say I actually started giggling. I told my wife if he would teach me how to make that sound and in exchange I will teach him whistling with two or one finger in his mouth which are shrill"er" and far louder although they lack the various notes he was producing. DW said to stay put and not try to be a clown everywhere. One of his daughters, who may have understood DW's english, gave me an amused look but with a nice smile, still prompting me to look elsewhere. Finall... finally.... the bus started moving again, and the narrator began a monologue in English. BUT.... ten minutes later, we met the same group of bicylists, and boy! I have to say I was really looking forward to the Andalucian man’s reaction this time! Sure enough, he got up, uttered very angry sounding words (I didn’t understand at all), made his whistle, and then stomped out of the bus with his family. I told DW that this was the most fun I have ever had in a guided bus tour. Which was true. I did have fun, and this was also my first bus tour, ever!! Fortunately, this time, the bus resumed its ride and moved on complete its journey in nearly two hours. Despite the delay, the bus tour was a good way to get to know the city and see most landmarks (from the outside) with walking too much.
Since it was Sunday, Josele’s highly recommended restaurant Enrico Becerra was closed! Rats! Even my wife seemed disappointed that we weren’t going to "the Fodorite recommended restaurant"! So, we stopped for our two hour lunch in a newish looking (but good) restaurant near the bullring called Restaurant Gran Coliseo. My credit card bill shows several "combo" plates, a mixed salad, a capricho salad, frito variado (very very good deep fried fish and seafood, and enough to feed a whole family in each plate!), Gazpacho Andaluz, coffee, several desserts, etc. All I remember is it all tasted yummy
Let’s move on! After the lunch, we headed off to the Cathedral which opened (on a Sunday) at 3 pm. The Cathedral of Seville, formally Catedral de Santa María de la Sede was begun in 1402, with construction continuing into the 16th century. It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals (Saint Peter's Basilica not being a cathedral) and also the largest Medieval Gothic religious building, in terms of both area and volume. Its central nave rises to an awesome 42 meters and even the side chapels seem tall enough to contain an ordinary church. Its main altarpiece is considered the largest in the Christian world. The interior, with the longest nave in Spain, is lavishly decorated, with a large quantity of gold evident. The lifetime's work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, this is the ultimate masterpiece of the cathedral - the largest and richest altarpiece in the world and one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving anywhere. The Cathedral also has a large collection of religious jewelry items, paintings and sculptures, along with the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The builders reused some columns and elements from the mosque, and most famously the Giralda, originally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. The Giralda is the city's most famous symbol.
This cathedral was built to demonstrate Seville's wealth, as it had become a major trading center in the years after the Reconquista. During the planning of the cathedral's construction, a member of the chapter was recorded to have commented "we shall have a church so great and of such a kind that those who see it built will think we were mad." Well, I don’t know if they were mad, but it is one impressive place. In fact, so impressive that my camera decided to stop working (no battery juice left!) after the first picture inside (with a flash)! Standing in the line to go to the top of the Giralda, I was wondering if I should leave the place and run to the hotel to get the spare battery that I had stupidly left in the luggage but looking at the hordes of people outside, I decided not to.
So, we all climbed an easy 40+ meters without a single stop (it is almost a handicap accessible! ramp almost all the way), I opened my camera bag, put the long lenses on, turned it on, and hit the shutter button. To my amazement, since I wasn’t using the flash, it worked perfect! There is such a thing called God after all! I took as many pictures from all four sides as I wanted to take, and as I told my wife "last picture I want up here", it died again! But no problems, I had what I wanted. Let me summarize my experience up there by saying Seville city view is absolutely gorgeous.
We all walked down (ran is more like it... Have you tried to keeping up with kids going down in a tower when they are having fun?) swiftly but politely passing old ladies and men on the right. We made it out to the sun, and met Maribel and Jose who having done La Giralda before, were enjoying the sun and the sights.
It was nearly six o’clock so we headed out of the city to our timeshare in Mijas Costa, a terribly touristy place as we will find. It took us three tries, and much verbal abuses to Campsa Guide publishers, to get out of the city but we did!
Drive to Mijas-Costa involved driving on A-4, then A-92 towards Granada, then A-45 towards Malaga, and finally A-7 to Mijas-Costa. A-45 and A-7 reminded me of the famous Highway 1 near San Francisco with sea on the left, and mountains on the right. Pretty drive although with very sudden entrances to the highway! Basically, a highway (with an average speed of nearly 120 kmh) where people were at Stop signs at ninety degree, and occasionally suddenly came in front of you at slower speeds. Somehow it all worked fine. I really have no complaints of Spanish highway. As good as they can be.
Anyway, we were exhausted by the time we arrived in Mijas Costa. The timeshare there is owned and managed by Clube La Costa, an entity that manages 3,000 similar units across Europe and elsewhere, and was as good as Hilton Group Condos (some Europeans find the word condos very funny.... do you know why?) in the States (that we own and had exchanged from). The Spanish man behind the counter reminded me of Mr. Bean, and every time he would sneeze (which he did often), I felt like telling him "have others told you that you look like...". I think it was good I didn’t mention it! I say this because the man had five flags on his nametag (signifying the number of languages he spoke) and he could have cursed me in three languages that I won’t have understood! Thoughtfully, they had left us a fridge full of enough breakfast items (eggs, water, bread, milk, etc) so we didn’t have to worry about it all right away. Our unit was a two bedroom – two bath unit with a sofa bed that overlooked the azure blue Mediterranean AND a nearby lighthouse! Comfortable, nice unit that as is customary in Spain, lacked a drier but came complete with a cloth rack.
After a hot, hot shower, I turned on the TV and was delighted to find WorldCup Cricket, live! As a kid, I grew up absolutely loving cricket, played it until I went to College, had classmates who played for the national team, that now are major power brokers in that game, and was glued to it for half an hour before heading off to sleep another night’s good sleep.
Advice: Sunday is not monday. Or tuesday. Or wednesday. Or any other day
Plan well! When in Sevilla, do as "Sevillans" do. Slow down and smell the air. In Sevilla, it is good to smell that air, because it smells wonderful
Listen to Bryan Adams’ song on "when you love a woman".
When you see someone stick four fingers in his mouth to produce whistle with multiple notes, don’t ride a bike in front of his bus.
Lastly, never make fun of people who speak more languages than you do.
So, who's still with me and reading my report? Tell me.
May 26th, 2007, 08:58 AM
#48
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I'm still here, Comfy, fully enjoying it !!!
The reason for a light breakfast (often, just a coffee) here in Spain is not the late dinner. The reason is called "almuerzo". You would see it probably as a lunch, but it is not. It's a whole breakfast(more like a whole meal) at about 10 or 11 am. Just join any bar at these hours and look what most people is eating...at least here were I live it's amazing. They don't have place enough on the table to put everything
Of course, that's the reason for having lunch late too
And yes, it took me quite a while some time ago to imagine what "condos" mean in US
The reason for a light breakfast (often, just a coffee) here in Spain is not the late dinner. The reason is called "almuerzo". You would see it probably as a lunch, but it is not. It's a whole breakfast(more like a whole meal) at about 10 or 11 am. Just join any bar at these hours and look what most people is eating...at least here were I live it's amazing. They don't have place enough on the table to put everything
Of course, that's the reason for having lunch late too And yes, it took me quite a while some time ago to imagine what "condos" mean in US
May 26th, 2007, 12:34 PM
#49
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So sad for Enrique Becerra being closed. I thought you were staying in Seville other day than Sunday...what happened with the Chinchón trip?
Giralda: once I heard it is a ramp to permit going up on horseback. Yes, it really sounds weird, I have not been able to confirm.
I cannot have morning breakfast other than coffee, orange juice and a toast. As you like music, you may recall from Who's Quadrophenia: "my fried egg makes me sick first thing in the morning". Well, that was me in the boarding school.
Giralda: once I heard it is a ramp to permit going up on horseback. Yes, it really sounds weird, I have not been able to confirm.
I cannot have morning breakfast other than coffee, orange juice and a toast. As you like music, you may recall from Who's Quadrophenia: "my fried egg makes me sick first thing in the morning". Well, that was me in the boarding school.
May 26th, 2007, 04:18 PM
#50
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Ann, Thanks! Yes, the marmalade I tried was a bit bitter but still good.
Kend, Do you mean aperitivo? I always thought Almuerzo meant lunch.
Josele, I made changes in my itinerary at the last minute. Couldn't make Chinchon due to jetlag. Seville had to be one day shorter due to personal reasons. But, I got the flavor which is what is important. If you note, I try to enjoy people interaction almost as much as seeing the landmarks themselves. By the way, I can't function unless I have a protein filled breakfast
Here is the first of two sets of pictures from the trip. Almost all are taken by me with the exception of couple. I won't print all of them but left some (e.g., those inside Toledo Cathedral... very hard to take good low-light shots) to give flavor of what it was like.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/comfyshoes/sets/
I will post the next set containing nearly the same number of pictures towards the end of the week (when I conclude all the reporting... still have 4-5 more days to go).
Kend, Do you mean aperitivo? I always thought Almuerzo meant lunch.
Josele, I made changes in my itinerary at the last minute. Couldn't make Chinchon due to jetlag. Seville had to be one day shorter due to personal reasons. But, I got the flavor which is what is important. If you note, I try to enjoy people interaction almost as much as seeing the landmarks themselves. By the way, I can't function unless I have a protein filled breakfast
Here is the first of two sets of pictures from the trip. Almost all are taken by me with the exception of couple. I won't print all of them but left some (e.g., those inside Toledo Cathedral... very hard to take good low-light shots) to give flavor of what it was like.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/comfyshoes/sets/
I will post the next set containing nearly the same number of pictures towards the end of the week (when I conclude all the reporting... still have 4-5 more days to go).
May 26th, 2007, 06:49 PM
#51
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No, I don't mean "aperitivo", that's too light (a pintxo or two)
You can say "almorzar" for lunch, sure.
Probably, in the rest of Spain they would call what I was describing as a "desayuno" or what you call a brunch...but here in Valencia is called "almuerzo" to that mid morning meal. And then the actual lunch is "la comida". Complex meals terminology, isn't it ?
You can say "almorzar" for lunch, sure.
Probably, in the rest of Spain they would call what I was describing as a "desayuno" or what you call a brunch...but here in Valencia is called "almuerzo" to that mid morning meal. And then the actual lunch is "la comida". Complex meals terminology, isn't it ?
May 27th, 2007, 04:20 AM
#52
hi again, comfy,
do you mean to say that Maramlade is not commonly eaten in the US?
well, there's a thing!
and it's meant to be slightly bitter - not nice without the edge. best on toast with butter, after a proper english breakfast.
there are lots of different sorts - shred, shredless, jelly, dundee, grapefruit, three-fruit, ginger, whisky...
regards, ann
do you mean to say that Maramlade is not commonly eaten in the US?
well, there's a thing!
and it's meant to be slightly bitter - not nice without the edge. best on toast with butter, after a proper english breakfast.
there are lots of different sorts - shred, shredless, jelly, dundee, grapefruit, three-fruit, ginger, whisky...
regards, ann
May 27th, 2007, 07:40 AM
#55
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Kend, Whew! Confusing. Yes.
Ann, No, we eat a fair bit but "comfy" was simply clueless about it. But I now know the roles of pectin and orange peels in Marmalade, and promise to read the labels in the future. Ginger is my favorite. Did you end by whiskey intentionally?
Kristina/Lois, Thanks (Madrid Cathedral front is not mine). I am not a professional photographer but I seem to be getting better at it. I use an Olympus DSLR Evolt 500 (http://tinyurl.com/2dwj9t) with 14-45 mm and 40-150 mm Zuiko lenses. The camera has two dozen inbuilt settings that make taking good pictures a cake walk IF your hands are steady
Ann, No, we eat a fair bit but "comfy" was simply clueless about it. But I now know the roles of pectin and orange peels in Marmalade, and promise to read the labels in the future. Ginger is my favorite. Did you end by whiskey intentionally?
Kristina/Lois, Thanks (Madrid Cathedral front is not mine). I am not a professional photographer but I seem to be getting better at it. I use an Olympus DSLR Evolt 500 (http://tinyurl.com/2dwj9t) with 14-45 mm and 40-150 mm Zuiko lenses. The camera has two dozen inbuilt settings that make taking good pictures a cake walk IF your hands are steady
May 27th, 2007, 07:57 AM
#56
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Day ten: Visiting Ronda.....
Ronda is only 100 or so kilometers from Mijas Costa but we knew that since it was a scenic drive along and across the mountains, we needed to leave early to be able to spend enough time in the town. Ronda was described to me as a beautiful Serrania city with a perfect postcard setting amongst mountains, gorges, and a birthplace of bullfighting. We took AP-7, an empty toll road, that went westwards past Marbella on to A-397 (Carreter de a Ronda), another highway but winding around mountains. The view from both AP-7 and A-397 was absolutely stunning. Large mountains loomed at a distance, with fog hovering near their top, dark green forest of pine trees, and giant zagged rock outcrops everywhere. Right through the heart of Serrania de Ronda, definitely the most scenic drive of the entire trip. On A-397, we found ourselves right behind a line of cars driving at 45 kph, and somewhat wild Spanish driving on the opposite side of the traffic Since the drive on A-397 was only 40 kilometers or so, we all vowed not to get frustrated and make the best of the beautiful scenery. So we trudged along at 45 kph soaking in the scenery, and listening to good music. I had brought a mix of CDs that included songs spanning five decades (think Henry Belafonte, Petula Clark, Tony Orlando, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, Celin Dion, Mario Frangoulis, Andrea Bocelli, and Josh Groban, all mixed in And Shania Twain that my daughter loves). Jose, whose english is as bad as my Spanish, surprised me by singing along, almost perfectly, with the songs from 50s through 70s! I guess I shouldn’t be but it always surprises me that good music, like good manners, so easily transcends languages and cultures.
When we arrived in Ronda around 11 am, we found that I had left the itinerary back in the hotel and had little idea of where to go (we will also need to improvise on the lunch venue because I had forgotten the name of the restaurant, El Predicatario, which was highly recommended here). So we did what needed to be done, and stopped at the local tourism office near the Bullring to pick the local map.
Armed with the map, we walked over to the famous single arch Ronda bridge that belongs to Ronda's three historic bridges and was built in the 16th century. It links the Padre Jesus district with Ronda's Old Town (La Ciudad) by spanning the 120 m deep gorge. Various viewing platforms near the bridge offer fantastic views of the bridge and the canyon. Beneath the central arch is a chamber which used to be a prison. Take my word: The view of mountains, greenery, farms, small white villages far away, etc from near the bridge is simply stunning and worth WALKING all the way Ronda if you don’t have a car! Okay, I am kidding about walking. I must have taken two dozen pictures from a single spot, and wondered how it must be to live in a place like that. Here in Midwest, there are days in Spring (specially after long, harsh winters) when you wake up in the morning, look out and can’t help but think "Man, it is great to be alive!" (the other days you simply go about your business!). I suspect people in Ronda, hopefully not bogged down by problems of their lives, probably think like that every morning! Although we didn’t stay overnight, Parador de Ronda is conveniently located right next to the bridge.
From the bridge, we walked over to Casa del Rey Moro (used to belong to the King of Ronda who is rumored to drink his wine from the skull of his enemies! Hmmm.... Out-of-the-box thought for serious savings in wine glasses although how do you fill the eye sockets! Yuck!), Palacio De Salvatierra (that has a façade with two boys sticking their tongues out, and two girls covering themselves.... how timeless, no? ), Iglesia de la Merced, Iglesia Padre Jesus, the older parts of the town, and then walked over to the Plaza across the street from the bullring. The entire walk took us nearly two-and-a-half hours, we didn’t go inside anywhere, and mostly enjoyed the ambiance of the city.
We stopped at Restaurant Meson Rondeno at Plaza de la Merced to have our lunch, a place we picked completely out of the hat (like we all are used to Unless you get hooked up with the Fodors experts like Josele, Kend, Ann, Lincasanova, Lartista, etc!). It was a nice enough place, and we tried cochinillo asado, a large plate consisting of deep fried fish and other seafood (that Jose insisted tasted drastically different, nice, from in Madrid.... I really couldn’t tell for sure), etc. The restaurant’s restroom was located upstairs and as I went to use it, I saw a large dance room of sorts filled with couple dancers practicing. I spent a few minutes looking at them and then felt a bit awkward so did my business, and walked back down. My family had gotten hooked on to Flan by then (much as I love Spanish food, I don’t particularly care much for flan) and we had five servings of flan!, and two oranges for yours truly as postre. Coffee helped woke us up after this two hour lunch, and we headed out to the supposed "Cathedral of Bullfighting", the Ronda Bullring.
Ronda is considered as one of the modern bullfighting's art birthplaces, and the bullring has a pretty interesting museum reflecting that. It now hosts only three or so corridas a year, although I am told the "Goyesca", held at the beginning of September, is spectacular with people dressing up in eighteenth century costumes. Apparently, Bull fighting was born in the 18th century and was focused at sustaining the equestrian art. In 1572, King Philip II to founded the Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda (Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda) to keep horses and horse-riders in good shape. To do its job, this organization reserved a large city space for equestrian exercises, and, built the bull ring. We saw traditional clothes, appendages, saddles, armor, spears (they don't look "cute" when you see them up close), boots, etc, and became aware of Ronda’s contribution to it all. There were maps of various bullfights complete with figurines, strategic placements and what not, all of which reminded me of American football (don’t get offended by the comparison!). We walked inside the bullring which looked similar to what one would imagine with seats closely spaced, making me wonder how people get to them if it is crowded. Our tickets also allowed us to walk over to the area where the bulls are kept prior to a fight, and areas where equestrian exercises take place.
After spending more than an hour in the ring and the museum, we decided to do the Spanish ritual of a caffe-con-leche and stopped at a coffee house next to the bridge. Over coffee, Jose and DS started playing an improvised game with paperballs. Jose retired as a senior executive for Spain’s second largest bank, and after 45 minutes of nonstop giggle and fun between a Spanish gentleman in his 70s and a 6 year old American boy, I couldn’t help (in my mind) but contrast the differences between people Jose’s age back home in States. By the time we finished the coffee, it was time to go back! Lacking slow drivers in front of us, we made it back in less than 90 minutes.
Back in Mijas Costa, I decided to go alone (everyone else was either cooking or relaxing) to check out the resort and went walking until I saw a little toy train coming towards me. I hopped on to it and didn’t realize it will take me all the way to the other end of the La Costa Resort! The resort is SO big, it would have taken me a full half an hour to walk back. So I stayed put for it to go back in 15 minutes, and listened to the Italian driver’s melodius English as he tried to converse with a youngish German woman (who I simply couldn’t understand even though I KNOW she was talking in English!). The woman and her boyfriend (also German) then came to sit right behind me, and started doing what some people do when they fall in the love the first time around, which is to show off! After an agonizing 15 minutes of hearing them literally lick each other, which augmented the "feeling silly" part of sitting in a bloody toy train, it finally started moving and brought me back to my resort unit in no time. I found three little cats sitting at our door, and prompted my kids to come out who, I swear, had almost as good a time with the cats as visiting the historic city!
We had a nice, simple home-cooked dinner of salad, deep fried fish, and fresh fruits in our unit, watched World-cup cricket (can you see a theme going?) for half an hour, and then we all went to sleep!
Advice: If you are in Sevilla, MUST visit Ronda. The scenery alone is totally worth it. If you go in September, consider attending Goyesca although we didn't. Finally, bring ear plugs and blinders should you sit next to people who show off, a little too much, that they are in love.
Day Eleven: Staying in the resort
Today we took it easy, slept till 10 am, had a long lazy breakfast (yes Kend, almuerzo), walked to the nearby beach where I met a Mexican man in his late 60s (Manuel) and discussed his family and prospects for his kids spread across the world for various interesting sounding jobs, combed the beach for sea shells, went to one of resort's six pools, played tennis with the kids for nearly two hours!, and then went to bed early.
Next day: Jerez
Ronda is only 100 or so kilometers from Mijas Costa but we knew that since it was a scenic drive along and across the mountains, we needed to leave early to be able to spend enough time in the town. Ronda was described to me as a beautiful Serrania city with a perfect postcard setting amongst mountains, gorges, and a birthplace of bullfighting. We took AP-7, an empty toll road, that went westwards past Marbella on to A-397 (Carreter de a Ronda), another highway but winding around mountains. The view from both AP-7 and A-397 was absolutely stunning. Large mountains loomed at a distance, with fog hovering near their top, dark green forest of pine trees, and giant zagged rock outcrops everywhere. Right through the heart of Serrania de Ronda, definitely the most scenic drive of the entire trip. On A-397, we found ourselves right behind a line of cars driving at 45 kph, and somewhat wild Spanish driving on the opposite side of the traffic
Since the drive on A-397 was only 40 kilometers or so, we all vowed not to get frustrated and make the best of the beautiful scenery. So we trudged along at 45 kph soaking in the scenery, and listening to good music. I had brought a mix of CDs that included songs spanning five decades (think Henry Belafonte, Petula Clark, Tony Orlando, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, Celin Dion, Mario Frangoulis, Andrea Bocelli, and Josh Groban, all mixed in And Shania Twain that my daughter loves). Jose, whose english is as bad as my Spanish, surprised me by singing along, almost perfectly, with the songs from 50s through 70s! I guess I shouldn’t be but it always surprises me that good music, like good manners, so easily transcends languages and cultures. When we arrived in Ronda around 11 am, we found that I had left the itinerary back in the hotel and had little idea of where to go (we will also need to improvise on the lunch venue because I had forgotten the name of the restaurant, El Predicatario, which was highly recommended here). So we did what needed to be done, and stopped at the local tourism office near the Bullring to pick the local map.
Armed with the map, we walked over to the famous single arch Ronda bridge that belongs to Ronda's three historic bridges and was built in the 16th century. It links the Padre Jesus district with Ronda's Old Town (La Ciudad) by spanning the 120 m deep gorge. Various viewing platforms near the bridge offer fantastic views of the bridge and the canyon. Beneath the central arch is a chamber which used to be a prison. Take my word: The view of mountains, greenery, farms, small white villages far away, etc from near the bridge is simply stunning and worth WALKING all the way Ronda if you don’t have a car! Okay, I am kidding about walking. I must have taken two dozen pictures from a single spot, and wondered how it must be to live in a place like that. Here in Midwest, there are days in Spring (specially after long, harsh winters) when you wake up in the morning, look out and can’t help but think "Man, it is great to be alive!" (the other days you simply go about your business!). I suspect people in Ronda, hopefully not bogged down by problems of their lives, probably think like that every morning! Although we didn’t stay overnight, Parador de Ronda is conveniently located right next to the bridge.
From the bridge, we walked over to Casa del Rey Moro (used to belong to the King of Ronda who is rumored to drink his wine from the skull of his enemies! Hmmm.... Out-of-the-box thought for serious savings in wine glasses
although how do you fill the eye sockets! Yuck!), Palacio De Salvatierra (that has a façade with two boys sticking their tongues out, and two girls covering themselves.... how timeless, no? ), Iglesia de la Merced, Iglesia Padre Jesus, the older parts of the town, and then walked over to the Plaza across the street from the bullring. The entire walk took us nearly two-and-a-half hours, we didn’t go inside anywhere, and mostly enjoyed the ambiance of the city. We stopped at Restaurant Meson Rondeno at Plaza de la Merced to have our lunch, a place we picked completely out of the hat (like we all are used to
Unless you get hooked up with the Fodors experts like Josele, Kend, Ann, Lincasanova, Lartista, etc!). It was a nice enough place, and we tried cochinillo asado, a large plate consisting of deep fried fish and other seafood (that Jose insisted tasted drastically different, nice, from in Madrid.... I really couldn’t tell for sure), etc. The restaurant’s restroom was located upstairs and as I went to use it, I saw a large dance room of sorts filled with couple dancers practicing. I spent a few minutes looking at them and then felt a bit awkward so did my business, and walked back down. My family had gotten hooked on to Flan by then (much as I love Spanish food, I don’t particularly care much for flan) and we had five servings of flan!, and two oranges for yours truly as postre. Coffee helped woke us up after this two hour lunch, and we headed out to the supposed "Cathedral of Bullfighting", the Ronda Bullring. Ronda is considered as one of the modern bullfighting's art birthplaces, and the bullring has a pretty interesting museum reflecting that. It now hosts only three or so corridas a year, although I am told the "Goyesca", held at the beginning of September, is spectacular with people dressing up in eighteenth century costumes. Apparently, Bull fighting was born in the 18th century and was focused at sustaining the equestrian art. In 1572, King Philip II to founded the Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda (Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda) to keep horses and horse-riders in good shape. To do its job, this organization reserved a large city space for equestrian exercises, and, built the bull ring. We saw traditional clothes, appendages, saddles, armor, spears (they don't look "cute" when you see them up close), boots, etc, and became aware of Ronda’s contribution to it all. There were maps of various bullfights complete with figurines, strategic placements and what not, all of which reminded me of American football (don’t get offended by the comparison!). We walked inside the bullring which looked similar to what one would imagine with seats closely spaced, making me wonder how people get to them if it is crowded. Our tickets also allowed us to walk over to the area where the bulls are kept prior to a fight, and areas where equestrian exercises take place.
After spending more than an hour in the ring and the museum, we decided to do the Spanish ritual of a caffe-con-leche and stopped at a coffee house next to the bridge. Over coffee, Jose and DS started playing an improvised game with paperballs. Jose retired as a senior executive for Spain’s second largest bank, and after 45 minutes of nonstop giggle and fun between a Spanish gentleman in his 70s and a 6 year old American boy, I couldn’t help (in my mind) but contrast the differences between people Jose’s age back home in States. By the time we finished the coffee, it was time to go back! Lacking slow drivers in front of us, we made it back in less than 90 minutes.
Back in Mijas Costa, I decided to go alone (everyone else was either cooking or relaxing) to check out the resort and went walking until I saw a little toy train coming towards me. I hopped on to it and didn’t realize it will take me all the way to the other end of the La Costa Resort! The resort is SO big, it would have taken me a full half an hour to walk back. So I stayed put for it to go back in 15 minutes, and listened to the Italian driver’s melodius English as he tried to converse with a youngish German woman (who I simply couldn’t understand even though I KNOW she was talking in English!). The woman and her boyfriend (also German) then came to sit right behind me, and started doing what some people do when they fall in the love the first time around, which is to show off! After an agonizing 15 minutes of hearing them literally lick each other, which augmented the "feeling silly" part of sitting in a bloody toy train, it finally started moving and brought me back to my resort unit in no time. I found three little cats sitting at our door, and prompted my kids to come out who, I swear, had almost as good a time with the cats as visiting the historic city!
We had a nice, simple home-cooked dinner of salad, deep fried fish, and fresh fruits in our unit, watched World-cup cricket (can you see a theme going?) for half an hour, and then we all went to sleep!
Advice: If you are in Sevilla, MUST visit Ronda. The scenery alone is totally worth it. If you go in September, consider attending Goyesca although we didn't. Finally, bring ear plugs and blinders should you sit next to people who show off, a little too much, that they are in love.
Day Eleven: Staying in the resort
Today we took it easy, slept till 10 am, had a long lazy breakfast (yes Kend, almuerzo), walked to the nearby beach where I met a Mexican man in his late 60s (Manuel) and discussed his family and prospects for his kids spread across the world for various interesting sounding jobs, combed the beach for sea shells, went to one of resort's six pools, played tennis with the kids for nearly two hours!, and then went to bed early.
Next day: Jerez
May 27th, 2007, 08:49 AM
#57
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I see you get used to Spanish "good costumes" quickly
But everybody has their own problems...as good as it seems, life is not so different this side of the pond, really...a different way to lead with them, maybe, but everybody worries about the same things..everywhere, even in Ronda
But everybody has their own problems...as good as it seems, life is not so different this side of the pond, really...a different way to lead with them, maybe, but everybody worries about the same things..everywhere, even in Ronda
May 27th, 2007, 11:15 AM
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Eating: Midday meal is Almuerzo or Comida, indistinct. Taken at 2’00 to 2’30, though I do it later. Before lunch (at 1’00 or 1’30 PM) you may have an Aperitivo, this is a drink (beer, fino) and one or two tapas or pinchos. Strictly speaking, aperitivo is the drink only.
Jam: The bitter orange , which is my favourite, is not very popular in Spain, as it is in UK. (It seems time ago they expected a shipload of sweet, and got the bitter instead, so they had to improvise). All street orange-trees you see in Seville are the bitter sort.
The Ronda bridges are Three: The Roman, the Arab (that’s the one in the middle) and the impressive New Bridge (which in fact is the fourth: if you look carefully, you may see in the walls of the chasm the remnants of the 17th century single-arched third one, impressive construction thet collapsed after 6 years of completed).
The Casa del Rey Moro takes its name from a tile painting on its wall, depicting some moor with turban.
For drinking, it was used the skullcap, not the part with the face. But I think it was a Viking habit.
Jam: The bitter orange , which is my favourite, is not very popular in Spain, as it is in UK. (It seems time ago they expected a shipload of sweet, and got the bitter instead, so they had to improvise). All street orange-trees you see in Seville are the bitter sort.
The Ronda bridges are Three: The Roman, the Arab (that’s the one in the middle) and the impressive New Bridge (which in fact is the fourth: if you look carefully, you may see in the walls of the chasm the remnants of the 17th century single-arched third one, impressive construction thet collapsed after 6 years of completed).
The Casa del Rey Moro takes its name from a tile painting on its wall, depicting some moor with turban.
For drinking, it was used the skullcap, not the part with the face. But I think it was a Viking habit.
May 27th, 2007, 01:07 PM
#59
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Kend, Yes, I obviously understand that and it is unfortunate that familiarity results in our stopping to savor the moment and, forces us to live the continuum of a life with its wrinkles and what not. Still, here is some advice for you: simply accept my compliments to your culture Believe me, there will be others who won't understand it or won't experience in the manner I tried to do.
Josele, Your understanding of historical context is as impressive to me as your paintings. I did some research, and you are right about the Giralda ramp. I see multiple references to it being made for a muezzin, the prayer guy, to ride a horse all the way up to the top. Makes me wonder what was the hurry to make someone want to ride a horse although it was obviously efficient. May be it was some well known but very old muezzin, that the former Mosque needed. Just a wild guess.
Interesting bit about the Ronda bridge (my Fodor guide had said 50 or so people had died in the collapse). Was Aldehuela famous? That bridge is one impressive site although I never got all the way down to the bottom to the gorge because I didn't know how to.
Is the extensive research part of the effort to understand the subject (place or people) to bring realism to your paintings? Very curious about that.
Believe me, there will be others who won't understand it or won't experience in the manner I tried to do. Josele, Your understanding of historical context is as impressive to me as your paintings. I did some research, and you are right about the Giralda ramp. I see multiple references to it being made for a muezzin, the prayer guy, to ride a horse all the way up to the top. Makes me wonder what was the hurry to make someone want to ride a horse although it was obviously efficient. May be it was some well known but very old muezzin, that the former Mosque needed. Just a wild guess.
Interesting bit about the Ronda bridge (my Fodor guide had said 50 or so people had died in the collapse). Was Aldehuela famous? That bridge is one impressive site although I never got all the way down to the bottom to the gorge because I didn't know how to.
Is the extensive research part of the effort to understand the subject (place or people) to bring realism to your paintings? Very curious about that.
