stokebailey

Ann, I like going off topic. Consult away.

The week we were there, especially Sunday and Monday nights, Triana seemed to roll the sidewalks up around 2300. Either that, or they were resting up to reopen at midnight and we gave up too soon. Admittedly outside of tourist season, too.

annhig

hearing that many heels hitting a wood floor in unison, to a flamenco beat, smelling all that sweat, watching that many colors of swirling skirt, is a thrill. >>

wow stoke, you're right - a thrill indeed. did your daughter enjoy the classes? We didn't go to a flamenco show in Seville but we did go to one in Madrid and were very impressed by it - a terrific singer and a woman dressed as a man who was most compelling.

stokebailey

During the class she was concentrating so hard that I couldn't tell whether she liked it, but H came out exhilarated both times, said she LOVED it.

A great experience for us both, and a bargain at 25 eur for 2 hrs of high level class. I got to sit next to the young flamenco guitarist for the Wednesday class. He was very good. I wish I had a recording of the song they were dancing to, or had at least asked its name.

I had to wonder, with all that local amateur talent, why bars and tabernas don't have someone at least playing and dancing for tips.

kimhe

<hearing that many heels hitting a wood floor in unison>
Perhaps no better city in the world to attend serious flamenco classes.

At least give Espinacas con garbanzos a second chance ;-)
https://www.google.no/search?q=Espin...w=1600&bih=783

annhig,
<any flamenco or tapas tips for Valencia?>
lincasanova knows Valencia in and out.

Or you can ask Jason Webster, a flamenco guitarist and great writer, who have lived in the Valencia area for years. The author of excellent flamenco road trip "Duende - A journey into the heart of flamenco".
http://www.jasonwebster.net/
http://www.jasonwebster.net/contact/
http://www.jasonwebster.net/duende/

annhig

kimhe - thanks for the link to Jason Webster.

i read his book "Duende" sometime ago, and it made a big impression. Sadly there doesn't seem to be much about Valencia on his website though. [or perhaps that is simply my ineptitude].

i will ask Lincasanova about flamenco in Valencia.

kimhe

.. or contact Webster directly, I'm sure he'll be more than glad to help. Married to a flamenco dancer and himself a flamenco guitarist, he knows of all the flamenco places in town.

stokebailey

I'm looking forward to reading about Ann's trip to Valencia.

Will finish our highlights:

SHOES

I am far from a shoe fanatic, but with that many sidewalk miles a day they loom larger. Not to mention fearing to disgrace our country by wearing what the late great CW used to call clown shoes.

I wore a hole in the heel of my old Ecco walking shoes halfway through the London part of this trip: the soles are lightweight and bouncy by having air chambers, and I'd worn through to one. I kept thinking I'd dash into a London hardware store and buy some Goop type glue to squeeze in for a temporary fix. Then I thought I'd wait until Seville and buy a pair of Spanish walking shoes.

(Pause here to hum Dylan's Boots of Spanish Leather.)

I went into some of the shoe shops along c/San Jacinto in Triana, looked for "Hecho en Espana", found some attractive styles. Then came the discouraging part: through no fault of my own, I am pretty tall and have feet to match. The small shoe stores in Triana carried all the way up to 40 for women, and I need 42. Surely the big fancy shoe emporiums across the river would have something cute, comfortable, and Spanish made in my size. Nope. I endured the humiliation of asking in four stores, to be told that their women's top out at 41.

(Reminding me of when I lived in Santa Fe NM and tried to buy shoes. One clerk tried to sell me an ugly pair of size 8.5 for my size 10 feet. Where do my people live, my fellow bigfoots?)

MUSEUMS

We went all over the Museo de Bella Artes, soaking up the bloody Catholicism, loving it. Lots of the religious art, and light on secular Spanish masters. As I understand it, The monasteries and convents were closed mid 19th C, and their art appropriated. This Museo is a former convent.
Paintings include Zurbaran's wonderful Virgen de las Cuevas

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...es_Sevilla.jpg
some lovely Murillos, an El Greco. A small head of apostle study by Velasquez.

After you admit you're from the Estados Unidos they charge you a euro or two. I went back later by myself with sketchbook, and another visit or two would not have been too much.

stokebailey

Like a museum, and our only day trip, the ancient Roman town Italica, and one of my favorite Fodorite (maybe kimhe?) suggestions. Bus departs every half hour, leaves from Plaza de Armas, 10 min walk just across the river, then winds through town, stopping occasionally, up past olive groves to the hilltop town of Santiponce and adjacent Italica.

We refreshed ourselves with cafe con leche and bocadillos -- very nice-- at the second little cafe from the bus stop. Cool old guy at the bar, does it all. Outide tables, fresh air, sunshine, feeling of well being.

Don't miss getting a humble bocadillo sometime when you're visiting Spain. Cheap, quick, good.

It was an important Roman town ~ 2 BC-4 AD, and is still being excavated. The sunny day we were there saw also droves of schoolchildren; the youngest groups tended to wear Roman attire like togas and the red-crested helmets. The children were well-behaved, engaged.

We walked up the stone streets, arched in the middle with gutters on the sides, saw the House of Birds, with its mosaics of recognizable species. We took photos for my husband the birder. H has posted photos on her Facebook page, but she said it was so much trouble that she declines to put any on photo sharing sites. I'll put a few public images up to give an idea. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...lectedIndex=37
The coliseum was fun to walk around, and to peer down into the pit in the middle where they would have kept the lions and such.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...electedIndex=1

You can spend a couple of hours or so leisurely exploring the site, reading the explanatory signs. We rested at the little pavilion on our way out, with some outdoors tables and bathrooms. H had her feet up on an empty chair, and a passing worker politely asked her to remove them. Definitely a cultural thing. The Ugly Americans at it again. One rainy afternoon in London I sat across the bus aisle from a young man who sat with his wellies soles on the seat, and I refrained from acting like Boot Police.

Well worth it, and plenty enough excursion for us that week.

annhig

feet on a seat is a cultural thing? or an age thing - i find myself doing it a lot more than I did when i was young/er. I'm sure that neither you nor H were being the ugly american.

we too are returned from Spain, where we had a terrific few days in Valencia. TR on its way - I will try to rival yours for detail and charm, Stoke, but i can't promise to succeed.

stokebailey

Ann, XXOO. Looking forward to it.

stokebailey

(Short detour back to shoes

In London for the previous two weeks I'd worn opaque black tights every day with skirts, but during our first walk from Plaza de Armas to our apartment I longed to liberate my legs right away and put on my sandals. When we got to the Saturday shopping crowds across the river after lunch, I realized I was the only one in sight with visible toes. What seemed like delightful warm air to us was still springtime chill to the Sevillanos, apparently. I switched back to tights, cowardly fashion, and only noticed two others that week in bare legs/sandals. One was a British man and the other may have been German.

stokebailey

Hum, I meant to have end parenthesis and a colon there, not an inappropriate smiley face.

annhig

stoke - we noticed the same phenomenon in Valencia, though locals seemed divided as to what they should be wearing, with some sporting winter gear, and others more lightly dressed, though the latter were all equipped with jackets should the weather change for the worse, which on occasion it did! it was only us daft tourists that were ill-equipped for the season.

stokebailey

TWO MUSEUMS, of unequal value

Two Museums, both alike in architectural dignity, face each other in fair Sevilla. One of them much more worthy of a visit, in our opinion. The Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares and the Museo Arqueológico are on the southern end of Parque de Maria Luisa. If you can only visit one, make it the Arqueológico.

We visited the Popular Arts one afternoon, not having read much about either museum. I think it cost a euro for us non EU. There are interesting things enough to see, like the model of a luthier's shop, fragrant casks from a bodega, ordinary household implements from an earlier age, and a large room full of lace. One wing features what looks like the furnishings from a prosperous ish home, where the last resident died 20 years ago and the heirs didn't know what else to do with things. Like visiting one's elderly aunt, except the embroidered tea towels are spread out instead of folded away. H and I had to giggle a little over those rooms.

On our last evening in town, we walked across Puente de San Telmo, past the Lope de Vega Theater where we stopped in and had tea at the little bar/cafe in the lobby, sat out on the fine old fashioned patio and felt like quality folk from a bygone era. Refreshed, we continued along the Plaza de España, resisting the lure of the little buggies you pedal, through the park to the Museo Arqueológico. Just in case it might be worthwhile.

The park and its buildings, I think, were built for a world's fair in 1929, and it is all splendidly showy. It's worth separate walks through that wonderful park where amaryllis bloom and liana trees thrive. http://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/es...edemarialuisa/

The Museo Arqueológico was open late that Thursday evening, and the woman at the door told us it was free, but only that night. We had the whole place to ourselves. What a collection, especially the main floor. Downstairs is more prehistoric, pre Roman, and that's plenty interesting. The real treasures came from Italica: marble statues, mosaics, as fine as any I've seen, and enhanced by being unexpected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Se...sArqS17_01.JPG

I wish we had discovered it earlier, because two or three visits with sketchpad would have been even better. As we left I tried to find a place to fling them a few euros, since Free was far too cheap, but the entrance had closed.

From there we walked back through the darkened park, tried to find someone I felt comfortable asking the name of those remarkable trees. Past the Royal Tobacco Factory and wondering why the moat? and then up through the city seeking tapas.

annhig

stoke - we missed both of those museums in Seville, and it looks like with the last one we missed a treat. However we made up for it in the Alcazar and the many churches that we explored, in search of more and more extravagant virgins, as there was a festival on while we were there; the September version of the Easter extravaganza complete with streets parades and brass bands.

and in 2 1/2 days there is a limit to what you can see - a good reason to return perhaps?

Ozarksbill

So I'm reading about your Sevilla sojourn. What a fun springtime time with daughter. Especially the flamenco class. You saw more of Sevilla than did we. It sounds like you were mainly on a tapas search. But I am dismayed...did you not go into the remarkable Santa Marie cathedral? And you didn't mention going to a flamenco performance?

Stay cool in Missouri.

stokebailey

Ha, thanks for reading this, Ozarksbill. We had a lot of fun in our short Sevilla week.

For better or worse, I'm a contrarian kind of tourist who skips some Must Sees. When I told a dear friend we were going to Seville, she said, "Oh, I love Seville! It has the largest cathedral in the world!" That seemed like such an odd reason to love a town that I probably decided then and there not to visit it. My daughter very much enjoyed touring the Sta Maria cathedral and climbing the tower. I spent that afternoon doing watercolor paintings from the roof terrace of our apartment.

We did attend Sunday mass just down calle Castilla, at Nuestra Senora de la O (wish I knew whether "O" is short for something, or the entire word), a gorgeous gilded gem of a church. People came 30 minutes early, entire dressed up families -- some carrying covered dishes they deposited in the next room -- and visited with each other. We sat in the back in what we'd hoped were inconspicuous pews, but two older women kept looking at us in such a way that made us think we had their customary seats. We sat and inhaled the incense for a half hr and took in the scene, then slipped out.

We kept hoping to find spontaneous late night flamenco dance and/or guitar in Triana, but somehow never did. Our last night we never found the flamenco place in Santa Cruz our hostess had recommended. Watching the advanced class at Betanzos Academia, though, rows of women and a few men, dripping sweat, in unison dancing passion , was a satisfying substitute for a performance.

annhig

We sat in the back in what we'd hoped were inconspicuous pews, but two older women kept looking at us in such a way that made us think we had their customary seats>>

Stoke, that's what we call the "two heads" effect. i.e. they are looking at us as if we have.....

I think that it is just a natural curiosity about people they don't know in an unfamiliar place - or indeed you may have been sitting in their seats and they were too polite to say!

nanael

Dear Stoke - have enjoyed your postings! I am just beginning to plan a trip for about the same time in 2016. Will keep you bookmarked.
Thank you!

Piccolina

Thanks for sharing, Stoke. Am looking into Triana as a neighborhood to stay for an upcoming trip to Spain!