It's a Girl

Gallery: Tangiers, Morocco

dan_and_kim — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 14:50:00 GMT

Gran -na-na-na-na-da

dan_and_kim — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 14:29:00 GMT

Even before the trip started I had been telling myself and others that I expected the Alhamabra in Granada to be the highlight of the trip. It did not disappoint, but I would put the Alcazaba in Seville and the Mezquita in Cordoba right up there with the Alhamabra. But you don't get free tapas in Seville or Cordoba like you do in Granada, so that might tip the scales in the Alhambra's favor.

But it's not really possible to try and compare one site to the next in terms of it's aesthetic beauty or architectual impressiveness. Each one of these three major sites stands alone for its own historical significance and contribution to the fabric of Spain's cultural heritage.

We took in the first of two Arab baths in Granada and afterwards made our way to the San Nicolas mirador for a night view of the Alhambra. The Albaicin across the river Duro from the Alhambra is the old muslim quarter of Granada and there are a number of restaurants called Carmens. Generally, they are multi-level residences that have been turned into public eateries. The impressive labryinth of streets and staircases made the locating of the Carmen that was listed in a number of the guidebooks improbable, but we ultimately found it after more than an hour of wandering around. One thing that they all have in common is that you have to ring the doorbell in order to be admitted downstairs. We had an amazing meal of roast suckling pig, an endive salad with goat queso, croquettes and a chocolate dessert. I ventured into the cellar for an unauthorized view of the jamon iberico hanging next to the 30 and 40 year old riojas... and have the pictures to prove it.

Oh, Ronda

dan_and_kim — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Hemingway spent a number of years here and Rainier Maria Rilke called it something along the lines of 'Heaven here on earth.' (Not to be confused with Belinda Carlile's chart-topping song of 1987.)

One of the best things about Seville was the 'sevici' bicycles that we took advantage of on day two. Barcelona had the same sort of bike-lease program but in Seville they could be rented on a short-term basis, and the freedom of getting out on the open road and proceeding to get lost in the maze of streets was refreshing. In Barcelona I don't think we would have considered risking it all on the bikes, but by the time we were in Seville we were much more comfortable with the erratic and aggressive driving of the Spaniards. And the key to safely getting around town is to be more aggressive and erratic than the next guy - so we faired just fine. The point being: the rental car and the drive out to Ronda offered the same sense of freedom and adventure that the bikes did in Seville.

The other thing I will mentioned about Seville is that it permanently distorted my sense of direction. I was so thoroughly disoriented moving around the city at all times and have since found that I have lost all confidence and ability to navigate around a new place.

While the brotherhoods displayed their contrition by processioning hours on end through the streets of Seville, our own penetential act over Semana Santa was staying in a real hostel, with Kim in the bottom bunk and me on top and six revelers that moved in and out of our room at all hours of the night. By design, our next two nights in Ronda were meant to be a reward for the suffering endured in Seville - we stayed at one of the many Paradors located across Spain. These state-run hotels and inns are former government buildings or otherwise historic sites; in the case of the Parador in Ronda, we were in the old town hall, perched right above the 1000 gorge that has defined the landscape and history of Ronda for centuries.

Kim and I co-wrote a song in Ronda, with a simple chorus and only a couple of verses because there's not much we could get to rhyme with Ronda. It was conceived of while we were having a picnic in the river valley and the next day at the bullring, the oldest in Spain. Oh, the lomo. Oh, Ronda. (If anyone would like to go in on a summer home or just a small parcel of land fit to pitch a tent, let us know.)

Gallery: Granada

dan_and_kim — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Gallery: Ronda

dan_and_kim — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Gallery: Sevilla

dan_and_kim — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Jueves Santo

dan_and_kim — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:47:00 GMT

2 in the morning and there’s still 250,000 people in the street. Some of the processions don’t even start until 3 or 4 and they can go for up to 12 hours. It’s hard to know how to describe it all, but basically each church in town has their own routine: the Cofradías (Brotherhoods or Fraternities) process in penitence through the (many narrow) streets of the city, from their church to the Cathedral and back, taking the shortest possible route, as decreed in the rule of the ordinances by Cardenal Niño de Guevara in the 17th century. The men and boys are dressed up in the long gowns with the head-dress that covers their face and has the pointy hats (antifaz); some churches have large marching bands but there is also el silencio congregation that walks in silence, and commands silence from the throngs of spectators that line the streets (up to 1 million last night in the city center). Every so often, a certain person in the crowd will break out in song: an impassioned solo that can be heard for blocks amidst the demands for quiet from the crowd. The streets are still full of old women, babies in strollers, young boys and girls with cotton candy and helado and sunflower seeds everywhere.

We didn’t actually get to experience Semana Santa in Cordoba at all because it got rained out. The evening news programs had footage of men and women in tears because their church’s procession got cancelled. My understanding is that the “floats” (a better translation probably doesn’t exist for pasos) are built anew every year and that most congregations start on the following year’s float and choreography immediately after Easter Sunday. And we were fortunate that the weather cooperated this evening because it had been raining most of the day. But obviously there would have been a lot more serious disappointment than a couple of Yankee tourists’ dashed hopes of seeing some incomprehensible spectacle.

Gallery: Jueves Santo

dan_and_kim — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:43:00 GMT

Gallery: cordoba 2

dan_and_kim — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:30:00 GMT

La Mezquita

dan_and_kim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:30:00 GMT

85,000 square foot mosque turned cathedral is the reason we’re in Cordoba. And take a look at the photos – this place was amazing! Candy-cane striped arches – over 400 of them – with the first portion built in AD 750. It was actually built on top of the remains of the basilica of sanvicente, from the days when the Romans occupied this portion of Spain. Cordoba was actually medieval Europe’s cultural capital: (rick steves says) “By the year 950 – when the rest of Europe was mired in poverty, ignorance, and superstition – Cordoba was Europe’s greatest city, rivaling Constantinople and Baghdad. It had more than 100,000 people (Paris had a third that many), with hundreds of mosques, palaces, and public baths… The Golden Age was marked by a remarkable spirit of tolerance and cooperation among the three great monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity… ruled over by Abd Al-Rahman III and Al Hakam II.” In 1236 the Christians conquered the city and built a Cathedral within the mosque. What stands today is an amazing time capsule of faith and tradition that combines over 1000 years of Christian and Muslim rule.

And today is miercoles santo, with the first semana santa procession starting in 20 minutes. So we’re off to secure a roadside seat and take in el pasion de cordoba.

The art, and not much else

dan_and_kim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:29:00 GMT

Madrid lacked the personality and vivaciousness of Barcelona. The stay there was also impacted by the fact that I still had the econ test to take, and so while Kim waited in line at the museums I whipped out my Quantum Micro and did some last minute cramming. With the test finished at about 8 o’clock last night we headed out for some food. First on the itinerary was a nice cheese shop, where we sampled five different Spanish cheeses; a couple of manchegos, a roquefurt, a soft mozzarella like cow’s cheese with a slightly tangy finish, and another that isn’t memorable. We had been planning on a tapas crawl through lavapies but ended up setting our sights on a vegetarian spot also in Lavapies (both Kim and I were craving green food). Alas, the place was closed and we ended up eating bad Indian, where the basmati was colored and flavored like Spanish rice and the naan was sort of like wonderbread.

The art, especially the velazques, de Greco, etc. at el prado, was a little high brow for our liking. The thyssen had some more contemporary art – a lot of wonderful expressionist, fauvist, and post-expressionist works: monet, Picasso, pisarro, Pollack, Kandinsky, etc. We took in the two galleries back-to-back with some wonderful pulpo (octopus) and roasted peppers in between. We did the Palace as well, on Monday, and it was pretty much what you would expect from six centuries of monarchy.

“Well, we could try to make it.”

dan_and_kim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:28:00 GMT

It just wouldn’t be a European vacation without a mad rush to meet a departing train. Or at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe, thanks to the Griswold’s and others like them – or their creators.

After more than a week in exceptionally large cities (both Madrid and the greater metropolitan area of Barcelona have a population of over 3 million), it feels great to get out into the country. But we almost missed our train.

The story started last night, and it was interesting enough to warrant a bit of background information to fully appreciate what happened this morning. Actually, it began the day before when we booked our tickets: all 20 trains leaving today from Madrid to Cordoba were sold out, with the exception of the 8:00 am departure. Not a problem in and of itself – a bit of an earlier arrival to cordoba than we would have liked, and we now have to squeeze El Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Picasso’s Guernica) into the end of our trip – but we were missing one essential device: the travel alarm clock. So we end up in a Bazaar in Lavapies, the neighborhood in Madrid that we were staying in, and haggle over the price of a 3 Euro alarm clock. Or at least I thought we were haggling. The price agreed upon, I reach to the side of the counter for a pack of batteries. 7 euros I am told. The ones next to them, 6.75. And the gal reaches for another brand and says, “(kim’s rough translation) These are only 1.50” Except we were the only ones aware of what the problem was. She had grabbed the AAA’s, we needed AA’s, and she was convinced that they were the same size. No, we told her, we need los grandes, no las pequenas. So the gal calls over the store manager, he corroborates her side of the story and then Kim gets nasty, like she does when she hasn’t had her morning coffee (and she’s not drinking coffee these days [just kidding, I love you, kim]) Needless to say, by the end of the transaction the gal and her store manager were well aware of the difference in battery size.

My last involvement in the saga was last night, right before leaving the bazaar, I wanted to check to make sure the clock AND alarm worked. Sure enough, they did.

And so this morning, enter Kim’s voice into my dream about our cousin Andy Marrone’s decision to leave BGI (he doesn’t go to school with me, and I never wear a skirt and sandals to school), asking me what time it is. 7:30, I reply. Seven-bleeping-thirty?, she says. Yup. What are we going to do? Well, we could try to make it.

Maybe there was a 2 second pause, maybe not. But by 7:40 we had packed up our belongings and were out the door. Found a taxi on the street and he rushed us to the station. Miraculously, we made it.

(Update: 2 hours later after we reach Cordoba and recreate the morning’s events for each other, Kim now tells me that the alarm did in fact go off, I turned it off, and we both fell back asleep. Likely story.)

Gallery: cordoba 1

dan_and_kim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:16:00 GMT

Gallery: madrid

dan_and_kim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:13:00 GMT

Photos Added

dan_and_kim — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:02:00 GMT

Kim provided some pithy commentary on a number of the photos from Barcelona - not present in the icon view but if you select the first picture and then view as a slideshow there is a narrated tour of our photos.

Blog what?

dan_and_kim — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:46:00 GMT

It's not surprising that we can't seem to find the time in the day to get to a locutoria (it's hard to find free wi-fi) to keep this sight current. We're in Madrid now and, yes, taking lots of pictures - ones that we'll probably wait to upload until we're at the next stop, which is Cordoba. Our legs are barely keeping up with our frantic pace so far. There is so much between the major tourist attractions - indeed, the rough navigation and slow meandering around the cities have been most enjoyable - that we have been hoofing it most of the time. But we bought a three day pass today for the metro and busses to give ourselves a break. And we only had one major attraction built into the itinerary: El Palacio Real.

In Typical Spanish fashion, each move from one place to another begins with the question: 'Are you hungry yet?' We've been fortunate that if it isn't me that's hungry then it's Kim, and vice versa. (It probably also helps that she's 4 1/2 months pregnant.) And since hunger is calling now, and there is a tapas crawl through the Lavapies neighborhood in store for tonight, we're done for now.

Gallery: Barcelona

dan_and_kim — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:04:00 GMT