The pilgrimage

The first attempt to visit Barcelona and pay homage to the amazing Antoni Gaudi was in 1997. However, exhaustion and a desire to hear Southern English after a semester in England stopped me. I made my goal to return, and so 12 years later I did!

Since I have no great knowledge of good fares, train schedules and the like, I opted to go with a tour group. My Harding roommate, Rebekah, went with me as it was one of the top places she wanted to visit as well. The tour worked beautifully: we didn't have to worry about where we would stay (all the hotels were so nice) or how we would get there (on a coach with giant windows). All we had to do was enjoy the sights. There was enough flexibility that we struck out on our own quite a bit and got to see the things we wanted to see, though the tour covered a lot of them already. We were gone for 12 days and visited Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Carmona, Granada, Peniscola, Valencia and Barcelona. I'll post a few pictures from each city and some of the countryside (a.k.a. the most olives you'll ever see in one place).

The sour orange: all citrus is derived from combinations of the sour orange and sour lemon. This is what my seventh-great grandfather, Count Odet Philippe, brought to Tampa Bay...and you know of Florida's citrus industry! I loved seeing this for the first time.

Madrid

Our first time out of the shoot we went straight to the Pureta del Sol and were greeted by a vivid double rainbow! (How exciting to be with a fellow traveler like Bek! We immediately plunged into the Metro system and saw the town…no waiting around.)

Churros at the famous San Gines! Dipped in chocolate, this is fab with some strong café (ok, con leche). Both Bek and I agreed though, that this is only good here and we won't attempt to recreate this at home.

At the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, we ran in quickly to see Picasso's Guernica. I won't attempt to go into a discourse on Picasso's painting, but I will say each time I visit an art museum, I learn so much!

Cervantes memorial. This is Don.

The Plaza Mayor, site of many historical events including Spanish Inquisition trials.

The Museo del Prado was a treasure trove of Spanish masters like El Greco, Velazquez and Goya. I was also introduced to Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco) here. This is a Velazquez statue at the entrance. I like his poofy hair.

Leaving Madrid, we ran into miles and miles and miles of olive trees. All that you see here is olives! All olives, all the time.
The sunflowers were all in bloom too! Miles and miles of sunflowers. Apparently the EU sanctioned this crop this year.

La Mancha

This was just a quick break. The little inn here was representative of the place where the innkeeper knighted Don Quixote. Sure it was touristy, but it was cute. Almost like those museums of rural life where locals set up old farm implements as they would've been used.

These windmills no longer work, but they keep them up for nostalgia sake. The Spanish schoolchildren all read Cervantes like we read Shakespeare, old school language and all.

Cordoba

The Mezquita, the famous mosque-turned-cathedral. The docents make sure you know it is first of all a cathedral that has mass each day. It was fascinating to see the juxtaposition of the two different styles of Moorish and Gothic. This was one of the places on my list to see…it did not disappoint! (Our tour guide was really good too—Trafalgar hired great guides throughout the tour.)

The tower with guess what enclosed? Yep. A minaret. There is a lovely orange grove within the walled courtyard.

Look at the two styles fused together.

The ancient Roman bridge that has been restored. We crossed this bridge on foot to reach the Mezquita.

Seville

Home to the largest gothic cathedral in the world! Home to the third largest cathedral in the world (after St. Peter's and St. Paul's). Hot diggity. I've seen the top three! It didn't seem as big as the Milan Cathedral, so I wonder if this designation is based on square feet and not height. Since it was built on an old mosque, it is much wider than your average cathedral. Attached to the cathedral is the iconic tower, La Giralda, originally started as a minaret for a mosque. Though we didn't get to see any big processions, all the cities were preparing for Corpus Christi, so they had their statues out and polished, ready to get on the golden float.
We had dinner out with the group one night and ate with these lovely new friends from Canada, Alex and Vanessa. The waiter had to give a speech about how Spaniards ate; that was the best part of the whole meal because he just read in English from a card. Precious! That meal was so-so but I still dream about the chocolate-stuffed figs!

We went to a flamenco dance one night. Ole! The Gipsy Kings got me primed for hearing this music, and I was itching to get up there and stomp around on stage with them.

Bek and I visited the Real Alcazar (sorry for omitting the accent marks—that makes a difference but I don't know how to make them on a Dell). This a Mudejar palace, but it was only built for a Christian king, Pedro I (the Terrible or Horrible—I can't remember which). He basically was envious of the Alhambra and wanted the same for his own, and who can blame him?

How did it escape me in studying for this trip that Columbus left to find the new world from this port? Well, he did. Along with many other explorers like Vespucci I think. So I looked at this river, the Guadalquivir, with new eyes. Bek and I ate along the river, looking at the Torre del Oro and La Giralda. I had Applebee's style paella. –Sigh– It's hard to find the non-touristy places when you're hungry and it's 8:30 p.m.!

Carmona

Bek and I were the only ones who didn't sign up for this excursion, so Felix invited us to go along rather than having to drive the coach all the way back to the hotel. It really was a good trip too! This was a very un-touristy place, so we were able to see how the rural Spaniards really live.

The site of a Roman Necropolis a.k.a. really old graveyard.
Getting ready for Corpus Christi and the fancy way they treat their palm fronds from Palm Sunday.

Looking out on the plain where King I Forget surveyed his newly conquered lands and called it the star of his kingdom.

The old men who do nothing all day. That's what the guide said.

A ways on down the road we visited cave houses. For reals people live here because it's cool in the summer and warm and snug in the winter.

Granada

Finally, the Alhambra! What a delight. Our 3 ½ hour tour went by in a flash. We walked through the palace and over to the summer house/gardens, Generalife (not general life, but hen-er-uh-lee-fay). It's no wonder this place is the stuff of myth and legend!

The carvings were so deep!

Just a sample of the fabulous tile designs.

View from the summer house over Granada.

Generalife gardens.

Our second dance night featuring the gypsies in the caves. Yes, we really went to a cave house. I couldn't tell the difference between this and the flamenco but Felix (our tour director) said it was more improvisational and passionate. It was pretty exciting and Bek even got up and danced!

This dancer reminded me so much of Callie Nall!

Valencia

Architect Santiago Caltrava is a native of Valencia and has some extraordinary works in the city. This whole complex captured my fancy. These are two buildings divided by a busy highway, but as I looked at it together, it made me think of Nessie. The building in the foreground is an IMAX theater and the front one is a music/science exhibit building (? can't remember). I want to study more about him. I think he also won the commission for the design of the Ground Zero memorial in NYC.

Us with Felix, the tour director. He knew everything from agriculture to history to every dancer at the flamenco joints! Rock on, Felix.

The real gate El Cid rode out of to defend Valencia against the Moors.

The cathedral in the city square is very beautiful.

Horchata is a yummy, sweet, cold almond milk drink. It's actually made from chufas (earth almonds/tiger nuts) and is of Moorish derivation. We first had it at the best café ever, Santa Catalina. (I'm at the beach now and will try to make horchata ice cream. The recipe took shape there; we'll see how it tastes!)

Peniscola (say Pen-yees-co-la)

My first brush with the Mediterranean! The sea was the blue I've always seen pictures of but never experienced in real life. Here I am!

This is the castle where the big beach battle scene from El Cid was filmed. It is the Castell del Papa Luna, built on the foundations of an Arab fortress in the late 13th century by the Knights Templar (thank you, Eyewitness Guides).

Ah, Barcelona!

Shots from around town...

Montjuic. I won't say much about this joint, because we kept getting lost. Even when we took a taxi up to find the Miro museum (which was very interesting), the taxi couldn't even get there! Argh! But it did offer some fine vistas.


Font Magica, a fantastic water show with lights and music. I've been told this puts Vegas to shame. It was pretty amazing!

At the base of Las Ramblas, the ocean and a monument to Columbus.

Cathedral

Look both ways before you cross the street here—there have been morts!

Our tour ended here, and Felix left this note on our tour message board. Felix. He was a wonderful cat. (But stay tuned! I have more on Barcelona.) (I just noticed this is too small to read, but Felix wrote, "Hasta la vista, babies.")