Our last day in Spain

I'm sitting in the airport waiting for departure so here is my last blog post. 

Yesterday morning we met with Pablo again to show us contemporary art in Madrid.  He took us to three different areas in Madrid with a variety of contemporary art galleries.  He knows many of the gallery owners, so it was fun to see the art and visit with the people in charge.

Some of the art was quite strange, with the winner for strangest being a bunch of vegetables nailed to the wall. Even the lady at the gallery couldn't keep a straight face when talking about them.

Others were equally "modern" but less bizarre.  One artist we liked embroidered patterns using holes drilled in kitchen knives and then arranged the knives in arrays, for example in the shape of a fan.  The juxtaposition of something sweet, like embroidery, with something threatening, like a blade, was jarring.

My favorite was an artist who drew a portrait of herself every day for a full year. The portraits are displayed in books organized by date and month.  But there's a twist.  You can buy one of the portraits only if you agree to sit for a portrait, and then your portrait gets inserted where the artist's portrait was.  We paged through the portraits and came across some of the buyers.  The idea is that when you take her portrait, you are taking a piece of her, and so she gets to take a piece of you in return.  I thought this was a novel concept, particularly since it was odd to sit for a portrait, and then not get to keep it yourself.

After lunch, Lenny and I went to the archaeological museum (gotta get in our museum quota) which was extremely well done.  The building is a mix of modern and old architecture, filled with with superb exhibits about history.  There were lots of artifacts from prehistoric times through the Roman era and beyond.

On the way back we ran into Ann, who had found an 80% off liquidation sale in a cute boutique. (We had gone by this boutique on our gallery tour earlier, and I have no idea how she ever found her way back to it).  Inspired by my sister, I headed over there myself.  I could somehow not find any of the bargains that she found, but bought one thing anyway.

Our evening was a Flamenco performance. Made-for-Spain got us great seats, almost on the stage  We were so close that Ann was getting a bit of perspiration spray from the dancers!  In one dance the woman wore a Flamenco dress with a long tail which almost seemed like it was another dancer, the way she twirled, flipped and threw it around.  A great way to end a great trip.

Thanks to Joan and Karl, Ann and Jere, Keith and Debbie, for being great travel companions!

Donna

Madrid, by Ann

Madrid has been a whirlwind of experiences, all amazing. It started with seeing the Prado Museum before the doors open to the public with a Yale graduate, College Dean, and PHd in art as our guide.  We saw the artwork without the usual crowds, and heard amazing history and stories of each of the main pieces. Then we went on to ogle the 20th-century art at the Reina Sofi­a. We all marveled  at Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica, and The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch.

Following this Jere and I went off on an adventure to find a Temple.  This was not easy, as it required several emails along with copies of passports and a note from our Temple just to get the time and location of the services.  It was well worth it, as we met Argentinians, Israelis, as well as descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity who have returned to their roots.

A final power shopping trip, a dinner show of Flamenco dancing and music, followed by a glass of Cava ended  a perfect trip.

-- Ann

Madrid: The Prado, and more

This morning we had a marvelous tour of the Prado Museum with Pablo.  Pablo is not your normal tour guide.  He is Dean of a local art school, an artist himself, and a graduate in fine arts from Yale.  He doesn't give these tours very often, so I'm not sure how our travel company (Made for Spain) managed to sign him up.  In addition, Made for Spain had the special ability to get us into the Prado a full hour before it opened, so we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was amazing to be walking through totally empty galleries with Pablo, not having to elbow people aside to see the works.  Quite a special treat!

Pablo did an excellent job of picking out about a dozen important works and explaining them, rather than trying to show us everything.  The Prado is full of paintings by Velasquez, Goya, Bosch, Titian, El Greco, Rubens, etc.  Usually I find these kind of paintings not too interesting but Pablo highlighted all sorts of things that I wouldn't have seen on my own. (No pictures allowed inside, of course.)

After the Prado and a short bus ride through the city, we visited Reina Sophia, the modern art museum where we focused on the Guernica, Picasso's monumental black and white painting about the horrors of war.  The story of the painting is as interesting as the work itself.  Here there were significant crowds but we still managed to get close enough to see it well.

Then, we had lunch in a lovely outdoor cafe overlooking the Cathedral.  We tried a "Spanish omelette" which was not at all what I expected, more of a egg and potato quiche than an omelette.

We then walked all together through a bit of Madrid, seeing the palace, the gourmet food market and tasting a churro dipped in chocolate (Madrid speciality).  Then we separated with Joan/Karl and Debbie/Keith headed to shop for espadrilles shoes (quite an exciting experience, apparently, as they only let in 4 shoppers at a time, and the line extends down the block!) and Ann/Jere and me/Lenny heading back to the hotel.  Lenny and I took a rest and then a walk through the magnificent Retiro Park, right next to our hotel.  It was full of people and beautifully manicured lawns and shrubbery.   The highlight was the Crystal Palace, an enormous glass and iron structure that was being used to house a contemporary art exhibit.

Ann and Jere decided to go to Shabbat services.  This turned out to be surprisingly challenging.  Ann wrote to the synagogue because there was no address on the web site.  They responded that you cannot come to services unless you had been approved in advance!  Ann had to send them copies of her passports as well as contact info for her rabbi at home to vouch for them.  Only when they were "accepted" was she given the address.  Unfortunately this meant that we could not join them spontaneously, so Ann and Jere went on their own, while the rest of us went out for dinner in a nice open air restaurant.

Donna  

Tapas in Madrid at night

We met a guide to take us to tapas last night.  Although we've had tapas on our own several times, it was quite fun to go with Mencia to more local, neighborhood places with a buzz.  Everybody knew her (she does this "tour" several times each week) and she knew exactly what to order in each place.  We had a wide assortment of tapas in 3 different places, the last one was a sit-down restaurant but the others were fun, lively places.  We definitely had some unique dishes such as a giant, vinegar-infused, roasted tomato.

Donna  

Toledo (mostly)

Last night we had a funny experience for dinner after arriving in Madrid.  Joan picked out a nice place right around the corner from our hotel.  It was a Michelin star restaurant, but it had a bar where you could order tapas rather than a full meal.  That sounded perfect, so the hotel made us a reservation.  When we arrived and they seated us on the patio with a view, we figured out quickly that we were in the regular restaurant where the food was very fancy and very expensive.  We debated splitting menu items to get smaller portions, but that was not allowed. The bar area was totally booked, so we could not eat there. If we wanted, we could go to a restaurant with no view on the second floor but where they serve the same food.  We decided to do that, and ended up in a strange place for dinner.  It apparently is primarily a lunch spot for workers finishing their day, because by the end of our meal we were the only people there at 10pm, when most dinner restaurants are just getting going.  But the food was great and quite reasonably priced; we got an assortment of very tasty and unusual small dishes.

Today we had a full day trip to Toledo, about an hour's drive away from Madrid.  Our guide met our bus at the entrance gate to the city and took us first to a parador with a view of all Toledo.  It became an important city because it has a "natural moat", being on a hill surrounded on three sides by a river. 

We started our city tour in the Jewish quarter.  Of course, again, there haven't been Jews here since 1492.  I find the whole Jewish focus a bit of a sham myself, made for appealing to tourists.  That being said, we are the tourists being targeted, and it was interesting to see the two synagogues.  The first one did not look like a synagogue at all, and there were no remnants of the Jews.  

The second one, however, did have lots of Hebrew text on the walls.  Both had been converted to churches and then later restored.  But there are no Jews today in Toledo, and very few in Spain overall.

In the nearby shops we saw a lovely craft technique of laying gold or silver threat onto steel.  They use this technique to make all sorts of things from decorations to jewelry to plates ... and, of course, lots of Jewish stars and Christian crosses.  Toledo is billed as a religious center where Judaism, Christianity and Islam all came together.  We also saw some lovely pottery and tile work.

The specialty food item here is marzipan, apparently started by nuns. We saw marzipan in all shapes and sizes, including a giant Don Quixote that is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.  

The building style has interested me.  They have a technique of alternating stones with bricks in a specific way that I've not seen elsewhere, but it's all over town.

We stopped in a small church to see a famous painting by El Greco, who is something of a local hero because he lived much of his life here.

After lunch (I demanded lunch this time), we went to visit the cathedral.  This one is the biggest (or was that Sevilla's or Granada's?) in Spain (or was it Europe? Or the Iberian peninsula?) for the Catholics (or was it the Christians?).  Anyway, it was very impressive.  I continue to be awestruck at  how these people built such enormous buildings before modern power tools.  We also saw a room full of El Greco's here.

 

We headed back to Madrid where we are resting up for a guide-led tapas evening.

Donna 

Sevilla to Cordoba

Last night we had a very fun dinner at the home of an elegant Marquesa, a woman of royalty like a Dutchess.  She apparently hosts tourists as a little side business, although we never really understood her motivation!  She has a fabulous apartment with a big deck overlooking the cathedral, which is spectacularly lit at night.  She was a lively and entertaining hostess, with lots of stories.  She used to work for the mayor in Sevilla as a protocol or PR expert. She was totally charming to listen to, whether telling stories of the portraits hanging in the apartment, her trips to Kansas City as Sevilla's sister city, or her 30 year old son's possible girlfriend in New York. (He doesn't tell her anything, but he goes to NY a lot. Who  knows what the real story is?  We tried to look him up on Facebook without success.)  She served us a marvelous meal and it made for a delightful evening.

We left Sevilla early this morning.  For some reason, our room rate included a $100 credit at the hotel that could only be used for food or drink.  Since our breakfast was included, and we had two dinners out, using it proved to be difficult.  But, have no fear, Ann found a way to make sure to use that coupon.  (Keith's solution was tequila in the bar, as I understand it).  With the help of a friendly concierge, Ann managed to calculate exactly how many bottles of wine and Cava (like champagne) she could get from the bar to exactly use her $100 coupon.  I had confidence in her ability to achieve this goal!

After about two hours in a minibus we arrived in Cordoba.  Our guide, Carmen, met our bus and took us on a city tour..  Carmen was great; she has been a guide for 20 years.  No dilly-dallying with Carmen .... Hup hup hup right to the sites, rapid fire information, and a real speciality in knowing exactly where to take group photos to best effect. My kind of gal!

We started our tour with the synagogue.  After the Jews were expelled in 1492, this small synagogue was taken over as a church and the walls were covered with Christian painted panels.  Fortunately, the way they did it left the decoration underneath protected, and was it discovered several centuries later. It is now restored as a tourist site, and it is the first synagogue we have seen.  The wall carvings were very Moorish looking, like everything we have seen, but also included many Hebrew inscriptions that were translated by labels on the walls.  You could see the ark where the Torah would have been kept.  We were  moved to be in a space where the Jews had prayed 600 years ago, then suffered a terrible persecution.

Then we went to the mosque-church.  This place is absolutely stupendous and is the main reason tourists come to Cordoba.  It started as a giant mosque, and. I cannot even convey the size of this thing. Apparently 20,000 people could pray there at once.  It is covered with double arches done in two colors of stone, creating a vibrant red and white pattern.

Then, right in the middle, is a cathedral.  When the Christians arrived, they took out the center Islamic arches, and literally built a classic Renaissance Cathedral in the center, with high ceilings, domes, transept/apse, Christian iconography, beautiful alters, etc.  It is quite startling to see the juxtaposition of the mosque with the church inside, kind of like a Faberge egg on a giant scale.

We also visited the Alcazar (palace) in Cordoba, and particularly enjoyed the lovely gardens.  Carmen efficiently ended our tour at a cafe where we grabbed lunch before a little shopping.  

Lenny and I managed to squeeze in two more museums.  (I decided our minimum quota is one per day.)  One was of contemporary art with a small photo exhibit, and one was of the history of Sephardic Jews. 

I now sit on a very comfortable high speed train on our way to Madrid, for our last stop on our trip.

Donna

Touring Sevilla

We met our guide Virginia at 9:30am, and by the end of the tour at 3:00pm we could see that you definitely need a whole day to see Sevilla.  I should mention that this stretch of touring was without a stop and without lunch.  For those who know me, this was quite a challenge!

We tried to start with the Alcazar, the Royal Palace that had been built and rebuilt over many generations.  But the waiting line was extremely long, so we decided to alter the order of our events.  I'm continually wondering how the world will handle more tourists.  You see a line like this for a major attraction and it just feels like it is at capacity.

We instead took our carriage ride around town, which turned out to be very nice to do in the cooler morning.  We went through the magnificent park near the palace.  Most impressive were the buildings created for the 1929 exposition, which was like a Worlds Fair.  But 1929 turned out to be a pretty bad year to mount an expensive fair.  They built several enormous and beautiful buildings, and then when the Great Depression came, the fair was a big bust because nobody could afford to come.  It took them 50 years to pay off the buildings. 

The architecture here is very cool - it even has it's own name, Mudejar, which is a combination of Islamic and Christian elements.  It includes the keyhole arches, tiles and geometrics of Islamic Art along with some Gothic and Renaissance elements and figurative Christian paintings and sculptures.  Basically, it's a Christian church built in the Moorish style by Moorish artisans.

After the carriage ride, we checked back at the Alcazar and could get in with only a 30 minute wait.  Inside, there was room after room of beautiful tiles and plaster decoration. Our guide showed us in the throne room how the king used natural daylight to advantage in greeting his guests, keeping his face in the dark and theirs in the light.  We saw the place where Amerigo Vespuci trained sailors to cross the Atlantic and where Christopher Columbus was chartered to set sail for India. (Of course he mistakenly found North America and never realized it in his lifetime).

After the palace we wandered through the "Jewish quarter".  Nothing is Jewish about the quarter now since there haven't been any Jews since we were kicked out in 1492.  The one place that they know used to have a synagogue now has a very large wrought iron cross. 

Our guide was quite eloquent about the 800 years of Muslim rule where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in general harmony.  This all ended when the Christians took over and Ferdinand and Isabella decided to unify under one religion.  Virginia said that she thought it was not so much AGAINST those other religious but much more FOR a unified population.  That's why they favored conversion.  However, Lenny and I were not so sure that the Jews of the time who were subjected to the Inquisition would have appreciated the distinction.

visited the Cathedral next, a giant structure that is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. It was built on the site of a huge Mosque which is why it has an unusual shape for a church: rectangle, not cross.  It also has a courtyard before the entrance, which I've never seen before.  The ceilings were enormous and there was a spectacular gold-covered altar.  It was cool to see the tomb of Christopher Columbus, too.

We then trudged up to the top of the bell tower (35 levels) for a marvelous view.  After lunch (finally!), we separated.  Lenny and I visited the Archives, which includes all the documentation of the Spanish conquering of the new world.  It's an incredible building, all marble including the floors and ceilings so that the documents cannot be destroyed by fire.  They had quite a nice display about the Spanish involvements in wars in the 19th century.  I think it's a testament to how much Lenny and I love museums that we totally enjoyed it even though all the signage was in Spanish!

Donna

Ronda to Sevilla

On Monday we met our guide Alfredo at the parador for a walking tour of Ronda.  Alfredo was fantastic. Not only was he very knowledgeable about the whole  area, he was fun and personable.  He told us that he is considering purchasing an apartment as an investment to rent on AirBnB.  He would greet all the visitors, and also offer his guiding services.  This struck me as quite entrepreneurial. It's so interesting to see how our Silicon Valley companies are reshaping the world economy!

Alfredo first gave us an overview of the area, pointing out which crops were being grown (olives, almonds, cork).  

We then went to the bullring where we spent quite a bit of time.  It was fascinating to hear the history of bullfighting in Spain, but also to see the back rooms and how they manage the bulls before heading into the arena.  We made plenty of comparisons to the NFL (the matador being the quarterback, of course).

We then toured a mansion that is now a museum ... Lovely to see the Islamic influences again including beautiful tiles, wood carved doors, gardens.  And, of course we stopped into the Cathedral.  This, like many, was a former mosque converted into a church.  It has both Gothic as well as Renaissance elements.

We split after the tour with Len and I going to the Pinedo museum.  He was an artist in the 20th century who was a friend of Picasso and painted in the cubist style.  Both the building and the art were worth seeing.  The others headed to a street artist we had seen earlier to buy some of his work.

After a 2 hour bus ride we arrived in Sevilla.  (The opera Carmen keeps playing in my head every time I think "Sevilla").  We are staying at the magnificent Hotel Alfsonso XIII, where no square inch is without some kind of decoration (Ann said the bathroom made her dizzy). 

Our evening activity was a cooking lesson with Amelia and her assistant Yolanda.  Amelia explained many of the culinary traditions in Spain, and then set us up to chop, mince and dice all sorts of stuff that eventually were combined into a wonderful meal of guacamole, beans with (for some of us) local ham,  chicken paella, and strawberries and cream for dessert.  Amelia was quite lively and enjoyed critiquing our work; Karl's onions simply were not chopped fine enough.  

She had a fabulous location with a view of the cathedral.  At night, it was lit beautifully and surrounded by bats who were eerily lit as well.

Donna

On our own in Ronda

Our plan to meet a driver and bus at 10:00am today had a small hiccup: a marathon running in front of our hotel that closed down the street.  We had crossed the street to buy some water at a kiosk, turned around, and suddenly found it difficult to get back across!  I ran across dodging the runners, and felt like I was in that video game where the frog hops from lily pad to lily pad, sometimes getting crushed along the way.

We had to walk with our suitcases a few blocks to meet the driver, who arrived in a giant bus -- one of those 30-person vehicles for the 8 of us.  Plenty of room to stretch out!  The ride to Rondo was about 2 hours and through lots of pretty countryside with olive trees and other agriculture on rolling hills.

We are staying at the parador in Rondo.  It is a bit confusing because of the modern facade, but actually it's a lovely, old, renovated building.  We all have rooms that look out over the "new bridge", meaning the bridge from the 1700s that took 40 years to build.  Lenny just read in the guidebook that the first one fell down soon after being built, which is why this is the new bridge. 

(Click to enlarge. Note the people on top!)

Rondo is divided in two parts separated by a dramatic deep gorge, and this bridge spans the gorge.  It is a massive structure, built from the ground up with blocks and enormous arches.  It is hard to convey the scale, and amazing to realize the ambition (and achievement) of the people who built it.

We didn't have any planned tourism today so we happily took off on our own.  We decided to walk down into the gorge from the north side of the city.  At the entry to the city were the old Roman baths that is now an archaeological site we visited.  I thought this was very worthwhile.  They had a short video with animations that helped you imagine what it was like.  I particularly liked the tower where a donkey walked around a circle, raising water on a conveyor-type system, that then dumped it into an aqueduct system to feed into the baths.

We then climbed back up out of the gorge to the city, which meant a heck of a lot of steps up. Many of the streets are cobblestone, which I have found difficult to walk on in my shoes, so I headed to a great shoe shop to purchase some more appropriate footwear. 

After some shopping and hanging out, we grabbed dinner on the side of the city looking out over the countryside where we had a nice meal with a fabulous sunset view.

Donna