Seville living

Seville, Friday and Saturday 27 and 28th May

On the way from Granada to Seville we detoured along the Costa del Sol to see the sights. This coast line has many summer resorts varying in exclusivity from "all comers" to "rich & famous only". We stopped at the Torremolinos resort and paddled in the Mediterranean. It's a nice beach and there are plenty of people waiting to bring you an expensive cocktail, but in my (humble) opinion any number of NZ beaches are just as good or better even if you have to walk over the sand hills and carry your own chilly bin. It was very early season so not many people around. The ones on the beach were mostly past their posing prime.

No, Sue, it's not me.

During my paddle I was nearly knocked over by a big wave - NOT.

A highlight was visiting Ronda, one of the white hill towns built clinging to the sides of hills. (White to reflect the sun and keep the temperature inside the houses more bearable). Ronda is in two parts, an ancient Moorish part and a somehat newer part built post Moors. The two are linked by a bridge across a 100m + deep river gorge. The Moorish part is a very strong military defenisve position due in part to barrier of the gorge. It includes a "mine shaft" vertically down to the river for water supply. The story goes that the catholic forces finally took Ronda by attacking from the river thus cutting off the water supply. The bridge in the pic was built within the last couple of hundred years so post dates all that.

Ronda's new bridge.

The new town at Ronda.

The many steps down the mine shaft provided a much needed workout for the knees.

At Seville we are staying at the Hotel las Casas de la Juderia. This is an experience in itself. It consists of a number of centuries old houses linked together into a 134 room hotel. Back in the day the area was part of the Jewish ghetto, hence the name of the hotel. It is very easy to get lost even walking between the reception and your room. Everywhere there are little corridors, patios, courtyards, stairways, even underground tunnels, linking the parts of the complex. Very little is in a straight line or on the same level. On top there is a roof garden with pool, bar, loungers etc. For research purposes we spent an hour and a half at the pool enjoying the 30 degree warm afternon and sampling a strawberry Mojito. (Preliminary research finding: the regular Mojitos are better).

Seville was once a super important city for trade (through the river port) with the gold from Spanish South America coming there. Now it seems to rely more on tourism and just being a great place to live. One gets the impression that the main activity for many people is to stroll in the evenings and socialise - not that this is a bad thing and it certainly makes for a pleasant holiday experience!


The city has several landmark buildings including the Seville cathedral which is the 3rd largest in the world after St Peter's in the Vatican and St Paul's in London. Like the Mesquita in Cordoba it was once a Mosque, but consecrated as a cathedral after the Spanish catholic monarchs expelled the Moors in the 13th century. The mosque courtyard and minaret have been incorporated into the massive Gothic cathedral. Christopher Columbus's tomb is inside. Whether all, or any part, of him is actually in the tomb remains in dispute.
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Seville also has an Alcazar (royal palace from Moorish days), and the spectacular pavilions from the 1929 world fair. The Spanish pavilion is massive. It took 14 years to build, for a 1 year fair, and has been a tourist attraction ever since. 

Spanish pavilion

We cruised around the above landmarks and then wandered in the streets of the old city. This is pretty much a guarantee of getting lost, which we did, but in a good way as there is always something interesting around the corner. 

Downtown Seville - Santa Cruz quarter.

On Saturday evening we went to a Flamenco show which was a pretty amazing experience. Our last one (30 years ago) was quite underwhelming so we're pleased we tried again. Tomorrow we get a 45 minute Flamenco lesson. Will see how that goes, most likely will only put us further in awe of the performers! Hopefully won't be any castanet or hand clapping injuries.

Mesquita and the Alhambra

Cordoba and Granada, Wednesday and Thursday 25 & 26th May

Back on tour on Wednesday with a group so on our best behaviour again!

We started off in excellent fashion with a fast train trip from Madrid to Cordoba (for the record we reached 350km/h, and it took 1 3/4 hours vs 6 by road). While waiting for the train to depart from Madrid we checked out the railway station's tropical garden and turtle pond - yes they really do have one.

Tropical garden inside Madrid Atocha station. 

Some of the turtles playing in their sandpit.

The main event for Thursday was visiting the Mesquita, the famous Mosque-Cathedral at Cordoba.

This is an amazing building both in its history and its architecture. 

It began as a Visigoth Christian Basilica in the 6th century, became a Muslim Mosque at the start of the Moorish occupation of Spain in the mid 8th century, and then became a Christian Cathedral in the mid 13th century towards the end of the Christian re conquest of Spain.
The majority of the Mesquita was built during the Muslim period. When Granada was captured by the Christian Spanish monarchs (Isabel and Ferdinand II if you were wondering)  they had the vision to not raze the Mosque but to keep it and convert it to a Christian place of workship. Later, about 10% of the area of the Mosque was demolished to allow a cathedral to be built in the "middle", leaving us with more or less the result we have today.

Some of the 800 columns and double arches forming the Mosque.

The Cathedral altar.

Bell tower built around Mosque minnaret.

Continuing our Spanish history education, we moved on to Granada and on Friday visited the Alhambra palace. Alhambra is even more spectacular than the Mezquita. It was built by the Muslim rulers of Spain, and when captured by the same Isabel and Ferdinand, was taken over for their use. They made some changes to suit Eurpean tastes and added a renaissance palace. As a result the site today combines Moorish and European architecture. It also includes an enormous and magnificent garden (the Generalife garden). Water is a very important part of the palace design with fountains everywhere. The water is "piped" in from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains via a 7km aqueduct built by the Moors.

 

A very small part of the Generalife garden.

Spent the afternoon exploring the town of Granada. It was the Corpus Christi festival so a local holiday and the city was packed with Spaniards enjoying a day out as well as tourists like us wandering. Some of the locals wear flamenco costume on this festival day which was a bonus - also saw some flamenco busking here and there.

It reached 32 degrees today and the heat finally forced us into a brief "siesta" sampling cocktails on the hotel verandah looking over the city. In good Spanish fashion we went back out later and checked out the old Arab quater called Albaycin - an incredible maze of narrow interesting streets, and around every corner another view of the Alhambra in the evening light.

Barcelona and back to Madrid

Barcelona and Madrid, Saturday 21st to Tuesday 24th May

It's really relaxing to be in a city with all the "must do" tourist sites ticked off and a couple of days to do what you want and just soak up the vibe. Must remember to do this more often!

So, with Saturday and Sunday being perfect weather days (for Wellingtonians anyway) we cruised around a few places in Barcelona at an easy pace.

Went back up Montjuic for a more thorough look around. The views were fantastic.

Janet checked out the Joan Miro museum which is part way up Montjuic. I was still processing Dali from two days before and felt it might not be artistically honest to visit Miro at that point, so I kept my 17 euros and had a coffee and started the book club book.

 

A "typical" Miro.

This allowed me the head space to properly address the philosophical challenges presented when we stopped later at the Abrassame Cafe.

The next day we checked out the Palau Musica (Music Palace), a spectacular example of Spanish modernist architecture (early 20th century). It was unexpectedly being used for a primary school age children's concert during our visit so we had the bonus of a free "performance".

We saw the traditional Catalan "Sardana" dance performed in the cathedral square, as happens every Sunday. It's perhpas not the most energetic dance so good for all comers.

Dancing the Sardana.

Then wandered La Rambla, Barcelona's famous shopping strip - a mecca for pickpockets as well as those ripping off tourists by legal means. Just off La Rambla was the Raval district where we found St Rita's day being celebrated. Saint Rita is the patron saint of itinerant flower sellers, and also of impossible things. Many believers use the occasion to offer a blessed rose to the saint and ask something of her. Everywhere there were red roses for sale and women carrying little bunches to be blessed at the San Agustin chapel. Apparently, to meet demand, the chapel blesses roses every half an hour.

Rose sellers in the coutyard outside San Agustin chapel.

Monday was time to head for Madrid. We took the AVE train. The AVE is the fast train, the Spanish equivalent of the French TGV. It was a very painless trip, even interesting for those so inclined. For the record we cruised at 300km/h for a lot of the way and covered the 620 odd km in 3 hours 15 minutes, with one intermediate stop. Barcelona Sants and Madrid Atocha (start and stop points) are serious railway stations, combining fast long distance trains, local trains, and metro trains into one location in layers one on top of the other.
 

Tuesday has been a chill out day in Madrid checking out the local area and getting mentally prepared for the next bus tour starting tonight. Some of us had our nails done. How about ths for a new toenail colour? Always risky getting beauty procedures done in another language, but this turned out ok.

Extreme food experience

Girona, Friday 20 May

I'm not sure that we'd ever mentioned it, but Janet had secured a lunch booking at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona which has twice been rated the best restaurant in the world. And today was the day.

The day started very well with a fast train ride from Barcelona to Girona - 38 minutes compared to about 90 when we followed the same route by road the previous day. This left us a couple of hours to nose around town before the main event. It's a very pretty spot with a river and ancient town wall for views etc.

The lunch was an amazing experience, all 30 courses, if you count all the individually crafted appetisers.

It was "food as art" to coin a phrase. The presentation was amazing with various props and plates that had been created especially to complement a particular dish. Each dish was unique with its own flavours and special concept/recipe.

It was completely over the top, but wonderful all the same.

The restaurant is run by three brothers - Joan, Josep, and Jordi Roca. They always make a point of welcoming their guests in person and were very happy to pose with awed (and very full) diners.

A few more details follow (for serious foodies only).

We started at 1:00pm and finished at about 5:00pm (as best we can recall).

After a welcome glass of Cava (local bubbly) in the garden, we were ushered inside and offered a tour of the kitchen (which was reluctantly accepted). There were heaps of people prepping food, all highly organised and quiet, quite unlike the panic stricken examples on the TV cooking shows! From what we heard there are about 60 staff (kitchen and waiting combined) to look after about 45 diners.

Once seated in the dining room we were given two menu options - the most popular dishes (12 or so courses), or the "Feast". A wine match was offered or you could select from the 60,000 bottle cellar. The wine list was in 3 volumes, with its own special trolley so it could be moved around without risking a strain injury. Each volume took two hands to lift. I noticed 3 NZ reds in the list including 1 from Martinborough.

As we didn't expect to be visiting again any time soon, we opted for the full menu "Feast" experience.

It began with "a journey around the world,” as described by the waiter, who presented each diner with a black paper lantern. The lantern unfolded to reveal five tiny appetisers, each representing a different country that had inspired the chef. Each one a work of art in its own right with multiple flavours.

Appetisers 1 to 5, minus enclosing lantern.

Another 10 more rounds of appetisers followed, including an amazing campari bon bon (a mouthful of campari and grapefruit encased in a delicate, paper-thin shell), and an oyster in a black garlic broth. Perhaps the most spectacular was the olive ice cream, presented to the table as perfect olive shaped tastes attached to a bonsai olive tree.

And then it was time to start on the menu proper. Some examples:

Red mullet with kombu, prickly pear foam, sea anemone, salicornia, and Katsuobushi vinegar charcoal grilled red pine mushroom. Served on a polished stone slab plate.

Pigeon with fermented rice, rice skin sauce, koji suace, fermented rice, rice bread with pigeon parfait. Certainly the best pigeon with fermented rice that I've ever had!

Prawn marinated with rice vinegar, prawns head sauce, crispy prawn legs, seaweed veloute and phytoplankton.

Skipping along to desserts, how about Orange Colourology - an amazing sphere of "something" containing alll sorts of treats when broken open.

There were (only) three dessert courses. Another memorable one was Turkish Perfume - rose, peach, saffron, cumin, cinnamon and pistachio. After eating the dish the experience was rounded off by inhaling the complementary perfume from an upturned glass. Never thought of that before.

And when we thought it was all over, out came the sweets trolley, complete with handsome serving person.

Yes we were really there. It was not a dream - see pic below!

What an experience. Definitely a "bucket list" item.