Shopping

We are saving ourselves for a big day tomorrow at the Alambra. So today we started late and wandered through town from church to church through shopping areas of varying intensity. Saturday seems to be party day here in Granada. As in Portugal, the clothes and shoe shops for children are wonderful. The clothes are so well made, stylish and expensive that it is a good thing that children are in the minority. Otherwise grandmothers and aunts would be impoverished by the time the kids grow up.

Then you have all the adult shops. There are endless shoe shops and shops selling the most extraordinary dresses: some are flamenco dresses with polka dots, others are in the same flamboyant style but in silk, satin and chiffon.


Even the men have lovely clothes to choose from. But we have noticed that there is a severe lack of hairdressers even though everybody is very well coiffed.

In the streets today, were groups of girls obviously enjoying hens partys and groups of boys having bucks parties at the same time. There were also girls in long, white, organdie dresses having first communion parties at our hotel. Boys get to wear sailor suits for the same event. All party, party, party.

After heavy rain in the morning, the sun was glowing in the late afternoon, so everybody else came out to enjoy it.

Moving to Granada

Today was spent travelling by bus to Granada, settling into a new hotel and finding our bearings. The countryside showed signs of recent flooding. The olive trees relentlessly march over hill and dale. It is not surprising that Spain has such a lot of olive oil.

We did visit the cathedral which is grey and overdecorated on the outside.

On the inside it is like being in a gigantic wedding cake. Not much spirituality apparant or any sign of the mosque or temple that must have been previously on the site.

Here is a church that has been obviously converted from a mosque. It is at the foot of the Alhambra hill. See the baroque entry pasted over the moorish keyhole arch.

Medina Azahara

Today we travelled by bus 6k out of Cordoba to visit the place where the caliph built himself a new town in 965-70. He spared no expense but the town didn't last more than 70 years because of disputes about who should be the caliph. It was then knocked down and used as a quarry for building materials for centuries. In the 1930s a major archeological effort was put into restoring the site.

When we visited last (7 or so years ago) we caught a local bus and had the site to ourselves. There was a bit of explantion in the palace but the rest was open to be wandered around. Today we were delivered to a brand new museum (opened by the queen in 2009), shown an animated reconstruction of the way it was back then which looked very like an internet game, allowed to go through the museum and view its storage areas from above then put on a bus to the site. There we didn't see as much as we did before because part if it is being restored.

The museum was good but their labels in English were ocassionally bad. Not as painful as the booklet we were given on the bus but nonetheless, most unprofessional.

We followed the patio walk after our siesta back in Cordoba. It was fun to wander, with a purpose, around areas that we had not yet explored and to be able to poke our noses into real peoples houses at least as far as the central courtyard festooned with potted flowers.

Our favourite thing in Cordoba tonight: tapas.

Especially:

Chick peas and spinach (and a little garlic)

Asparagus (a bit pickled), egg, potatoes and ham

Pisto -- a kind of ratatouille but with less tomato and the veges chopped up small

Fava beans, baby ones any way

Orange and salted cod (soaked) salad with a little chopped onion and olive oil. Sounds suspicious but tastes great.

Cordoba day 2

How lovely it was to revisit the Mesquita. The first time is overwhelming but the second time is a joy. It is impossible to photograph, of course. And there were way too many tourists milling around with their mouths open and their guides squawking. We have seen several groups (predominantly Japanese) who have ear plugs and their guide can talk in a normal tone. Even the German group we saw with earplugs was quiet and well behaved. The vast majority of tourists here are Spanish or French speaking. They are wise enough to get here before the heat and the US tourists.

We visited the Alcazar of the Christian Kings in daylight to see the flowers. The Son and Lumiere that we went to last night was mostly son and waterworks. They have fountains in long pools that play with coloured light to music. It was very lovely. And interesting to see that they only had red, green and blue lightglobes with which to make lots of colours. (The purple wasn't very strong but the rest were lovely.)

We visited the Synagogue . . . the last remaining one in Cordoba. The plasterwork has survived very well and, as you can see the only way you know it is Jewish is the hebrew rather than Arabic inscriptions.

Cordoba

We have moved on to Cordoba in the bus. The country side is looking wet as well as lush. There were floods here yesterday.

As Jo's tummy is not feeling well, still he spent the afternoon resting at the hotel while we went shopping. El Cortes Ingles came up trumps with a universal adapter. So Fi can take as many photos as she likes when we visit the Mesquita tomorrow.

Jim bought himself a beret at a very old fashioned shop.

Tonight we will see a Son and Lumiere show at the local Alcazar with free tickets from the big i in town.

Alcazar

Today is a holiday as was yesterday. I don't know if it was a holiday because of the festival or because of May day. Either way the shops were shut. Most museums in Seville are closed on Mondays anyway but the Royal Palace was open despite the holiday. So we decided to get there first thing before the crowds which we did.

It is just as fabulous as the last time I visited. Perhaps even better because there aren't any restorations going on and the gardens are lush, green and full of the cooing of doves in springtime. It is a magic place from the entrance to the back door.

After filling our eyes we wandered around town just enjoying the sights and lunch (especially since we missed breakfast.) Jo's tummy is unsettled (last night's turkey sausage must have had some red meat) so he might miss dinner too.

My favourite thing for this week: the red they paint their houses in Seville. Doris Street would look great in red.

Seville cathedral

Our sorely won hotel is rather out of the centre of Seville. But there is a bus that takes us to Ponce de Leon bus terminus and from there it is an interesting walk through narrow, twisting streets full of interesting shops and houses to the centre of town.

We arrived at the cathedral in the morning and walked through and around it. It is very big with an superfluity of gilt and carving: a place more of power that holiness. Jo was keen to walk up the tour which is the only remaining bit of the original mosque. But it was closed until 2:30pm. So we decided to walk down to the river. On the way we spotted a procession solemly parading into the cathedral. Jo spotted the king amongst the dignitories. "But wouldn't he be at the wedding?" said Fi forgetting that Spain is so close to the UK that you can do business there and be back home the same day.

As we approached the bull ring by the river, we came across a parade of splendidly turned out carriages full of men dressed to match the period of the carriages and women in full flamingo gear drawn by beautifully groomed horses. It is the Seville Festival and the locals were out in force. Some of the horses had such long ears that I thought they might be related to mules.

After the parade it was just a much fun watching the people walking around in their best clothes. So many were wearing purple and other bright colours. Even the men were in shades of mauve to aubergine. We saw purple shoes and sneakers but no purple boots.

We made our way back to the cathedral to climb the tower to see the view. Luckily the big bell wasn't rung while we were up there. It would have frightened me over the railings. There were photographs of Seville in 1872 which showed how much the city has grown since then.

We had lunch in a tapas bar at 4:30pm and dinner in a local hot spot that sells sausages by the meter at 11pm. How Spanish is that!