Travel to Barcelona

 Yesterday was mostly a travel day. We got up, packed and did some last minute Seville shopping before being picked up for the airport. 

The airport wasn’t too hard to figure out and we got on our plane and to Barcelona without any drama. 

After checking into our hotel, we raced over to the Picasso museum. The museum was interesting. They really insisted you experience it in a certain flow. Parts of the museum seemed like an oversized gallery- no frills just very plain walls, but other parts of the building had a little more personality and reflected the old building the museum was in. It was nice to go to a more modern art museum. I think a lot of people know Picasso for his later work but his earlier stuff is more traditional. He started painting at a really young age. We saw some of his paintings from when he was 5, and it did not look like a kindergarten art protect. 

After the museum, we got an early dinner (for Spain) then made our way back to the hotel. Our neighborhood had Upper West Side vibes and there are a lot of designer shops nearby. We did discover across the street from our hotel is a homemade gelato place and they are based in Florence. I’m sure we’ll see them again later.

Granada

 Another morning began with a walk to the bus. Luckily yesterday, we only had one other stop before starting our day trip. 

Granada is about 3 hours by bus. We had to make a stop coming and going and the rest stop was unreal. There was a Burger King but the entire thing was so contemporary looking it seemed futuristic compared to the Thruway and Mass Pike stops we all know and not so much love. It was so clean and the staff we’re dressed more appropriately for a hotel restaurant than a rest stop. 

We got to Granada and were given almost 2 hours to wander and get lunch. Basically that’s a rushed lunch for Spain. The day before we got lucky and got street food so we could use our time for shopping. We found a restaurant and ordered a few things which came in enough time but we had to chase the waiter to pay so we could make it back to the bus. We ordered fried eggplant, gazpacho, solmorejo (a different cold soup), and pork Cutlets. 

After getting back on the bus we went up the hill (mountain?) by bus to the Alhambra. We spent 2.5 to 3 hours touring the gardens and then eventually the mosque (that was also converted to a church at one point) and the palace. Everything was gorgeous. It was interesting that the Moors who built everything originally believed that only God could be perfect so they would design imperfections into the spaces not designed for worship or to honor God. 

After the tour, we took another ride home with another stop at the rest stop and got to our hotel at 930 or so. We ran a few quick errands in the neighborhood and went to bed. 

Cordoba

 We started the morning with a bus ride around Seville again picking up the rest of our tour group. From there we drove to Córdoba which was about an hour and a half ride.

We had a little free time for breakfast before meeting our tour guide, Angel. Angel took us through the Jewish quarter and told us about the history. He was really knowledgeable and we found out that he was a 2nd generation tour guide and his father was a tough critic. After visiting the synagogue (it was tiny!) he brought us into the Mesquita. The Mesquita started as a mosque in the 8th century and through a series of additions in the 9th, 10th and 11th century, became a giant cathedral when the Christians took over. The architecture was very similar to the first synagogue we visited in Toledo. Angel told us about how they harvested columns and other building materials from other buildings no longer in use to quickly do the additions at the Mesquita. 

After the tour, we grabbed some empanadillas and wandered the neighborhood a little more and did some shopping. 

After we got back to Seville, we changed our clothes (it got really hot!) and went to the river for a boat cruise. It was a great way to see more of the city and we got a little more Seville history. 

We grabbed a quick bite at the fried fish place before going to bed. Another early morning coming up. 

Seville Day 2

 Monday morning, we woke up and had to walk 5 min out of the neighborhood where there was a road wide enough for a bus to pick us up. Our neighborhood makes parts of Boston seem spacious (Charlestown, South End…) We were picked up for a Seville highlights tour. We stopped at a few other hotels before getting started so it felt like camp. First we visited the Plaza De España, which was this giant plaza built for the 1929 Iberio-American exhibition. It was used for filming part of Lawrence of Arabia as well as Star Wars Episode II (part of Naboo).

After the Plaza, we picked up a few more people and headed to Casa de Pilatos for a quick tour. The cathedral was closed yesterday for San Fernando Day, so I’m glad we went on Sunday. San Fernando was a king of Spain and was responsible for banishing the Moors. At the Casa de Pilatos, we picked up a giant group of Argentinians and the tour got more chaotic from there. 

We walked through the Jewish quarter in Seville and through the Jardines de Murillo to the Royal Alcazar of Seville. The gardens were very pretty. Lots of flowering trees called jacarandas. 

The Royal Alcazar is sometimes still used as a royal residence but they keep all the furniture and stuff you’d need to live on the second floor. For Game of Thrones, they used the Alcazar to film the scenes in the castle in Dorne. I haven’t seen the show in a few years but it was very familiar. I took a lot of pictures and posted on Instagram. 

After the tour wrapped up we had to get a quick lunch so we got NY Style Pizza which was actually really good. (Believe it or not, Dad) After a quick lunch, we walked closer to the river for a roof top sangria tasting. It was really fun to socialize with other travelers and we learned more about sangria. Most people don’t realize that Spaniards don’t drink sangria out at restaurants and bars (only tourists do), but that’s because sangria is a make at home drink. They do drink something called “Tinto de Verano” which is red wine with lemon soda. It’s really good but all the lemon soda seems to have Splenda in it so I can’t drink it again until I get home in order to avoid a migraine. We learned that you add something carbonated to your sangria before you let it sit because the carbonation reacts with the alcohol and tones it down. Our host told us “you don’t want to have too much fun too fast” and pacing yourself is how Spaniards are able to drink for long periods of time. 

After sangria, we went to a Flamenco dinner show. Flamenco is super impressive to watch. I posted a brief video to Instagram also. 

Early to bed, early morning on Tuesday! 

Seville Day 1

 We slept in slightly and packed up to leave Madrid. We had a car take us to the train station. I don’t know what I expected from the train station but this was not it. There were all kinds of trees in the main rotunda. Navigating was easy enough and we got on the train without major drama.

When we arrived in Seville, a driver took us to our hotel. The neighborhood where we are staying has very narrow roads. Most of the time we have to walk single file on the sidewalk. 

We ventured out to explore and had tickets to go to the cathedral even though we are going back with our Seville highlights tour. We climbed the Giralda tower which was 34 flights but all ramp. We took several pictures from the bell tower up top but there wasn’t really a lot of space to sit and hang out so we went back down after we were done taking pictures. 

We explored the cathedral a bit and had audio guides to help us. This is the largest gothic cathedral in Europe so it’s huge. Again very opulent and so many chapels dedicated to different prominent people. There were chambers off the main chapel as well that we wandered in to. 

After the cathedral, we met our food tour guide. It was hard to get a larger tour for a Sunday so we had to book a private one, which I think was actually better. Our tour guide Mila is from the area and took us to all her favorite places where real Sevillians go. We had spinach with chick peas, sandwiches and orange wine (wine made with raisins and orange peel, then marinated fried fish and a cold soup made with tomato and bread. Everything was really good, I did not like the wine though it was super sweet….like liquid raisins. Mila said she loves getting lost in the Jewish quarter so took us around a bit in between restaurants. She let us know that the Christopher Columbus tomb in the Cathedral is slightly contested because a few other countries (Mexico, Dominican Republic and maybe Argentina?) think they have his remains. Allegedly they performed DNA analysis to confirm but we were joking about how the science seemed sketchy. 

Our hotel here is really nice. 

Last Day in Madrid

 On our last day, after breakfast we met our tour guide in the hotel lobby where a private car took us to Toledo for a tour. 

Toledo was beautiful and because of some

natural barriers set apart from most of the surrounding area. We took a tour of the Jewish neighborhood first. You know you’re in the Jewish neighborhood because periodically along the sidewalk there is a blue & white tile that has the Chai symbol, a menorah or the Hebrew word Safard. Because of the history of Spain, the synagogues had been converted to churches at some point but two have been converted back. The first one was very mosque like because the original architect was Muslim. It was open space, not rows or pews like we are used to. The second synagogue was turned into a museum and had some judaica and artifacts from Jewish history in Toledo. 

After leaving the Jewish quarter, we visited the Cathedral. It was huge. We were talking on the ride back about how we don’t think there is a large cathedral in the US that compares in size. There are still services at the church but not in the main area. Most chapels were dedicate to various cardinals and high ranking church members and contained their tombs. One person was buried as recently as 2014. 

We had lunch at a restaurant with our guide. We had empanadillas filled with tuna & tomato (which was actually really good), croquettes and fried sardines. 

We continued around Toledo and saw a famous Goya painting in another church and did a little shopping. 

After returning to the hotel and resting a while, we ventured out to do a little shopping and find food. We went back to the first restaurant we stopped at on our food tour. The man greeting people told us to wait outside but then we realized he thought we were with Pedro’s food tour when we bumped into him. He realized what was going on and then helped us get a table. We had Tinto de Verano (sangria is for tourists apparently) which is red wine and lemonade. We had fried cod again, tuna, gazpacho and a veal sandwich. We learned during lunch that you don’t eat a lot of tapas with forks and in this restaurant they don’t automatically bring them to you. 

Madrid was very crazy yesterday evening. Real Madrid played Liverpool in the Premier League championship. We’re essentially staying in the theater district and it was packed last night. The game was supposed to start at 9, and when we left the restaurant at 840ish the city was so much quieter. Before midnight, I heard fireworks and confirmed that Madrid won the game. I’m sure it will be crazy here this afternoon when the players return home. The police had to fence off a fountain that got damaged during a past football celebration so only the team captain is allowed in now.