The rain in Spain stays mainly in ... Cordoba

 

View of Cordoba Mezquita and Roman bridge from near our hotel

 

crossing  the bridge 

 

inside the Mezquita (mosque part) 

 

inside the Mezquita (cathedral part)

 

one of the many beautiful patios in Cordoba

the inner doors are locked but the outer doors 

are left open for tourists to admire the patio

 

another patio

 

typical street

 

barrels of Pedro Ximenez sherry in our lunchtime restaurant

 

street of the flowers - Calle de Las Flores

 

best night view in town (from our hotel roof)

Yesterday we visited the Mezquita (Z pronounced as an S), which Sue insists on calling the Mosquito.  It is a huge mosque built on the site of an earlier church.  When the Muslims and Jews were expelled in 1492 a church was built slap bang in the middle of the mosque.  Fortunately the Christians recognized the beauty of the mosque columns and other architecture and left a lot of the mosque intact - see photo above.

We have had a lot of cool weather and some light rain/drizzle in Madrid, but today we got proper rain in Cordoba.  Graeme retreated to the Haman for a bath and massage while the women retreated to their hotel for lunch, rest and a couple of glasses of Pedro Ximenes sherry ($12 a bottle, tastes like muscat - seriously good stuff).  Prior to the rain we had been to the synagogue, Jewish museum, and an Inquisition museum that showed none of the history but lots of hideous torture instruments. Later after the rain we checked out the less touristy areas, ending up in the modern city to have dinner with the just-arrived Sheards (Judy and John).

Holy Toledo!

View of Toledo rooftops

Toledo cathedral

the high altar in the Toledo cathedral

typical Toledo street

Monastery San Juan de Las Reyes

Sue and Cheryl with Cervantes in the middle

Before today's visit to Toledo, we spent our last full day in Madrid visiting the Royal Palace and the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The palace was described in a guide book as having the most lavish interior of all European palaces, including Versailles. We all thought this sounded a bit OTT until we actually saw the amazing chandeliers, beautiful furnishings, tapestries, porcelain decor etc. The Reina Sofia houses Picasso's amazing Guernica, painted during the Spanish Civil War to portray the horror of the bombing of the city of the same name. Franco gave Hitler permission to use the city as a guinea pig to test saturation bombing - an horrendous story.

Today we took the train to Toledo where we started our visit with a scenic taxi ride with a driver who had aspirations to be travel guide. We saw lovely panoramic views of the city -see photos, before being dropped off in the old Jewish quarter. Then down to business. We visited the San Juan de los Reyes monastery, built provocatively by Ferdinand and Isabella as a symbol of Catholic supremacy after the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492. We then visited the small Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue, so named as it was converted to a church, and the larger del Transito Synagogue with Sefardi Museum. The day was rounded out with a wander through the El Greco Museum, and the main sight of the city, the Toledo Cathedral. Before catching the train home, the 3 girls stopped at a damascene shop run by 80 yr old Simon who still makes the gold inlaid objets d'art himself.

Madrid

Plaza Mayor

I'll buy you one more frozen orange juice on this fantastic day.
I'll walk the sunny hills of Madrid .... (all sing along)

View from Retiro Park, near the Prado

the lake in Retiro Park (with the Three Amigas)

Sample of tapas on offer at St Miguel market

the post office for all Spain from 1907 - ?

modern Madrid - a few kms north of the centre (no its not the camera lens doing this)

Valley of the Fallen at El Escorial (about 50km NW of Madrid)
It is a monument to all those that died in the Civil War. The dead
from both sides are buried here (an issue for anti-Franco people).

Segovia (about 80 km NW) - old Roman aqueduct

the Disney-like alcazar at Segovia

We're out of Barcelona – have taken the fast train to Madrid (2 hours)

Monday in Madrid - most things closed - so walked around Madrid like lost sheep – went past the Royal palace at least three times even tho it was shut – lucky we were not shot. Next day we were off to the Prado (an Art museum - somewhat Louvre-like) . Lots of Goya and El Greco and various other artists. 50 'masterpieces (like Goyas Third of May) but also thousands of nondescript paintings, (at least to us Luddites). This was followed by the three Amigas dragging me through the huge (but rather boring, ) 120 hectare, Retiro park behind the Prado. After a vermut (vermouth) or two to recover, K and I went to see some of the tall buildings (and “leaning” buildings) to the North whilst Cheryl shopped for designer jeans to match her new leather coat and her new handbag (and her new bra – long story). Paella at a reasonable restaurant that night. But paella is not yet our favourite food.

My three wives are (maybe with one unnamed exception – shades here of the Judgement of Paris and golden apple of aphrodite in mythology where Paris had to chose the most beautiful woman) pretty rebellious, stubborn and difficult to control. They simply do not accept my authority. Incredible but par for the course. Hopefully by Portugal they will have lost their passive (and active) resistance and be fully compliant. Whipping them into shape is damn hard.

Next day hired a car and drove to Segovia. An old walled city with a Disney-like “palace” - the Alcazar, a huge cathedral on the hill, and the most magnificent, Roman aqueduct leading into the high walled city. Also visited El Escorial – a huge Monastery / lavish royal palace up in the hills some 45 km from Madrid. It is also the burial place of most of the Kings of Spain. A phenomenal amount of money was use by Spain to build it. Nearby is also the Valley of the Fallen. Franco built a huge Basilica deep in the mountainside as a memorial to the dead in the Spanish Civil War (which of course he caused !).

Madrid has major avenues and lots of incredible buildings but somehow does not have the instant WOW factor (and great food) of Barcelona. I think it takes time to grow on you. Mind you after a few Pedro Ximenez sherries (they are to die for – especially the 1927 one I had tonight) Madrid starts looking damn good.

Last 2 days in Barcelona

 Monserrat

 Monserrat

 

at St Girone lookout 

 

the old bull ring converted to a shopping mall 

 

view from the bull ring roof 

 

Casa Batllo 

 

a fund raising run (for fire fighters) near "our" metro 

 

Joan Miro museum 

 

Olympic stadium 

 

Barceloneta foreshore 

 

Placa Real at night

Day 3 we left the city for a trip to Montserrat, home to a Benedictine monastery, spectacular mountain scenery and good hiking. It is also a rock climber’s paradise. We visited the basilica and the sacred cave, which contained the original, and a copy (respectively) of a “Black Virgin” statue. Then we took the very steep funicular up to near the top and did the 7.5 km return hike to lookout St Girone – great views. Back in Barcelona we had just enough time to check out the old bull ring in Placa Espanya – it has been brilliantly converted to a shopping mall – before going to the Rodriguez concert at the Palau de Musica. The concert also included Bizet’s Carmen, which was a bonus for me as I have always loved that music. The concert hall is amazing (see photo in previous post) and anyone coming to Barcelona should visit it. Best would be to attend a DAYTIME concert there if one is on.

Last day we split into 2 groups with Graeme off doing his own thing to get away from the 3 women for a while. Between us we covered the following:

• Montjuic hill, with the Joan Miro museum, botanical gardens and olympic stadium
• Barceloneta waterfront area
• Eixample area with it’s fabulous architecture and more Gaudi excesses in the form of Casa Batllo and Casa Mila

Then we met up for our final dinner in restaurant “La Crema Canela” just off Placa Real – recommended in Rick Steves Guide book. What a great recommendation! Unbelievably cheap and the food presentation and quality were what you would get at a very good restaurant in Melbourne. Just walking to the restaurant at 830 pm through the Barri Gotic area was an experience – Barcelona absolutely comes alive at night.

Speaking of food, we stumbled across a fabulous little place in Barceloneta called “La Bombeta” - full of locals, with delicious things on the menu. They didn’t speak English but we managed with my Spanish and the Kindle with a Spanish-English dictionary. The sign over the bar read “No hablamos ingles, pero hacemos unas bombas cojonudas”. I asked the waiter in Spanish what cojonudas are and all he said was they are very good.  Then a customer at the next table told me they are testicles.  Graeme's dictionary however says "cojonuda" means terrific.  Can any Spanish speakers enlighten us with the meaning of "bombas cojonudas"??

Overall summary of Barcelona – a wonderful clean interesting city with fabulous architecture, great food, friendly people. Everyone should visit it!

We are now in Madrid, arriving by high speed train, after  a very rushed exit from Barcelona when Sue's alarm failed to wake us.

First 2 Days in Barcelona

view of Placa Catalunya from the El Corte Ingles building where we had lunch
Placa Reial
La Boqueria - selling ham at 100 euros a kg!

Palau Musica interior

tapas and sangria for lunch at Santa Caterina marketditto

a life sized mammoth in City Park not far from our apartment

Park Guell

Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's most famous work - will be finished in maybe 20 years

The nativity facade of the Sagrada Familia

inside Sagrada Familia - some of the stained glass in background

inside Sagrada Familia - looking up

Kitty and Sue arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon local time, followed by Graeme and me late in the evening.

Our first day started with our going up the Christopher Columbus monument – great 360 degree views, but very very cold at the top. A not terribly exciting harbour cruise followed.
We then proceeded to a stroll down Las Ramblas, (the famous Barcelona boulevard) with frequent stops at points of interest, notably at La Boqueria market. In the afternoon we visited the Picasso museum, which was interesting, but unfortunately had large time gaps in his work, particularly the period from 1905 to 1917. It was illuminating to see Picasso’s very early work as a child and teenager, all of which was in the classical style, very different to what we associate with the artist (his father was an art teacher, we learned). Tapas for dinner then we crashed for the night.

Day 2 here started with an early rise for Sagrada Familia. It is very hard to encapsulate this amazing unfinished Gaudi building in either words or photographs. The sheer enormity and grandeur of the building, the stained glass windows, the geometric shapes etc etc are mind boggling – see photos. Once again freezing at the top!!!

At midday we went to the Palau de Musica Catalan, one of Barcelona’s famous buildings not actually designed by Gaudi. I fell in love with this building with its stunningly decorative interior – see photo. I am really looking forward to the concert we have booked for tomorrow evening – Concerto Aranjuez by Rodrigues, one of my favourites!!

Other highlights of today were Park Guell, once again Gaudi designed, and tapas lunch at Santa Caterina market .

Essaouira

Fishing nets and boats in Essaouira



























The defensive ramparts











The walled city of Essaouira












Street scene in medina at Essaouira












The beach at Essaouira











Street musician- screwdrivers on a plate !

Day 11 (Not a consensus view !)

Essaouira is a French-planned seaside resort and major fishing port NW of Marrakesh. Great for windsurfing if you dont mind strong winds and coldish weather. We meet our local guide Abdul at a civilised hour – 9 a.m. He shows us around the port area and the walled Medina and Mellah (old Jewish area). During our walk we make the obligatory stops at guide-chosen shops selling jewellery, and wood products such as incredibly ornate boxes and tables inlaid with white Thuya wood patterns. Graeme supports the local economy at the Thuya wood workshop and I do the girlie thing and go for jewellery. Interestingly the jewellery coooperative produces traditional Jewish pieces e.g. Mezuzot.

The tour then went on to the the fish market, giving us a feel for the essence of the town. After the group tour Graeme and I had relaxation massages (they dont understand sports massages) at one of the numerous establishments. After that, as previously planned, Graeme and I met up with Abdul our guide again for a private tour of the Haim Pinto Synagogue and the 2 Jewish cemetaries. Abdul had contacted the caretaker of both the synagogue and the cemetaries to organise the visit. Once again, we appreciated time away from the Intrpid group, and found Abdul a very well informed and thorough guide.

Back to the riad where we were staying for a freshen up (for me) and a computer stint (fro Graeme). For dinner we had free time (no group dinner) so Graeme and I went to one of the fish stalls/restaurants where you are shown the fish, choose which you want and it is BBQed on the spot. We could look out to the water but as it was dark (and very cold) there wasn’t too much to see.We sat with an interesting couple, the woman from Meknes, the man a native Fijiian who now lives in San Francisco.

Off to Marrakesh!