Day 8: June 21 (Granada)

We are in Granada- still at the Hotel Santa Isabel la Real- which is even better the second day.  After closing the shutters, the room was like a nice cave.  The air conditioner had a very white noise, half wind / half wave sound and we didn't wake up until 9:00 am when the alarm went off.  The hotel breakfast was very nice, with a great variety of tasty foods.  Our fellow breakfasters were Australians, Canadians, and other couples of undetermined nationality. I retaped my feet and we started off down the hill in search of an ATM and a pharmacy.  We used a bank machines that also printed out our Alhambra admission tickets.  We could enter the grounds at 1:00 pm and the Nasrid palace at 5:00 pm.

Inside the Moorish baths

We spent the morning finding the tourist office off of Plaza Neuva.  We did not find much of use there, but we did buy a guide book and some postcards in a nearby store.  Along the way, we got a quick introduction to navigating by Segway by a guy trying to get us to sign up for a tour.  I am tempted.  We popped in a little bit in the Saint John Convalescent Home with a museum featuring a local contemporaryartist.  His style was described as "Moda de Fruta".  Sitting in the Plaza, we checked out two justice buildings across the Plaza from each other.  We watched many abogados enter and pass through weapons screening detectors.  The main building was huge, elaborate and formal.  This was a former palace, the Royal Chancellory, built in 1530. We walked up the Carrera de Darro and saw the old Moorish baths.  These were very interesting, especially the ceilings with the star shaped openings.

The main business of the day was our visit to the Alhambra.  We took the bus up because of the heat.  It turned out that about 70% of the time we spent on the bus was unnecessary because the bus route looped back to within a couple of blocks from where we got on before starting up the hill to the Alhambra.  The bus was quite crowded but, by the time we started the last leg, the only other people were two girls from Brazil and two girls from Nebraska.  The Brazilian girls were both on study abroad programs- one in Germany and one in Bilbao- and were traveling together on their summer holiday.  The Nebraskans were with a tour associated with their church.  We saw them later with their group; all seemed in their early 20's.  One of the guys in the group was explaining the details of his haircut.  He had gotten his hair cut by a local barber in a style that I have noticed on many teenage early 20's boys here, but have not seen at all in the states.  It is short on the sides with a defined side part and longer (but not long at all) through the top.  There is a kind of very slight wave on the longer bit in the middle top area.

In the Generalife

We went into the Alhambra and started through the Generalife area, crossing back to the palaces.  There was an elaborate entry ticket process, but I think we were not there on a high traffic day.  The Brazilian girls had not bought advance tickets and went right in with no problem.  The guide books all say you might not get in if you do not get your tickets in advance.  It was also not as hot as I thought it might be, though it was very hot.  The Generalife was cooler.  I think that Neil and I liked the outdoor areas better than the indoors, although the interior design and decorative items were amazing.  I really liked the ceilings.  The tile work throughout was beautiful. The garden and courtyard designs were beautiful.

Our fellow tourists all seemed to be having a good time. Neil was amazed by the number of English speakers, considering we haven't heard a lot of English elsewhere in Granada.  We observed a huge group of pre-teen (10-12 year old) Australian school children.  It seemed like a huge expense for all those children to go half way around the world.  I thought about all of the drama involved in going with Roz's fifth grade class just to San Francisco!

The Alcazaba - The Alhambra keep

Me in front of an ornate door

Neil in front of an ornate door

The center plaza of the Alhambra with the Fountain of the Lions was being restored.  They had a lot of good displays about the restoration project and the lions were on display inside.  The courtyard itself was torn up with plumbing and irrigation being repaired.  The rooms off the courtyard were not accessible.  Even though we didn't see it all, it was more than we could take in in one day.  We were on overload for the last part of the tour.  It was an amazing trip and worth the time.  You could go back ten times to take it all in.

El Partal Gardens

We took the bus loop back to our hotel.  The bus had to follow some riders in fancy clothes on horseback (unexplained, maybe police officers??) down a very narrow road in town.  This slowed things upon the bus.  The bus drivers were amazing in their ability to get through the narrow, narrow spaces along their route.

Back at the hotel, we showered, did some laundry, and headed back to Plaza Saint Nicholas to eat.  Bar Kiki was closed but Cafe Mirador next door, which we hadn't noticed or was closed last night, was open and we ate there.  All was pretty much the same as last night, except that there was a large neighborhood party going on.  Some cars were parked on the street, distracting from the views.    The food was tasty. We had a dish with artichoke hearts, peppers and ham and a dish with pork loin and fries.  The tapa dish was a potato / salsa salad.  So far in Granada, we have found that a substantial free tapa is served with drinks at dinner.  Last night we were uncertain after being served the tapa dish whether or not it was the main course!  Neil was especially amazed at the large number of group tours walking through the Plaza over to the mirador during the evening.  There must have been at least ten groups passing through while we ate.

After dinner, we sat and looked at the view of the Alhambra.  Hours before we had been looking the other way, out the Alhambra toward San Nicholas.  In the darkness, we could see the patios of some of the higher priced restaurants tucked away.  Eventually, we expertly stumbled the couple of blocks back to our hotel and saw late arriving Americans checking in as we headed to our room.

Day 7: June 20 (Seville-Granada)

We woke this morning about 8:00 am and had coffee in the PLaza Encarnation.  People were busy cleaning up, going to work, and taking kids to school.  We hadn't been up early on a weekday for awhile - it was quite cool (comparatively) and pleasant.

It was a travel day, as we set out from Seville to Granada.  We walked through a new (to us) commercial district to the bus station at Plaza de las Armas.  The little amusement park that was set up a few blocks from the station the other night was dismantled.  I had particularly noticed a ride that was like hamsterballs for children in a big wading pool.

Our bus to Granada

We were early, erring on the side of caution as usual.  The  bus to Granada was never listed on the big electronic Salida board, but Neil found out the gate by asking at the information booth.  The bus did not seem at all full but, about five minutes before scheduled departure, about 70% more people got on.  It was about three quarters full.  The trip lasted about three hours, with quite a bit of traffic and maneuvering on the way out of Seville.  This was our first contact with highways and autos.  There weren't a lot of cars on the road.  The price of gas was about $9 per gallon!

The countryside out the window was olive trees and sunflowers, growing warmer and slightly hillier as we went along.  It was surprising to see snowon the Sierra Madres as we approached.  We hopped right into a taxi which was expertly driven.  The cab driver told us that the light rail system being built near the bus station had been going on for six years and had another three or four to go.

The courtyard of Santa Isabel y Real

Granada had a very different "vibe".  We went up a hill to the Albaicin, which is the old Arab Quarter.  It was very different in appearance than anything we had seen in Spain before.  Everything was very white, except for the ever-present tagging on the plaster walls.  The buildings were generally low and the streets very narrow.  Traffic (taxis and motorcycles for the most part) zoomed through echoing loudly, amazingly not colliding with walls or other cars.  The taxi pulled up in front of a wooden door in a white wall which was the front of our hotel, Santa Isabel y Real.  The door opened into a beautiful courtyard with dark woods.  The room was very beautiful, with dark wood beamed ceilings with carvings, dark red tiles on the floor, and lovely woven wall hangings and rugs.  There was a very nice common sitting area with a laptop computer for guest use.  The wifi worked well throughout the hotel.  (The wifi in Seville worked erratically.) The clerk spoke excellent English and sent us off to get lunch before things closed up for the afternoon.

The path down from the Albaicin

We had a pleasant, if hot, lunch at the Plaza San Miguel de Bajo.  There seemed to be five or six restaurants in the plaza.  Neil had a dish with mushrooms and shrimp and I had a lettuce heart with fried garlic and good olive oil.  The bread was delicious.  I had a two hour nap in our new room while Neil was up planning and getting info from the clerk.  When it had cooled down a bit outside, we started on out to get our bearings of our new town.  We set off down the hill and made our way over to the main tourist squares.    We walked down Calle Elvira and really, for the first time since being in Spain, I felt unsafe.  There were young homeless / travelers, maybe drug addicts.  There were neo-hippie / gypsy wannabes set along with real gypsies.  Anyway.. the parallel street one over was a glitzy shopping area.

The Alhambra viewed from mirador San Nicholas

It cooled a bit more as we made our way over to the base of the other hill, on which sits the Alhambra.  We walked by the stream / river Carrea del Darra which was marred only by traffic, turned to climb back up to the Albaicin and ended up in the lovely Plaza San Nicholas where there was a mirador (viewing spot).  The Plaza was the site of a church, restaurants, and cafes.  There were many people there for the sunset - tourists and locals.  A group of parents accompanied their children after some kind of team sport (basketball?) practice.  We enjoyed the evening view, took pictures and settled in at Bar Kiki for a very good dinner of bacalao sefardic, cod with a sauce of raisins, figs, pine nuts and basil.  It was delicious.  As we ate with the sun setting at 9:45 pm, Neil proclaimed our late dinners to be the best part of each day.  I tried to ask the waiter the name of the birds we watched darting around the church tower in the evening.  The same type of birds were flying like nuts around the cathedral in Seville and around the church in Plaza San Miguel in Cordoba.  I think they are swallows or swifts.  Anyway, the waiter, seeing me gesture at the church towers, answered "campana".  I didn't realize until Neil told me that the waiter had answered with the spanish for "bells".  I really need to speak up and try better to make myself understood!  It really was lovely.  The lights came on in the city and spotlit the Alhambra.  It was warm and people were milling about.  There was street music in the air.

Night view of the Alhambra from San Nicholas

We walked back to our hotel, getting directions from a woman from Sonoma who was renting an apartment in the Albaicin.

Day 6: June 19 (Seville)

Today's entry might be a little short.  That is because we slept until 11:00 am! Yay. Our first good night's sleep. We really needed it. We were worried that the breakfast served on the other side of the hotel courtyard would wake us up, but it didn't happen. Our cavelike room was perfect for sleeping.

Fruit in a fountain

We got coffee down the street at a place that looked like an old time confectionary store.  Everything was displayed perfectly.  The waitresses wore little uniforms.  We then headed back to the old town area.  Neil had downloaded a podcast tour of the barrio Santa Cruz onto his ipod touch.  We hoped that the directions would be good enough to keep us from getting lost again.  We each shared an earbud, which meant that we had to stay together or we pulled each other's earbuds out of their ear.  To be honest, we did not do so well in coordinating our movements.  The tour went well, however.  The podcast was fairly clear and we kept on course without getting seriously lost.  We went through a maze of tiny streets with beautiful courtyards.  The podcast informed us of the repurposing of many of the buildings; ex-synagogues now churches, ex-banker's mansions now government buildings.  There were many examples of mudejar architectural design.  There were even old Roman columns jutting up from the weeds in an empty lot between two buildings.  We saw the tavern where Don Juan reportedly recounted his adventures, the house of the painter Murillo, and more.  Neil was fascinated by a fountain in one of the beautiful and refreshing plazas along the back wall of the Alcazar.  A small fruit (maybe a pit) was floating right in the middle of an upward stream of water from the fountain.  The pit remained in place even when Neil tried to disturb the stream!  It was very stable. Finally, the mystery of why we got lost and could not find our way back with the map our first night in Seville became clear.  The main street we had been looking for had different names on different sides of the street.  The name we saw that night was not the name on the map.

Roman columns in Barrio Santa Cruz

We stopped for a late lunch at Cafe Levies at the edge of the barrio.  I cooled off with a lemonade and we shared a salad and some ham on a baguette.  At another table, an orange fell out of a tree and hit a diner smack on the head.  She jumped a mile and everyone else (her friends, other diners, and the workers) laughed.  We finished up around 5 pm.

Back at the hotel, I was very depressed because my feet were really hurting.  I rested and checked out some of the photos on the camera while Neil got some scissors from the hotel clerk.  Apparently, the clerk was very friendly because Neil was gone a while.  When Neil got back, he told me he had been practicing his spanish.  He and the clerk had talked about the real estate market, favorite music groups (the clerk loved the Doors!) and more, including his recommendation about the local flamenco scene.  As a result, we had tickets to the early flamenco show at El Arenal, in a neighborhood near the bullring. After some foot retaping and a bit of laundry, we set off to find the flamenco show.

The stage at the flamenco show

We found the show without problem.  I had sangria and enjoyed the dancing very much.  The dancers were various ages but none really young.  Neil thought the singing reminded him of the synagogue experiences of his youth.  While I was in the restroom after the performance, Neil bought a set of castanets from a vendor outside.  He showed us how to make them work.  We tried, but it is harder than it looks.  I will have to practice.

We walked back through town and ventured into the edge of Barrio Santa Cruz again, retracing some of our earlier path.  It was beautiful and warm.  We had dinner in a place on Plaza Dona Elvira, where we had pimientos with tuna and some light dish with pork whose name I cannot remember.  It was all very good.  The waiter spoke very good English.  He showed Neil how to roll the bottle of the beer he ordered on its side because of the extra frothiness of that particular brand.  He told us that he had studied English in school and in college, but had learned more about speaking during two weeks of waiting tables.  Our restaurant was closing as we ate; it was 10:00 pm on a Sunday.  Our walk back through town was full of life at this hour.  Walking next to the Alcazar and the Cathedral, we were in the midst of lots of people, including little kids playing, enjoying the evening.  Most restaurants were still open and their tables were full.

A tricky local beer with dinner

We tried a completely unknown route which took us back to the hotel.  It worked exactly as we thought.  We seem to be getting the hang of navigating Seville just as we are getting ready to leave. There was some kind of political protest or rally going on at the Plaza Encarnation near our hotel.  It looked pretty unorganized but still going strong at 11:00 pm.  I was glad to have switched to our quiet interior room.

Day 5: June 18 (Seville)

Last night was a disaster!  The street under our window was noisy all night. Groups coming from the Plaza Encarnation around the corner.  Neil, never a good sleeper, tried earplugs.  I do not think he slept at all. Our lack of sleep is getting be a big factor, especially coupled with the heat of day.  We went down to reception and explained the problem.  They graciously (and readily - I do not think this was the first time) agreed to change our room, moving our stuff to a new room during the day when we were out.  Our plan for today was to check out the Alcazar, the Cathedral, and find a little road that we read about but missed yesterday where there was a wall of Cervantes prison. We accomplished all - including finding the road (but not the wall).

We has breakfast in a very lovely setting at Plaza El Salvador.  We keep ordering more food than we want due to our (lack of) language skills.  Not a big problem.

One of many brides at Alcazar

A walk through the gardens

We got to the Alcazar and did another - probably our last - audioguide tour.  The Alcazar was very beautiful, with lovely patios and a central courtyard.  There is a huge amount of very intricate tiling and plastering.  Neil and I both liked a little room that now had a glass top two stories up but had originally been open to the stars.  This palace was a place Columbus had come to meet with Ferdinand and Isabella.  It is still used as the Seville residence of the Spanish royalty.  As we toured, we noted five or six brides having photos taken by wedding photographers.  The gardens were very impressive with courtyard after courtyard.  There were walks and openings through walls to draw you along.  There were water features and shaded areas to use in warm weather,  including a covered walk along a second story where you could view the gardens from above.  There were also big, sunny areas for cooler weather.  The grounds were immense and it was very hot.  I was worried about Neil.  He said he felt like he was going to pass out.  He was very disoriented and could not make sense of our map.  I think he would still be wandering around there now if I had not led the way out. We saw pretty much everything on the tour before we left.

We were beaten down by the heat.  We walked a bit and refortified with some ice cream.  We saw some of the brides (and family) from the Alcazar, one in a big convertible and another in a horse drawn carriage.  Armed with a big bottle of water, we took on the Cathedral.  The Cathedral was huge (and fairly cool); something like the third largest Gothic cathedral in the world!  The roof was so high that they had a big magnifying mirror mounted on the floor so that people could see the ceiling in detail.  The main area of the Cathedral contained the remains (or some of them) of Columbus.  OUr favorite part of the Cathedral area was the Giralda Tower.  We walked to the top via a series of about 35 ramps ending in a flight of 17 steps.  As we circled the inside of the tower, we checked out the windows set in the walls.  Each window opened to a different direction and, as we ascended, we saw the same directions from different heights.  The top of the tower had a stunning panoramic view of the city. (See the video.) We could identify areas we had already seen, like the park and the river, as well as new things like the bullring.  When we got back down from the tower, we walked all around the outside of the Cathedral to see if we could recognize where Raquel ran in looking for Jaimie in an early episode of Destinos.  I think I will have to watch that episode again when we get home and see what I recognize.

We returned to our hotel and to our new room.  We were now on the ground floor opening into the courtyard area, with no exterior windows.  I did some laundry and Neil took a short nap.  My blisters from last night were really bothering me with all of our walking.  I did not know how I could continue our trip! Neil suggested wrapping my blisters with adhesive tape and went down the street to the El Corte Inglis (a big department store) on an adventure of his own to buy some.  My feet are not good.  I hope the tape works and I can find a way to continue without intense pain.

At 7:00 pm, we went out heading for the Museo de Bellas Artes, which had the exact same description in Frommer as the one in Cordoba.  The Cordoba description was the mistake.  We walked through a new, less touristy area down from the hotel toward the river.  My taped feet were tolerable.  There was a wedding spilling out of the church next door to the museum. The museum had an (what we now expect) attractive courtyard and was almost empty of people.  We still couldn't find the El Grecos promised in the guide book.  We left at the 8:30 pm closing and walked off in the direction of the river.  We walked past the Plaza de las Armas, which looked like a shopping mall with an intricate kiddy play area /amusement park set up in front.  Neil was looking for the bus station we would be leaving from to go to Granada, trying to figure out how to get there from the hotel.

End of the boat tour

When we got to the river, we walked along it on a beautiful public walkway.  Eventually, we got to the launch area for the boat tour up and down the river.  We got there just about 9:00 pm and hopped on.  It was very pleasant with a nice evening breeze drifting across the water.  The tour went upriver under some very stylish modern bridges to the site of the Exposition in 1992.  We returned at a lovely sunset and walked back to the cathedral area where Neil had earlier noticed an invitingly situated restaurant.  Neil had paella, which I think was "fast food" because it was displayed with pictures I saw in other restaurants.  He ate it heartily, though, along with two beers (unheard of for him) without complaint.  It was a beautiful, warm night at dusk in an unbelievable setting!  We got lost once again tonight on the way home and had to backtrack until we found a familiar route.

At dinner

Before going to bed, I spent some time covering the light fixture above the door with a towel to darken the room.  all of the hotels we have stayed in have a system where you put your key card in a slot in a fixture by the door allowing the lights and air conditioning to be used.  These little lights are somehow wired into this system.

Day 4: June 17 (Cordoba - Seville)

We woke up this morning after another night of not sleeping very well.  This is our fourth sleepless night, counting the plane trip.  Our hotel is dark and quiet, so it must be the time difference.  Even under the best circumstances, Neil doesn't sleep well in strange places.  I was extremely disoriented on waking up, barely knowing where I was or what I was supposed to be doing.  We stumbled down past Plaza Tendillas and got some solid food and good coffee at Cafe Vienna.  The tables around us were filled with youngsters who were going through some kind of audition at the music school up the street.

Along the city walls

We did a little more sightseeing after breakfast before checking out of the hotel and heading to Seville.  We walked down to the old wall around the center of town and got outside the wall on a path passing through one of the wall's portals.  The path continued along the outside of the wall, lined with water features and plantings.  It was all very nicely done and, since the wall, provided some shade, comfortably cooler than the already hot surroundings. The path continued on past the wall into large parks in the "ordinary" (not old town) part of Cordova.

We can back through the wall into the Juderia and found the old synagogue.  It was nicely set up with an outer courtyard, entry room with a balcony above, and inner room.  The inscriptions on the walls were uncovered only 150 years ago and since been restored.  The building had been used for many other things over the centuries and its original purpose had been forgotten.

After checking out of the hotel, we walked back to the train station.  Our walk took us through a nice park and took barely 15 minutes now that we knew the lay of the land.  Always being anxious, I got Neil to wait down by the train track earlier than necessary.  The train was right on time and didn't stop long.  It was the same AVE train from Madrid to Seville, which made the one stop in Cordoba.  The leg from Cordoba to Seville was about 40 minutes.  We got to Seville a little before 2:00 pm.  The temperature was about 94 degrees farenheit.  Due to the heat, distance to the hotel, and lack of certainty about the neighborhoods on our path, we took a taxi from the train station.  This was just as well.  If we had walked, we would have gotten lost.  The taxi driver got lost!  He took us off the meter until he found his way.  The driver was very friendly and we talked about lots of things while he was searching for the hotel.  His English was better than our Spanish.

Hotel Itaca Courtyard

The hotel turned out to be centrally located on a small alley near a big plaza. The hotel, Hotel Itaca, was very nicely done, with a very attractive courtyard common area.  The room was comfortable and stylish, located on the level above the street facing out over the alley.  We rested a bit out of the heat.  After settling in, we went out exploring by taking one of the main streets, Calle Tetuan, toward the old section.  The street was lined with stores that had just reopened for the latter part of the day.  The stores were pretty high end, with some high end chains I recognized.  There was an incredible level of shopper activity! I realized that I had lost track of my sunglasses, so I bought a new pair real cheap from an African guy who had his merchandise laid out on a blanket on the street.

Boating at Plaza Espana

Maria Luisa Park

We went through several Plazas, past the City Hall, and to the old Cathedral area.  There were rental horse drawn carriages parked beside the Cathedral.  We noted that, periodically, the police would drive along the main drag, the Avenida de la Constitution.  When the police approached, all of the African street vendors would quickly wrap up their merchandise with their blankets and move off of the sidewalks.  When the police were past, they would reemerge and set up as before.  A big game! After stopping for some ice cream, we headed down to the river.  We saw several people rowing sculls in the late afternoon.  The path along the river was being refurbished and planted with a new arbor.  We continued through to Maria Luisa Park.  The park included a huge Plaza de Espana, with a big lake upon which people were rowing in rented rowboats.  The whole area was built for an Exposition in 1929.  It was very pretty.  We then turned onto a big boulevard called Menendez Pelayo running along the back of the Alcazar.  We struggled a little figuring out where we were on the map.  Many streets intersect at weird angles and the signage isn't all that clear, with some streets spontaneously changing names with no warning. Along our path behind the Alcazar, we walked through the Murillo Gardens.  There was a big statue with a lion on top in honor of Colombus.

Columbus monument

We then wandered into the Barrio Santa Cruz area, which is the old Juderia.  The streets were very narrow and windy.  This isa very popular area, with lots of high end hotels, old palaces, and good bars and restaurants.  It was getting late and we were pretty hungry.  It had been a long, hot day for us.  We had been very ambitious and done a lot of walking.  We settled in for dinner at a small place in the barrio.   Neil tried a tortilla espanola - a potato frittata - smothered in salmorejo - a thicker, more tomato-y gazpacho.  I had a vegetable frittata and gazpacho.  Leaving our dinner, we got very lost wandering through the barrio.  We found our way to a main street and asked directions in the reception of a hotel.  We ended up finding our way home after retracing much of our original path.  Although it was about midnight, there were plenty of people out and about.  The main casualty of all of our walking was my feet.  I had developed blisters and my feet really hurt.

Day 3: June 16 (Cordoba)

We both slept pretty poorly as we struggled to get synched with local time.  Got up around 9:00 am and headed off for coffees at Tendillas Plaza.  Neil's normal coffee drink is a mocha, but no one in Spain seems to know what a mocha is (or we can't figure out its Spanish equivalent).  Neil ordered a Cafe Bombon, which was very sweet.

Mezquita

Our plan was to get to the Mezquita by 10 am because entrance is free up until that time.  We cut it too short and then blew it when we realized we didn't have our camera.  By the time we went back to the hotel and got to the Mezquita it was a bit after ten o'clock (which we knew because, at 10, the call to prayer is broadcast on loud speakers all through the city). We got an audio tour, which we couldn't have gotten if we had gotten there before ten o'clock anyway. We spent 2-2.5 hours looking through the Mezquita.  We found the self guided audioguide difficult to deal with.  It was especially hard to figure out where the included map was telling us to stand before playing the appropriate audio description.  On top of all that, the headsets were kind of heavy.  In the end, Neil and I agreed that just taking the whole thing in without distraction was the best course for first contact. We preferred the darker, earlier built sections. The arches and color and the way the light was filtered were very pleasing. There was a mass with music going on when we entered, but it ended before we recorded any of it on our minicamcorder.  The place was crawling with tour groups. The brochure put out by the cathedral was amusingly defensive about their part in the history of the Mezquita. (Upon the reconquest, the Christian rulers of Spain built a cathedral right smack in the middle of the Mezquita, which was a huge mosque.)

Upon leaving the Mezquita, we wandered along parallel to the river, acclimatizing to the light and heat and looking for something to eat.  We found a place called Taverna de los Palcos ( = box / balcony) and had salads for lunch.

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and had a nap until about 5:30 pm.  Headed back to the Plaza de las Tendillas where Neil had another chocolate frappe.  I went on by myself down the street toward the Mezquita into a modern commercial area.  The stores had just reopened for the evening and my mission was to buy a bra.  I was a little nervous because this was my first all Spanish interaction on my own.  All went well!

Plaza Corredera

We decided to check out the Museo de Belles Artes - the Fine Arts Museum.  We plotted a route in the heat of late afternoon (42 degrees centigrade) that took us past an excavation of big Roman columns which were part of a temple built in the first century AD.  We then found the Plaza Corredera, a huge square completely bounded by apartments and markets.  We had read that courts of the Inquisition and bullfights had taken place there.  As we walked on the back streets we saw lots of costumed children headed with their parents for some performance.  During the entire afternoon and evening we also saw many priests, all carrying briefcases.  Life is full of mysteries!

Garden Plaza in front of the Fine Arts Museum

The list of things we did not understand kept growing.  We got to the Fine Arts museum, which adjoined another museum around a pretty little square.  The ticket office for the Fine Arts museum was empty and the museum appeared to be closed.  There were signs posted that indicated that the museum was closed for renovation.  The confusion mounted as we sat in the square, taking in the view and resting from the heat. People walked out of the door to the museum!  When we went to the doors, we found that they automatically opened onto a desk with a guard.  Upon trying to communicate with the guard, Neil thought that the guard told us that the museum was closed until next year.  So..back out to the square we went and, as we sat there, more people came and went through the door!  Finally, we went back in and talked to the guard again.  He let us in (no charge) if we agreed that we were British! This is what I think was going on. The adjoining museum was, indeed, closed for renovation.  The Fine Arts museum was open and free to citizens of the EU but, since the ticket office was unmanned, it was impossible to sell tickets to non-EU'ers.  This is why the guard wouldn't let us through at first.  Finally, realizing that we weren't going away and it was no big deal, he let us in as ersatz EU people.

The museum had a collection of art by locals.  We thought from the tour book that there were El Greco's there, but no. Many other paintings described in the book were also not there. Upon further reading of Frommer, we found that the descriptions for the Fine Arts museums in Cordoba and Seville were identical.  Since the description for the museum in Cordoba was incorrect, someone should tell Mr.Frommer.

After the museum, we walked along the river and then headed back to town along a different route.  It was about 10:00 pm, still light, and about 90 degrees farenheit.  We wandered from plaza to plaza looking for an inviting place for drinks and nibbles and ended up at the very busy Plaza San Miguel near our hotel.  We adventurously ordered "higaditos de pollo", guessing it was a dish with figs and chicken.  It turned out to be chicken livers.

Eating Late in Plaza San Miguel

We finally stumbled back to our room after our long day.  Before going to bed, I made my first attempt at handwashing our quick dry clothes in the sink and hanging them on the clothesline I strung across the bathroom.  I thought I was semi-successful.

Day 2: June 15 (Madrid - Cordoba)

Neil waiting for the train

We had breakfast and walked to Atocha train station.  We already had downloaded our train tickets, so it was simply a matter of finding the departure track.  Not so simple because Atocha is a very big place.  The AVE (high speed) train took 1.5 hours to Cordoba.  On the train, there was a quartet of young American girls on their way to a language course in Seville.  The train ride was very smooth.  The countryside was dry and hot heading South out of Madrid.  It changed slightly to rolling, dry, and hotter as we approached our destination.

Hotel San Miguel courtyard

We decided to walk from the train station, armed with step by step walking instructions from Google maps stored on Neil's ipod touch.  Very Star Trek!  We had a bit of trouble orienting ourselves to the starting point and then got lost in the narrow streets toward the end.  We came upon Plaza de las Tendillas where, upon asking directions from a waiter, we found our way to Hotel San Miguel.   The hotel is tucked away but, as we approached, we saw all of the signs directing us to the hotel that we had previously not noticed.  The walk, advertised by Google to take eleven minutes, took us about an hour!  The hotel was very pretty, organized around a lovely courtyard filled with invitingly green plants.

Stairway to Palacio Bailio

Relaxing at Tendillas Plaza

After settling in, we went off exploring using an ipod app Neil had downloaded.  We walked back to Plaza de las Tendillas and then set out for an exterior stairway to Palacio Bailio in the area of the San Jacinto Hospital and the Capuchin convent.  The convent wall was covered in pretty bougainvillea.  We wound our way back to the Plaza de las Tendillas where we tried to beat the heat (upper 90's) by relaxing with a capuchino and a chocolate frappe.  While there, we had a long conversation with a Canadian couple from Victoria B.C..  He was a retired engineering professor.  Their passion was sailing their 41' sailboat.

We checked out the tourist office in the Plaza and bought tickets for that night to the Equestrian Show of Andalusian horses at Caballerizas Reales de Cordoba - the Royal Stables - at 9:00pm.  We spent the evening at the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos till 7:30pm.  The Alcazar is a beautiful old fortress with beautiful gardens.  Among the people walking the gardens, we saw two guys holding hands.  Something we do not see at home!  After the Alcazar, we walked over to the Roman Bridge, crossing the Quadalquiver river and back.  There was a nice breeze on the bridge, cutting some of the heat of the afternoon.  We spent the remaining time before the Equestrian show checking out the shops in the Juderia -Jewish Quarter.

Gardens at Alcazar

Cordoba as seen from Alcazar tower

Neil in front of Alcazar

The horse show was interesting and enjoyable.  I loved it and actually cried because the horses were so beautiful.  After the show, we dined indoors at the Bodegas Mesquita (Cespedes) at about 10:00pm.  The food was great.  We had a salad with a roasted tomato / honey / olives concoction, gaspacho, croquettes with oxtail filling, and albondigas.  A very adventurous meal to cap off our first full day! I had a "tinto con limon" - red wine with lemonade - which was delicious and super refreshing.  We were served a bonus liquor called Montilla Morieles, which was sweet and very good.

Here is a short video clip from the horse show.