Tuesday, June 2 - Getting home

Pic: Madrid airport

We're not there yet, but the taxi arrived right on the dot at 4:59 and whizzed us to the airport. Got great fresh OJ, baguettes with Iberian ham and cappuccinos. now in Madrid with our AA jet sitting right outside the window. Will finish up and add photos when we get home! XXX

We watched movies all the way to Miami as it was full daylight all the way. We had mojitos and Nathan's hotdogs in Miami before boarding the flight to LAX. We picked up the car at the Sheraton and groggily drove home, stopping at McDonald's for coffee and cheeseburgers. Arrived midnight.

Going to pick up Miss Jane now from the Cat House Hotel! XXXX until the next blog!

Monday, June 1 - Exploring more of Sevilla

Pics: entrance to the Alcazar, tortoise-shell fan, room in the Alcazar, tapas bar with sangria

Had breakfast at nine and the nice concierge took the key I found I had in my pocket from Finca Marta and promised to mail it back to them which was very helpful as finding a padded envelope and a correos (post office) would have been a hassle.

We set off to the cathedral with plans of walking up the 32 ramps to the top of the Giralda (ramps so horses could walk to the top) but it didn’t open until 11 so we headed to the Real Alcázar (royal palace) built by Pedro I in 1350, and although a Catholic, he built a fantastic palace in Moorish style. RR was very pleased to find that, due to our old age, we could get in free, thus saving about $20! We were also able to get audio players and walked around the palace for a couple of hours seeing amazing rooms, halls, gardens with really interesting commentary. Unlike true Islamic architecture which doesn’t allow depictions of people or animals, Pedro I snuck some in here and there. He was called Pedro, the Cruel, although only by the aristocracy, so he probably was a pretty good sort, and, anyway, he and his descendents spent 100 years building a wonderful palace.


We wondered around the Barrio of Santa Cruz, the old Jewish neighborhood of the Middle Ages, now a colorful flower-filled area full of shops and restaurants. We found one of the restaurants that we had looked at last night when it was closed, and found people setting up tables, chairs and umbrellas and were told it would open at 1:15, in about an hour. So we wandered away and stopped in a cool open air bar for glasses of Sangria which we sipped very slowly until our restaurant opened! We got back to El Albahaca and got a table with a lovely view of the Plaza of Santa Cruz. Bob got cold garlic, almond soup with currents in it - very delicious and refreshing. Then he got supremes of chicken as chicken is so hard to get, for some reason. I got wonderful ox tail stew which was really rich and lovely. It was getting quite hot by then and after a bottle of wine we staggered back home for a much-needed siesta.

We dozed, packed, paid our bill. I got the phone number of the taxi service the hotel uses in case no one appears at 5 AM tomorrow, as RR is afraid of.

About eight we walked the short ways to Avenida Alfalfa and found the tiny Bar Alfalfa with a tapas table free and had a delicious light supper of beer, bracaola (dried beef with olive oil and parmasan), eggplant with oil and mint and warm goat cheese with herbs. Just right!

Sunday, May 31 - Exploring Sevilla

Pics: putting out the candles after Mass, flyi9ng buttresses of the Cathedral, the Giralda tower

Breakfast is not served here until nine so we slept in and walked downstairs to find a nice buffet with excellent coffee, breads, fresh OJ and wonderful Sevilla anise-flavored paper-thin cookies.

With guidebook in hand we set out to explore Sevilla. Weather cool and overcast and really quite pleasant compared to yesterday’s inferno. Sevilla in the day and, out of our neighborhood, is very charming, colorful and lively.
We saw a lovely maroon church, Iglesia del Salvador, built on the site of a former mosque, and went inside. A huge towering arched ceiling, a spectacular enormous Baroque guilt altarpiece and Sunday mass being conducted. We sat in the back and watched the rather moving ceremony, complete with organ music, stringed instruments, singing, incense and huge candles Really beautiful!

We walked along narrow cobbled streets lined with fancy shops and noticed large “cherry picker” machines attaching shade cloths between the opposite sides of the streets as this is the beginning of the very hot summer season. There are already huge cloths set up over many of the plazas which make life possible in this hot humid summer climate but make photography difficult!

We went over to the Cathedral which, with the Moorish Giralda tower attached, is the largest gothic building in the world and its third largest cathedral. Plazas with flowers and horse-drawn carriages clopping by surround it and soften somewhat it’s somewhat imposing grey presence. Bob wanted to visit the Archivo de Indias where 80 million documents relating to the 300 year Spanish presence in the Americas are stored. It’s a UNESCO cultural site and quite an amazing sight with row upon row of glass cases filled with filing boxes, much of the documents, maps, records unsorted and un-catalogued as yet. We saw papers signed by Columbus, Cortes and others. Really interesting exhibits, including many references to Santa Bárbara and its presidio!

Feeling peckish by then, it being 1:30, we sat down at a sidewalk café with a spare table in the shade and split a bacon/chicken/tomato/cheese baguette and beers at what turned out to be Flaherty’s Irish pub! Back home for siesta.
Our hotel while lovely inside and with a friendly, helpful staff, is in a pretty rough, trashy neighborhood, and, as I‘ve mentioned, on a pedestrian alley. We’re getting a little anxious about getting out of here on Tuesday morning as we have a 7 AM flight to Madrid and really want to make it and our connection to Miami!

I talked to the nice concierge and he assured me that he would order the taxi for 5 AM on Tuesday morning, but the Casa del Maestro staff aren’t in the hotel overnight…what if the taxi doesn’t appear?? He seemed confident that there would be no problem, but?? We’re planning on being downstairs at 5, with our room key in hand in case we have to use our room phone to call a taxi and also not leaving the hotel until a taxi is in sight…not an easy task since we’re located in the middle of an alley!! Well, we’ll see!!

We went out at 8:30 in search of dinner and found several restaurants that the hotel and Fodor’s suggested, but they were all closed?? Maybe Sunday night is the night restaurants are closed, like Mondays in the US?? Lots of tapas bars were thriving, but we wanted something more substantial and finally found an Italian restaurant that was open and had an OK meal with the usual good inexpensive local red wine. Bought a cono de helado (ice cream cone) on the way home and arrived about eleven.

Saturday, May 30 - to Sevilla

Pics: Bells clanging!, our Blue room, one more stork picture

We checked out of our lovely casita and started our long drive to Sevilla. We headed south on smaller roads, in hopes of seeing bustards and other steppe birds. We even found a large sign advertising a dirt road through farmland as an ornithological reserve and so set off, driving 10 MPH. Unfortunately we saw only storks and lots of larks, but little else. After five miles the road suddenly came to a “T” in the middle of nowhere with no sign of which way to go! I choose “left” as that went south and we took off, gradually heading more and more east, per the GPS, until the road ended at a rundown farm and we were surrounded by six large barking farm dogs…we turned around and finally found our way to the highway and headed south.

Expiring from hunger, we stopped at a little store and got ice cream and cokes before trying to wend our way into and around Sevilla to return our car at the airport.

As we have had more experience than we wanted in getting there, we got on the SE30, then the SE20, zoomed around the city without any problem, checked-in the car, and got a taxi which took 15 minutes to get us near our hotel at 4:30PM. Near, because our hotel is on an alley which doesn’t allow cars. The hotel, itself, La Casa del Maestro, is quite charming, four stories with no elevator, and no view, but brilliantly painted. It’s named for Niño Ricardo (1904-72), a master flamenco guitarist who lived his life in this house. We have Gitaneria Arabesca (place of the Arab gypsy?) room on the third floor which is small but beautiful with brilliant blue walls and superb Arab embroidery above the bed.

We cleaned up and relaxed a bit before setting out at 8 in search of tapas. This is a difficult city to feel at home in. The buildings are all four stories tall, the streets are as narrow as the ones in little villages in the countryside, so the immediate feeling is one of claustrophobia. And as the streets wind around and change names; it’s amazingly easy to get lost and feel panicky. The temperature in the mid 90s didn’t help either.

We went to the tapas bar that the nice receptionist at the hotel recommended, but when we entered we saw trash on the floor and the typical high tapas tables at which one stands and we were too exhausted to think of eating and drinking standing up! There were tables with chairs, but one can only order dinner at those and we wanted to eat lightly. So we wandered around, Bob keeping a close eye on the map, and found ourselves at the Giralda tower, the Moorish remnant attached to the main cathedral. It was 8:40 by this time and suddenly all the bells in the tower started ringing! The tower is very large and square so from all sides you could see bells emerging, swinging upwards and around again. The most amazing noise! It went on for at least five minutes. I don’t know if this is a Saturday night special or if this happens all the time??

We started back retracing our steps and found a tapas bar that looked quite nice with high tables and stools. You pick what you like from the tapas menu and then order it at the bar. We picked out four dishes: Salmorejo tomato soup, potato quiche, shellfish sandwich, shrimp and curry cazuelita and a bottle of Rioja wine and had a fine supper.
We walked back and found our hotel and waited a while with two Spanish couples who where returning from a wedding for the receptionist to open the door which he finally did, but we were glad to have other jolly people there with us!

Friday, May 29 - Day trip to Guadalupe

Pics: Mountain top with Cistus, view of Guadalupe, Cathedral of Guadalupe

Up at 7:30. Walked around the Finca lands and then went in for a good breakfast buffet. Bob designed an ambitious driving tour for today which I grumpily agreed to as I hated leaving this place and could use some relaxation, but he promised to get me back early!

We drove south and east up into the mountains, past the town of Guadalupe, where the cult of G was started and spread to the Americas. I drove up and up a narrow, but deserted road and we started seeing beautiful wildflowers as the season is later at this elevation. White and spotted Cistus, French Lavender, yellow Primroses. The road finally ended at 5200’ at the mountain top covered with radio towers. We saw a few birds, but nothing new, but the views were incredible - miles and miles of forest, farmland and tiny villages.

We started down and pulled into the town of Guadalupe, which only has 2500 inhabitants, but one of the most enormous monasteries I’ve ever seen. It contains four museums which are supposed to be very worth seeing even with the lecture only in Spanish, but it was 1PM and the guides go on siesta until 3:30! There was a huge iron gate in the chapel very elaborately made, that separates viewers from all the gold, statues and paintings, but we could easily see through and saw the figure of the black Madonna of Guadalupe. Columbus first got his authorization to sail to the new world here and there is a lot of history connected to this place.

We decided to get lunch instead of starving, as usual, and thought we’d try the menú del día at one of the plaza cafes…Well, turns out you can get a bad meal in Spain! And you shouldn’t pick a restaurant by the charm of the barker outside!! He sent us upstairs to a nice room overlooking the plaza, and we were given pieces of blood sausage, which I though was great, spicy and delicious. But then we got salads which the Spanish seldom understand at all: a big pile miscellaneous veggies and tuna on iceberg lettuce with a bottle of mediocre oil and vinegar. This was followed by six lamb chops for me with soggy scalloped potatoes and mushy mushrooms, and Bob got six slices of pork tenderloin heavily doused with liquid smoke, an ingredient that should be banned from all kitchens, I think. We declined dessert. Anyway we survived.

We drove back to the Finca arriving at four in 90 degree heat. I considered heading for the pool, but thought that I hadn’t painted in a while and did a little painting of my stork baby in her nest. We relaxed in our garden until 8:30 and went to the comedor for another simple but really delicious meal which started off with, of all things, a tossed green salad with a tuna stuffed tomato! But this time the nice greens had a good dressing and the tomato was very good. That was followed by spicy meatloaf baked with HB eggs. The dinner included a good local wine and a glass of local liqueur after! I had lemon and RR acorn!

Thursday, May 28 - Exploring Trujillo

Pics: the Castillo, Finca Santa Marta, the stork in "our" garden, olive press

Up at seven thirty and off to the Plaza, but it was deserted and quiet, so we went to the beautiful breakfast room at the Parador for a wildly varied, but expensive buffet: several cheeses, meats, churros, pan au chocolate, fruit, yogurt, etc.
We checked out and I drove north, stopping at several supposedly birdy places without much success. We entered the National Park of Monfragüe and I turned onto a narrow winding road to the Castillo, a tower of brick and stone originally constructed in~ 12th century by the Muslims and then built over by Catholics. It was built on a wind-swept ridge overlooking the river Tajo and miles of oak woodland. It’s famous now as a great place to see storks, vultures, buzzards and eagles nesting in crags and spiraling up into the sky, and from the top we could see Griffin Vultures swooping towards us with their legs down and claws extended. Fortunately they only eat carrion!

We drove to the elaborate Visitors’ Center where we were too early for lunch, but managed to pick up Magnum ice cream bars. I had hoped to get some hiking in and they gave us a very nice map with color coded trails, but it was quite hot and the trails looked dusty and flowerless, so we drove on stopping at various overlooks. At one of the last, on the bank of the river, we could see a wonderful Black Stork on her nest in a crag. She was the size of a great Blue Heron, glossy iridescent black with a white belly and red bill and had several fluffy white chicks. We met some Brit birders who had just seen the Spanish Imperial Eagle, but it had flown away and didn’t return.

We got back on the A5 freeway and returned to Trujillo, driving ten miles east and turned off onto a country lane to Finca Santa Marta where we had booked a room for the next two nights. The Finca was built in 1879 and still functions as a olive and fruit producer. There are sixteen rooms, most in the newer buildings on the north side of the lane. We were shown our casita which is in the original building, entering through a heavy metal door into a private garden. Our cottage is built into the original hacienda wall and has a sitting room, bedroom and large patio with a view of the hacienda chapel bells complete with a huge White Stork’s nest on the top with a chick and the crucifix sticking out!

We unpacked, cleaned up and went to the honor bar by the swimming pool, for beer and gin and watched the swallows skimming the water. At eight we joined the two other couples staying there for dinner in the old olive pressing room. Two huge stone cones that used to rotate around a center column, crushing the olives stand in the middle of the room and a channel is cut into the stone flooring to direct the flow of the oil.

Dinner was perfect and simple: slices of salami and olives, followed by cold gazpacho, steak, rice and roasted peppers, and a bottle of local wine.

Wednesday, May 27 In search of the Bustard

Pics: Slate walls, Catedral in Trujillo, the Plaza Major at night

Up at six! And off without breakfast! Going on the advice in a report Bob found from some Brit birders on finding the Bustard, he decided to explore the steppes west of Trujillo. We set off with maps and GPS and headed towards the large town of Cáceres 30 miles away. We drove off onto tiny country roads, past small ranchos with goats, sheep and cattle, through wooded pastures lined with miles of slate walls piled five feet high, past grand haciendas with enclosed green courtyards. The land was very dry and brown and I felt sorry for the livestock trying to get enough to eat, but the land itself was quite beautiful with huge vistas of rolling grassland.

As we circled back and were almost back at Trujillo, we stopped by a wilder, un-grazed pasture, we saw about ten storks hunting for insects and suddenly Bob spotted a female Great Bustard!! About three feet high and ostrich-like she was slowly strolling through the brush and then we saw a half-grown chick following her! If that’s typical, it’s easy to understand why they’re going extinct. Anyway it was a thrill to see her after trying to find one on our last two trips to Spain. The male has famous courting dance in which he fluffs up his white under feathers to such an extent that it’s referred to as a “foam bath”! We have a few more days to try to see that!!

We got back to the Parador at 11:30, after breakfast and before lunch, and so wandered into the Plaza and found one café that would serve us toasted rolls topped with olive oil, tomato and ham, café con leche and fresh OJ. We set off through the Plaza and climbed up the steep streets to the castle on top of the hill in the center of town. We visited the Pizarro Museum and saw exhibits on his amazing five trips to Peru.
Back to our hotel for siestas. Up at 3:30 and realized the Parador bar was about to close at four and dashed down to the citrus-filled courtyard and ordered beer and split a bacon and cheese sandwich and sat there in the sunshine reading for an hour or so.
We walked to the Plaza to find supper and see the lights come on, but no place sounded as good as the Parador, so we returned and had delicious dinner of cold tomato soup with cumin and figs, and cod cooked with garlic and tomatoes. Back to the Plaza which was bustling for the first time and filled with cheering groups as Barcelona beat Manchester United for the European cup.