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!