06 November 2006
Spain - Portugal - Spain
OK, after that scary interlude, its back to a holiday update.
After Granada, we moved westward to Andalucia´s capital, Seville (Sevilla, pronounced se-VI-ya). Although we got some more rain here, we enjoyed this large, bustling city. The cathedral was awe inspiring, even for us, who are pretty much "cathedraled out" by now. Also, the Alcazar, Sevilla´s beautiful palace complex is a wonderful place to spend a good half day exploring. The bario (district) of Santa Cruz surrounding here is a place full of narrow, winding streets, plazas and tapas bars. Gail and I got to see some live flamenco on the last night, in a big flamenco bar, for the price of a couple of drinks.
Inside Sevilla´s Alcazar palace complex
A remains of a lovely splurge lunch in Seville, with many dishes featuring the lucious sweet sherry called Pedro Ximinez
Sevilla´s cathedral
Live flamenco
We farewelled Ian´s parents on the 2nd, as they were flying to Rome for their tour around Italy. We then took off north through Portugal. This country is more different to Spain than we expected. The language sounds to our ears like someone speaking Spanish with a very strong Polish accent. The lovely town of Porto is another case in point. Is is georgeously ramshackle with a tonne of character, especially the waterfront area, and, the dozens of port makers where you can do tours and tastings.
Inside the grizly Cappela los Lobos (Chappel of Bones) in Evira, Portugal (click on it for detail)
The waterfront of Porto, Portugal
Mmmm, port...
Now we are back in Spain, in the lovely town of Santiago de Compostela, with its famous cathedral and medievil, windy streets. We said earlier we are "cathedraled out". So we have invented a game to keep us from going crazy everytime we visit a new one. The pious Catholics amongst you may want to tune out for the rest of this paragraph... We look for three images amongst the iconography and artworks: 1 - A brutal murder (crucifixion not counted). 2 - A curvaceous backside. 3 - Someone going the grope on someone else. You may be suprised how often you find all three themes. Here in the famous Santiago cathedral we found all three a number of times over.
Tomorrow we head north and east towards Basque country and back up into France.
After Granada, we moved westward to Andalucia´s capital, Seville (Sevilla, pronounced se-VI-ya). Although we got some more rain here, we enjoyed this large, bustling city. The cathedral was awe inspiring, even for us, who are pretty much "cathedraled out" by now. Also, the Alcazar, Sevilla´s beautiful palace complex is a wonderful place to spend a good half day exploring. The bario (district) of Santa Cruz surrounding here is a place full of narrow, winding streets, plazas and tapas bars. Gail and I got to see some live flamenco on the last night, in a big flamenco bar, for the price of a couple of drinks.
Inside Sevilla´s Alcazar palace complex
A remains of a lovely splurge lunch in Seville, with many dishes featuring the lucious sweet sherry called Pedro Ximinez
Sevilla´s cathedral
Live flamenco
We farewelled Ian´s parents on the 2nd, as they were flying to Rome for their tour around Italy. We then took off north through Portugal. This country is more different to Spain than we expected. The language sounds to our ears like someone speaking Spanish with a very strong Polish accent. The lovely town of Porto is another case in point. Is is georgeously ramshackle with a tonne of character, especially the waterfront area, and, the dozens of port makers where you can do tours and tastings.
Inside the grizly Cappela los Lobos (Chappel of Bones) in Evira, Portugal (click on it for detail)
The waterfront of Porto, Portugal
Mmmm, port...
Now we are back in Spain, in the lovely town of Santiago de Compostela, with its famous cathedral and medievil, windy streets. We said earlier we are "cathedraled out". So we have invented a game to keep us from going crazy everytime we visit a new one. The pious Catholics amongst you may want to tune out for the rest of this paragraph... We look for three images amongst the iconography and artworks: 1 - A brutal murder (crucifixion not counted). 2 - A curvaceous backside. 3 - Someone going the grope on someone else. You may be suprised how often you find all three themes. Here in the famous Santiago cathedral we found all three a number of times over.
Tomorrow we head north and east towards Basque country and back up into France.
Comments:
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scary scary, I bet that was a hard night for you!
fore the trains you might go to
www.thalys.de
or of course
www.bahn.de
I have a cold right now, wish summer would return!
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fore the trains you might go to
www.thalys.de
or of course
www.bahn.de
I have a cold right now, wish summer would return!
# posted by 
: November 08, 2006 8:49 pm
: November 08, 2006 8:49 pm<< Home
