Across Europe Fall 04

Click here!

http://www.atelier-accordeon.com/gznimox.php?77bb8

---

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 07:44:09 -0800 (PST)

We are in Seville now. It is an interesting city and a lot warmer than
Madrid. Yesterday we wandered around and saw the Cathedral. It is the third
largest cathedral in the world I think they said, or at least europe. It was
really nice inside. It looked just enormous with these huge pillars. And out
back there is a courtyard with orange trees, surrounded by walls from an old
mosque that stood on the site like way back before the church so like 1200´s
maybe. They kept some of the walls from it and the archways and they are
really gorgeous in the peaceful courtyard. there is also a tower that used
to be part of the mosque and is now attached to the church. It is made with
ramps instead of stairs so that the bell ringer guy could ride his horse to
the top to ring the bells to tell everyone it is time to worship. From the
top of the tower you can see the whole city and the rooftop of the cathedral
which is almost as ornate as the inside.

Then in the evening we went to see a Flamenco show. Flamenco is from
southern spain originally so Sevilla is supposedly one of the best places to
see it. The show wasnt really what we were expecting but it was really neat
anyway. I guess we had mixed thoughts of tango and two person dancing with
lots of leg action into it, and there really wasnt any of that, it was
mostly stomping and clapping. The girls wore the frilly dresses and they
basically stomped their feet like tap dancers without taps. And they clapped
their hands and swished thier dresses around, every once in a while they
would suddenly just stop and strike a pose, so you thought you should clap
but they werent done so they would start up again and repeat the whole
thing. then there was the band, with a couple guys on guitars basically just
strumming, I couldnt really discern any type of tune. And there were these
other guys that mostly stood there clapping to some imagined beat I couldnt
really get (it seemed like
everyone was on a different beat but somehow it worked). Then every once
in a while usually at the beginning or end of the song, one of the guys
would step forward and sing, or more acurately, mourn. I dont know what they
were saying, if they were saying anything, but most of the time it sounded
like they lost a woman or their dog died or something. That is not to say it
was bad though, it was really quite haunting and engaging, but it really did
sound sad. Only once did a guy come out and do the dancing like the girls
were doing. He did more spinning and stuff, I guess becuase he didnt have
the big dress to worry about he had more freedom. But he was actually kind
of scary I thought, just the way he looked and the faces he made and stuff,
he was very creepy. I guess you can´t really explain it because no one part
was all that impressive and I couldnt really figure how it all went
together, but it did. And when it all came together it was very
entertaining. It had a lot of energy.

Today we went to the Alcazar Palace. It was really great. the audioguide
said that the style was a mix of islamic influences and christian ones, but
it seemed mostly islamic to me. There was a lot of tile work and intricate
designs in stone and lots of islamic style arches, often three in a row
between rooms. Supposedly three arches has something to do with meaning
harmony or peace or something. There were also lots of fountains. Apparently
water is a big part of islamic art and architecture and is supposed to add
sereneity to a place. There were also a lot of leafy plant motifs in the
carvings which are indicative of islamic art. The whole place was awe
inspiring really. I thought it was all just gorgeous, and if I were a queen
that is what I would want my palace to look like, rather than all the gilded
baroque stuff like in some of the other places we have seen. Seth thought
that this one was too gaudy and didnt really like it. But the best part, we
both agreed, was the garden. It
was huge and gorgeous even though it is almost winter now, there were
still oranges on all the trees and lemons and roses and birds of paridise
flowers. And there were tons of fountains all over the gardens with trees
and hedges between them so that when you found one it felt like you had it
all to yourself. It was so peaceful we walked around for over an hour.

I had churros con chocolate for an afternoon snack. (I had tried it for
breakfast in Madrid and thought it was too sweet - can you imagine me
thinking something was too sweet) but I wanted to give it another try before
we leave spain. It was really good for an afternoon snack. The churros were
freshly fried (they are like long skinny donuts) and the chocolate is rich
and thick like hot chocolate on steroids. You dip the churro in the
chocolate and enjoy.

So tonight I said we have to find paella becuase we havent really had that
yet, and we have had lots of tapas and sangria and stuff. So before we
leave, it is paella tonight!

then tommorrow we will be on our way to paris! Only two more weeks until we
go home. I am having a really great time, but now I think it is time to go
home. I am really getting sick of having to share a bathroom with like the
whole floor. This hotel is worse than most of the other ones we have been
in, but basically I am looking forward to being able to take a shower pretty
much whenever I want, and to know there is going to be hot water, and a
place to put the shower head so that it runs on my head, as opposed to
having to hold it with one hand and soap with the other, or turn it off and
freeze.

Oh and the other thing is that I swear the people and cars here are out to
get me. Seth thought I was making it up at first until I pointed it out like
a hundred times. Every time I walk down the street, someone can be on the
other side of the sidewalk and when they see me coming they cross so that
they are right in my way. Seth said I jsut need to be tougher and not get
out of everyones way, so I am being more tough, and now instead of me moving
we slam shoulders becuase they wont move either. and cars, ugh. A lot of the
streets around here are ´´pedestrian only´´ . They have these posts at the
end of the street so that cars cant go down them, except if you pull your
car right up to them, the posts will retract into the sidewalk so a car can
pass, so basically a street that is supposed to be pedestrian only has cars,
same with squares. And inevitably those cars want to go RIGHT where I am. So
like I see the car coming across the square so I try to get to the side to
get out of the
way, what happens, of course! the car wants to PARK right where I am not
walking. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say I am not making this
up, they are out to get me or something. Scooters will get ON the sidewalk
just to try to mow me down. I can´t figure out what I am doing wrong, and
now it is a running joke, seth just laughs becuase it is so true. (it isnt
like it is really dangerous or anything becuase the cars are usually going
slow when there are a lot of people around, it is just funny and annoying
that they keep choosing me to aim for, am I wearing a target) I fear it will
be even worse in paris.

Meg and Seth

We are leaving Madrid today. Yesterday we took a day trip to Toledo. It was
not as great as our guidebook said, but it was nice. A old style walled town
in the countryside, next to a gorgeous river gorge. We saw the cathedral
that was supposed to be really awesome, but it was almost totally under
contruction so we couldnt see half of it. And we saw two old synagogues. one
was converted to a church and apparently had some moorish history too, but
it was a real disappointment. There was nothing in it, but the church altar.
We walked in, took a circle around the big room and left. the only
interesting part were the moorish style arches that ran the whole length of
it on both sides. There was nothing there to suggest it was ever a synagogue
though. Then we went to the jewish musuem and synagogue. That was slightly
more interesting, but all the descriptions pretty much were in spanish
except these cards that were in english and basically told the history of
the jews from the diaspora to
present day, and included info on all the festivals and stuff. It was
really pretty generic. It was interesting to see the excavations of the old
building though. They think they found the old mikvah, but we didnt get to
see that.

I have found that I like El Greco paintings. (Seth says they look like anime
cartoons) So I was looking forward to seeing the El Greco musuem there.
Unfortunately it was all pretty much portraits of saints and bishops and
stuff. I dont really enjoy the religious themed paintings as much, but if it
sort of tells a story then it is interesting anyway. But the portraits are
almost always boring. Oh well, it was still fun to walk around the old town.

This morning we went to the El Rastro market. It is held on Sunday in Madrid
and it was really interesting and HUGE. Pretty much anything you could
imagine was there, people selling handmade stuff, people selling cheap mass
produced souveneirs, hardware, antiques, books, comic books, animals, -
basically just all kinds of stuff. It was fun to walk around and we bought a
few small things.

Now on to Seville. There is rain headed here so I hope it misses Seville and
continues on its way, but I fear we are going to get it in Paris.

Meg and Seth

We are in Madrid now, but I forgot one thing about Barcelona. there was this
street market on the main street that sells pets. Mostly birds and reptiles
and rodents becuase the people of Barcelona live in apartments mostly. What
was interesting though is the variety of these things they had, there were a
ton of different kinds of turtles - seth said most of them would be illegal
in the US becuase of salmonella or something - and there were every kind of
bird including turkeys and chickens and pigeons and peacocks I think. I dont
think any of them were for eating either, they each had their own little
cage and there werent more than like 2 of any kind of bird. And there were
chipmunks. It was really interesting.

Ok so now we are in Madrid. the train ride here was pretty awful, 5 hours
and we were in a very crowded cramped second class becuase the reservation
for first class would have been 22 euro each - at the end of the trip we
decided it would have been worth it. And they didnt even give us seats next
to each other. We sat in other seats until the people came back for them,
then the woman next to seth offered to switch so we were able to sit next to
each other, but it was still pretty annoying.

Madrid is pretty bland compared to Barcelona. It is just a big city really.
Our hotel is nice and in a good location, we get our own room and our own
shower, but not our own toilet. Yesterday we went to the three main musuems
in Madrid, the Prado - which has a ton of art by famous artists like 100
paintings by Rubens and a bunch by El Greco and Velazquez and we liked some
by the Dutch painter Bosch, it is only art up until like the 17th century
though - then we went to the thyssen gallery which is described as major
works by minor artists and minor works by major artists, it is a collection
of art that was collected all by one family, and the musuem is huge. there
were all different genres. It was interesting to us becuase we didnt have a
guide or anything, we just wandered and looked at the paintings and it was
apparent how much we learned about art on this trip that we could make
comments and compare styles and stuff. The musuem was also set up to
facilitate that becuase they had
it divided into rooms like 17th century Italian art, 17th century German
art, ect. and you could really compare how the different countries evolved
over time. Like 17th century German art looks practically medieval compared
to the 17th century Italians who were getting ready for the Renaissance.
Also this musuem had a good collection of impressionism and more modern art
that we enjoy. We have found that we like the art from the 19th century like
late 1800s to early 1900s the most, but after that it starts to get too
modern with just the dots and lines.

The final musuem was the modern art sofia musuem, where Picasso Guernica is.
We found that three art musuems in one day is too much, we kind of skimmed
this musuem, but that is ok because it was mostly really modern art that we
arent into anyway. Guernica and the other Picassos were interesting, as were
some of the Dali and other surrealist works.

After that it was about 8pm so we went for tapas at a place that was
recommended by the easy jet airline magazine for being cheap and tasty. It
really was good. It was crowded with locals by the time we left, but we had
gotten there early enough to get a spot at the counter. We tried practically
every tapa that wasnt ham or fish. We had this really good pig in a blanket
type thing, and a stuffed red pepper, and some sort of shrimp and cheese
thing that was really tasty, and a beef empanada that wasnt so good becuase
they dont serve them hot around here, and a stuffed mussel, and the free
appetizer that came with our drinks was tuna fish pizza. Seth had some beer
and I had some really good house wine and it only cost like 12 euros, which
is really good becuase the dollar is continuing to fall against the euro so
now we have even less money than we did before. Oh and we had to make our
train reservations to Paris and Seville and those were NOT cheap. even with
the eurail pass. It seems
that the eurail pass is most useful in like Germany and austria and even
italy, but spain and france have all these high speed premium trains that
you have to pay extra for.

Today we were going to go for a day trip to Toledo but decided to sleep in
and run errands and see the rest of the city that we missed so far, like the
palace and a statue of the fallen angel - or satan on his way down before he
was totally satan. We saw that this morning, it was a really cool statue, he
still has wings and looks like an angel for the most part, but tiny little
horns are starting and a serpent is grabbing him and pulling him down toward
the demons at the base. Now we are doing laundry. Tommorrow we will go to
Toledo.

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving.

Meg and Seth

We are still in Barcelona and loving it! This city is wonderful! Yesterday
we started out with bagels for breakfast. Bagels are not a big thing in
europe I guess but there is a pretty good restaurant here so we went there
it was a nice change from our usual croissant and latte breakfast. Then we
ran a few errands in the morning. We had to send a money order to the hotel
that we reserved in Paris, that was a pain in the rear but I think we
managed it. There were some very helpful people at the post office (believe
it or not!). Then we went on a bike tour. That was fun and a little scary.
Mostly we were on pedestrian streets, but I am not sure that was less scary
than the roads with cars because people walking are less predictable,
especially in tourist areas where they spend a great deal of time looking up
or out or at books than watching where they are going. Still we saw a lot of
cool stuff, and heard some interesting stories and history. Our tour guide
was originally from
California. We saw the Sagrada Familia church, designed originally by
antonio gaudi, the back part was designed by a different architect after
gaudi´s death and so the front and back could be two different buildings!
The Gaudi front looks sort of like a drippy sandcastle that kids make at the
beach, all curvy and stuff, and the back is cubist! AND it is still under
construction and only about 30 percent done. The Spanish people like to
think it will be done in like 30 years, but supposedly experts say more like
100!! Still it was amazing. I am not usually into architecture, much less
modern architecture, but I found that I really like Gaudi. He was part of
what started the art noveau and art deco movements in paris and new york
respectively and I like those styles too. We also saw the music theater that
he designed which was just amazing with color and nature inspried motifs.
Finally we saw a fountain that he designed while still a student for a
world´s fair or something. It was
gorgoues! Since he was still a student his style hadnt totally devolped
yet and he used more classical greek and roman themes, but instead of
incorporating the nature into the structure like he would later in life, he
added it right on top by planting all these plants and mosses to cover
certain parts of the fountain. It looks partially like the fountain is part
of the landscape and partially like some ancient oasis that has been
overtaken by plants.

We also stopped by the beach and learned how there was no beach in barcelona
until the 1992 olympics when they created one. After the bike tour we took a
siesta before going out for dinner. We decided to try this restaurant that
was recommended in our guide books and also by the tour guide as really
cheap good catalan food. Only problem is that they dont open until 8:30 and
they dont take reservations so there is always a line when they open. So we
went to a sort of local tapas / sidraria bar that was recommended by rick
steves. It was kind of dead when we were there but I suspect it would pick
up later, and it was definitely a local type place. Sure they probably get a
bunch of tourists now becuase it is in that book, but it was kind of rough
around the edges and on a back street. We shared a bottle of homemade sidra
(apple wine, or cider) and the bartender even showed us how to pour it.
There is a half of a barrel sort of in front of the bar and you hold the
bottle up about chest
level and the glass tilted and down just below your waist then pour it, so
that it gets a lot of air in it. (that is why the waiters and the bar we
went to the night before were pouring it over their heads) I didnt try but
seth really got the hang of it, so much that the bartender commented on it
being good. he only spilled a little too! (even the bartenders were spilling
a little each time so that is ok.)

After that we went back to the restaurant to stand in line. When we got
there 20 min before opening there were maybe 30 people in front of us. But
the place was pretty big so we got a table. Seth had the appetizer sampler
which I thought was brave since it included baby squid and cuttlefish and
other stuff. I had a shellfish soup. His was better though, I even tried the
baby squid even though I could hardly look at it, but it was really tasty!
they had flavored it really well. And there was this little slice of onion
pie that was really good. We had sangria to go with it, but it was a little
sweet for my taste. Sangria is always a little sweet but I think they added
a lot of sugar to this. Then for dinner Seth had lamb stew that came with
what we thought were potatoes but turned out to be pieces of assorted fruit.
It was good though. I had meatballs in some sort of special sauce. Again I
made a mediocre choice, it tasted like stroganoff.

Today we went around to the places that we had not seen yet mostly other
gaudi works since I found that I really like his stuff. We had to buy some
postcards though becuase it is hard to get good pictures of the buildings
becuase there are trees and cars and stuff in the way. Then we made
reservations for the train to madrid and for our hotel there. I called the
hotel and the guy didnt speak english so I managed to book the whole thing
in spanish and he even said my spanish was ´´muy bien´´ which I thought was
crazy since I havent spoken any spanish really since high school and I was
never really any good at it. But I guess it is passable, at least for making
hotel reservations. It still cracks me up!

Tommorrow we leave for Madrid.

Meg and Seth