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| 2008-PortS |
Showing posts with label Andalucia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andalucia. Show all posts
Friday, April 25, 2008
Hotel Los Tilos
[April 25, Granada]
Hotel Los Tilos sits on the pleasant pedestrian square Plaza Bib-Rambla. Our room overlooked the square and offered a 24-hour ever-changing show. The square was ringed with restaurants and ice-cream shops, all the essentials of life as we know it.
Carmen lived here
[April 25, Granada]
Along with Sevilla, no place is more associated with Gypsies and flamenco than Granada. Well into the second half of the 20th century the Sacromonte district of Granada contained a thriving Gipsy community living much as they had for hundreds of years in troglodyte dwellings burrowed into the soft hills. Bettie remembers as a teenager visiting Sacromonte during a communal festival, enthralled by spontaneous bursts of flamenco song and dance performed by firelight into the small hours of the morning.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Alhambra by moonlight
[April 24, Granada]
Though it is only April, we have been dismayed at the unexpectedly large crowds here in Spain and were not looking forward to sharing the Alhambra with massed formations of group tours. We had the happy idea to see the Alhambra at night, when most groups are being stuffed with Spain's notoriously late-hour dinners or treated to an "authentic" flamenco dinner/floor show. We had seen the palace of the Moors by day many years ago and a night visit offered a certain romantic charm.
Days in the Gardens of Spain
[April 24, Granada]
Listen to Manuel de Falla as you look at these photos of the Generalife Gardens. Though part of the Alhambra complex, they well reward a visit in themselves, especially in spring. They spread up a steep hill across from the Alhambra and provide beautiful views of same. They, along with the lovely "summer palace" were built by Moorish rulers of Granada as a get-away from the business and summer heat of the main Alhambra palace. Today they give the visitor some sense of the luxury and elegance of the Moorish court.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Hotel Amadeus
[April 22, Sevilla]
We are staying at the Hotel Amadeus, a unique 14-room hotel in the Barrio Santa Cruz. It is run by a family devoted to music, and musical motifs and instruments fill the hotel. When we checked in, Carmen was playing on a DVD in the lobby (how appropriate for Sevilla, her home!).
Flamenco memories
[April 22, Sevilla]
There is no more evocative place to see flamenco than Sevilla. The problem is to find a genuine performance rather than a flamenco "show" mixed with dinner, drinks, and tobacco smoke. We followed a recommendation to Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus (conveniently around the corner from our hotel!) presented by a cultural organization dedicated to preserving the art in full integrity.
Alcazar of Sevilla
[April 22, Sevilla]
The Alcazar is our favorite building in Sevilla. It is a Moorish-style palace built 14th c. by a Christian king (Pedro the "cruel"), who appreciated the artful tradition his people displaced. Being of Christian origin, it was never despoiled and today suggests the splendor that the Moors once enjoyed.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Some of their best friends were Jewish
[April 21, Sevilla]
Spain's relationship with her Jewish citizens has not always a been a celebration of multi-culturalism. Jews at times have felt unwelcome: it is estimated that after the Reconquista 1/3 of Spain's Jews were killed, 1/3 fled the country, and 1/3 converted to Christianity under duress. And the Inquisition was initiated to deal with these latter conversos who were foolish enough to compete too successfully with their good Christian neighbors.
Madmen and geographers
[April 21, Sevilla]
The builders of Sevilla's cathedral promised to "build a cathedral so large that anyone who sees it will take us for madmen". They succeeded. None of these photos can suggest its massiveness, third only to St. Peter's (Rome) and St. Paul's (London).
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Busted Flat in Baton Rouge ...
[April 20, somewhere in Andalucia]
... or rather, on a country road about 15 miles east of Cabezas de San Juan, the closest map reference we could find.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
What bull
[April 16, Ronda]
Ronda is the home of modern bull-fighting, a creation of Francisco Romero in the early 1700's. The Ronda style is classic, pure, severe -- not like the flamboyant show-boats of Sevilla.
Juan Bosco doesn't live here anymore
[April 16, Ronda]
In Ronda we find the House of Don Bosco. Saint Juan Bosco was the founder of the Salesian order. This house is gorgeously beatific, but the saint never lived in it, or even visited it. It was a charitable contribution by a resident of Ronda to the religious order, meant as a retirement home for priests.
In Ronda we find the House of Don Bosco. Saint Juan Bosco was the founder of the Salesian order. This house is gorgeously beatific, but the saint never lived in it, or even visited it. It was a charitable contribution by a resident of Ronda to the religious order, meant as a retirement home for priests.Moor is more
[April 16, Ronda]
The Modragon Palace was the 14th c. home of the Moorish kings pre-reconquista, and gives some idea of the graceful lifestyle they enjoyed.
A church unmosqued
[April 16, Ronda]
The Christian reconquistas, after a good siege and sack of a Moorish stronghold, loved nothing more than to press home their point by building a cathedral on the ruins of a mosque. Santa Maria la Mayor shows something of its former occupant in its ground plan and tower (former minaret),
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Ronda rough and rugged rock the ragged rascals ran
{April 15, Ronda]
Ronda [map] is one of Andalucia's "white towns", whitewashed hill towns with roots back to Moorish times. These lay along the frontier of the Reconquista, changing hands from Moors to Christians (and sometimes back again), and a culture reflecting both heritages. In visual aspect, and with flamenco, bullfights, and gazpacho, they are the quintessential "Spain" to many people.
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