Cordoba

hmm perhaps the last Alhambra 1925 was such a good idea!

Today we jumped on the train to Cordoba and checked out The Mezquita (z is silent and is pronounced Meh-ki-ta). The Mezquita is the largest western Mosque with a very interesting history. After the first parts were constructed in 785, it grew and as islam rule was taken over by Christian, some parts of the mosque were pulled down to build a chapel right in the centre! So in the centre of the mosque is a renaissance cathedral! This was quite different.

The streets of Cordoba’s old section are quite unique and have their own feel different to the rest of Spain. They certainly retain their Moorish influence with white walls narrow streets. This of course doesn’t deter all drivers:

The afternoon was spent wandering the Plaza de Espana and surrounding gardens that were built for the 1929 World Fair.

(Please note that due to bandwidth issues, posting of photos is not working, click on the links for some similar if not better pics off wikipedia)

Ole

One of the things being debated prior to arriving to Seville was would I, or would I not attend a bullfight if one was on. On further investigation, the last day is October 12 so it was not an issue.

Instead I had to settle for a tour of the Seville bullring, which was very brief and quite depressing. Not a lot of sport in this one I am afraid, if stabbing your opponent in the shoulders to get it to drop it’s head and then stabbing it in it’s legs to charge so it can be killed is sport, then I don’t think it is something I’d care to view. What amazed me most though, is if a bull takes it’s revenge and kills the matador, the mother of the bull is killed so as to not rear any more “killer” bulls. Not really too fair!

Having seen people in travel shows view bullfights walking away feeling somehow hollow, I can certainly see why.

The night was a bit more fun though, after some tapas and sampling of some very nice Spanish wines and Sherry, we went to an amateur Flamenco show in a hidden away bar that was filled with backpackers. It was pretty cool and the Alhambra 1925 beer was quite good too.

Ola Seville

In what could be one of my dumbest statements, it is “The most Spanish of Spanish cities”. It has all the stereotypes associated with it, Flamenco, Bullrings and hot summers.

Our arrival was greeted with warm weather and spent the day trying to navigate the windy streets, This photo is a typical Seville street.

This also makes map reading quite difficult, what appears to be a main street on the map is only a one way street.

The two main site seeing attractions are The Real (Royal) Alcazar and Cathedral, today’s turn was to check out the The Seville Cathedral which being a Sunday was free, but the drawback was it was crowded. The Seville Cathedral is considered the 3^rd largest in the world behind St Peters and St Paul's. While being undeniably large and having some impressive elements, it is a bit of a bolt together job. Interesting, but not as nice as others visited, but it does offer some great views out across Seville.

Not much to report

After walking around quite extensively yesterday and being kept awake by a couple of Spanish yobs, today has been a quite day.

Apart from walking around the shops of Granada, we checked out the Cathedral and indulged in some Churros con Chocolat.

Having only seen Churros in Australia and not tasting them, I did not quite know what to expect. They are compared to donuts in Australia and sold individually where in Spain they are inseparable from the thick, viscous hot chocolate they are served with.

Based on the portions of sugar that come with drinks such as Coffee and Tea in Spain, I already knew they had a sweet tooth, but nothing prepared me for their hot chocolate.

The hot chocolate was off the scale for both sugar and fat and if left to go to room temperature, I am sure it would set solid. Dunking the churros left a thick coating of Chocolate on the outside giving flavour to an otherwise plain, fried dough.

Carolyn on the other hand has quite enjoyed the clothes shopping in Spain, while I haven’t really bothered. The average Spaniard is about 5’10” so even an XL or XXL is too small. I did check some food shops and stalls and picked up 4g of Spanish Saffron for 6 euros which is outstandingly cheap. Let’s just hope customs let me in with it.

The Alhambra

Granada is a city that lives in the shadows of the once heavily influential palace of The Alhambra. Founded in the 14^th century on ruins that go back to the 8^th century, the Alhambra is an interesting mix of Moorish and Christian architecture. The use of space, water and light makes for a very different experience to the Gothic style of architecture that was being followed elsewhere at the same time. It is a very refined piece of work that does not feel anywhere near as old as it is.

While I could provide a vivid and detailed history to the Alhambra, this site and this site already provide a lot of detail.

Apparently there is an old saying “Si mueres sin ver la Alhambra, no has vivido” (If you die without seeing the Alhambra, you have not lived), while this may be a bit over the top, the Alhambra is a very impressive palace and definitely worth the trip out to Granada.

I managed to hit a new record of photos in one day as almost every angle and vantage point is worthy. Bandwidth restricts me to the following:

A return to Spain

I remember a Brit lecturing to me after a few beers on the slopes of St Anton “If you want to see England, don’t go to London”

This comment came back to me after a few hours in the town of Granada. Twelve hours by train south of Barcelona, this city has a long and rich history. Despite also having plenty of tourists, it also has plenty of charm emanating through the steep windy streets.

Having effectively scored a “free day” from doing the night train which is actually better than we thought it would be, we took it easy.

Along with the charm, the food here is a return to form with the Tapas bars here rivaling the Pintxos in San Sebastian for price and flavour. We ordered a few plates for lunch and our waiter stopped us after the fourth and said “enough”, this proved to be true.

After being stuffed, there was no real need for dinner, however, we went for a couple of drinks. We were provided free Tapas with our glasses that the travel books talk about, but we were yet to see.

Mussels, fried chicken, sausage, it was all very tasty and a perfect accompaniment to the wine.

Yes I am beginning to feel like I am in Spain again, not some generic city.

Farewell Barcelona....

There is a fountain in Barcelona that you are supposed to drink from if you want to return to Barcelona ever again. Needless to say we didn’t proceed with this and went to do something else a bit different, we went to the Barcelona Zoo.

Normally not high on my list of must do’s, but it was interesting to go to a zoo in a foreign country for a change.

(Parc de la Ciutadella)

Due to some changes to the train timetable, we were forced to take the night train to Granada which is the next stop. As a final twist of the knife from Barcelona, after waiting 30 minutes for a taxi, we had to walk to the Metro and lug our suitcases up and down stairs to get to the station for our train.

To sum Barcelona up? Out of all the cities I have been to in the world, Barcelona is an outright last. It has some nice features, but overall, it is a busy, congested city that seems to have people wandering everywhere, but no overall sense of purpose. To paraphrase the Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons “Most Disappointing City Ever”

A small redemption?

Today was an improvement over yesterday both in direction and fortune. We went to L’example (pronounced luh-SHOMP-luh) which is a more modern boulevard with high priced shops like Luis Vuitton and some interesting architecture from Antoni Gaudi.

Deciding to keep things simple, the day was spent browsing followed by dinner at Pla that was referred on to me as one of the few good places to eat at in Barcelona.

After walking through the maze-like streets of El Born and doubling back a few times, we amazingly found Pla. Prior to going in, we sampled some Cava which is Spanish sparkling wine at a nearby Bodega. The Bodega felt as if it had been around for hundreds of years and probably had. Full of cigarette smoke and food hygiene standards that would make the average Aussie food inspector have a stroke, we finally found some charm hidden away in Barcelona.

What do they say about first impressions?

Putting on my best “Well don’t judge a city by first impressions face” we headed out to roam the streets of Barcelona to figure out what makes the city tick. All started well at a nice patisserie which made some very nice Spanish-style chocolate croissants and coffee.

Fuelled up we headed out to the city’s Arc de Triomf built in 1888 for the Universal Expo, then to the coast through the rather nice Parc de la Ciutadella which to Carolyn’s delight was teeming with Quaker Parrots.

Through to the waterfront of Barcelona. The waterfront here has the charisma of Docklands with lots of grey stacked up on grey and sand that looked like dirt. I think the comment I made on the train to Carolyn along the lines of “San Sebastian may have spoilt us for Spain” was beginning to ring true.

(Frank Gehry Fish Sculpture on Barcelona waterfront)

Following this was a walk down Las Ramblas which to me had the same feel as Kings Cross, it is a tourist boulevard teeming with peddlers, buskers and lowlifes. That comment was beginning to ring true again.

After traipsing we sat down for dinner at a restaurant that looked OK, been open since 1975 so it can’t be all bad can it? Wrong, food was very average, overpriced and to add insult, bread was listed as a side of 1.20 euro each. Since we didn’t ask for bread when we ordered, and instead ordered fries as a side, we assumed the bread provided was gratis but additional was charged. I think my taxi driver friend has a brother that runs a restaurant.

After 24 hours in Barcelona, I was ready to pull the pin and pull out the next day. But after a bit more time, decided to just ride it out.

I am from Barthelona

Our visit to Barcelona started in a fashion that would make Manuel from Fawlty Towers proud (which is where the quote “I am from Barthelona” comes from).

The train that should have got us there at 7:30 pulled in at 8:30 which made for a long 9.5 hour train ride. Normally an hour wouldn’t bother me too much except it happened to mean I would miss the final, title-deciding race of the Formula 1 season. Now I am cranky!

Then, once we get in, it is getting late at night in a big city at night with luggage. Rather than brave the Metro, we decided a cab would be the way to go. After waiting one hour for a cab, the useless twit we received didn’t know our hotel and didn’t know the street and couldn’t look it up! It wasn’t until I phoned the hotel myself that he knew where to go.

Then when we get there, the moron asked for 2 euros for “bags” that I loaded and unloaded myself. Oh if only I were a lot more fluent in Spanish, this guy would have received a tirade. Instead it was a case of take the money and bugger off.

Not a good start to Barcelona. Not a good start at all.

El Bocho

Today it was over to Bilbao to take a look a the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry who took architecture to a level it has never been before - Having a guest role in The Simpsons. Like most people, I was probably more interested in the building rather than the content itself. The building is not like any other I have seen, it is a swirling creation of titanium that catches light from all angles and is a sight to behold.



We also had a bit of luck today, in celebration of the 9th birthday of the museum, we were give free entry! The exhibits swung in and out between impressive and stupid. While I acknowledge I am not as good at appreciating art as some other things in life, some of the things I saw lead me to the comment of "Are they taking the piss or what??" The feature exhibition was on African artists which was actually quite interesting, they have developed their own style of modern art which ranged from very political works to some very humerous pieces.

El Bocho? That is the former nickname to Bilbao which translates to "The Hole". Prior to the Guggenheim, Bilbao was considered an industrial wasteland. Today it is an area on the move, while not as pretty as San Sebastian, it does have the impression of a city wanting to surge forward.

So this is what number 9 tastes like?

Two days in to San Sebastian and we are both very impressed with the town and our first taste of Spain. The people of San Sebastian are very friendly and while being a coastal town that has a heavy period of tourism during summer, by October, it is a normal town that is kept well and truly busy by the locals. Tonight the landmarks of the town were lit up making the already impressive night views even more spectacular.



Along with being a great beach town, it is also a bit of a foodie mecca with some stating that San Sebastian has more Michelin Stars per head than any other place in the world. Heading this charge is a restaurant by the name of Arzak which has held 3 Michelin stars since 1989 which is a huge achievment. The restuarant is also ranked as number 9 in the top 50 restuarants of the world 2006. After chickening out of the high prices of number 3 ranked Pierre Gagnierre in Paris, I couldn't let Arzak slip by.

The thing that interested me most though is, after going to some great restuarants such as Vue De Monde, Sakai's in Japan and Les Crayeres only a few days before, how much room for improvement is there? As much as I would love to say tons, I would say the improvements would only be incremental at best. That said, the differential between two and three stars can be quantified.

Arzak delivered dish after dish of well presented food that ranged from very simple letting the core ingredient sing out (the best calamari I have ever had and some damn good beef and lamb) to some molecular gastronomy. For example, cheese coated in melon toffee that had pop rocks embedded is an example of how flavours and textures that may not mesh on first thoughts can do so and surprise.

In the end, Arzak was a very good dining experience and the food really could not be faulted, unlike Vue and Les Crayeres which had some brilliant dishes but also had a few slips. The biggest compliment I can give is that they delivered umpteen courses yet we left not feeling as if we were about to explode, that and the place also had a very strong self confidence of a restaurant that had nothing to prove. A very good dining experience indeed.