The Plane in Spain

• September 23
• September 24
• September 25
• September 26
• September 27
• September 28
• September 29
• September 30
• October 1
• October 2
• October 3
• October 4

Bright and early on the bus

September 27

I got the boys up this morming, too, and it really wasn't an effort at all. We are staying in a very nice hotel - High Tech Hotel. It is such a sweeping difference from the Hostal Nuria. My biggest complaint is that the Internet speed is only 100 kbps, more like dial-up.

The room has some cool stuff. Unless the room key card is plugged in, nothing in the room works. This, of course, would have several advantages to the hotel. It has a nice (huge) bathroom, but no shelves to put shaving kits. I think this must be a European thing, or maybe a Spanish thing. In any case, my shaving kit was in the bedroom during my morning ablutions, which meant a lot of extra steps. C'mon guys, just one little shelf in the bathroom!

So last night after getting back to the hotel, I went online for a while. The keyboard is European, which means that not every character was where I expected it. I did okay, but it took some getting used to.

So after Ron did the bathroom thing, he and I went to breakfast. He was ecstatic to find cold cereal. The hotel had a very nice spread, including, eggs, various preserved meats and ham (which becomes a recurring theme...), Brie and Manchego, pastries, zumos, yogurt, and coffee. The coffee was an auto brew machine that made great java. I'm becoming hooked on Cafe Solo with lots of sugar. It's basically coffee syrup, and tastes grand.

Our guide, Woody

On to our tour. It didn't start out well. Brian thinks her name is Woody Allen. She spoke English with the same inflection that she used for Spanish, meaning you had to be next to her to understand because she swallowed all of her final consonants. The tour, though, was pretty spectacular, although I think the Cordoba cathedral is still the more incredible.

The first major stop was the World Exposition that was held in Seville in 1929. We stopped at the plaza of the Spanish pavillion. It's amazing, huge, overdone, and wonderful. Parts of it are now used by the Spanish military. I got some nice pictures.

Spanish Exhibit, World Exposition, Seville

Alcázar Gardens

The next major stop was Seville's Alcázar - a fortified royal palace built on an Arab (Moor) palace. The palace is still a royal residence and was the site of a royal weeding reception several years ago. The palace has several distinct parts because it was built over a 300-year period. It is surrounded by extensive gardens - myrrh grows here.

The Alcázar in Seville

From the palace, we went to the old Jewish quarter. King Peter I actually had Jewish ministers and advisors. This all ended when King Ferdinand III conquered Granada and began expropriating Jewish property and expelling Jewish residents. It culminated 164 years later with the expulsion of Jews and Arabs from Spain. Today only 100 Jewish people live in Seville.

The Jewish Quarter

The quarter is full of very narrow streets that open onto plazas. Buildings are three and four stories high. Everything is whitewash, then trimmed with pastels and yellows. Ironwork is everywhere.

Woody provided many interest factoids about nearly everything Seville. She talked about the distinguishing traits of Arab architecture: the mosaic walls, the Quran written on the trim, the use of patterns, and the absolute ban of representations of animals or humans as idolatry.

In the Cathedral Bell Tower

Following our gambol through the Jewish quarter, we toured the cathedral. The cathedral is the site of the mosque, but unlike Cordoba, the mosque was completely destroyed. The Seville cathedral is the world's third largest. It has Gothic and Romanesque features. Among other things, the Spaniards stole a horde of gold and silver from the Incas, most of which seems to have been melted down and reappeared as sacred objects in this cathedral. I'm not being too sarcastic, and the official tourist view is that this was all done for the glory of Christ. I'm not convinced.

Breaking news - I'm writing this from the top of a double-decker bus in the village of Archidona. Our train broke down here, and we were transferred to buses. This is really a big deal here. "Don't cry for me Archidona...." We're having trouble getting around the corner just below the train station. On the other hand, this is an adventure! Finally - around the corner!

Looking over Old Seville

So back to church, having made all those catty remarks, I have to say the cathedral is beautiful and a remarkable monument to faith. But you have to ask a blasphemous question: does the blood of a whole race justify the blood of Christ? For the Spanish, the purpose conquest seems to be to bring the New World to Christ by any means, and then taking or rather stealing its gold and silver, for the glory of Christ. The conqueror always writes the history of the conquered, but today, all across the Americas you can hear the ghostly echoes of a past very different than what we were lead to believe. The Conquest began in faith.

I've read Sam Harris' End of Faith, and will probably read his Letter to a Christian Nation. He claims that humankind needs to get beyond faith. Its unreasoning assumptions about reality always have the potential to lead to a very bad end.

It's remarkable, in Seville you clearly see the end of faith, staring at you. If you listen, you can hear the ghosts singing. That blood dripping from Christ's side is the blood of exterminated civilizations. Maybe that's why tears are rolling down the Crucified Christ's cheeks.

Seville's Glory to God

Evidently, the local rail service, Renfe, has a reputation of maintenance problems. As a result, we had a small adventure and got to see another glimpse of Spain. The Archidona station is a small dusty platform several kilometers from the larger village - across a small valley. The area here is beautiful. It has the starkness of a desertscape, but it's often covered with olive trees. We've seen thousands of hectares or olive groves between Seville and Granada.

Don't Cry for Me, Archidona!

The country is mountainous. Because the area is so dry you can see the land features better than in the Appalachians, for example. The land is rugged, but the scale is small. Every now and then a large peak or butte rises above the rest of the land. The colors are blue, brown, and the constant gray-green of the olive groves. I'm glad we're on a two-lane divided highway. The posted speed is 80 kph, but our driver appears to be going somewhat faster, because he is passing everything on the road.

This is the first time I've ridden on a double-decker bus. I noted in an earlier entry that smoking is ubiquitous, but not on the bus. All of the ashtrays have been screwed shut. The seating is similar to airline seating. I'm not sure I'd want to take a very long bus ride on this particular bus, but the appeal is intimacy. Just as a car is removed from walking, the train is removed from everything - often in country where no human evidence is present except the omnipresent olive groves. The bus, though, puts you in the middle of humanity again, even if you are traveling at 80 kph.

Olive Groves, Archidona

Brian and I had a very long conversation on the ride into Granada. We've been friends forever, and our lives move in parallel, then intersect. I'm happy that we've done this trip. I'm making a mental list of the things I want to do on my next trip to Spain. Our planning behind the trip was guided by the principle: you may never get back here, so do as much as you can. That, of course, means we're tourists through and through. It's been a good decision.

We could see the lights of Granada over the horizon for a quite a while, then we were in the city, itself. The outskirts reveal a dusty, boxy suburb. The dust is real, in part from some major street construction. This is a recurring theme in Spain. So far we've encountered significant construction in every city. The bus deposited us in the train station parking lot, and we immediately hailed a cab. The Vincci Hotel is a very short distance from the train station.

We checked in, came up to the room, changed our clothes and went looking for dinner. It was already close to 10 p.m. The clerk at the hotel suggested El Tenido 1, which is located on one side of the bull ring, about a four-block walk. We had an excellent dinner; Brian had anchovies, Ron had roasted chicken, and I had a plate of preserved meats. We ordered a bottle of wine, and I had an endive salad, as well. Ron got his roasted vegetables, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the meal. We ended up with flan and tiramisu. Brian was having daydreams about the waiter, our best meal yet.

The Hotel Vincci sits on top of an apartment building. The hotel has a lobby and restaurant below the apartments. So we hang out on the 14th floor. The room is very nice, comparable with the room in Seville. The neighborhood, though, is very different. The street in front of the hotel is all torn up because Granada is putting in a subway system.

After we got back to the hotel, Brian turned on the television to check the weather. Instead, we found some Spanish programming: Strip Poker. It involves naked women playing poker with the cute male host, and always losing. The program was so wrong in so many ways. We were so offended that we immediately turned it off 30 minutes later. It was this truly weird, surreal teen boy fantasy about naked ladies. Sociologists will be studying this.