January 17th, 2016

A couple of big stories to comment upon before continuing with trip notes.  The biggest is Betty's 50th b-day yesterday.  Was not able to celebrate with her as she is on a work trip to Seattle, but see that she is visiting all of her friends and is having a daily b-day celebration.  I don't say it enough, but I love that girl.  So you know.

The other item worth mentioning is the election of the first woman president in Taiwan's history.  Regardless of how one feels about any particular candidate and party, any culture that is capable of electing a woman to the top office is OK by me.  There were several candidates/minor parties in the election that were fun to watch, like the Death Metal singer (Freddy Lim of Chthonic), the lady that took off her top to expose a red bra for some reason, and the candidate that passed out condoms with her political information to promote safe sex.  But my favorite political party in this election is the PPU (Peace Pigeon Union) that is campaigning to promote "peaceful land and sea pigeon racing as a legitimate entertainment" to dispel the stigma around the sport.  A more complete investigation of this sport is needed and will follow-up later. 

Finally, I don't think there is any topic of idea that one can think of that isn't widely discussed on the internet.  I farted in the shower yesterday and am always stunned as to how much worse they smell in there.  A quick Google search for "why do farts smell worse in the shower" netted 70,000 plus results, most of them scientific explanations.  Thanks Obama.

Moving on with our trip notes...took an evening flight from Barcelona to Granada and go in about 10ish.   Our hotel {AC Palacio de Santa Paula) was well located and in a converted 16th century monastery.  For the Spanish leg of our trip, we were able to use Betty's soon to expire United air miles to pay for all but one room for two nights.

Granada was the last town in Spain to be controlled by the Arabs (aka Moors) in the middle ages, so the Arabic influence remains strong in both architecture and people.  It was here that I realized just how much was left by the Arabs genetically in the faces of the people.  You saw a lot more white white (almost blue) people in northeastern Barcelona, but the folks in Granada had the darker skin and heavier eyebrows of north Africa.  Brought to mind that great scene in True Romance about Sicilians with Walken and Hopper (warning, explicit content). 

The main attraction in Granada is La Alhambra, which is a Moorish fortress/palace on the hill overlooking the town.  We spent a morning touring its extensive grounds (on a brilliantly clear sunny day).  Well maintained and intricately crafted buildings along with meticulously planted gardens, is truly a wondrous sight.

The only drawback to visiting Granada is that you need to be part mountain goat to walk around.  We taxied up to the Alhambra, but walked down then immediately back up to visit the historic Albaycin neighborhood for lunch.  My knees were barking and we were all getting grumpy as we wound through the narrow streets, lost as all get out, but would stumble on little pieces of beauty, like this door on some dead end ally that we went down by mistake.

We were back in that hood later that night to watch a Flamenco show in one of the caves.  Both Seville and Granada claim to be the birthplace of Flamenco, but with the influences of Gypsy, Arab, Christian and Jew that you can obviously see and hear, Granada makes the most sense.  Anyway, a popular tourist attraction is going to see a flamenco show in a cave that was dug into the hill of the Albaycin neighborhood.

We kind of got screwed as the show place was supposed to pick us up at our hotel but didn't, citing some "problem"  Dickheads basically forgot to get us and we missed half the show, which was probably OK as what we saw was enough for me and the ended up only charging us half anyway.  Watching the show, it occurred that I'd never seen flamenco live and was taken in by the emotion of the dancers and the violence with which they stomp/tap.  And while I am not a huge fan of the precision of flamenco guitar, there were points when the dancing was hitting its peak that the guitarist would launch into a kind of skronky wall of noise that was mesmerizing.  A must see.

Plus we got to get a cool night time view off the Alhambra and town, so all in all, a pretty good night. 

Spent the next morning tooling around Granada's town, seeing its cathedral and other sights, which were very nice albeit a sleepy place (if that's your thing).  Next up was a 4 hour train trip to Seville.

Don't get me wrong, Barcelona and Granada were cool, but to me, Seville kicked both their butts soundly.  It has it all, interesting history that is still alive, a killer food scene and is still a growing, vibrant and young place. 

Chronologically...like Granada, it was ruled by the Moors for centuries and retains many of that eras finest examples of architecture.  The main tower of the cathedral was converted from the spire of the mosque and is the symbol of the city.

Also retained from the time of the Moors was the orange grove.

Orange trees were everywhere in Seville and we must have been in town in peak growing season as the branches were full of them.  These oranges are not suitable to eat raw but were said to have been planted more to beautify the city both visually and with their fragrance.  The oranges are harvested and mainly shipped too England to be turned into marmalade.

The Cathedral itself is impressive in a major European city way, but adds a couple of cool things like the largest gold alter.

And the bones of Columbus...more on him later.

Across the street from the cathedral is the Real Alcazar, which was a Moorish fortress/castle.  Not quite as large as Alhambra, nor with the majesty of the hilltop location the Granada site has, but inside was far more well kept than the one in Granada.  The tile work was more extensive and the gardens were far more whimsical.  Who doesn't love a garden maze for instance.

The Moors were driven out of Granada in 1491 but left Seville in 1248.  1491 was a pivotal time for the world as the sunset of the Muslims in Spain saw the rise of Ferdinand and Isabella.  They famously bankrolled Columbus the  following year and for the next couple of centuries, all trade with the new world had to pass by decree through Seville.  As you can then guess, Seville became the center of world trade, and really the world itself for those two centuries. 

Coinciding with that era was the Spanish Inquisition...who was expecting that?  Basically, the Spanish at that time were total dicks.  They (not so gently) told the Muslims and (mainly) the Jews they had a choice to convert to Christianity, leave or die.  Side note to those that think Muslims have a monopoly of intolerance and cruelty in the name of the lord, read a book (other than the Bible of course).  Another side note, the Jews lived in Moorish Spain happily alongside the Muslims for a thousand years. 

Modern Spain doesn't hide this era, but they aren't necessarily beating themselves up over it either.  For instance, the name of our (most excellent) hotel was called Las Casas de la Juderia.  Most of you with basic High School Spanish can translate that into the Houses of the Jews and the hotel consisted of 27 old Jewish Quarter homes that were connected to create the 134 room hotel.  Huge recommendation to stay there should you be fortunate enough to visit...the rooms were all unique and ancient, but modernized tastefully.  The different homes within the hotel are connected by little patios and plazas that have fountains and flowers.  The breakfast room is found through subterranean passageways and the walls of it are covered in reflecting metal.   And it's located a 5 minute walk from everything.  They did provide a 5 page history of the hotel, describing the families that lived there and what each house was designed for, but the part I found missing was the reason that all the Jews suddenly departed in the 14th/15th centuries. 

 You do see some artifacts around that do hint at the blood lust that went on however.

Still a major attraction to the city is bull fighting.  It was off season, but we did get to go for a tour of the Plaza de Toros, which is said to be the Yankee Stadium/Camp Nou of bull fighting.  I can dig if you find it barbaric.  I've never seen one myself but would not hesitate to go check it out...I love the NFL so obviously have a resistance to watching senseless violence.

The facility was immaculate and it was easy to imagine it full of crazed aficionados

I did get to bust out the one bull fighting fact I knew.  If you are in the stands and a bull jumps the fence and comes at you, should you run up the stairs, down the stairs or sideways to avoid the bull?  You run down as cows are unable to go down stairs for some reason. 
Once the economic monopoly of the new world's riches was broken and the capital of Spain moved to Madrid, Seville saw a couple centuries of downturn, but as it is still an inland port connected to the ocean by a river, it still maintained some relevance (unlike Granada, which seemed frozen in time).  In the early 20th century, it celebrated the Ibero-American Exposition where they constructed grand civic areas including a giant park (always a winner in a big city) and the Plaza de Espana, which is a massive public space.

They also had the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage expo in 1992 and many new public work projects were created for that as well (like the Metropol Parasol, which is the world's largest wooden structure).

Seville had it going on...weather was balmy (it is the hottest city in Europe for instance and was spectacular during our stay), history, architecture, sports, public spaces,...what more could you as for?

Oh yeah...food.  We had delicious food throughout our stay in Spain (the choripan at the Argentine steakhouse in Barcelona and the croquettes in Granada for instance), but we hit our stride in Seville.  Brief list of a few tapas I wrote down that we had there...
- squid ink pasta
- zucchini with quail eggs and red pepper sauce
- artichoke with bacon and bleu cheese
- octopus on potato and cheese with squash sauce
- eggplant with goat cheese and salmon
- Moroccan pastry with chicken and almonds topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar (more on that in the Fes section)
- and my personal favorite, shrimp and scallop albondigas

And then there was the churros found on the street that were filled with cream.  Homophobic comment deleted.

A couple of unexamined observations before closing.
- Traffic lights in Spain count down how much time is left in the green light while traffic lights in Taiwan count down how much longer the light will remain red before turning green.  This is a glass half full/empty debate, just not sure which is the full/empty side.
- Had an afternoon flipping channels in Seville and at the end of the dial, came across a 1/2 dozen channels advertising tarot card readings in an 800# style format with each having their own reader.  There was the vampire dude, the vampire chick, the crazy haired earth mother, gypsy woman, Hindi lady, etc.  Hard to follow with my limited Spanish, but mesmerizing.
- Euro haircut dudes inspired by "look at me" soccer stars are truly annoying, with shaved sides and frontal pompadours the most egregious.   Message to the kids was to be more than a haircut in life.
- Pretty sure that it is due to the bible, but we thought that bibliotecas should be called libriotecas. 
- Traveling can cause your bowel system to act differently than normal, so when one of us (kids and I, Betty didn't play along) had a normal movement, we announced it by saying that "I pooped like Taylor Swift".

It was a 4am wake-up call to make our flights from Seville-Madrid-Marrakesh and had time at the airport to catch the last quarter of a brilliant Raider OT victory over the Chargers in Oakland.

Spain was great, but Morocco blew me away.  Excited to share that next time, but before I can get to it...time for some exercise.