Itálica Ruins, Santiponce, España

Tuesday, 10 July, 2012 - Itálica Ruins, Santiponce, España! Just outside Sevilla

This is an amazing site, worth spending some time.

 

From the Plaza del Armas bus station in Sevilla you get a local bus #172 at platform 16, for 1.4 € p/p. The bus takes about 30 minutes and goes and returns on the hour and half hour. The get off spot is at the turnaround for the bus to return to Sevilla. Sure makes it easy, and just a short walk to enter Itálica.

 

 

Itálika is a Roman Ruin: I was captivated with it. The ampitheatre/coliseum, the housing, the water delivery systems, the thermal baths, I liked it all. Itálica dates to 206BC and was established by Publius Cornelius. This was also the first permanent Roman settlement in the South of the Iberian Peninsula.

There is another site in Santiponce, San Isidoro del Campo, I need to look this one up. We didn't know anything about it so hadn't built any extra time into this excursion. Our bus to Lisbon leaves at 3, and we've already bought our tickets. So, next time!

We passed through Camas, Huelva, and most of Santiponce, all really lovely towns, it would be nice to spend more time to explore them. So silly but every time I want to write explore, I automatically think exploor, and have to correct myself.

I must give credit and thanks to the movie industry, and to the TV industry that replays old movies. I've seen so many old roman, gladiator movies that it was so easy to picture in my mind the coliseum, the slaves and gladiators, and animals and the movements under the arena. And then the family spaces, I could see the rooms,with the large urns, flowing cloths to block sun and bugs, and the family relaxing in the inner courtyard garden with its flower and fruit trees. I REALLY enjoyed Itàlica.

These are mosaic floors, uncovered, the wall foundations can be seen, can't you just picture a family living their daily lives?

Ok, 2:20, bus for Lisbon leaves at 3 and I must get some lunch!

 


 

Friday night, 6 July 2012 - Zambra Flamenco, Granada

Friday night, 6 July - Zambra Flamenco, Granada

We went to a Zambra Flamenco show, this is not the traditional Flamenco we are mostly familiar with.

There seems to be a bit more of a bohemian, wildness to it. What impressed me, or made me take note was the emotion of the women as they danced, then once the dance ended it was like they reverted to their other everyday selves; as if during the dance they are transported and are channeling some long ago ancestor.

There was a guitarist, a fabulous guitarist. And five women, each performed as leads and as backup several times during the evening. The only other instruments were castanets, and the hands and voices. The clapping was pure percussion, and quite resounding, the voices were loud, and intense and full of angst, passion, emotion, and quite bad. I mean I am so sorry to say this but none of these women would make it on American Idol except on the Bad Reel.

 

The voices were really bad, but the songs, the singing, the passion and emotion that played throughout the performance was awesome. We really enjoyed the evening, and would definitely suggest that you go.

Ok, so here are some pics of the evening - oh, we went on a package from the hotel, they pick you up, you stop and get others, then as part of the drive up the SacraMonte you stop at an overlook for a few minutes view of the sunsetting over the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Lorenzo de Escorial and El Escorial!

I found the town of San Lorenzo de Escorial to be quite lovely, very neat clean, well maintained, lovely plantings, flowers everywhere. Andbsince it's built hillside the streets are cobbled and its good exercise getting anywhere.

 

This link will give you good history for 'el Escorial', I'll just show a few fotos!

 

 

 

Saturday, 7 July 2012 - Granada, Spain

Saturday, 7 July 2012 - Granada

Made it to Granada with ease - checked in to our hotel, Hotel Almenas, dropped our bags in the room and headed off to visit the Alhambra. The Alhambra was, until 1492,  the last stronghold of the Moorish kingdoms.

The site, its grounds, gardens, buildings etc are incredible. It is an exhausting visit, the paths are mainly cobble stone so your feet and legs really take a beating. Add to that they make you stand for long periods in queues in the sun waiting to get in to one or the other buildings.

One BIG bonus for me was an exhibition they have of Sorolla paintings. We missed quite a few of the Sorolla's in Madrid, because they are here, plus there are quite a few from private collections on display. It is a fabulous display.

I do wish I had more time to just visit the gardens at Alhambra, another time. Being here, and knowing what I know now I think getting the split ticket and seeing half one day and half the second makes way more sense.  

On our way back to the room we stopped for a beer and a few tapas.  We got to the room about 7/7:30, tried the internet and were able to connect with the ipod but not the ipad. Unfortunately this hotel  has internet only in public spaces, but they do have a nice lounge so its not horrible.

We showered, changed and were picked up at 9 for our ride to the flamenco show. We went to a different style show - Zambra, which s a style developed by the gypsies of Sacramonte - our ride took us into the Albayzine neighborhood which is the old Muslim section of town, really quite interesting and afforded us some spectacular views of Granada.  We got back to the room about 11:30, I was hungry but too tired to struggle finding a place so ate a fruit bar and pre-packed then went to bed, slept straight through till 7. 

It's unfair, after less than 24 hours, but Granada is not high on my list of places to return. It is obviously a college town, and there are younglings everywhere trying to be either hippie, bohemian, or downtrodden, all in very expensive shabby style. Else they are the uber thin uber well dressed.

There are some really great art-graffiti pieces but also a lot of tagging. And there are people on top of people.

Passing from Toledo to Granada we passed hectares upon hectares of olive orchards. While at the Alhambra there were quite a few olive trees heavy with olives, and olives laying unused on the ground. In our hotel lobby I picked up a flyer for an olive oil tour which I think would have been really interesting but we had already purchased our train tickets out. So note, don't pre-plan, things come up.  

So it is 9am Saturday morning and we are off to spend the day in Córdoba before passing on to Sevilla?

Friday, 6 July 2012, Toledo, Spain

Friday, 6 July 2012, Toledo

We've been 2 nights in Toledo, and honestly I could spend another day or two here. Not so much for the sights but just because it is beautiful and interesting and there are so many gorgeous open spaces to explore.

 

 

There are so many parks, and walking/biking trails, and having the river right here makes for some very interesting birding. And I am just beside myself that I didn't bring my small binoculars - I mean how in the world could I have forgotten them?

Toledo is hilly, everything is either uphill or downhill, and in some places where it's just too darn steep there are stairs, lots n lots of stairs.




The arquitecture here is an interesting mix and we are seeing now a much stronger Moor influence than in Madrid. In fact yesterday we walked to the train station to pick up tickets for part of todays travel, and for travel tomorrow as well. The train station is amazing, and quite moorish. Although it is fairly recent, this station was built in 1916 over what was an older station.

We stayed at the Hostal Puerta de Bisagra, it is another economy room, but perfectly adequate, and the location is great, it is right inside the historic walls, within view of the Bisagra Gate old city entrance. On the other side of the Gate is the 'regular' part of town, and I've been enjoying very much that this is where more locals hang out.

I am still amazed at how expensive things are and wonder at the disposable income it must take to survive. I have no clue what housing, utilities, taxes, and insurance cost.

The sights - we've been to the museums of santo tomè, and de la cruz, we went in to the Catedral, and of course the Alcazar and its museum to war. We walked many narrow walkways and ducked in to any number of shops and sights.

 

We just pulled out on the 7:15am bus to Ciudad Real, from there we transfer to a train to Granada. Once in Granada we drop our bags at the hotel and race to our 4pm checkin at the Alhambra.

Making these arrangements for seeing Granada, Cordoba, and Seville have been tiresome. The connections are tricky. The easiest would have been a tour encompassing all three in and out of Madrid. I tried to arrange one of these tours through Viator.com, but every email I sent took several days to get a reply, then there was inevitably another question. Their internet tour description is not terribly thorough. Anyway, add to that I was struggling to set an itinerary that created a flow of all the places we want to go. You really need to plan on basing out of Madrid.