We are at London Heathrow with our bags checked and just waiting for our flight bound for home. They said leave 3 hours advance at Heathrow but I really think it’s just an excuse to have you wander through the bountiful duty free shops before your flight. Since I seem to have lost Kim’s wallet (no worries, nothing valuable in it) it looks like I’ll be replacing it for her at one of these shops as my punishment. We have had a really great couple of days here in London which I am waiting until we return home to write up. Until then, we have another airport to explore.
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We arrived in London yesterday, being very graciously hosted by Louise whom we befriended on our trip to India last fall. She and her boyfriend, Tom, have a great flat just a few train stops from downtown which is very convenient. They’re going to show us around tomorrow (and we just got back from a great Thai dinner with them), but since they were both working today we went and did some of the touristy stuff on our own (Westminster, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, etc). All that was very nice, but right off the train at Waterloo station we caught a unique urban art show that you don’t see advertised in the tourist guides. We were trying to head towards the river and ended up in this tunnel that runs towards York Road and were treated to a ton of great graffiti, mostly stencil stuff very similar to Banksy. This area is apparently run/protected by an organization called Blank Expression and I couldn’t get enough snaps of this awesome work.

We saw several similar pieces in Valencia which I’ll post about when we get home… I already offloaded them from my memory card and onto my server, so they’re not easily Flickr-able at the moment.

These were all great but some of my favorites are the Fight Club Buddha, flying toasters which ask to be made famous on Flickr (I obliged), the Dalai Lama, and Barack Obama:

See the whole London Graffiti set on Flickr and stay tuned for Valencia Graffiti coming soon…

Returned the rental car (goodbye Polo and Emi) this morning at the airport and we are now leaving Seville bound for London Gatwick via Clickair.
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So now I guess I should reflect a bit on that… The whole experience was very gruesome. Bullfighting is controversial for a reason… the EU is trying to ban it, and our hosts in Valencia looked down on it, it doesn’t even have wide support in Spain. It wasn’t fun to watch the bulls gored, and really unpleasant to hear them panting and crying. I don’t know if I really buy the bravery aspect of the “sport” as it’s not even close to a fair fight (of course, that’s easy to say when I’m not facing a huge bull). All that said, it was a completely enthralling experience and we were both glad we went, if just once. While I don’t really see the fighters as being brave, they were definitely skilled and graceful, and there is a sort of beauty to the art of it. What I can say for certain is that there are good bullfights and bad ones. Not only does the crowd respond accordingly, but the “good” fights are much less unpleasant to watch. The second and fourth fighters were very skilled and the final blows were swift, effective, and not drawn out for the bull. The fighters were revered like rock stars for it. As these guys were in training we saw all levels, and the third fight was hard to watch, almost disturbing, and the crowd really dosapproved. The thick smell of cigar smoke, the colors of the plaza and the music that accompanied each portion (the brass band was just behind us) made for an all encompassing event. It definitely made a long lasting impression… long enough that I probably don’t need to go again.

Back to the present… this morning we woke up early and said goodbye to Grazalema. Speeding back through fields of sunflowers I tried to beat the time the GPS unit thought I could make to Jerez… at one point I was up 7 minutes but we got stuck behind a tow truck for a few km and I only beat her by 2 minutes. The GPS speaks to us in a British woman’s voice and we have named her Emi. She’s been an indispensible 3rd member of our trip, even if she does give the occasional wrong instruction (turn left in an impossible place, or like today, she took us off the map for a bit when we were flying along the freeway). We swear at Emi briefly, but then she gets us across Jerez to sherry bodegas when we’d be lost without her, and she is our compatriat again.

Today she took us to two bodegas where we tasted everything from light dry sherry to thick syrupy “cream” and super strong brandy. I was driving so I had to spit most of this delicious stuff out, but of course we got some to take home and enjoy. We tried going to the equestrian center but got there at 1:15… forget that they are open until 2, the ticket office closes at 1! I tried to explain how Kim’s mom is a dressage instructor and Kim really just wanted to watch the horses be exercised for a bit, but they wouldn’t let us in without a ticket (for the whole tour we didn’t want to see anyway) and they wouldn’t sell us a ticket since the office was closed. This buearacracy, and the fact that everything is always closed, is something I will not miss about Spain. Siesta is cute and everything until you have more than 1 thing you’d like to accomplish in your day and everything is only open from 10 to 1. So we went back to the hotel to park the car and grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby cafe. We thought we should still see some Flamenco before we leave Andalucia for a 2nd time, and the tourist office was helpful directing us to some places which we were supposed to call first for reservartions. We figured we’d explore the city and check them out first so we knew if we liked the place or not. The first place seemed really nice and we actually caught part of the afternoon show in progress. We made dinner reservations but when we found out they wanted 40€ each for for dinner and thw show we kind of felt our free glimpse in the afternoon was sufficient. So after a few hours’ siesta we walked through town to a nearby restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet and had another really great meal. Kim had calamari (a whole squid, not the fried rings) and I had a super tender sliced pork shoulder, both with a tasty pair of pepper and basil sauces.

So now, well fed and ready for bed, we are trying to pack our various bottles if liquor for the flight to London tomorrow and get some sleep before an early morning drive back to Seville.

We’ve had a much better go at it this 2nd time in Spain, looks like we are learning something about this traveling thing afterall. Adios Spain, until next time, hasta luego.

The last few days have been pretty rough. We left Ronda driving through these picture perfect windy hills… and arrived in sleepy little Grazalema at the best little bed & breakfast ever. The couple that runs it out of their house are super nice and helpful (young too, like they inherited this place). There is a pool, nuff said right? We decided to stay here 2 nights before heading back out to Jerez.

Last night we had probably 2nd best meal of the trip (well 3rd counting the wedding which was amazing). Great local wine for only 1.50 € a glass… same for the sweet malaga dessert wine (fino instead of vino). Roasted pork cutlets w/apple sauce and ham & melon form Kim; I tried the spaghetti carbonara which I am usually very picky about… it was pretty good, don’t worry Mom, yours is still the best! We were already toasted by dessert when they gave us free shots of sherry to finish… the sherry had that anise flavor again and we realized that is what we tasted in the sangria in Seville before the bullfight.

Today we drove out to Zahara de la Sierra and hiked up to its medival castle, then drove back to the hotel for pool side lunch and siesta. The drive back was spectacular climbing up switchbacks to the top of this mountain at 1357 meters looking back *down* on the castle we’d hiked up to and the lake below.

We make an early start for Jerez de la Frontera tomorrow to hit up the sherry bodegas on our last full day in Spain. Then its back to London to visit friends for a few days before returning home.

Hasta Luego
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So we hopped back in the car and went exploring around the rock. We tried to find the 100 ton gun (which shot 1 ton shells) but all we seemed to find was a sign saying “you are here”… no big ass gun though. It’s near impossible to turn around on some streets and this was one of them, so rather than make a big loop back we pressed on to Europa Point. This is from where you can can see Africa, as well as the light house and view of “the rock” from those Prudential commercials. The view is pretty spectacular, can’t wait to get some of the panoramic shots stitched together. The Mediterranean Sea opens up to your left with tons of ships queueing for the straight, and the Atlantic to your right, slightly shrouded in mist rolling off the tip of Africa. From the point we slowly wound our way up the side of the rock to St. Michaels Caves, the Seige Tunnels, and the Moorish Castle. Unfortunately you can’t go all the way to the top… Gibraltar is still kind of a British military point (tons of MOD off limits areas and barbed wire) so I guess that’s why, but nobody really explained, just said you couldn’t go. Oh yeah, there is also supposedly an “ape’s den” but we apparently drove past it mistaking it for another of the many lookout points. That’s ok, cuz there are monkeys *everywhere* on the upper rock. They were drawn to anywhere people were, because despite the apparent £500 fine for feeding them we saw several people keeping them well fed. Before leaving the rock we filled up on cheap gas (tax free zone meant gas, although still expensive by standards at home, was significantly less than in Spain) and I spent much of what we saved from the fast ferries on a tax free rare bottle of scotch.

Back on the road and back on Spanish time, we drove up into the Andalusian hills, winding and putting our car through its paces… it felt like a car commercial. At 3, finally time for lunch in Spain, we were dying for food and lucked out with a well placed restaurant in the middle of nowhere near the top of the pass, looking down on the valleys we’d just ascended. About an hour later we found ourselves back in Ronda where we stayed 8 years ago! This little town has grown a lot in that time. It seems busier but still retains its charm. The Brujeria exhibit is still here too! I got a good chuckle out of that, and some better photos this time. We’ve got a few more days before we return to Jerez de la Frontera for sherry bodegas, so we are going to explore these small towns of the Pueblos Blancos.
Hasta Luego

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We picked up our Volkswagon Polo rental car this morning in Seville and set off for the sherry bodegas of Jerez de la Frontera. By the time we got to Jerez though, we realized there wouldn’t be much time as they close around 1pm. So we shifted gears and made our way out to Gibraltar! The town isn’t too big and we saw most of it this afternoon. After a quick morning ferry trip to Tangiers and back tomorrow we are going to drive up to the top of The Rock and see some monkeys. Back on British soil we’ll see if our pounds stretch further in this tax free zone.

Still no good internet options, so you’ll have to keep waiting for the bullfight wrapup.

Cheers!
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We just returned from the Plaza de Toros in Seville, having witnessed our first bullfight. Maybe it will take a while to absorb, maybe I’m just reeling from the thick cloud of cigar smoke we were engulfed in, or maybe it’s the combination of sangria and Spanish sudafed, but I don’t have all the words right now to describe the fight itself. I think I’ll wait til later when I can upload video (don’t worry, I’ll spare you the gruesome stuff, but you will get to see a bullfighter trampled!).

What I will say is that we had a pretty lucky day. Woke up early, caught a trouble free 6:30am flight from Barcelona to Seville on Vueling’s MTV airplane and quickly found our hotel in central Seville. Quick nap. We got some breakfast and explored the city, working our way slowly (it is hot! 37 celsius, 98.6 fahernheit) along the water until we came across the Plaza de Toros. The museum was a dud (one in Ronda 8 years ago was more interesting) but we found out there was a fight tonight! Well, not a full professional fight, those are earlier in the season, this was a sort of training exposition where young bullfighters get to prove themselves. The Plaza de Toros in Seville is a pretty big deal… Kim likened this to watching a AAA game in Yankee Stadium. I was curious if we could catch one of these knowing that the main events would be over by the time we got to Spain, but none of my research online revealed this event… I was going to play it by ear and maybe catch one of these training events in Jerez de la Frontera this weekend (I thought they were all on Sunday). So we felt pretty lucky to be able to catch one tonight. After a siesta we returned when the ticket office opened and got our tickets, not the cheap seats but not the most expensive either, 9€ each. We were pretty surprised to find out later these were almost front row seats!

At this point I guess I could mention that I caught a cold in Picassent (all those late nights?) and have been hopped up on whatever is in the antihistamines the pharmacist gave me plus my inhaler (oh yeah, asthma has been bad here)… so when the sangria we had with dinner tasted of anise and Kim gave up on it, leaving me to finish it (I could say I didn’t want to be rude, but it was tasty) I was feeling pretty good before the bullfight.

We stopped at a 2nd tapas bar on the way to grab a coke and we ran into friends of the family we had met at Emily and Ernesto’s wedding! Dan and Teresa from Sonoma were eating dinner with Teresa’s nephew, Carlos, who works for Vueling and lives in Seville. If that weren’t coincidence enough, they were also going to the bullfight and sitting in our same section!! They invited us to sit with them and treated us to some dessert sherry (more booze! which was super tasty by the way) so now we were feeling like the whole day was extremely lucky.

As I said I’ll save my thoughts on the fight for another post, but needless to say today was full of sensory overload.

Buenas Noches.
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Next in the series of departing airport shots, our “MTV” Vueling flight out of Barcelona to Seville.

It wouldn´t be hard to do much better than we did last time we visited Barcelona. At least now we have a place to sleep. But we´re doing a lot better than just finding a place to rest our heads. The only thing I regret is not uploading more pictures… it has been so easy to do camera-phone pics though, I think that is what you´ll all be stuck with until I get home. Then I can do a big flickr dump from my camera and spend the time to do it right (with a fast connection).

Kim and I had a great time wandering through Valencia on our own before saying our goodbyes to our gracious hosts Sergio and Laura and jetting off to Barcelona yesterday morning. The metro here rocks so we were able to trot all over the city, checking out the amazing Sagrada Familia (which really deserves its own post when I get the photos ready), hitting up the beach for tapas and horchata, then over to La Ribera and El Born for dinner. We struck gold here. After wandering around and checking out the various fare, Kim picked a place called Petra that blew us away. Pictured here is her Ensalada Queso de Cabra (goat cheese), with caramelized sugar on top of the goat cheese, and a tasty balsamic vinaigrette. I started with a mascarpone & jamon soup, served cold with a little olive oil. When I was done I realized the cream & olive oil combo reminded me of caprese, but this was tangier, and the ham/bacon made it much better. Those were just the apps! Some kind of glazed pork (looked like it was lamb the way they frenched it off the bone) for Kim, blue cheese gnocchi for me. All with a local bottle of Catalan wine. Total bill 35€! For the quality of the food this was actually the best meal we´ve had for the money.

Today we took the train out to Cava country and went down into the caves for a tour. Think Champagne, but not in France. For only 5€ each we had a private tour with our guide Miguel (who we coincidentally ran into later on La Rambla back in Barcelona) and a trainee, Patricia. The tour was pretty interesting, and it was nice to be down in the caves from noon to 2 or so, out of the heat. Refreshing cava tasting at the end didn´t hurt and we both napped on the train back into the city.

After a short siesta we took the funicular up to the top of Montjuic and took in a panoramic view of the city from the Castell, before heading back to La Rambla and La Placa De Catalunya, our old stomping grounds from our last homeless stay in Barcelona. Now we´re off to bed early so we can catch our sunrise flight to Seville tomorrow morning.

Until next time…
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