Captain's log - Supplemental

16-May-2022

We started the trip home with a thrilling taxi ride at breakneck speeds through empty streets to the train station in Sevilla.  I thought we went through some kind of wormhole when I saw the street sign at the entrance door.

No Dorothy it's not Kansas, just the street named Kansas City in Sevilla. The Sevillians (sp?) love Kansas City.  It's their sister.

A fast ride on the AVE train at 160 mph got us to Madrid in no time. Another 20 min ride on the subway from the train station landed us at the Madrid Airport Terminal 4 just in time for a scheduled Covid test.  The Covid test office had many people standing outside waiting and no one explaining the protocol.  After some investigation we found out that the people outside had no appointment but we did so we waited with the appointment folks on the Group 'W' bench until our turn came up. 

Our noses reamed out with a Qtip, we made our way to the only nearby restaurant to have a spot of lunch and await our test result.  It was a Scottish place called 'McDonald's'.  I violated a long established personal rule to never eat a hamburger at McD's and regretted it. The Model got a chicken sandwich which was a bit better.  The bad lunch was forgotten when we got our email saying, 'RESULTADO = NEGATIVO' which meant we could now head home after a stay in the airport Hilton overnight.

Our plane was originally scheduled to fly Madrid to Toronto but that flight was canceled.  Our new route was Madrid > Munich > Toronto > Chicago. We checked our bags since we were on the way home with no expectation that they would meet us in Chicago.  They didn't.

After another cancellation, rebooking, gate change and rescheduling in Toronto we finally made it to good old ORD.  A nice Uber driver named Joseph took us on the final leg home.  Our bags are currently on the beach at Ibizia or on a boat to Italy and having a fine trip. Someday we may see them again. 

Our kids and the neighbors decorated the place to let us know they didn't forget us.
Thanks folks.

And a fine time was had by all.

Alcazar and Farewell

 14-May-2022

Today we'll knock off the last palace on the trip. The Alcazar was built by the Moors and turned over to the Christians after the Reconquista. It was then used by the Spanish royal family for a summer home for 500 years.  They had a really nice backyard.

And a scale model of the Santa Maria.  I think maybe Chris was sniffing some of the model glue when he came up with idea for the trip.

We also saw the king's water organ that had no water (and no organ).

There was some tomfoolery at the end of the visit.

Then it was back to Mozart's place for an afternoon siesta and to put on a clean shirt for the carriage ride to the Farewell Dinner.

But first a stop for a bridge picture.

We went to a new-to-Rick Steves restaurant since the place the tour usually went got Covided out of business.  As usual William made a great choice.  I only took one picture at the restaurant, I was busy enjoying my last pretty slices of Iberian ham.

They all look hungry.

We all strolled back to Amadeus, enjoyed a last nightcap and started frantically arranging a COVID test at the airport. The trip was over at breakfast the next day but we were long gone to the Madrid train by that time. 

We really want to thank William for a fantastic trip due to all his efforts and a bit of luck with the weather.  It was also luck that we had William for a guide since he doesn't do as many tours at the other guides. For our last piece of luck that would be spending 2 weeks in crowds, buses, trains and planes and NOBODY GOT COVID! (yet).  William nags about masks a lot and the nagging paid off.

Bye until next time.

Christoforo and Dancin' Shoes

 13-May-2022

Checked in to the final hotel in Sevilla on our tour today.  This place has a musical theme so it's named 'Amedeus' of course.  There are musical instruments on display throughout the public rooms.

There are even loaners if you forgot to bring your harp.

The Barber was closed today so we took a tour of the church with the Macarena aka Weeping Virgin statue.  Nice church and they had a museum with a lot of chochky from the big parade every year.

The Weeping Virgin's ride for the parade

She didn't start weeping until I told her what we paid for the trip.

After a bit more of orientation around Sevilla we headed for the next stop, the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world. It was very large indeed.  I would hate to heat this place. Here is a shot of one of the giant organs.

This place is also famous for being the site of Christopher Columbus' grave.  Here's old Chris in the box.

We wound up the evening with a Flamenco show.

It was an energetic show with castanets and lots of banging on the wood floor.  Lets just say that these folks don't bother paying for a health club membership.

 

Horses, horses and more horses

 12-May-2022

Today was horse day.  We started with a visit to Yeguada la Cartuja which is the modern version of a horse breeding farm originally established by Carthusian monks in the 15th century.  The monks bred fighting horses for the king and they were pretty good at it.  And you thought they only made brandy.

The folks at the horse farm breed a modern version of the Spanish horse that  was spread around the Western hemisphere after Columbus.  Nowadays they are bred for show horses doing dressage and cart work. 

Unlike the bull farm, these guys use artificial insemination and surrogate mothers to speed up the production of colts and get a better handle on lineage.

These colts are newborn and are just learning to walk.  They are kept in a pen with the brood mares. The colt in the pic is only a few days old.

This farm sells Carthusian horses  to  private buyers so we saw a German grandma and grandpa looking at samples with their horse loving granddaughter. The horse they select will be flown home on Lufthansa, horse class.

To continue the horse theme we took a bus ride to the Jarez horse fair (may be in Spanish, look at the pictures).  This is an event where everyone gets all dressed up and the folks with horses bring them out and parade around. 

That dude on the left really does have a blonde on the back end of his horse.

Most of the ladies dressed up like  this.

It is a huge party and we were only there for an hour or so.  It will really rock when the sun goes down.  We even saw the President of Andalusia who is a crook according to Santiago our bus driver.

There was sherry all around because this is sherry country and TioPepe sherry is a big sponsor of the fair.

Very few gringo tourists around, easy to spot because they were the only ones wearing shorts.
Here's a picture of one.

A fine, horsey day.

Bulls and Olive Oil

 11-May-2022

Today was a big day.  We learned where two of the most important items of Spanish culture originate; fighting bulls and olive oil.

First the bulls.

He's no Ferd'nand.
Needless to say we didn't get out of the bus.

Usually on  these tours we see the story of something that you knew about already.  Wine comes from grapes etc.  But the bull story is a new one.

Our bull farm belongs to a bullfighter named Rafael Tajeda. Raf knew that he would be out of the bullfighting game eventually so he started a farm to raise fighting bulls. There is a small ring where they study potential breeding sources but the trick is, they  only  test the COWS!
If you put a bull in a ring once, he knows the routine and is too dangerous to put in a ring again.  

When a bull goes into a bullfight, that's the first time he has ever seen a bull ring.
To determine breeding decisions, they put the cows in a ring and see which ones have the desirable traits to produce good bulls.

Rafael stopped by to show us his scars and answer questions. Bulls are usually killed at the end of the fight but Rafael says  that sometimes the bull does  such an impressive display that the crowd demands his life is spared.  If this happens, the bull gets to retire to the farm and crank out little bulls. This happens the old fashioned way, no artificial insemination like the horses.

We'll hear about them tomorrow.

We even got to see the Toreador training room where Barney and Bernice tried out the bull simulator.  Barney says he would have let her live.  Bernice says she would have gored him.

 

Next stop was a place called Oleum Viride,  a family owned organic farm and olive mill.

Louis took us around and explained in great detail how the process works. I always thought olives are pressed to produce oil.  Nope.  The oil is extracted in a multi step process with centrifuges that spin the mush from crushed olives to get the oil.  This must be done in less than 4 hours or the olives  go bad.  Once extracted the oil is stored in tanks with nitrogen to keep out the air.  After packaging the oil must be protected from light and air to keep the taste.

The bottom line is that you are consuming crappy  olive oil.

Louis and his family spent a lot of time during the Covid lockdown developing various flavored olive oil blends  The Model bought a lot of it.

After the tour the family provided a picnic where we had a lovely meal and tried out Louis' wine and Vermouth.  Spanish Vermouth isn't like the stuff we use to make martinis, it's made with red wine and flavored with spices. 
I didn't like it.