We didn’t even try to start as early today since it’s a Saturday and we were out pretty late for us last night. We managed to get breakfast around 10 am and there was no “just coffee and toast” for the Cannon clan today – we were hungry and wanted a real breakfast! Naturally, it came with fries (patatas fritas) regardless of what you ordered so I opted for the fried eggs and bacon. Now I know that I have mentioned the acres of olive trees and the ubiquitous fruit they bear which appear on the table at nearly every meal; in addition, I got confirmation this morning the the oil is also generously employed in local cooking. How do I know? My eggs were slightly green from the olive oil they were fried in! Small puddles of it gathered in the wrinkles of the whites giving it a bit of a green ting. So if you consider that my bacon was more like back bacon than American streaky bacon, I can now say I’ve had green eggs and ham. The Dr. Suess lover in me is pleased. (Not sure that my doctor would be though. I know that olive oil is supposed to be a “healthy fat” but I’m not sure that it still applies when consumed in such quantities!)
Thus fueled, we were off to conquer the city before the heat conquered us (forecast was for triple digits temperatures again today!) and so we wandered the around the shopping district admiring the local color (and dress sense – we are obviously tourists without even speaking!). We also have been noticing the number placement of churches around the city. The tourist guide lists 16 in the old city and we’ve wandered past or into many of them. Some of them have unassuming doorways between two tiendas o cervercerias but those gates open into lovely courtyards in front of parish churches that are both ancient and beautiful! I have to say, the gilt and lavishness of the decoration in even the local churches makes the protestations of the Reformation completely understandable!
But nothing in this town tops the Mezquita – the mosque turned cathedral. We wandered in at the stroke of noon to be completely amazed at the moorish architecture (900 columns connected by red and white striped arches) dating from the mosques building in the 8th century. The beauty and color of the Muslim decor has been completely overtaken by the decorations of the Christian faith that claimed the building for their own in the 13th century. It is now the seat of the diocese and there has been mass said there every day without exception since 1236. In fact, there was a wedding going on in one of the chapels while we were there! Not that it was much of a big deal to use one of the chapel – we counted 56 of them! And that didn’t include the main altar and choir space right in the middle of the building. Truly impressive!
But we couldn’t leave out the other major world religion represented here – most of the interesting buildings and restaurants/shops are in the Jewish quarter where we found one of the only 3 synagogues still in Spain. Interestingly enough, we walked past at least of the other two as they are both in Toledo! Had we but known, we would have made more of an effort to visit.
The rest of the increasingly hot daylight hours were taken up with propping up the local economy by buying locally made goods and enjoying the sangria and tapas combination that is easily found everywhere here. But by 4 pm, the heat was too much so it was back to the hotel for an air conditioned siesta before wandering out again around 8 pm for a light meal and a flamenco show!
We actually found a restaurant with GF dishes marked and it just happened to be the #3 restaurant listed on Trip Advisor so off we went for an early meal (9:15). Normally, I complain about always having to eat salads but tonight it was just the ticket with a lovely fruit salad and decaf coffee (first time we’ve seen it in Spain) to round out the evening. Then to the flamenco show. I have no idea if this was a tourist trap or the real deal but in someways it didn’t matter because we thoroughly enjoyed it. “The boys” got in on one ticket (yes, even in Spain people mistake Gillian for a boy although Duncan thinks it was a literal translation of “los chicos” which is used to mean “the children” as well.) I didn’t care why, I was just happy that we got a two-for-one deal for them. The guitar playing was wonderful and the vocals interesting. Frank and I noticed the Muslim influence (several passages sounded like they should be calls to prayer for Mecca) but Gillian thought they sounded kind of whiny. Regardless, they worked with the dancing which was fabulous! It’s certainly not just the Spanish version of tap dancing and the costumes were incredible. (Not to mention that the male dancer looked remarkably like John Turturro in “Mr. Deeds”)
But now we’re up way past our bedtime….
Three things we noticed today:
- There are no clocks anywhere. Not in our hotel rooms, not in the shops, not in the restaurants, not in any of the cities we’ve visited. It’s like Las Vegas that way….
- Not all sangrias are created equal. I’m almost embarrassed to admit how many places we’ve taken a break with a glass of sangria but it’s enough to know that there are as many house recipes as there are houses but they all seem to be yummy. Even the one we had at lunch today that obviously contained Sprite and fruit cocktail…
- Flamenco dancers can walk on their ankles. It made my legs hurt to watch them flex their feet to the point that their ankles touched the stage.
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