My emails from Spain (better late than never)

Hi All
I have arrived safely and I am enjoying my time in Cordoba. I had quite a trip to get here but it was worth it. I am staying in a cute little boutique hotel right in the center of the Juderia or Jewish district. My room is crooked and tiny and blue. There is an old wooden door that looks like it´s about 500 years old. They keep the AC on all the time so I had to use extra blankets but I love it. I wandered around a bit last night and then tried to get to bed at a reasonable time. It was about 10:30. I had a bit of trouble sleeping but finally dropped off only to wake up at 1:00 PM the next day to a phone call. Alison called assuming that I had been up and about for several hours. I was horrified. My plans for the day were shot.

Actually, it was a good thing. I have spent the day wandering around and getting my bearings. I visited the old synagogue, from the 1300´s and I drank some fresh orange juice. I am going to write some postcards tonight and have a late and light dinner. I can´t seem to eat much now after not eating hardly anything for 4 days (2 days of the flu and 2 days in transit).

Tomorrow I will visit some more sights and then meet Alison at our new hotel, which is a bit more luxurious. That´s good because I really want to taka a bath and this hotel only has showers. I would imagine in a building as old as it is, I´m lucky that it has indoor bathrooms!

Well, I should get out and enjoy the evening. That´s when all the tour groups leave and the souvenir shops close and it´s much quieter.
Love to all,
Erin

Hi All
We finally arrived at the Parador after a rather round-about trip to Sevilla and then 18 km back to Carmona then a hike up a hill. But it is lovely here. The view is marvelous, so much open space and the beautiful pool at the bottom of the hill. The building is quite spectacular, an old alcazar from a long time ago, not sure when.

Yesterday we spent wandering around the Jewish district and we visited the Mexauita or mosque. It was quite impressive. It had been a church but when the moors came they converted it to a mosque. Then when the moors were ousted, it was converted back to a church. It does look rather odd to walk in to what was obviously an islamic structure and to find altars and chapels all over the place. There was a beautiful ¨treasure¨there, made of silver, gold-plated silver and gold. It was about 5 feet tall shaped like successive crowns with a figure of St Theresa in the center. They also had the working from the tower clock from 1747. The tilework was quite impressive and the multitudes of columns throughout were kind of dizzying. One area was made up of all frescoes all over the walls and pillars and arches. They were really beautiful, especially with the afternoon light slanting in the windows. That was pretty much all we did that day but it was enough.

The funniest thing happened when we left the last hotel, the Hotel Bailio in Cordoba. When I arrived, a bit before Alison, I told them about her reservation and they showed me to the room. They said that we had been upgraded and I didn´t complain. When I was shown the room, it was amazing. It was huge with beautiful 16th and 17th sentury style frescoes on the walls. It was all a bit garish but amazing nonetheless. The bathroom was all done in black marble and it was so comfortable. I was quite impressed, especially considering the price we were paying. When we went to check out, we were give the price and it was NOT what we had been quoted. We showed her our reservation and she looked into it. In the end, she honored our reservation price even though we had received a TRIPLE upgrade. We paid for a standard room but were given a SUITE!!! Their rooms go in the following order, standard, delux, jr. suite, suite and 3rd floor. Apparently, someone at central reservations upgraded us twice and then the hotel upgraded us when we arrived. Can you imagine? We have no idea how it happened.

Anyway, we went down into Carmona today, walked across town and visited the necropolis, the place where the Romans buried the dead. It was just for the rich and well-known citizens from the 1st and 2nd centuries. There were lots of holes in the ground and doorways and niches where they put the funerary boxes full of ashes. It was quite extensive and although there wasn´t much to look at it was strange to think of people being there in that place with the dead buried underground. It is on the outskirts of town with a view out over the valley. Across the street there is an amphitheater. We didn´t get to see it but it´s not in very good condition.

We also went up in the tower of the city gates and got to see the view of the city. It´s not big but it sure does have a lot of churches and passing one of those churches on teh way back to the Parador, we saw a wedding. The women were really dressed to the nines, not quite in a style that we would consider tasteful,. but it was interesting anyway.

Tomorrow we are off to Sevilla. I´ll write more from there.
Love to all,
Erin

A bit about Sevilla:
We stayed at the most wonderful hotel in Sevilla. It was an old building with 2 courtyards and fountains. There was the bright yellow and blue tile throughout. Our room was another suite. It was lovely and well stocked with free goodies.

We had a ball in Sevilla. We visited the Alcazar which I thought was the best I had seen next to the Alhambra in Granada. The cathedral was the 3rd largest Gothic cathedral in the world after St Peter's and St Paul's. It was kind of bizarre because it was built around the original mosque so it had a lot of pillars and such and there were many altars all over the place but it was fascinating.

We ate a lot of tapas in Sevilla and there were gazillions of good places to eat. We enjoyed the food here so much. But the best part of Sevilla was going to see the Flamenco shows. We went to one early on our last night there and it was for tourists. It was OK but not really satisfying. So we went to a free show later on. It didn't start til 10 and it was jammed but it was really really good, not just for the dancing but especially for the singing, which was remarkable.

Alison left the next day and then I took off for Madrid.


Well, I had a nice few days in Madrid. I got my chocolate con churros and it was delicious. I had it at the most well known chocolate con churros cafe in Madrid. I also went to the oldest restaurant in the world, the Restaurante Gijon. It used to be frequented by Hemingway and even though I was alone it was a wonderful dinner. I drank so much sangria that I staggered back to my hotel.

The next day I went to the Thyssen museum and it took me all day. I didn't even see the whole collection but what I did see what amazing. I am glad that I got to see some art because I was really disappointed to miss the Museo de Bellas Artes in Sevilla. Who ever heard of a museum opening at 2:30 in the afternoon?

The morning that I left the hotel, I saw a real live prostitute. She walked out of a room at 4:45 and was not dressed in business attire. She had on some major stiletto heals. Then she didn't know where the elevator was. I showed her and she walked out of it ahead of me on the ground floor and tried to steal my taxi. The guy at the front desk was pretty rude to her and told her she could go outside and get her own taxi. I bet it really bugs them to have hookers hanging around especially when there are paying guests standing right there.

I sure was glad to get home and I was tired of the airplane. That's going to keep me closer to home in the future. It's just really tough on the body to be in transit for almost 24 hours.

Please forgive any oddities in this posting. I cut and pasted the info from a variety of emails that I sent home while on my trip. But it gives you and idea of what I was up to.

My next posting will be about what I have done since I got home.

Take care and thanks for the thoughts and support.