We are travelling this
Friday morning 15 November by train to Granada at the food of the Sierra Madre Mountains with stops in just
about every village on the way from Sevilla. Stops in San Bernardo,
Dos Hermanas, Marchena, Osuna, Santa Ana, Antequera, Pedrera, San Francisco de
Loja, Granada (our stop) and continuing to Almeria. This is a
regional train and is described as public transport connecting
various towns and allowing people to travel cheaply without a car to
various points in Andalusia. The train is modern, clean and fast
travelling at 150 Km per hour, Europeans do trains well and
efficiently, it is also supported by the government to ensure service
to all. A lesson our governments seem to have forgotten all together
in Canada so busy we are with empty slogans and budget cuts.
Observing that passengers on the train
are wearing winter coats, the temperature outside is 20 C with bright
sunshine. An Andalusian told me that this is winter weather, summer
is 40 C which is far more pleasant, so I am told, mind you there is
always a breeze off from the Atlantic and many shaded groves and
plazas. Talking of groves, the City of Seville has orange trees
lining every street, Sevillian Oranges, they are good for making jam
but not juice. I can well imagine anyone in the city so incline can
get a good supply free, just pick any off a tree on any street. The
jam or mermelada is delicous, sweet without bitterness.
When
we visited the Palace of the Alcazar yesterday, we spent one hour
walking in the magnificent gardens, you could easily spend a day. We
came upon a little Pavillion built for the wedding of Emperor Charles
V and his wife Isabella of Portugal in 1526. This pavillion is
surrounded by orange trees, what is amazing is that the gardeners of
the Palace have been tending to them for the last 600 years. What the
gardeners have done is to graft new growth on the old roots, thus the
trees never die.
Beautiful wedding Pavilion built for Charles V and his wife Isabella so they could sit in the garden.
The Alcazar is still a Royal Residence
and is the Official Residence of the King of Spain in Seville. An
army of gardeners look after the various exotic trees and flower
beds, I wish I knew more about botany because I could not identify
the many exotic trees and flowers. The gardens also have a complex
system of irrigation installed by the Moorish rulers in the XIIth
century where small fountains irrigate the garden via a maze of small
brick channels built right into the pathways. The fountains are in
turn fed from the Roman Aqueduct which empties into a large pool in
the garden where a statue of Mercury stands. There was a wonderful
perfume of Jasmine and Orange throughout.
Water flows down these little irrigation channels throughout the gardens.
Water from the Roman Aqueduct falls into a big pool
partial view of the garden of the Alcazar.
Made a discovery today, ham in Spain is
a serious matter, in restaurants, in grocery stores, etc, they offer
York or Jamon Iberico. It turns out that if you order York you will
get cooked ham which is very familiar to us. However
most Spaniards prefer Jamon Iberico
which is cured for up to 36 months a delicacy. You will find Jamon on
most menu, however on breakfast menu you will see York con huevos
(eggs).
In Italy, Espresso is a coffee, in
Spain, café con leche is more common, it is creamy and sweet.
We have had our fill of tapas and wine
in the last few days. I have discovered that I may have a good
knowledge of Italian wines but know nothing of Spanish wines, there
is a great variety of reds (tinto), white (blanco) and rosé (rosé).
Then you have the sweet wines and the semi-sweet and the bubbly. A
glass of wine is usually about 2 Euros, served in a big glass. I
would love to discover more about Spanish wines and maybe do a
tasting, like we use to do in Italy. In bars if you ask the waiter he
may simply bring you a Riojas because it is the most commonly known
red wine. It is worth asking for a more complex wine you may pay 3
Euros for your glass but it is worth it. The Riserva usually sells
for 3 to 5 Euros a glass depending on the quality of the wine and or
the vintage year.
Our train is now travelling through
olive groves, on either side thousands upon thousands of olive trees,
as far as you can see. The roads and bridges are modern and the
infrastructures is in good condition. It is not the Spain of old you
see in films or that of Don Quichote.
Yesterday at lunch we saw something
quite unusual, we were having some lunch in a small pedestrian street
lined with restaurants. It is common to see gypsies coming up and
down the street and begging for money or playing instruments, singing
or dancing to entertain the crowds. You also have to be aware of the
pick pockets, though not as numerous, given the police presence
keeping an eye on them.
So after we got the old woman in a new
looking wheelchair with bandaged foot pushed by her husband begging
for money for her babies at home, looking too old to have any
children at home. She had a miraculous recovery at the end of the
street and walked away. Then we had the poor mute beggar sporting
brand new and expensive sport shoes. Then the guitar player who had a
nice voice. We also had a young women in traditional gypsie robes who
dropped all her money in the middle of the street, there was quite a
lot of it, a bit like a slot machine at the Casino and it appeared to
come from somewhere under her voluminous robes.
Finally we get a trio of 2 drummers and
one singer. The singer was a skinny young man probably 19 years old
very bad teeth, blond highlights in his hair and raucous voice trying
to sing an Andalusian tune. He had a certain defiant look about him.
The waiter asked him, given his voice, if he would not mind moving to
the end of the street for the sake of his art. Our singer had a look
of incomprehension but said nothing, he moved along only to start
singing again while his compere banged on their drums. At the end of
the song he came along to collect a few pesetas, some people gave him
a few coins, suddenly he disappears. The two companions waiting at
the end of the street are none the wiser and after a few minutes, are
starting to look around realizing that their leading singer has
disappeared with their share of the proceeds. Is there no honor
amongst thieves anymore?
In November our cruise on Azamara Quest from Rome to Seville, 23 days of pleasure in many lovely ports.
