Spain 2017

(Photos coming soon!)

Having enjoyed our week in Madrid the prior year so much, we headed back and added Seville.  General tip:  though we booked our train tickets a couple of months in advance (easily done online), they were very expensive (almost $100 per person each way on the high speed Ave.  We did go 1st class, which didn’t cost much more and included lounge access and a small meal, so we would do that again).

18-Nov-2017

First stop, the Palacio Real, which we had missed last year because it had been closed due to an official state visit.  Our favorite i the outrageous dressing room.   About a 10 minute walk afterwards we find a tiny farm market selling very good goat and sheep cheese for cheap.  Mimma purchases some goat and some sheep cheese.  After a terrible experience last year with the [in]famous and terrible Chocolatería San Ginés, we try Chocolatería 1902.  Hot chocolate is not very good, but thick.  It tastes watered down with a slight fake taste.  The churros are thin, hot and crispy at least, but not great and we wait forever for them:  sad.

Metro tickets are another mystery.  Beginning Nov 1^st they installed plastic ticket machines.  No single tix anymore.  And there are 2 train lines, so you have to purchase the correct ticket for the correct line.  This is a problem because some of the machines are out of order and others won’t take our credit card.  In typical Spanish fashion, no one knows what is going on and no one can explain the ticket system.

19-Nov-2017

We drive with our friends to the royal summer home over the mountains, the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. The gardens and fountains are spectacular and must really be a sight when they are all running and full of water.

In town we visit the Royal Glass Factory.  The place is huge and still in operation, but the exhibits are a mix of historical and modern.

Lunch is in a country town where the specialty is lamb and suckling pig dishes.   Appetizeres are blood sausage, which the younger boy orders.  It arrives in a dish resting on a pool of mayonnaise and that red Bravas potato sauce.  Our friend Jacque loves the huge white bean soup in tomato base with pork bits in it (good., a bit smoky flavor).  The croquettes are great, creamy inside, light crunch outside.  Everything is delicious

20-Nov-2017

To the train station and relax in the 1^st class lounge.  Train is smooth and comfortable, and we enjoy a small lunch (included in 1^st class ticket).  Taxi into the center of Seville is 8 euros to hotel office.  We check into our tiny, but comfortable and well designed mini suite at Puerto Catedral Apartments.  It really is on the doorstep of the Cathedral.

We spend the day walking around, eating jamon and persimmons and gelato. We walk across the river and find a place to have broiled octopus over sliced potatoes, lots of olive oil, topped with paprika.  Soooo good.  I soaked up the hot oil with bread.  Large glass of vermouth with ice.  We also ordered heated goat cheese topped with honey.

Gelato from the recommended Bolas Helados, which is outstanding.  The fig flavor and especially the quince (membrillo) with cheese is so good that we come back 2 more times during the week.

21-Nov-2017

We take a full day bus tour to the White Villages tour in a mini van with the company Naturanda.    As luck would have it, the only two other people on our tour are Italians, and our guide speaks Italian, so we spare him (and ourselves) from having to do the tour in English.

We stop at the Castle of “Las Aguzaderas”, an interesting medieval building located at the old border line among Catholic kingdom and Moorish kingdom, and then our first white village of Zahara de la Sierra, where we walk around the mountaintop cemetery.  On the way to Grazalema we will drive through the Natural Park Sierra de Grazalema, where we see some birds of prey.

In Grazalema we have a delicious lunch and then visit an olive oil factory before heading to Ronda, where we have plenty of time to walk around.  We stop at McDonalds for a bathroom and for a Torrone McFlurry and, as predicted, the machine is broken, as it usually is anywhere in the world where we stop to try their local McFlurry version (Shanghai, London, etc.)

We get back in time for dinner and a walk around the city.  I’m glad we decided to wait for evening to ascend the largest woven structure in the world, the Metropol Parasol. Basically a tall structure made of wood that looks like 3 mushrooms together.  We walk along the top and see the skyline.  In the basement is the Antiquity museum, which houses old roman ruins. We get a coupon for free drinks, which is soda and cheap beer, but watching the Merseyside yobs in town for the Liverpool /Seville football match is fun.

22-Nov-2017

The Real Alcazar is impressive and since they filmed the Water Gardens of Dorne here for Game of Thrones, it’s even more fun.

We are switching to a splurge, larger apartment and stop first for lunch at a small places where we try the local, orange wine.   Chick peas is mixed with spinach and cumin as our first tapa, which I promptly drop some on my shirt and stain it.  Then is cod stew in a tomato and green pepper, a little too sweet. Then the cold pork belly, which is like thick pieces of cold bacon, with lots of salt.

The Cathedral is massive, and the alleged burial place of Columbus.  We leave through the Orange Courtyard, so named because of all the orange trees.  BTW, the oranges here are plentiful, but they are sour.  The smell is more important than the taste.

We have our Thanksgiving dinner in the fancy Restaurante Baco (Cuna 2).  Wow, was it good.  This place is decorated with gorgeous tiles, but surprisingly it is not that expensive.  First appetizer was a large grilled calamari that was just amazing, sitting on a bed of sauteed onions, with side of great veggies, 2 slices of potatoes with the most delish cheese and topped with salty squid ink sauce.  Next was thick slice of sauteed cod prepared and stewed pork cheeks.  Everything good, including the dessert of vanilla ice cream topped with candied figs.

23-Nov-2017

Seville Fine Arts Museum and then for lunch at Mercado di Triana.  Our stall is called Pescadaria Loli, which had come highly recommended and was good but not memorable.   We got ripped off big time at a fruit stand but just too weary to deal with it.

After our siesta we stop at the Museo Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija .  She was a countess who collected antiquities, mosaics and whatnot.

We have dinner in a slightly overpriced but good Italian restaurant, and all the waiters are Italian so it’s nice to get a break from speaking Spanish.  We are not allowed tap water, even though the waiters were drinking it, so it’s almost like being in Italy.  Bread came out, hot, squid ink bread, other bread, awesome.  The suckling pig leg that was roasted for 10 hours and drizzled with honey is great, as is the bacalla in thick coconut milk.

24-Nov-2017

In the morning we clean up, pack up, run down the street to throw away our garbage (first time ever where we have to clean and throw away our own garbage in a municipal bin, and for the price we paid for the apartment we’re not too happy about it)  Drop bags off at front desk, off for a walk.  We walk to Seville University, which used to be a tobacco factory.  Really cool campus, looks like a villa with many rooms and center courtyards.  One thing we view is the Gypsum collection which is a very cool collection of plaster casts of antiquity statues.

Our attempt to get some churros and chocolate is thwarted by cold chocolate and old churros.  The recommended TripAdvisor place had cold chocolate served in a styrofoam cup that even the local was not happy with.  The churros looked like last night since the place just opened up. And the price was a hefty 5 euros, more than normal.  So we moved onto tapas at a local pub near our hotel.  Baccala croquets with some creamy pink sauce, pork loin in a sauce of vermouth with raisins and some wrapped boiled ham and mushrooms that was deep fried served with patatas bravas.

Back to the train station, where we relax as much as we can in the lounge drinking Fanta and espresso and crisps.  People are talking on the phone next to the QUIET ZONE/ NO PHONE sign.

Back in Madrid we check into the gorgeous Westin Palace Hotel.  The Prado is free from 7-9, but the  long line moves quickly.  We really enjoy the sculptures in the basement.  A dinner not worth writing about.

A fun discovery in the hotel is that there is a setting on the TV that switches to the language on some channels to English by pressing a button. Our bed is super soft and comfortable, and we sleep soundly.

25-Nov-2017

A splurge for the wonderful buffet breakfast under the huge stained glass dome.  It is hopping, and we get as much food as we can.  We ask for hot chocolate for our churros, and add choco dots from the buffet to make the chocolate thicker (we are geniuses).  Yummy yum yum.  Ton of fruit and other choices.

We spend the day puttering around, food shopping, and eventually to an early dinner at the  Mercado San Miguel for vermouth and octopus.    And finally a McDonalds for Torrone McFlurry with fries (and great teenage people watching).

26-Nov-2017

Another delicious buffet breakfast and then home.