Colin arrived in Madrid on December 15th, several hours before I returned from Switzerland. We spent a couple days there seeing the sites before returning to Úbeda.
Our first stop in Madrid was the Reina Sofía museum of art. We checked out an impressive collection of Dalí and Picasso, and breezed past several of the less interesting, at times flat out ridiculous “modern” art.
Colin posing dramatically with the sculpture outside the museum.
I had never heard of this tradition, but apparently it is popular to have one’s picture taken underneath this horse statue because of the fact that the horse’s... ahem... anatomy is visible. Thanks to the shadowing there’s not much to ogle here.
These two kids went into the museum behind them and looked at the two kids hanging on the outside of the building. It was free!
One of the most spectacular things we saw in Madrid, also free, was this street chamber orchestra. They played several fantastic classical pieces by Pachelbel, Mozart, and Colin’s favorite: Vivaldi.
Somehow this fellow stood frozen in what looks like a very difficult pose, looking as if he was being blown by a very hard wind.
Colin modeling his new “Clockwork Orange” t-shirt in the basement of a churrería (the place you go to eat churros.)
Me doing the same, except I’m wearing “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. We are so hip in a film geek kind of way.
We headed back to Úbeda, where we did a LOT of walking. When we weren’t walking, we were eating bocadillos (sandwiches), cooking spaghetti and eating it while watching family guy, and playing a ton of rummy.
A shanty town on the way out of Madrid. As a very wise man once put it, “So much for socialism.”
Here’s what happened on a couple of particularly pedestrian afternoons - “pedestrian” in the sense that we spent it on foot, that is, not in the sense that it was dull in any way.
The mega famous Capilla del Salvador in the main touristy plaza in Úbeda. It’s the mausoleum of Francisco de los Cobos (King Carlos V’s right-hand man once upon a time) and his wife. The outside is breathtakingly intricate and the inside is even more so, but they have people watching you to make sure you don’t take pictures.
A close-up of the arch over the main entrance. If you look closely you can see Venus, Saturn, Neptune and friends, all characters in Roman mythology, blatantly carved into the entry of a Catholic church. It just goes to show that if you have enough money you can escape the Spanish Inquisition!
A very skinny street behind the big touristy plaza in Úbeda.
I am NOT a hippie!
“What are you doing up there?”
“Standing next to this lamppost in front of the old Synagogue, duh!” Just kidding, Colin would never exclaim “Duh!”
The street running along the southernmost edge of Úbeda. On the right you can see part of the wall built by the Arabs over 1000 years ago.
There are lot’s of orange trees all over Andalucía. Someone (not us, I swear) thought it would be funny to throw oranges into the window of this abandoned monastery. As you can see, they stuck in the bars.
I was thinking about following the example, but then I remembered from experience that just when you think you’re about to get away with something, old ladies come out of nowhere and yell at you in Spanish.
Rather than getting up to no good, we decided to go bowling at the shopping center on the other side of town. We were the only people in the joint and probably the oldest people who ever go there.
We both did surprisingly well for not having bowled for quite some time. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that the pins were on strings and everything seemed to be made for kids. Colin won, as usual.
Christmas wishes from someone in Úbeda. I’m not sure what that blur is that’s attacking Colin’s face. Maybe it’s the spirit of Christmas trying to protect his identity in such a blasphemous photo because it knew that he really liked Christmas. Or maybe it was just one of my hairs, which often interfere with photography.
Another view of the southern edge of Úbeda and the wall that was intended to prevent conquest. So much for that.
On a sunny day like this, and with such a beautiful view, who wouldn’t be in a state of complete bliss?
Saucy graffiti!
Arrrrrrrrrgh!
Aaaaaah! No, just kidding. I was just yawning at that statue over the door of one of the many churches in Úbeda whose name I don’t remember.
Well, I guess if you don’t have a chimney Santa has to break in somehow. There seemed to be one of these dudes scaling every balcony in town.
On the left is one of the many big old palaces in the city. It’s closed for renovation.
Finally! A kitty who lets me pet him.
Now for some indoor fun!
Colin took this picture because he no doubt admired this one of many “dryers” in our apartment.
The curtain in my bedroom is orange, so when the sun comes up and shines directly through it, everything turns really red.
Rummy time! Colin won pretty much every hand, of course.
Once we saw all there was to see in Úbeda, we headed to Granada for a couple days for some more shenanigans.
A pizzería in Granada where I had the best bocadillo ever! The lighting was excellent for photography.
It’s not at all unusual that I have coffee on the brain, literally.
The Río Darro along Paseo de los Tristes, the road that runs below the Alhambra. (If you can’t remember what the Alhambra was, you can check it out two blogs back.)
A family of cats hanging out on the bank of the Río Darro.
Well, that’s one way of doing it.
An exterior view of the Alhambra from Paseo de los Tristes. The building in front of it with the palm trees is an abandoned mansion.
I’m sure now that Colin has quit smoking he feels like this a lot more often. Notice the dog drinking out of the fountain behind him.
Graffiti!
More graffiti!
And even more! While we were standing there appreciating this fine urban art, a sketchy looking dude came up to Colin and said something along the lines of, “¡Chico! ¿Quiéres marijuana?” Colin politely declined. That was the third person within five minutes to offer him weed.
Christmas lights in an abandoned plaza that we had to pass through on the way to the falafel stand.
The next morning we were off to the Alhambra, where we would get up to more nonsense than ever before.
Just to give you an idea of how mega this place is, I’m going to show you a miniature version of it. Does that make any sense?
A tiny door in the plaza outside the entry gate. I suppose back in the day the average person would have fit through this since they would only have been about 5 feet tall.
View from a tower in the Alcazaba, the military section of the Alhambra.
The labyrinth is actually what’s left of the military living quarters.
He appears to be having thoughts as intricate as the wall design.
One of the domes off the Patio de Arrayens.
I think this is also off Patio de Arrayens.
A close up of the wall carvings and the ceramic work on the lower half of the wall.
The upper windows and ceiling in the Sala de los Mozárabes.
More tiling. If you stare too long you’ll get dizzy... partly because the photo is blurry.
This is the roof of the “Room of Secrets” which was basically the spa area for the palace. The glass is covering the little star-shaped windows that illuminate the area. There one could bathe, sit in the sauna, get a massage, etc. (Well, I think only the sultan was entitled to any etc., if you catch my drift.)
For some reason they stuck this weird animal on one of the windows, so if you’re at the right angle he looks like he’s terrorizing the Albaycín.
One of the many docile cats who is lucky enough to live in the gardens of the Alhambra.
Cool sparkles, shadows and reflections on the Palacio del Partal from it’s adjacent pool.
Colin tried to say this was a crappy photo, but I think it’s genius. You can see way more of the Jardín de Partal than if I had taken it just vertically or horizontally.
Communicating with the animals, as usual.
And if you know me, you know I can’t resist a kitty.
A fountain in the gardens leading up to the Generalife.
Kitten attack! After watching this little guy beat up on another cat twice his size, I decided to try playing with him. He was more interested in murdering my scarf.
The loooooong fountain pool in the Generalife, pronounced Heh-neh-rah-LEE-fay.
Doing a Kate-style impression of the fountains (See Kate’s impression of the fountain on Lake Geneva in the last blog.)
Once again...
We admired several trees, but I think Colin fell in love with this one.
As with just about everywhere else in the Alhambra, there was water running down in the little troughs along the stairs. We couldn’t resist putting leaves in the water to see if they’d float all the way down but they just kept getting stuck.
Hiding from the sun. We did a whole lot of screwing around at the Alhambra and I’m sure a lot of people stared at us while we filmed a couple chase scenes in the Room of Secrets and one of the gardens, as well as an action-packed one-man fight scene on the path leading out of the citadel.
An interesting shrubbery labyrinth from above, precisely where we filmed one of our chase scenes.
Paying homage to one of Patsy’s modeling flashbacks on the britcom Absolutely Fabulous. “Say Thursday,” said the photographer. “Thursday,” replied Patsy, achieving that classic pouty-lipped expression.
After the Alhambra we rested for a while and then ventured out to find some flamenco. Luckily, we happened upon a poster advertising a show that was going to start 30 minutes later at a little bar nearby.
None of these kids could have been more than 20 years-old, which made us skeptical at first, but they turned out to be quite good. Everyone in the bar seemed very cool, including the bartender, who threw two people out that must not have been so cool.
¡Olé!
After the show we wandered around outside the cathedral nearby. We resolved to check it out the next day.
The cathedral by day.
A close-up of the impressive stonework all over the building.
When we ventured inside we found that this building was actually the mausoleum where Isabel and Ferdinand are sepulchered.
And there they are, along with some other people, possibly their successors, but I don’t remember.
The main altar in this mausoleum was very impressive, although not as impressive as the one in Úbeda, which is weird because there is actual royalty buried here.
The posture one must take when viewing any church in Spain.
This unfortunate fellow (sorry, I don’t know the Bible well enough to tell you who he is) had his head cut off and the statue’s maker graciously gave us a full view of the bloody neck stump that was left over.
An impressive part of the gigantic sculptured monument that bore the likenesses of the royal dead guys beneath them.
Colin being stabbed in the back by the self-proclaimed free bird outside the cathedral.
Someone was having a good time on the church grounds, or tried to make it look like they did. Liquor and oranges, mmmm!
This statue near the mausoleum had disturbingly long arms and alien-like hands. Either the sculptor was on drugs or the subject had Marfan’s syndrome.
The cathedral from afar.
A typical street in Granada lined with shops selling arab-style arts and crafts, along with your typical Spanish junk like bull t-shirts, flamenco dress cooking aprons, and postcards. Most of these shops are run by Moroccan and Algerian immigrants.
That was it for Granada. We headed back to Úbeda for some more indoor fun and for the most part stayed out of the way of the Christmas madness.
On the way back to Úbeda we encountered the only bit of snow the area will probably see all winter. It’s now averaging about 50 degrees in the day time.
Fog resting on the hillside.
We passed part of our time in Úbeda watching movies at my school, until I shocked the DVD player and it wouldn’t work anymore, that is. We had to move our operation out of the theatre and into a classroom where Colin decided to make art on the chalkboard.
Colin’s chalkboard mural.
When I asked Colin if I could have one of his doughnuts, he said, “No, they’re mine.” I thought he was just being a jerk and planned on taking one eventually anyway. A few moments later he said, “No really, they’re mine. See?” He had taken a bite out of every single doughnut.
On December 27th we headed up to Madrid to greet Kate, who was returning from Switzerland that day, celebrate my birthday, and see Colin off at the airport the next day.
We had dinner at one of the coolest Mexican restaurants I have ever been to. Here Kate is reacting to a particularly hot salsa while Colin reacts to her expression.
The restaurant consisted of various little cavernous rooms decorated with Mexican art, religious figures, and pictures of revolutionaries.
One of my favorite things about the place was the fact that it said, “Orale Guey!” on the menu. If you aren’t well versed in Mexican colloquialisms, this would roughly translate to, “Alright, dude!” and is a very common expression.
I couldn’t resist. The resemblance is uncanny.
I promise the next blog won't take so long. I have a great spelunking adventure to tell you about. By the way, I'm moving to Granada in a week and Kate is moving to Barcelona. :( While I will miss her dearly, it will prevent us from our usual antisocial elitist activities and maybe we'll actually get around to speaking all the Spanish we're supposed to.
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