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| Erin's Sevilla Journals 6-7-02 Friday we'd planned our day trip to Jerez, to see the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. I've always loved horses, and these ones in particular. Andalusian horses have a particular beauty and grace, and they were trained here to be the dancers of the horse world. The posted visiting hours for Monday, Wednesday, Friday were only 11am to 1pm, and was only a public viewing of the training sessions, but it sounded great to me and was cheaper than the choreographed shows they put on Tuesdays & Thursdays. We got to the train station just in time, then sat on the 1 hour ride (a very short one for us by now) wondering what we'd find in the way of transportation once there. We got off the train to find no info, and no real bus directions to get there. We didn't even know how far we'd have to walk to get there, and it was 10:30am, only a half hour from the opening time. We started walking. We wandered with only the Lonely Planet map for dubious guidance, and noted that the streets here changed names in the middle of each block,which is just as stupid as in some Texas towns I could name! Eventually we stumbled onto the main tourist office in a square somewhere, and got a better map. From there, it was easy, and we walked up to the gates just at 11am. We walked into the grounds, which were gorgeous, and found the arena, and were soon seated watching the gorgeous horses warm up and practice their paces. I was fascinated, and tried to explain a little of it to Glenn, who was having a hard time being impressed with some of the moves. He hasn't spent as much time with horses & horse lore, so wasn't recognizing a few of the finer points. We quickly got onto a guided tour of the stables, and saw some of the more famous horses & facts about the school. Glenn mentions more details on these, but the main point is that it's a very exclusive honor to be selected as a trainee here. There were a few women in the group, but not many. A high school friend of mine used to aspire to go to the Andalusian school, but dropped out of professional training once into the real world of making money. After the tour, we watched training some more, until Glenn got bored and went out to eat an orange. I watched the rest of the session until they kicked us out at 1pm. The worst part was that they wouldn't allow any pictures!!! So I snuck out afterward and took a couple of shots of the horses as their gear was removed. The trainers and riders glared, but I didn't care - the rule as I was quoted it were 'no pictures INSIDE' the arena. Besides, what are they, a state secret weapon or something??? After that I had my orange too, as we'd skipped breakfast in getting to the train, and we went in search of lunch. Jerez didn't have much to offer other than bars, but we found a little place in a square to sit and have fake Italian food. Then we wandered for a while, bored, as the shops were all closed for siesta and our train back to Sevilla didn't leave until 4:30pm. Finally we just headed back to the train station and waited there, and retured to Sevilla by 6pm. We wanted something different from paella for dinner, so we headed to an Italian restaurant we'd passed many times en route to the Cathedral. I had a good memory for directions this time - sometimes Glenn isn't needed as Map Master! - and found it easily, and we took seats in a place that looked more upscale than we had thought. The prices weren't bad though, so we stayed. Some guys from the next table started chatting with us, and told us the place was listed in the Frommer's guide, which is why it was so crowded with tourists. They also noted that the low ceilinged building was about 800 years old and used to be a Muslim bath house, which was pretty cool! I ordered something I'd never heard of, and Glenn had a mushroom pizza. When we got our food, we ended up switching, as the cream based sauce of mine was too tangy for me. Other than that, the sangria saved the meal and we went back happy. |
| The Arena building is designed and colored according to traditional Andalusian architecture |
| The Royal Andalusian Equestrian School doesn't allow pictures of their stallions performing - so I caught them afterward! |
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