|
10 May: Sevilla, España
OK, so Seville's not that bad. Just don't drive. My unbearable headache from the previous day had wained (mostly due to a backrub). Stacey woke up before I did and we both weren't prepared to drive again. And we didn't feel like wasting two days by driving down here for nothing. So whilst Stacey (who was fairly ready by this time) tried unsuccessfully to get another hotel room, I entered the shower. Half way in the hot water cut out. So I sat there trying to brave a cold shower while the phone failed to work for Stacey (i.e. cutting out). At this point some person ignored the Do Not Disturb sign and tried to enter our room. Good thing the deadbolt was thrown. I got out and was surprisingly calm. Anywho.
We had to check out of this hotel so I went to the front and bitched. Word to the wise, you want to get a response from a hotel in Spain, ask to see the "Libro de Reclamaciones." This is the government required book of complaints that is reviewed every so often to determine how many stars a hotel gets. Since the stars has a bearing on what they can charge, they bend over backwards to convince you to not write in. The people behind the desk went from treating me like yet another tourist to Donald Trump in a second. After some extended complaints about the TV, Hot Water, Disturbing, etc, I got 25% knocked off the bill (after an initial offer of 10%) plus a riscinding of the mini-bar and telephone charges. I felt quite happy, and then off to get another room. This one (Hotel Simon) was cheaper, not as cool, but much more convenient and easy to access. No TV's the only complaint I had. Off to the Cathedral to salvage this side trip.
Sevilla Cathedral
More To Come:
This is the third largest cathedral in the world. Only Saint Peter's in the Vatican and Saint Paul's in London are bigger. Size, however, doesn't matter; except to the chapter that built it on top of an old Mosque saying "We will build a cathedral so big that anyone who sees it will take us for madmen." They are right. The old moorish tower, the Giralda, used to call the faithful to prayer was turned into a bell tower. Instead of stairs, it uses ramps since horses were used to ascend. On foot, however, it is surprisingly pleasant. The cathedral itself is nice, but the treasury was the best part. Spains most expensive crown with the worlds largest pearl carved into a 3 inch torso.
Museo de Bellas Artes
Here is where all the missing El Greco's ended up. And since we got here after 6pm, entry was free! Incredible. The mseum itself is as interesting for the building holding it as the art itself. The museum itself was tiring, but the quality of the works here ake it a stop for any fan of the Spanish School. A bunch of Valdes Leals.
The Murillo room was amazing. Gigantic with a very busy ceiling frescoes evidently by Murillo. One side has paintings by Juan de Castillo including Stigmata de San Francisco (complete with holy UFO). The other side has a Murillo triptych from la Iglesia de los Capuchinos with a great Immaculate Conception (baby heads and crecent moon). On the side out of the room is Stacey's favorite, La Virgen de La Servilleta, a Virgin with Child with a vividly lifelike Child with a big forehead and a wide-eyed stare.
The El Greco's were stunning. The St. Peter penitent was auite i,pressive. A copy of the bottom of El Entierro del Conde De Orgaz used as a study for the original, and to show to the patron. The coolest part to me was an El Greco copy of a portrait of Covarrubias by A. Sanchew Gello. They are shown side by side, and the El Greco copy is not as realistic, but has much more feeling and emotion. I definately prefer the spanish school of painting, emotion and tone rather than strict realism.
11 May: Drive to Valencia, España
This was the big uncharted drive. Our destination was a four star hotel 55 km southwest of Spain. We didn't have a reservation because we didn't know how long it would take us to get there. We left in the morning, and after only one wrong turn, was back on the autovía towards Córdoba. Then a road that is currently being turned into an autovía, then the coast. This drive was much less boring than La Mancha, but not interesting enough.
We got to the town of Xátiva, where the Mont Sant hotel was, and saw a rather paltry castle about 300m above the town, but with a quite impressive rampart stretching all the way down. Our hotel was right below the castle. After some fancy driving, where I didn't listen to Stacey, I got us lost. After a little bit of backtracking, we found the right road and found the Hotel. I went in to deal with finding a room whilst Stacey stayed in the car and packed. The hotel was awesome: B&B touches with a classy restaurant and helpful multilingual staff. They had one room free but it was quite small. I got half way into the room and it was beyond small. It was built in a half-attic, instead of a shower there was a bath with about 3ft clearance. I said I'd have to talk to my girlfriend and did just that. Stacey had come down with my unbearable headache, and I wanted to get her into a bed, but the morning would not be kind to my head (ouch), so we moved on.
After filling my car with gas and getting Stacey some caffeine (and my car a wash for the trouble), we headed back to the autovía. At the first stop with a bed sign, I stopped. This was a truck stop. The counter staff didn't speak any english, but they did absolutely nothing to increase my understanding. Catalán was their first language and they treated my lack of fluency in Spanish with distain. At one point she kept asking me "Here or There" over and over again and I kept saying "Qué" since it didn't seem like there was a choice. She told her coworker that she couldn't believe me. However Stacey needed a bed, and I eventually got to look at the room and I took it for 5000 pts. Only catch is that the showerhead didn't attach to the wall and we had to check out by 9am. Stacey got to rest on a bed and I gave her a backrub that seemed to release some of the tension.
12 May: Drive to Barcelona, España
We left our key at the desk at 8am and got the hell out of there. After about 2 hours we stopped in Tarragonna to get a look at the beach-side Roman Ampitheatre. It wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be because it was surrounded by a bridge and a housing development. After driving along the coast with the top down, I got a little hot and Stacey needed the shade. Right outside of Barcelona was a Alcampo, which is the same chain as the massive Auchan we saw in Perpignan. We stopped for a while and picked up needed things like food and soap and shampoo.
Then back to familiar surroundings. We parked in a less dodgy (and 50% more expensive) parking garage and got a really nice room at the Hotel Gran Via. I wholeheartedly recommend this place. Great view, best breakfast buffet ($7), a great value all around. We collapsed in the room for a bit and then went out on the quite nice Terrace. Then to the Ramblas.
13 May: Barcelona, España
We lounged. Did a little internetting. Walked along the ramblas again. Walked around the beach. Ate at Tapasbar at Maremagnum. Stacey got a Barrio Sesamo shirt that is very cool plus a few travel word games (with Spanish letters to make it more fair for me; Stacey is impossible to beat otherwise). Then more wandering and I pretty much was ready to collapse. Guess the week caught up with me.
However, Stacey got dressed up for her sweetie, and she was a knockout. I took a really cute picture of Red and her in front of Maremagnum and the Ramblas del Mar. Any girl who can travel around Europe for 34 days with me and then get dolled up and look that good... she's a keeper.
14 May: Barcelona, España
More Lounging. Every vacation needs downtime. This was ours. Got another room in Barcelona since there were none at the Gran Via. The only real highlight of this day was getting two gigantic gaufre (waffles). I got mine with Triple Sec, Cream, Pistacchio helado, and nuts. Half my ice cream melted along the way to the hotel because we couldn't cross due to a motorcycle accident on the Ramblas itself. A guy took a nasty fall and the cop was rushing the cars past to get the ambulance there. The taxis weren't very cooperative because they were looking for fares. Not a pleasant situation. The liquor on mine was way too much (filled each cranny to the brim with alcohol). After that I was drunk and in sugar coma. I had to go out and update the website to prevent Stacey from killing her wired-tired companion.
15 May: Perpignan, France
Drove 3 hours. Got a really cool room at a B&B hotel. Very cool, has a mezzanine with two beds. Nice shower too. Did the laundry at the same place as last time, and same woman. Repacked a lot of our stuff.
16 May: Hyeres, France
I'm kind of an idiot and we drove pretty much straight through on the coast of the Mediterranean. Looking back we should have stopped some more and maybe gone out for a swim. But I was kind of tired, even though we slept in. Cool thing about the drive is that there is an archeological museum, complete with ruins of an old Roman Theatre, on the side of the highway. Literally. Quite cool.
The city of Hyeres, about 20 km west of St. Tropez, is a bit scary. Most of the buildings are boarded up and the casino in the middle of the city looked deserted. Getting into the Etap Hotel was nearly impossible because the road in front of it is blocked from one side. After taking Stacey's advice (which, as usual I should have listened to from the beginning), we finally got there. Although I kinda froze up along the way when I didn't think I had enough room to navigate around a bulldozer, when in fact I had at least 2 feet. My car remains too precious to dent...
|
