Travel

It’s been a while since we were able to get together with our friends Andy and Danielle so it was great that we were able to see them for four days in Sevilla.

Andy and I go way back. Back to about 1982 when he was living in Hong

“Do not weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.”

Abu Abdallah’s mother

Ouch!

In 1492, besides Columbus sailing the ocean blue, the Moorish king Abu Abdallah surrendered the Alhambra to the Christian forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. As he cast a last backwards

As you may have noticed, my post on the Alhambra has yet to appear. That’s because I know it’s going to be long and so I’m waiting for the haze induced by nine hours of timezone shift to clear before tackling it.

So, I thought, I’ll

Santa Maria de la Sede is shaped like a square. This is unusual for a cathedral as most tend to form a cross. But the builders had an extra requirement when laying out this structure: to cover the footprint of the 160,000 square foot mosque that formerly occupied the

Whilst on holiday in Sevilla, we decided to hire a motor and nip down to Cádiz for the day.

Sorry. Because we were in Sevilla with British friends, I slipped into speaking like a character from Downton Abbey. From here on, I’m back to ‘mericun enlish.

Cádiz is an

I love T-Mobile Thanks to free cellular data worldwide, I’m writing this post while zipping along on the train to Sevilla.

I was tempted to title this ”Mary Anne Eats” because I found that I have several food photos. Let’s starts with them.

On the way to the

Do you know that the word Gypsy comes from the word Egypt? For a long time nobody knew or cared where gypsies came from, but there was speculation that they were Egyptian. Turns out they migrated from India in the 14th century.

I suppose this implies that Gyp is derived

Albayzin is the old Moorish section of town. You remember the Moors, right? They were the Arabic folks who nipped over from Africa to bring arts, sciences and Islam to this area. Then the Christians came, destroyed all the mosques and build churches on top of their remains. So goes

OK, it’s not really called Gaudiland. That’s just me being a smart-aleck.

It’s really called Parc Güell, named for Eusebi Güell who was Gaudi’s patron. He dreamed of developing an English-style garden city on a hillside overlooking Barcelona. Gaudi’s job was to dress it up

Late in life, Gaudi devoted all his time to the Sagrada Familia. So much so, that he lived in his studio in the building. But as a younger man, he was just another working architect, albeit a famous one. Gaudi, build me a mansion. Gaudi, build me a private compound.

The Palau de la Musica Catalana got its start early in the twentieth century because a local choral society wanted a place to perform. The result is a world class venue that offers concerts from Baroque to Rock. A lot of them. The hall is active over 300 nights a