PopWars

It’s going to be tough pretending we are still in Madrid. We spent our last day there following the yellow PhotoEspana route of top shelf photo shows. We spent quite a while at at the “Ron Galella – Paparazzo Extroaordinaire” show at El Círculo de Bellas Artes and then took the elevator to the top floor terrace where we had a sensational view of the city.

A friend sent me a link to a story Jeff Spevak did on me as a curator of the Jazz Fest. Before we left I told Jeff to help himself to the photos I had on my site from past years festivals but I never expected this. My neighbor stopped me this morning to say “I saw the music critic dis you in the paper.” Some curator, I missed the first day while we were gone.

Finding a good spot to eat in Spain is easy. Restaurants and cafés are everywhere. Picking a really good spot requires some astute attention to details. A lot of places have tables out on the street but do they have an active bar/tapa scene as well and a dining room inside? Do they serve their coffee in small glasses rather than cups? And most importantly, How many hams do they have hanging from the ceiling? Spaniards are crazy about ham. They have a chain of delicatessens called “Museo de Jamon.”

They like to have their main meal midday and la siesta is not some quaint old custom. Most places other than restaurants close down in the middle of the work day. We trade off between a big meal in the afternoon and grazing on tapas, pinchos and rationes at multiple establishments and made a point to visit Restaurante Modesto in Sevilla for the Pimentos del Padrón we spotted.

Germany was pretty quick to blame Spanish cucumbers for the eColi breakout. The common currency Euro was intended to bolster Europe but it hasn’t worked out for all countries in the union. The ancient Juderia section of Cordoba is almost overrun with souvenir shops. The clash of civilization goes on.

In Rochester we have the historic High Falls area that must be over a hundred years old. Margaret Explosion played a gig there a few weeks ago. This morning we were a block from the train station in Cordoba, walking through a park when we came upon some Roman ruins from the first century.

Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived in harmony in Spain for a few centuries so Cordoba is extremely rich in history. La Mezquita, the largest mosque in the west, was built in the Jewish quarter on top of San Vincente Basílica which was built by the Visigoths as a Christian temple dedicated to martyrs. The Moors destroyed it in 785 but recent excavations have preserved portions that are now visible through holes cut in the floor of La Mezquita. The Spanish Inquisition expelled The Moors and in 1236 King Ferdinand III (also known as “El Santo”) consecrated the Cathedral which was built literally within the walls of the mosque, it’s ornate spires soaring through the ceiling. Mass has been celebrated here everyday since. It is all quite a spectacle.

We bought two eBooks for the iPad on travel in Spain, one by “Let’s Go” and one by “Lonely Planet.” One’s a little more backpacky with advice on how many people you can get in a room and the other is a bit ordinary so we consult both and mix the youth oriented tips with the conservative. We found a place in Sevilla that was described as grandmotherly in one book and funky in the other.

The proprietor told us the wifi (pronounced weefee) connection would not work in our room but it worked great if we sat in particular chair in the lobby. They have a wild contemporary portrait painting on the wall so I asked for advice in finding some galleries. He recommended the Alemeda de Hercules area so we headed off in that direction. The streets in Sevilla look like they were laid out by a spider so we walk a block and get our map out. The Sevilla map we have is from our last visit here. They were preparing for Cartuja, a worldwide Expo, so it might have been ’93 or so. An area with a big blue “P” on our map that once was a parking lot is now the site of one of Sevilla’s newest attractions, el Parasol Metropol and it was quite a sensation to stumble on it. It’s kind of like the metal jungle gym like thing they constructed in Manhattan Square Park in Rochester.

We found six golf balls near this hole when we scooted across the golf course but we still haven’t found one of the Polara balls we read about. They have an irregular dimple pattern and are sort of guaranteed to go straight so maybe thats why we haven’t found any of them. They are technically illegal but that shouldn’t stop a Durand duffer.