Archive - Jun 2008

I'm overdue for a post now, so I'm going to try to catch up at least somewhat. Since the last time I've blogged, which was only a stopgap description of our time in Sevilla with Matt & Nate last month, we spent a day in Málaga to see Matt off, Michelle and I went to southern Germany for a week and saw lots of Stuttgart and Heidelberg, the annual fair has come and gone to Marbella (nearly sending fireworks into our very apartment), and we trekked all over the third of the three major Andalucían cities, Córdoba. By the time you read this, we will be into our last full week in Spain before heading to Paris next week for a quick vacation and then back to the States, ready to plot our next move.

But first, a side note. I just flat out asked her yesterday since I had no idea -- what did the title of Michelle's last post mean ("Don't Eat The Pictures")? Turns out it refers to a 1983 Sesame Street special (of course!) about visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and as such, well, it makes perfect sense to title a post about museums in Germany after it, no? If you were as curious as me, you might be interested in reading more about that topic at Wikipedia or YouTube. If even I didn't know this one, what hope do you have, dear reader, of understanding these cryptic titles? Consider this my promise to you that we'll try harder and, at worst, involve children's shows from this decade/century/millenium in our post titles from here on out. Spongebob, anyone?

Anyway, on with the catch up!

Sevilla

We figured we'd do it up right while Matt & Nate were here and head to the regional capital of Andalucía, Sevilla, or, as its called in English, Seville. I took a Friday afternoon off and we headed by bus (as we often do here) on the 3.5 hour or so trip northwest. I dozed a little on and off, but my biggest two memories were:

• An amazing castle and medieval city perched high on a mountain in the middle of hills on the edge of a crystal lake, which we spent a half hour approaching on windy roads and then another half hour driving away from.
• The crazy, switchback mountain roads up to Ronda, then back down again towards Sevilla, all the while tailgating another, slower bus and being leapfrogged by motorcyclists with an apparent utter lack of any sort of deceleration technology.

All I can say about both of these is that I've learned that Spanish bus drivers really know how to get the most potential out of a motor coach. To say that they push the mechanical limits a bit is an understatement. Picture a master sculptor working clay, or a baker kneading dough. A driver here works a bus like a woodworker plies wood, and he doesn't leave room for error. The brakes groan, the suspension creaks, the driver spins the wheel far left, then far right, then back again, always keeping up pressure on the accelerator and a hawk eye on the road. I'm rather glad I didn't see what Matt did -- a 1960s-era bus, rusted out, grass growing from it, on its side at the bottom of the very canyon we were traversing, presumably left there after its fateful failing sometime during the Nixon administration.

But we obviously arrived in one piece! We got into town, easily navigated the city, and arrived at our very cool hostel, The Oasis. We found out that with four of us, we were entitled to our own room, complete with bunk beds and a view to the street below. Also, we got there just in time to learn that a free group tapas tour and flamenco show were planned, and since one of our goals was to experience a real flamenco show and not a tourist trap, we figured this was a good bet. We were not disappointed.

Tapas Tour & Flamenco Show

We hit the first tapas place and enjoyed a variety of dishes. Matt, Nate, and I tended towards fish and pork, and Michelle rounded out the vegetable choices. There was much swapping of food, good drinks, the open air of a plaza, and a general fun and relaxing time.

After that, we spent a while following our guide through some winding streets while he constantly text messaged with someone and kept adjusting his route, and struck up a conversation with a recent college grad from Idaho who was in the midst of a five month tour of Europe, his first time abroad. He was a nice guy and we were all fast friends by the time we arrived at what was apparently our destination.

Turns out that the flamenco place was a bit hidden and hard to get to and we didn't have time for a second tapas place, but no worries -- we were all ready for the show. We opened a large, unlabeled and nondescript door, entered an old lobby of sorts, turned a corner, and were confronted with a dark hall teeming with hundreds of folks ready for flamenco, tossing back beers and sangria and sitting on long benches under a low roof populated by many unused fans. The weather was still pretty moderate, but the crowd made it a little hot inside -- not hot enough for the fans, though. Admission was free (a good sign) and the place was supported by drinks at the bar, which we took full advantage of.

The show itself was fantastic. It's kind of hard to describe -- it's really not just about the dancing, but as much about the guitarist, vocalist, and (in this group) the flute player. The vocals were the most interesting part, because they definitely had a Middle Eastern feel to them and the lead singer never took his intense stare off of the dancer while performing. It was clear that the group was performing as much for themselves as for the hall in attendance, since they were very passionate and had what the Spanish call duende, or "the spirit", when it came to their performance. I'm really glad that we got to experience this and that it wasn't some sort of tourist attraction but a real show for real Spaniards. A definite highlight.

Alcázar and Cathedral

We spent that Saturday exploring Sevilla's Alcázar (Muslim and later, Christian, palace) and its cathedral, which is the largest Gothic church and the fourth largest Christian church in the world. The cathedral alone took over a hundred years to build.

In the Alcázar, highlights included a painting which is the first known depiction of the discovery of America, an amazing pooled courtyard in the style that we've seen in Granada and other places since, ancient wall-sized tapestries, and beautiful gardens containing a hedge maze, peacocks, Arab baths, and orange groves.

The cathedral was stunning. It included an enormous gilded altar (the most gold I've ever seen), the royal treasury, a minaret-turned-belltower, and -- oh yeah, in case you thought they were slacking -- Christopher Columbus' tomb. Words can't do it justice -- check out the photos (see the links at the end of the post).

We took a break and found a great bar called Cafe Bar Las Teresas, which really typifies Sevillian tapas. We had our share of jamón and wine and, rested up, moved on for the rest of the day.

Next time, I'll talk about the bullfighting museum, the Archives of the Indias, the ren faire, and of course, the bunk bed disaster -- and that's just the rest of Sevilla. Stay tuned!

• Our photos of the flamenco bar
• Our photos of the Alcázar
• Our photos of the cathedral
• Wikipedia: Flamenco
• Wikipedia: Seville Cathedral
• Wikipedia: Alcázar of Seville

So since Justin was in meetings all week, I had a lot of time to myself. I took that time to explore Stuttgart on a couple of walking tours. The walks always took me up into the hills and provided a lot of historical information about Baden-Württemberg. I walked past the old castle, the new castle, a couple of palaces, lots of viewpoints, climbed a ton of stairs, wandered thru a bunch of parks and past lots of beautiful old homes. I really enjoyed walking along the Blaue Weg (Blue Path), which was the first Swabian Walking Associations footpath that went as far as the Black Forest.

I also visited some museums. The first one was the Württembergishes Landesmuseum of Stuttgart. This was in the old castle of Stuttgart, which was most recently rebuild in 1969 and now houses the "State Collection of National Antiquities." The best of which was glass from the Egyptians, the oldest deck of European cards dating from 1430, celtic burial objects, and the crown jewels of Württtemberg and the Russian gold service of Queen Katharina. Very sparkly and very pretty.

Another day I went to the State Museum of Natural History at the Rosenstein Palace Museum. This museum was located inside a beautiful building and surrounded by rose gardens. Inside was a collection of mammals and lots of information on native species. Sadly I did learn that the last bear seen in Baden-Württemberg, which includes the Black Forest, was over 200 years ago. And that wolves had not been seen even longer. Kind of upsetting to me that the home of Grimms fairy tales no longer has bears and wolves in it.

The third location I visited was Ludwigsburg, this was further outside of the city, but well worth the trip. Ludwigsburg is home to a magnificent palace built between 1704 and 1733, which includes 452 rooms in 18 buildings. And the majority of furniture and wallpaper is as it once was as Ludwigsburg did not receive any damage from the war. The place is drippingly gorgeous, and is often compared to Versailles. Unfortunately it was raining when I was there, so I didn't even get a chance to wander about the lush gardens. I don't know all the history on this place, but it was originally built as a hunting lodge for the Duke, then expanded as a home for his mistress. Then built into more of a palace when Napoleon made him a King.

Finally on Friday I visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum. I thought I should go there, cause its what everyone does, and this is where it all started, but I didn't think I would like it all that much. And, now I am the first to admit that I was wrong, it was really fun. The building itself was pretty cool, you start on the top and work down beginning with the first engine and car and you end up in a Mercedes-Benz showroom, just in case you wanted to place an order (think of it as a high end museum gift shop). I learned a lot, saw lots of pretty cars. Picked out a couple that I thought would be fun to own (Dad, let me know if you are having a hard time figuring out my birthday gift, I have some suggestions for you). The museum is built as part of the plant, so from the windows I could watch cars being road tested. I got to see one of the popemobiles, and lots of winning race cars.

The rest of the time I spent relaxing on grass or in park benches. It was a great place to people-watch, listen to German, and read. If you ever get the chance to visit southern Germany, I wouldn't miss it.

• Mercedes-Benz museum
• Ludwigsburg Palace on Wikipedia

We are back, and have lots to update on. Germany was fun and I really enjoyed it there. The reason we went to Stuttgart was because Justin had 'geek week' and I just went to go explore.

First full day there, we spent some time gathering information at the tourist office and walking around the parks. Stuttgart has lots of big open green spaces even in the downtown aspect, and its full of paths. Everyone seemed to be outside either walking, biking or just chilling on the grass. We walked to the Wilhelma botanical garden and zoo first. This zoo was much larger then the one in Fuengirola and had lots more animals. Not to mention that it was also a botanical garden so there were lots of greenhouses to walk in.

There was a great primate section, and seemed to be built around the same time as the great ape house in the national zoo, it had about the same layout, including indoor and outdoor space for all the groups. We saw a large bonobo group, maybe 14 or so, Chimpanzees, Gorilla, Orang, White Cheeked Gibbons, and some old and new world monkeys. We had never seen bonobos before and this was a treat. The highlight was watching a mom bonobo take care of her newborn, who really wanted to go explore, but she kept him close by to her. The gibbons were super active and had a huge outdoor climbing enclosure, one of the females was so much fun to watch swinging everywhere as she played with her brother.

The coolest part is that Wilhelma Zoo has a 'kindergarten' for primates. Meaning that if any primate infant is abandoned by its mom or something happens that the infant is alone, at any zoo in Europe, they are sent to Wilhelma. The kindergarten is just about the coolest thing ever, and would be the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD. Because these infants are orphaned, their human keeper takes on the role of primate mom. They get to spend the day inside the enclosure teaching the infants how to behave as an ape. In this case there were two little gorillas. They were together and playing with their 'mom'. It was just about the coolest thing I have seen. I wasn't able to understand the process all that much since everything was written in German. But it looked liked as the gorillas got older they would mix in with older gorillas until they were able to integrate into a troop.

The weather was excellent and exploring the zoo was a lot of fun. We saw elephants getting lunch, tigers playing together in the water, a kids zoo/petting zoo area, baby pigs, lots of birds... oh yes and the second best part.... the EISBÄR (polar bear) baby.

The baby eisbär in germany is on the same level as the baby panda in DC. There are signs everywhere, books written about him, stuffed animals, people lining up to see him. And he is very cute, we saw him hanging out with his mom, swimming some. Just for the record his name is Wilbär.

We were exhausted after spending hours walking over the zoo, it was a bigger zoo that DC. It was a full day, and by the time we got back in town only had enough energy to have some pretzels, fries and beer.

Wilhelma Zoo website