One of my very favorite things about living in the city center is the Christmas lights.
They drape the palm trees around Plaza Luceros in lights:
Our Diputación dresses up:
Ginormous ornaments are scattered throughout the city’s plazas:
Most streets are strung with lights, making the evening paseo a constant source of delight:
Feliz Navidad!
I’ve always been a fan of the nativity scene. Our family one (still packed away in Texas) is hand-carved, from my 1980 trip to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany.
And Spaniards love their nativity scenes, which they call Belenes (Belén is Spanish for Bethlehem). They are exhibited EVERYWHERE.
A bit of history:
The dioramas in Alicante’s Belén museum (open year-round) were created by members of the Alicante Association of Nativity Scene Makers (who knew there was such a thing?).
And our Diputación presents an annual display during the holidays.
Spanish Belenes portray more than the traditional nativity scene…
The Annunciation:
The birth of Jesus:
Announcement to the Shepherds:
The arrival and adoration of the Magi:
Presentation in the temple:
The flight to Egypt:
The detail is incredible:
A large exhibit is set up in a plaza near us:
And in 2020 Alicante installed the world’s largest nativity scene in the Ayudamiento Plaza. In 2021, it was moved to the Esplanade:
We arrived in Ronda in early evening, in time to view the bridge by moonlight:
Ronda straddles El Tajo, with La Ciudad (the old Moorish town) on one side and El Mercadillo (the new town) on the other. The new town was built after the 1485 Christian reconquest. The New Bridge (built in the 18th century) spans the gorge, and the views are equally stunning by day:
We started our day in the Old Town at the Casa del Gigante, a disappointment:
The Joaquin Peinado Museum provides an overview of the work of one of Picasso’s artist pals. Like other 20thcentury Spanish artists, the native of Ronda worked primarily in Paris, and his work evolved through Expressionism to Cubism to eroticism (I passed on those pics):
The Mondragon Palace was built in the 14th century and restored in the 16th century. It houses the Municipal Museum, with a focus on prehistory and geology:
We toured the bull ring, located directly across the street from our hotel. Ronda is considered the birthplace of bullfighting, and the bullring in Ronda is the first great Spanish bullring.
Bullfighting was started by Felipe II in the 16th century as war training for knights. Modern bullfighting came about in the early 18th century when Francisco Romero melded the formal style with knights on horseback with the more free-for-all man vs. beast that the commoners enjoyed. Bullfighting is considered a ritual, not a sport, and is covered in the culture section of newspapers.
This tour was a nice accompaniment to our visit to the horse show in Jerez.* The visit includes exhibits of horse gear and matador costumes, posters promoting Ronda’s bullfights, histories of bullfighting in all cultures, Spanish bullfighting dynasties, the Romero family, and a bonus exhibit of the training of the Equestrian School of the Real Maestranza:
The Lara Museum is a hodgepodge of collections, with something for everyone:
And….we laughed until we hurt watching these peahens try to get into the museum:
Jerez is VERY livable – plazas EVERYWHERE – but lots of loose paving stones.
Goal: the horse show at Fundacion Real Escuela Andaluz del Arte Ecuestre (the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art).
We got there early enough to watch some of the training:
Including a feisty one exercising:
Then, the show: How the Andalusian Horses Dance:
We were on a tight time frame to get to our sherry tasting, so we called for a cab, only to have a group of German tourists commandeer it from across the street. When we waved to the taxi driver (we’re becoming more Spanish), he kicked them out and turned around to pick us up.
With sherry bodegas closed on Sunday and Monday, the only place we could arrange a tasting at was Laustau.
None of us are sherry fans, but when in Jerez….
We’re still not sherry fans. But we learned a lot.
We didn’t make it to the hammam. I’m a fan of hammams, but in the Time of Covid, maybe not such a good idea. Next time.
When we left Sevilla on our way to Jerez, we made a stop at Italica. The first Roman settlement in Spain was founded 206 BCE for soldiers wounded during the Second Punic War. It was the birthplace of emperors Trajan and Hadrian.
El Marido had been here during his high school trip in 1978, and very little had been excavated yet – it was mostly just grassy fields at that time. It has more character now:
The amphitheater at Italica was one of the largest in the Roman Empire, seating 25,000 spectators. The city’s population at the time is estimated at only 8000.
Floor mosaics throughout the ruins have been excavated:
The most impressive is the House of the Birds , whose mosaics depict more than 30 species of birds.
Definitely worth the day trip.
A cloudy, windy drive through Andalucia, and we realized that the white towns are best enjoyed from afar, not from within while driving.
The rain started in earnest in Carmona, which we might have returned to if parking had been available anywhere in town.
We arrived at our Airbnb in Sevilla and managed to avoid the rain while we had lunch and grocery shopped.
A leisurely morning, then a bus ride that stopped well short of our goal: the Alcazar. Such is a holiday weekend Sunday in Spain.
We endured spotty rain while we wandered until our admission time.
The Real Alcazar still functions as a royal palace – the oldest in Europe that’s still in use. While Granada’s Alhambra* was built by Moors for Moors, the 14th-century Mudejar rebuild of Sevilla’s Alcazar was completed by Muslim workmen for the Christian King Pedro I.
We were warned that the floor plan was intentionally confusing, and indeed it was. We still aren’t sure we saw all of it, but we did our best, even though it really was too much to take in:
Then we roamed the gardens:
The next day: the cathedral. (We’re only good for one major look-see a day.)
Santa Maria de la Sede is the third-largest church in Europe (after St. Peter’s at the Vatican and St. Paul’s in London) and the largest Gothic church anywhere. When the Reconquista Christians tore down the existing mosque in 1401, they declared they would build a cathedral so large that “anyone who sees it will take us for madmen.” They managed it in 100 years.
The artwork starts on the outside, particularly with the doors:
The high altar contains 44 gold-leaf scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary:
The choir area is enclosed within the cathedral for more intimate services – common in Spanish churches. The organ contains more than 7000 pipes:
The Altar de Plata is adorned with statues:
I got my ceilings:
And my stained glass:
And el Marido got his head pic:
We passed on the climb to the top of La Giralda.
Like the Alcazar, the Cathedral is too much to take in:
I’ve learned that I enjoy most when I can visit, then review pictures and read up, then visit again. Unfortunately, that’s not feasible for most of our travel (or anyone’s travel, for that matter).
Another day, another look-see: Setas & mirador: The Setas is the largest wooden structure in the world, made of 3500 pieces of Finnish pine held together with 16 million screws and nails:
The views from the structure are stunning:
We visited the Centro Ceramica Triana, housed in the original Ceramica Santa Ana-Rodriguez Diaz building. Ceramics were made here beginning in the late medieval period.
The ground floor preserves the old kilns and production areas:
The first floor includes ceramic samples grouped by era: medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and industrial:
A bonus: a flamenco exhibit featuring the posters of the Bienal de Flamenco from 1980 to 2020, an appropriate introduction to that evening’s flamenco performance at Teatro Flamenco Triana (no pics allowed).
I’m sorry we didn’t discover Triana earlier – this was definitely our favorite neighborhood in Sevilla. In the olden days, it was the wrong side of the river.
A carriage ride with a surly driver took us to our last checklist item: Plaza de Espana, is a relic of the 1929 international fair and is paseo central.
The jewel of our journey was our first stop: Antequera
Antequera dates from the Bronze Age, at least the third millennium BCE.
It has rightfully earned its nickname: The City of Churches. Latest count: 32, and we could hear the bells of most of them all day, every day, with no regard for time.
We found our hotel with no problem, and were delighted to find it came with quite a roomy and garden-like parking garage – with the one (!) parking spot designated for the hotel easy to get in and out of, unlike other spots in the garage:
A couple of blocks away, we found the Iglesia de San Sebastian on Plaza San Sebastian, built in the 16th century:
A trip up the stairs – and then up more stairs – to the Alcazaba, erected in the 14th century over Roman ruins.
We entered through the Arco de los Gigantes, named for the huge sculptures of Hercules and two robed figures that originally supported it when it was erected in 1585:
We explored the grounds:
But, oh, the views:
Then a visit to the Royal Collegiate Church (Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor) at the base of the Alcazaba, opened in 1550:
The church itself was not overwhelming, BUT there was one statue:
We rode the urbano bus to the site of two of the Dolmens, prehistoric megalithic burial monuments.
Viera:
Menga:
Lover’s Rock (Pena de los Enamorados) is clearly visible from the Dolmens and from the Alcazar. Its profile looks like a reclining Moor:
The guys were captivated by the more modern perpetual calendar:
Antequera has a hoppy bus that’s actually a train, but it wasn’t back in operation yet. So we used the urbano bus to tour the town. Needs must.
Car ride to El Torcal, a stunning natural landscape formed when the sea reached inland to Antequera. The resulting erosion is due to karst shaping.
We missed the turnoff and went a few kilometers out of our way, but the views were worth the diversion.
Then we found our way back and wound our way up to the nature reserve on the narrow road, stopping for sheep crossing:
We only did the short walk to Las Ventanillas – the Small Windows viewpoint.
STUNNING – and worth the drive!
All in all, Antequera is certainly worth a few days, and it’s an easy, livable town.
We had visited Granada and Cordoba, but not Sevilla. We started discussing an Andalucian road trip, then Covid hit.
Friends planned an Andalucian road trip, then Covid numbers went up.
We joined those friends in planning an Andalucian road trip together, then Covid numbers went up – again.
Third time’s the charm: We were finally to make the trip in the fall of 2021.
We rented a car – it was not as large as we thought and we packed it to the gills:
We planned for 3 weeks, alternating between hotels and airbnbs, with no set plan except to reach Sevilla and Jerez.
Sevilla* ended up being a disappointment, in part because we had rain while we were there and in part because we stayed outside of the city center (we had the same response to Jaen).
We loved the other towns we visited, and we’d spend more time in them, starting with Cadiz, which we visited just long enough to do the hoppy bus and take a walking tour:
We learned that the white towns are best experienced from a distance, as streets are narrow and parking is scarce:
And I was continually blown away by the entryways (tile is my thing):
Overall, we were charmed, and it was a lovely three weeks with good friends.
Retired in Spain 