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Plaza de Toros
May starts bullfighting season in Madrid and we went to tonight’s event with excellent seats in the shade (vs. sun) on the lower deck.
Tonight’s event featured El Fandi, one of the best bullfighters in the world and No. 1 in Spain.
Daniel Luque during his second fight.
The third bullfighter (there are three, each takes on two bulls) was a special treat: Daniel Luque, 19. He got two standing ovations and earned an ear from the second bull, which weighed 610 kg (over 1300 pounds).
(pictures to come. we took about 500 between the two of us…)
By the time we reached Santiago, we were hungry enough for a menú del día.
Josh: Croquetas de baccalao (white fish with béchamel sauce, lightly breaded and fried), pollo asado con ajillo y tomate (roasted chicken with garlic and tomato), flan Me: cocido de calamares (squid stew), tiburón a la plancha (grilled hake), flan For an idea of how much food that was, the portions were about double what you’d get in an American restaurant.
Overstuffed, we visited the Cathedral and met a trio of peregrinos outside. They had started the Camindo de Santiago at different points (one 6 weeks prior from Alicante) but met on the trail. One of the guys showed us his walking stick, which he has carried with him on each walk he’s taken since 2000. He said he only needs three things for his annual trip: walking boots, walking stick and credit card. More than 100,000 pilgrims finish their walks in Santiago each year. We entered the cathedral — less crowded than when I had visited — and were able to walk all the way around, go up into the Altar Mayor to touch the 13th century statue of St. James and view his tomb (“He was tiny!” –Josh).
Last night we arrived at our pensión in A Coruña, where the reception Nancho offered us Galicia’s specialty beer, Estrella Galicia. He also told us where to go for tapas. Going for tapas in A Coruña means ordering a small glass of beer/wine (corto) and a small portion of food. We had fried calamari, pulpo a la gallega(octopus), zorza (roasted pork with small potatoes), berberechos (tiny clams) and our first tortilla de patata (egg and potato omelet cake) of the trip.
Today we walked along the beach to La Torre de Hercules, the world’s oldest working lighthouse. The area around the lighthouse has been converted into a small park with sculptures that pay homage to important historical figures.
Climbing the 234 steps to the top se vale la pena for the view. Who knew the Atlantic Ocean could be so blue?
The Picos de Europa.
If we ever stop seeing mountains or ocean on this trip, we know we’ve taken a wrong turn. This morning we drove to the Picos de Europa National Park, located in both Cantabria and Asturias regions. I drove through the mountains at a safe 70 kilometers per hour on the skinny but perfectly paved road. (The roads have been WONDERFUL, even the small teeny tiny ones. No bumps, potholes, major construction. I’m amazed at the condition, but it could be because I’m from Illinois where we have two seasons: winter and road construction.)
We stopped in Potes and visited the Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana. Inside the chapel lies the largest chunk of Christ’s cross, believed to be the part where a nail passed through Jesus’s left hand. It’s housed inside a cross, behind bars and about 50 feet away from where it can be viewed.
The view was incredible.
We cut through the northern part of Los Picos on the way West. More curvy roads, traffic circles, mountains, cows.
Two hours later, we were in Ribadesella, home of La Cueva de Tito Busillo, full of Paleolithic cave paintings that can be seen on page one of the world history textbooks. We were early for the last tour of the day, so we visited the neighboring Cuevona de Ardines. After climbing 300 steps, we descended into a large chamber where we got a history lesson from a prerecorded Wizard of Oz, accompanied by the equally low-tech light projections on the wall.
The actual cave tour took an hour and a half. After hiking 700 or so meters into the cave, we saw the paintings: horses, reindeers, female genitalia (respect for fertility.)
Now we’re on our way to a new region: Galicia. Our first stop is A Coruña, the port city capital of Spain’s Northwest. Current conditions: 13 degrees Celsius, misty rain, dense fog.
Our hotel in Bilbao is the nicest yet, despite it’s proximity to a street covered with prostitutes. Ah, Europe. The car parked in a garage, we walked 20 minutes along the Ría de Bilbao (Basque) to the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The building stands out against Bilbao’s decaying industrial landscape (Josh called it the Detroit of Spain.) Permanent works by Picasso and Joan Miró were removed and a series of videos had been installed. The current installations included works by modern artists Murakami, Richard Serra, Cai Guo-Qiang
Josh enjoyed Murakami because he had seen it before but wasn’t too familiar with his stuff. We almost skipped what turned out to be my favorite: Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait (2006) a 90 minute film that used 17 synchronized cameras locked on Real Madrid soccer player Zidane during a game. The director spliced the shots with televised coverage of the game and interjected a montage of events that occurred on that day.
We got off the beaten path in the Navarra region and detoured to Olite (population 3400), drawn by the wine museum one of our guidebooks told us about. Off the highway, it took us longer to get there than we thought, so we arrived to a sleepy town mid-siesta. The wine museum, bodegas, stores, everything was closed for the 2 hour lunch break. Restaurants and bars were still serving, so we did what the Spaniards do: drank wine, ate cheese bocadillos (French bread with thick slices of cheese) and window shopped.
We walked into the busiest place we could find (my personal rule for finding good food/drink in an unknown place) and ordered a glass of the two specialty wines brewed in the region (Navarra.) Both were good but the Ochoa was better. We were shocked when the bartender told us it was 2 euros for both glasses. That’s about $1.35 at the current exchange rate.
Spanish wine
I love the fact that Spainards drink wine the way most Americans drink soda — which is to say all the time. I’m not familiar with any of the Spanish wines, but I know that they are all good and cost about as much as the box of Franzia in my fridge. Add to this the fact that when ordering a bottle of wine in Spain, it’s often accompanied with free cheese or jamón, and it’s easy for me to understand why so many people I know have spent so much money drinking while traveling in Spain.
Los museos
Dalí. Picasso. Goya. Gaudí. El Greco.
I read about these guys countless times during my undergraduate Spanish classes at KU, often looking at the textbook reproductions of their works again and again. Actually getting to see some of these works is something I’ve always wanted to do. As a kid, I always loved Dalí’s paintings, and seeing his most famous “La persistencia de la memoria” at the Reiña Sofía in Madrid will probably be one of my life highlights.
Los picos de Europa
It’s Spain’s first and largest national park and from the small thumbnails I’ve seen on their Web site, the landscape looks absolutely stunning. We’re stopping in a small village on the outskirts of the Picos named Potes before we drive through and around the park, and I think this stretch off the beaten path and onto some of Spain’s back roads will be rewarding.
Del coche 