Sevilla Espana

So far we've visited Madrid, Talavera, Merida, and Sevilla. Sevilla has been my favorite so far. We saw the Plaza of Spain which was built during the Franco era as a show of strength and prosperity. The plaza is so beautiful, that George Lucas used it as the backdrop for the government offices of Naboo in Episode 2. We also saw the Cathedral of Sevilla which is a marvelous work of art and houses many beautiful artifacts including many made of pure gold brought back from the Americas. It is also one of the three churches that claims to house the remains of Christopher Columbus. We saw his tomb and climbed the Tower of La Giralda which offers a fabulous view of the city. It is also the only tower of its size in the world that can be climbed on horseback. Also, on the banks of the Gualdalquiver River is the famous Golden Tower. It isn't made of gold, but was built on the banks of the river to house all the gold shipped in from the Americas until it could be packed off to Madrid. It's hot down here in southern Spain (much like Phoenix in the summer) but also beautiful.

Driving in Spain

I´ve been in Spain for 3 days now and learned so much about the culture. I´ve decided to post a few things about transportation. In the big cities, almost everybody lives in "pisos" which are apartment buildings (I only saw one house in the whole city, and it belonged to the diplomat from France) and have close access to public transportation. You don´t really need a car unless you´re traveling to another city. Nevertheless, many Spaniards have cars as a status symbol. However, because everyone lives in apartment buildings, it´s almost impossible to find a place to park because cars are packed along every street. Therefore, most cars are tiny and Spaniards are experts at parking a six foot long car in a seven foot space. Most Spaniards are very aggressive drivers which is a stark contrast to their typically casual attitude to tardiness. There is a joke that a nanosecond is the amount of time it takes from the time the light turns green until the time someone starts honking for you to go. Also most intersections use roundabouts instead of stoplights. That way, no one has to stop, rather they yeild. Another interesting thing I noticed is that often, at a crosswalk, the light won´t stay red the whole time that the "crosswalk man" is green. It will often start blinking yellow so that cars can start going again if the crosswalk is clear, and then turns to green when the "crosswalk man" turns red. Most roads are smaller too. Because the cities were built before cars, many streets are very narrow (8 to 20 feet wide). Therefore most secondary streets are one way. Many are cobblestone, making use of the old Roman roads that were built. Also, 99% of the cars are stick shift. I tried it, but I finally had to switch to an automatic. It was just too stressful trying to restart your car with ten drivers behind you honking for you to keep going. Especially since the traffic lights turn a lot faster than in the States. While we were in Madrid, we took advantage of the subway and bus systems instead of driving around. They were inexpensive and covered the whole city. I wish the US would improve its public transportation routes so that it would be more practical to travel that way. It would be a practical way to cut down on smog, and with the price of gas, more people might take advantage of it. Right now we are taking a week long tour of southern Spain. In any case, I´m enjoying the sights and customs of Spain and will post more later on some of the things we´re seeing. Until next time!

Spain

I arrived in Spain Tuesday morning at 9am after an all night flight. I only slept about an hour on the plane and we lost 8 hours overall, so I had a severe case of jetlag. We did some shopping and walked around the central plaza of Madrid (Puerta del Sol) during the evening. Today, Wednesday, we took a bus tour of Madrid, and saw various important building including el Palacio Real and the famous park of Madrid - el Retiro. I´ve tried several famous Spanish dishes including Tortilla española (a type of quiche with potatoes) and gazpacho (a cold tomato soup). Life is different here. All the meals are a couple of hours later then the US, the keyboards have different symbols in different places, and everything is smaller - the streets, rooms, beds, cars, and food portions. I´m enjoying everything except the smoke. It seems like more than 90% of the people smoke - especially in the streets and restaurants. Well, that´s all for now. Saludos!

Brad