Madrid, June 23+24

 Last night I asked la señorita en recepción how long it took to get to la estación de trenes.  "Twenty minutes."  In reality, it took five.  Anyway, having arrived almost an hour before departure time, I thought it wise to verify that my voucher was all I needed to board BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW!  The man in ticketing to whom I showed it, gave me a scornful look, said the piece of paper was not large enough, shoved it back, and pointed to Customer Service.  Customer Service said that the piece of paper was not large enough and 1, 2, 3 printed out an official looking ticket, the kind no one uses any more.  Then I saw people lining up at the boarding track a good thirty minutes before departure.  So I got in line, too.  What with all security checks, it really was not too early.  And besides, being near the front of the line, earned me a prime spot to stow Rojita.  All good!

On the train, I got a message that the Royal Palace, which was to be tomorrow's big excursion, would be closed and they were refunding the price of the ticket!  Bummer!  I went to-day instead as the wait to get in was only about 15 minutes.  Photos not allowed, so to see the opulence, and get more information that you probably want, you can watch this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmWnIAzMunk

And for the Royal Armory—worth the price of the ticket—watch this video for the music alone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L89uCB2TwUk

The Royal Kitchens I did not get to see.  

Stopped back at my hotel, actually, a hostel, where I can sit in a fancy chair and watch the microwave, all I want!!

After a trip to the grocery store, I walked to a huge park, 1535,52 hectares (that may mean something to some people) but only

strolled around the lake (not so big), which has a number of restaurants and cafes on its perimeter

There were kids having a kayak lesson:

Ducks vying for bread crumbs:

As well as a duck out of water:

Art.  There has to be art in a big park:

And, on the way back to the hostel, a flamenco dancer who had lost her head:

June 24. Set out at about 7:00 and headed to Salamanca, an "upscale" neighborhood on the other side of the city, and, indeed, it was reminiscent of the Upper East Side.  It was such a gorgeous day—unseasonably so for Madrid, usually very hot about now—that I just did not want to go into a museum, so I kept touring the neighborhood.  Then ambled over to the Retiro, a Central Park sort of park.

Formal gardens of bright orange (red?) begonias:

Sculpted trees:

Trees that were not sculpted:

And the HUGEST thistles ever!

They were very tall, as well!

A tortuga (tortoise) was spitting way more water

than his friend the iguana:

The best, though, was watching these guys dancing:

They were doing martial arts moves—along with sound effects— to popular western music.  That combination, especially when the song was Despacito, was the best culture clash I ever saw!!

There was an art exhibit, so I went in.  This artist, whose name I did not note, really liked orange, yellow and red:

But Georgia O'Keefe used those colors better, IMO):

(The above painting was at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum)

Other goodies at the Thyssen were some Miro's:

An exhibit of Alex Katz's work:

The fun part about that show was trying to guess the titles of the paintings since he often chooses a color as part the name, ergo, Girl with a Red Smile, but there was Girl with a Black Jacket, Girl with a Green Cap, Blue Umbrella, and so on.  The "game" consists of guessing which component of the composition he chose to name.  If you like his work—I am lukewarm, heavy on the luke—you can see more of it here: 

https://www.google.com/search?q=alex+katz&sxsrf=ALiCzsYyFbNTO7cooex2gk6TX3UK99vXMA:1656099439352&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEga6W68b4AhWQu6QKHdxdCO8Q_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1307&bih=723&dpr=2.2

The painting I liked best was this Black Crow by Arthur Dove!!

After the Thyssen, a stop at the Reina Sofia Museum and the Botanic Gardens, neither of which was a wowser.  This last day was a full and gratifying finale to a wonderful excursion.

What's next?  I heard that there is great walking in the Azores and that you don't have to speak Portuguese to manage, but I don't know.......

Sevilla June 22

 First stop:  Alcázar.  For a good sense of what it is like, especially the architecture, which is stunning, look here: 

https://www.google.com/search?q=alcazar+seville&sxsrf=ALiCzsYWWto5PFKA46NqqF76aS_2zgesdQ:1655919965454&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjr0MTKzsH4AhUaLOwKHdU0A24Q_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1307&bih=723&dpr=2.2

In addition, here are two iPhone shots of gardens:

and with palm tree in front:

My favorite spot de todo was this window The green you see is not stained glass, but trees!

Of course, there were lots of colorful mosaics.  Even ceilings were decorated with tiles:

There was an exhibit of fans.  Some quite traditional:

Some made of lace, or even feathers:

The downside of the visit was that there were so many people that, in some places, you couldn't even move from one space to another.  Now, that is a lot of people!

Next stop, after a 45 minute walk, was the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo.  Just for starters, the site of this museum is a former monastery! Is that the best setting for state-of-the-art art or what!  

As you enter, you are greeted, as well you should be:

                        

Some of the pieces may have been left—or not— from when the monastery was used as a monastery, like these marble people lying atop caskets (tombs?):

and this pious woman:

¡Sean dos! (make that two):

How the mosaic work figures into the monastery scheme, no idea!

This installation of open doors is more than meets the eye. These are not simply doors for looking at.  No.  Every now and then, they start slamming at random!  It makes quite a racket.  And then..... they stop.

This is a necklace of hair, wood, and leather by Mona Hatoum, Lebanon, 1995.

And this is the curator's story:

"In this work, the artist displays a bust with a necklace under a case, emulating the windows of jewelry shops.  But what looks like a precious and decorative object, reveals an organic presence when examined more closely.  The beads of which the necklace is composed have been created by the artist by rolling up human hair.  Locks of hair are sensual and seductive material when they belong to a feminine body, but they can easily become disturbing and disgusting elements.  The matter of the body, especially her own one, is inseparable from Mona Hatoum's work;  in Hair Necklace she uses the oscillation between the attraction and repulsion caused by hair in order to turn its residual status into a new form."

Whoah:  that is heavy! 

Some installations were huge, as in whole rooms, and some very dark as in you could not see, some were cheezy political films. 

One exhibit was of a glass table with a variety of glass vessels on top that had ink in them.  It was supposed to mimic a chemistry lab.  The art part was that the glass vessels on the glass table were connected by glass tubes that ran under the table, and, Oh Ho!  Though you cannot see it happening, the ink is moving v e r y  s l o w l y from one vessel to another through the tubes, so if you go back in say, six months, it may look different. 

 Then it was off to the Castillo de San Jorge or the Museum of the Inquisition.  It was closed!!  I was almost relieved.

Finally, I went to a Flamenco show because how can you come to southern Spain and not go?  

It was not the best, but then again I may not the best judge.  

 Day ended with final packing decisions.  I don't even want to think about what I threw out, including my boots!  I evoke the principle of Sunk Costs!  Or, in the case of the boots, Rationalization:  To resole the boots, costs about 50% of a new pair and they don't come out the same.  What is done is done!

Sevilla, June 21

 Did a Wikiloc circular walk of Sevilla, which took about five plus hours.  The one digression was the time spent in Maria Luisa Park, the highlight of the entire excursion.

The park is lush:

Some trees have ginormous roots:

Of course, a first rate park has to have a pond with ducks:

                        

And swans:

and other fowl:

And at least one frog:

Some statuary of swooning maidens:

: 

 

And a big old lion to guard them all!

 

In the afternoon, I headed to the Palace of Fine Arts.  The building itself and the grounds are gorgeous, but the 14 rooms of religious art were a bit of overload.  I was, however,  surprised to find Susanna again!   

 

In case you never got to it, here is a link to the text https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/apo/sus001.htm

AND Potifar's wife with José!

Funny, I never pictured him quite that way!  That story you can find in Genesis 39.

Then it was off to the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions.  I always appreciate being reminded of how much work goes into, or used to go into, making the things we use: bread, oil, wine, metal implements for cooking and farming and so many other tasks, baskets of various kinds and materials, pots, thread, cloth, clothing, lace, barrels, guitars, even castanets, dishes, and more!

For example, get a load of this apparatus used to grind grain:

Right now there is a guitarist playing in the lobby and church bells are ringing.  It is all quite lovely!

Aracena and Sevilla, June 20

 Left apartamento at 6:15 but outsmarted myself because it was not yet light enough to distinguish the path from what I thought was the path, so I headed through a gate that clearly one was not supposed to pass through (its being covered with a heavy shmatah and locked were good  indications), and, after some minutes, found myself in the middle of a horse farm.  “This cannot be right,” I thought, and it was not. A horse farm is bound to be fenced and gated so that the horses don’t “excape,” so what to do?  I espied a gate that had a-j u s t-wide-enough space between two of the rails for me to squeeze through, but, though closer, I was still not on the route. Moving in the direction indicated by the magenta line on the GPS, I now espied a dry stone wall.  “I bet I am supposed to be on the other side of that wall,” I thought (again).  But wall was a little too high to scale, so I took some stones from the top to make a footstool. Yup! Up and over!  I was on the way to Alájar where the dueño of the posada had agreed to act as taxista and drive me to Sevilla.

En route to Alájar, among the pigs and the sheep and the barking dogs, olive trees and chestnut, were some cork trees recently harvested:

Approaching Alájar:  

The walk was only three and a half hours, but it was a satisfying finale to this whole, grand expedition.  

The old city of Sevilla is dominated by the cathedral.  This is just a corner of it. 

To see more, go here: https://www.google.com/search?q=cathedral+of+seville+height&sxsrf=ALiCzsaFJL7OH3uw8m7FDIrKMjRvR0wuIg:1655752692576&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjxnc6437z4AhWCR_EDHbDuCOcQ_AUoAXoECAIQAw&biw=1307&bih=723&dpr=2.2

My plan was to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, but, it being Monday, all the museums were closed, so I hunted and gathered and walked around.  This is one lively city!

Tons of shops!  One sold flamenco dresses for dolls:

And shoes for wanna-be flamenco dancers:

There were bins of spices and teas:

The smells were divine!
 

Upon returning to the hotel, I began the brutal process of tossing supplies to make more room in the suitcase.  This is because my backpack, which would normally share the load, broke—it is usable but it digs into my back something fierce, so for the train ride to Madrid and the flight home, it will contain only the necessities.  Of course, what constitutes "a necessity" becomes the next challenge.

Aracena, June 19

 Had a nice long walk of some 16 miles today— to Fuenteheridos and back with a couple of uh-ohs wrong path—but the walking was  not difficult: woodland paths, farm country, that sort of thing.  Not much hillage, and, to make the day even more pleasant, the air was cool as in long sleeves until about 10:00 a.m.

Everyone and everything seemed to be taking it easy:

Just lazin' around:

And looking pretty:

This one not so pretty; he lives in Aracena:

Riderless white horse has found his beshert (soul-mate), so we probably will not be seeing him again: