As mentioned in the last entry, I was contracted to perform at the Peña Amigos del Cante in Zamora. So at 4 AM last Saturday, we started off to drive almost the entire length of Spain. Zamora is way north - the farthest we've ever been.
We arrived at midday and checked into our hotel. Soon Eduardo Abríl, the president of the peña came to join us and escorted us to lunch with his family and Alberto, another officer of the peña. Then, after the traditional nap (of which I am uncommonly fond), we went to a bullfight. We had seen lots of bullfights on TV, but never in person. The 5 toreros (of which there are usually 3) had donated their performances to a benefit for AA. It started to rain and then hail during the first bull, but cleared up in 10 minutes. There were some great performances from most of the toreros and bulls. One torero got tossed (which is unusual), but continued with his bull even though in considerable pain. He had a very difficult time of it. But several of the other toreros were awarded ears for good work. Bulls relatively small, but appropriately fierce.
This guy did a very nice job.Later, we did the show. I was the whole thing, so I had to fill the entire evening... and did so. Andi danced the buleria on the stone floor. Nice review for both of us in the local paper and on the blog on the peña website - http://www.amigosdelcante.es/ - same text for both. Click on "Blog" at the top of page and then scroll down the blog for the article.
Here I am again. I can't believe this!The next day, we started off to spend our earnings on tourism in a quest to see the best castles in Castilla. It turns out that most of the Spanish castles were just intended to be forts and watchtowers. Very few people lived in them, unlike the castles in Germany and England. As a result, they were mostly fortified walls around a central plaza in which the army and local civilians camped during a battle or siege. The castles were modified every time the region changed hands in the long struggle between Christians and Islam (700 years long!).
Here is the castle at Peñafiel, one of the biggest, built on a ridgetop. It is long and narrow like a boat. You can see Richard Parker's little blue car.
Here is the "pointy end" of the castle. You can see that the walls are made for fighting and the rest of the space is for camping out by soldiers and civilians.
Here is the town of Peñafiel as seen from the castle.
Yet another view from below.We visited the castles at Peñafiel, Istar, Cuellar, Coca, Medina del Campo, and Barca del Ávila and then polished off the tour by seeing the Roman aqueduct, temple, forum, theater, and coliseum at Mérida. That last was truly amazing - some of the best preserved Roman ruins in existence. One of the things we found was that Castilla-Leon is spectacular in the Spring. We took mostly back roads and came down a mountain pass near the Sierra de Gredos, driving through little villages with tile roofs and rock walls, cherry trees in bloom, and a river in the bottom of the canyons. 20 spectacular miles that might just be the prettiest place I've ever been.
Travel expenses - we found very nice hotels for 45 Euros per night, ate well, and figure we spent 100 E or less per day for everything including gas for the car. That's about $133... just in case you were wondering if you wanted to visit Spain. Another thought - there are a lot of villages in Spain with declining populations. The young folks go to the cities and the old folks die off. That leaves quite a few abandoned houses. Groups of foreigners could go and find a village with abandoned housing in decent condition and buy houses for very little $. Sure it means living in a village, but what a beautiful life style once you learn to slow down. The people are wonderful. Now we're back in Rota to rest for a few days and then it's off to Holy Week (Semana Santa) in Sevilla. More castle pictures follow this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment