Spain

Spain isn't necessarily famous for wildlife, but in case you missed seeing animals from our Africa blogs, we thought we put in a picture of some ducks that were in the grounds of the "Cathedral" in central Barcelona.

Spain is known for its tasty cuisine, and did not let us down! Spain is popularly known for its tapas, which is variety meal of sampler sized dishes. However, the Spanish are also the most voracious fish eaters in the Mediterranean. We loved the fish dinner pictured above! We were a little worried if we were paying $12 for each the enormous and delicious salad, drink and desert that accompanied the gormet fish dish, but our sketchy understanding that it was all included in the fabulous lunch special turned out to be correct. Phew! And Wow!!! One of our best meals on the whole trip - including a reasonable price and all.

Barcelona also had an amazing market. After getting addicted to the fruits and fresh fruit juices of EVERY assortment, we wandered around, staring at the grotesque (our oppinion of course) animal parts for sale. It's hard to imagine the delicious Spanish foods originating from such strange origins!

Please note in the picture of the heads, there are brains for sale in the plastic containers. In case it's hard to tell right off, the following picture has tongue and tripe (stomach lining). We tried tripe soup in Bali and Rusty may like it... Kelsi does not.

Barcelona is blessed with a plethora of street performers . This twiggy guy was superlative with his crystal ball magic. We also enjoyed the many art displays and flower shops with blue roses and lots of beautiful to see and smell selections.

Spain is also renowned for its artists (Picasso) and architectural masterpieces. Foremost among the elite architects is Gaudi. A rather bizarre person himself, his modernist architecture adorns Barcelona in many places and ranks among the top attractions. Pictured below is the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece church. Construction was initiated well over 100 years ago, and might take still another hundred years to complete. When finished, it will be addorned with 12 towers dedicated to the Apostles, four to the evangelists, one to The Virgin Mary, and a 560 foot tower in the center dedicated to Jesus.

We also took time to visit several residences constructed by Gaudi. All of them have unique contours and interesting adornments of metal work.

Below are picture's of Gaudi's Park Guell, which Kelsi likes to think of as something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We enjoyed several hours strolling around the various lanes and arcades of the park.

After Barcelona we headed down south to the Andalucian city of Granada. The bus ride down south is worth a brief mention. It was particularly eventful due to one young mother and her children. She fed her little 5 year old boy and baby girl a lunch of Doritos and chocolate milk. The baby girl loved the food, but it wasn't long before it came back up all over her mother in a torrent of nastiness. The mother asked the driver to stop and wait while she fished out a new outfit from her luggage under the bus. The driver was a bit impatient, which worried the mother and upset the little boy. When the mother and children climbed back into the bus after changing clothes, the boy was so angry that he walked straight up to the driver and began screaming and waving his hand to lecturing the bus driver on patience. His mother could only laugh and pull him back to his seat. However, the boy hadn't quite hadn't quite had his fill of yelling, though, so as soon as him mother released him, he rushed back up to the bus drive for round two of his cussing out! The other passengers couldn't keep from laughing at the audacity of this little boy...

It is hard to capture the enormity and beauty of Granada's Alhambra, built in the 14th Century by Spains Muslim conquerors, the Moores. In any case, but here are a few pictures attempting to show some of what we enjoyed.

Our final stop in Spain was the sweltering city of Seville, the provincial capital of Andalucia, and home of the famous Real Alcazar (royal palace.) Seville has had several rulers, so the Real Alacazare was a hodgepodge of styles. The overall effect was quite nice, though.

The Royal gardens were particularly nice, and we enjoyed getting lost in the Royal maze, created from various bushes and hedges.

Seville is the center of Spain's passionate dance and music style known as Flamenco. Flamenco music and dancing features incredible percussion, including tap dancing, clapping, and guitar. The male dancer in the performance we attended tapped so vigorously that he sounded like a drum roll at times.  It was a dramatic and passionate production to say the least.

We stayed near the beautiful Cathedral in Seville's historic jewish quarter.

And now, a short history on the Spanish Lisp. We had heard rumor that the lisp was a result of the popular emulation of a speech impediment of a popular King, Pedro of Castile. However, Pedro lived in the 1500's, and the lisp didn't widely appear until the 1700's, two hundred years later. More likely, the lisp developed as a result of other regional linguistic forces, although the impact of one popular man on the development of a language can be enormous. In the English language, Chaucer and Shakespeare come to mind! Like the Spain lisp or not, it is addictive. We're doing all we can to avoid catching it ourselves. We're now off to the final leg of our trip, Portugal! Looking forward to seeing you all then!