Our neighbor, Paul, kindly drove us to Logan Express in Woburn yesterday afternoon. It snowed heavily in Boston in the morning but stopped before noon.

We enjoyed our flight in a relatively new Airbus A340-600. Every passenger seat has its own individual entertainment LCD console with choices of 12 movies, so we started watching "Julie and Julia" before taking off. The aircraft also has a bank of 6 or 7 lavatories in the lower level, a few steps down toward the middle of the aircraft's belly, so that disruptions to passengers may be minimized.

Madrid was raining lightly. A GCT rep picked us up in a van and drove to our downtown hotel, a gleaming four-star modern hotel on Atocha Street, not far from the Atocha RENFE train station. Our GCT tour director, Eduardo, was waiting for us. He gave us a package of info, suggested we to visit the Reina Sofia museum because it was open (while Prado was closed on Mondays) and is just across the street from our hotel. Then off we went, we were on our own until the welcome cocktail at 7 pm. (The welcome lunch was scheduled on the following day.)

Next, we walked to San Miguel Market, which was a delight in sight - bright, airy, clean, and bustling. From a fruit vendor we bought clementines. They were very juicy and tasty. Many bars in this market were doing a brisk business but there were also throngs of people jostling to buy food or find seat/table. Eventually, we were able to buy some tapas by pointing to what others before us were buying.

Day 3 - Madrid photo (12/8/2009, Tuesday):

We had our first taste of churros during breakfast. We loved it. We could just eat churros for the whole meal, but since there were so many eye-catching food to choose from, we needed to save room for vegetables, fruit, pastry, meat, juice and coffee.

A local guide took us for a half-day panoramic tour of Madrid on bus. Madrid was cold, in the low 50F's.

Madrid became Spain's capital in 1561 when Philip II moved his court from Toledo to Madrid. Yesterday, while driving from the airport to our hotel, we saw Madrid looked a lot like Taipei. But today, after driving to the new part of the city along the Castellana Avenue, we saw that Madrid is much grander, with many impressive buildings, squares, fountains and parks.

Our welcome dinner was moved to a welcome lunch in a local restaurant. The food was good, plenty of  RIOJA (pronounced as [RIO-ha], the name of a region where the grapes for the red wine were from) for those who like reds.

We were free for the afternoon and evening. There were many sights to see but we only had time for one major attraction. The four of us chose to go to the Prado Museum instead of the Royal Palace. (By the way, Madrid's  Royal Palace was commissioned by King Philip V. He was a grandson of Louis XIV of France and preferred speaking French in his court. Today's Spanish King, Juan Carlos I, is a descendent of this French Bourbon dynasty.)

Luckily, today was the last day of the 5-day National Holiday. Vacationers had already started leaving Madrid to go back home. Therefore, there was no line outside the Prado Museum when we went. Each of us rented an audio guide and followed a route highlighted in Rick Steve's Spain guide book to see master pieces by major artists such as Diego Velazquez [vel-LAHSS-kes], Francisco de Goya, and El Greco.

So far, we have walked by several "Museum of Ham" stores, which is a franchise selling all kinds of ham as well as quick eats. But we did not know the differences from one kind of ham to the other until Day 9 in Ronda, when Eduardo told us about the best kind of ham. (Read Day 9 Ronda for details.)

We left our Madrid hotel at 8am to go to Cordoba, but along the way we visited Toledo for half a day. This was how we could have visited so many places on this tour - when we transferred from A to B we visited C along the way.

Toledo is located about one hour south of Madrid. It was Spain’s capital until 1561, when Philip II moved his court to more-spacious Madrid. Toledo is well preserved, and has a rich mix of Jewish, Moorish, and Christian heritage. It was once known as the “City of Three Cultures” for its harmonious coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities.

There are 80 churches in Toledo but only one cathedral. Toledo's cathedral is one of Europe's best. We had a very good local guide, Carlos, whose story-telling skill made the cathedral come alive for us.

On the walls of a beautiful room (Sacristy?) in the cathedral where priests change clothes before and after services, there were 20 El Greco paintings as well as Goya, Titian, Rubens, and Velazquez, all privately owned by the cathedral.

The cathedral has several doors. One of them is named King's Door, which opened only for kings and queens in the past. Since in this democratic era there are not many kings and queens, so now the King's Door also opens for heads of states and their spouses. The last time the Kings Door opened for an American was during the Clinton administration, when Hillary visited with daughter Chelsea and a friend of Chelsea's.

We also went to the Church of Santo Tome (Church of St. Thomas), a simple chapel with El Greco's masterpiece, "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz." Orgaz is the name of a place, and the count at that time was also the mayor of Toledo. When El Greco was commissioned by the church to paint such a scene, he painted himself, his wife, and his son into the painting, so it was also a family portrait! El Greco spent two years completing this painting. Mei-Ching asked Carlos, the local guide, if El Greco was paid enough to live for two years. Carlos said that El Greco did not spend the whole two years on this painting alone, he also did some other work at the same time, in the name of waiting for inspiration. And yes, El Greco was paid well by the church for this painting.

After lunch, we got on our bus to continue a 5-hour ride to Cordoba. In Spain and Portugal there are very strict regulations governing how often a bus driver must take a break of 30 minutes after a certain length of driving. (There is a CD-like black box on every European bus to record the bus' movements at all times.)  So we made stops along the way, about 15 minutes if just for us to wash hands, 30 minutes when Pedro must take his mandatory 30 minutes break. On both sides of the highway, we saw olive trees after olive trees, perhaps more than what we saw in Greece. Spain is the number one olive oil producing country in the world right now.

During the long bus ride, Eduardo talked to us about Spain's past and present, as well as Q and A. When he said Spain also produces almond, Mei-Ching asked him how to order Almond gelato in Spanish. Turrón helado, he said. (The leading "h" in helado is not pronounced.) We ordered Turrón helado a few days later in Costa del Sol, but it was not in the same league as the Mandorla ([MON-dor-la] = almond in Italian) gelato we had in Sicily this past May. To us, the Sicilian almond gelato is more flavorful.

We arrived at Cordoba in the evening, checked into Hotel Cordoba Center, had an included buffet dinner at the hotel's restaurant.

Córdoba [pronounced with the accent at the first syllable, COR-do-ba] is a UNESCO site. It has a glorious Roman and Moorish past, once serving as a regional capital for both empires.

Islamic Córdoba (for 500 years from 758 - 1236 AD) was Medieval Europe's Culture Capital, Córdoba's Mezquita (The Great Mosque) is Europe's best Islamic site after Granada's Alhambra.

A local guide took us on a walk through the old Jewish quarter (La Juderia). Then he guided us to tour the Mezquita, a beautiful Mosque with a Christian Cathedral built in the middle of it. Within the mosque compound there is the Patio de los Naranjos (the "patio of the orange trees") bearing a lot of orange fruit.

For lunch on our own, the four of us went to El Caballo Rojo ("The Red Horse") located across from the Mezquita on the northern side. Its upstairs is a pricy restaurant that saw many illustrious guests, including the Crown Prince of Japan, but we followed guidebook tips to eat tapas in the ground floor bar for a lighter meal. The tapas were good, the price reasonable. We did not order the famous Córdoba dish, Ox tail (rabo de toro), because Eduardo advised us to save Ox tail for dinner (our lunch break was brief too).

After lunch, Eduardo led the entire group for a walk from the Mezquita in the old town to Plaza Tendillas in the new town, about half way back to our hotel. We walked through many narrow alleys and saw several beautiful houses, neat courtyards and squares. We also saw a Roman ruin with several columns still standing. The walk was easy and relaxing with a few pleasant surprises along the way. Eduardo made the walk very enjoyable.

When we paused in front of many orange trees bearing oranges, Eduardo told us these oranges are called Sevilla oranges. They are bitter and not edible (that explains why there were still so many fruit on the orange trees, no one plucked them.)  Eduardo said these Sevilla oranges are exported to UK to make marmalade, to France to make into a liqueur, and its flowers are exported to France as a key ingredient in the famous Chanel No 19 perfume.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant in the new town called Taverna Salinas, listed in every guide book we read. We even ordered the eggplant with honey, as well as potato with garlic, specifically recommended by one of the guide books. (In addition to those two dishes we also ordered two meat dishes.) However, none of the dishes we ordered stood out, and the restaurant was freezing and deserted on a winter evening at 8:00pm. Perhaps the restaurant would be a lot more cheerful during the daytime when there was sunlight streaming down from the sky? Or perhaps we did not order the dishes that made the restaurant popular? Or perhaps the guide book authors just copied from each other without checking it out themselves?

After a so-so dinner, we walked to the old town to see the Roman bridge just south of the  Mezquita. We found the old town pretty much deserted on this winter night. The locals all went back to their home or to the new town. Luckily, there were four of us walking together, otherwise we might have turned back before reaching the Roman bridge. After seeing the illuminated Roman bridge and the Mezquita in the night, we took a taxi back to the hotel.

With more than 300 days of sunshine and a mild winter, the Costa del Sol is a year-around attraction for northern Europeans. Torremolinos was a sleepy fishing village that morphed into an international beach resort with a six-mile long promenade.

Having decided not to take the optional tour to Tangiers, we slept in and went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast around 9:30am. A dozen or so of our tour members not going to Morocco also sauntered in, taking it easy today. We forgot to take photos of the hotel's breakfast today to capture images of the exotic fruits, including soft persimmon and a fruit that is very similar to Taiwan's Si-Gia (旺來釋迦)

The weather was warm, sunny, and very pleasant. Mei-Ching wore sandals and Vincent wore shorts. We walked along the seaside promenade to the fishermen's quarter called La Carihuela. There were many shops and restaurants. We went to a seaside restaurant called La Lonja (meaning "The Market", recommended by our hotel clerk) for a seafood lunch. This is a very large restaurant with many celebrity photos mounted on the wall. The various fried seafood plates we ordered were all very good, the prices were 40% higher than last night's at Casa Lopez, but that is what you pay for eating at an upscale establishment on the beach front.

In the evening, we went to a restaurant near the hotel (and recommended by Eduardo) for a seafood paella. Suffice to say that this paella was below our expectations; the paella we had yesterday at the lunch buffet in Alhambra was far better. Susan commented that the best paella she ever had was in Nice when we went to Switzerland and southern France together in 2001.

It was a great relaxing day by opting out of a day-trip to Africa.

Today we toured Málaga [MA-la-ga], 30-min away from Torremolinos, and then a family hosted lunch in Salinas. Málaga is a bustling commercial center, with an airport serving as the gateway to the Costa del Sol region. Both Pablo Picasso and movie actor Antonio Banderas are from Málaga.

We first stopped at Málaga's Bull Ring. There is a small museum in the bull ring honoring the great matador, the late Antonio Ordóñez. This Antonio Ordóñez was a long-time friend of both Ernest Hemingway and movie star Olsen Welles. Hemingway wrote a book titled The Dangerous Summer of 1959 as an account of Ordonez's rivalry with the matador Luis Miguel Dominguin (also Ordonez's brother-in-law). Antonio Ordóñez's two grandsons, Francisco Rivera Ordóñez and Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, are also bull-fighting in Spain. Being young and dashing and from a legendary bullfighter family, they were featured in a segment of CBS' 60 Minutes titled "The Blood Brothers" a few years ago.

Then we stepped onto the arena where Eduardo explained the bull-fighting rules while a young apprentice named Sergio demonstrated the matador moves to us. This was a GCT exclusive, and it was quite an eye-opener to learn about all these bull-fighting traditions and rules in depth. Fortunately, we were not scheduled to witness a bloody bullfight, because we did not think we could sit through it.

Eduardo took us for a walking tour through Málaga's city center, which was lovely, clean, and very pleasant. The Constitutional square was a delight - with sparkling marble walkways, beautiful Christmas  decorations, musicians playing music on sidewalks, ..., we really loved it here. Wish we could have spent the whole afternoon in Málaga roaming the streets and sightseeing on our own.

While walking in Málaga, Eduardo pointed out a 3-story yellow house where Pablo Picasso grew up as a child. We also stopped outside the Pablo Picasso museum, which was established after Pablo Picasso's daughter-in-law, Christine, donated 250+ pieces of Picasso's paintings and hand picked a building as a museum to house and exhibit these paintings. In a very diplomatic way, Eduardo said that it was not known whether these 250+ pieces were paintings the artist was unable sell, or if he meant to keep them within the family to begin with.

After the city tour, we took a one-hour bus ride heading north to a small village called Salinas for a home-hosted lunch. It is a long story why Salinas was selected to host GCT's home-hosted lunch, but here we were, in a small rural village. We were randomly divided into small groups of 6 or 7 people to go to different families' homes. Our small group of 6 included the Tzengs, the Lius, and the Parsons from California. None of us spoke Spanish, while our hostess could not speak English. Her husband greeted us then disappeared, so he probably did not speak English, and there was no one else at the house. So, we ate what the hostess prepared for us (wine, salad, chicken/vegetable soup, a main course of pork, coffee and packaged cookies). We talked entirely among ourselves. When it was time to leave, Eduardo came to collect us. We then briefly toured their neat house and courtyard before saying thank you and good by, and the hostess said adios to us. Judging from the lack of meaningful interaction with the hostess, we thought the time (meal time plus the bus time to and back from Salinas) could have been better spent if we were let loose in downtown Málaga for the afternoon. However, a few of the small groups happened to have member(s) speaking Spanish and we heard they had a good time over a home-hosted lunch.

We checked out of our Torremolinos hotel today to move to Sevilla.  On the way, we visited Ronda, a city from the Roman era. It is one of the largest Pueblos Blancos (white villages) in Andalucía. The visit to Ronda is also one of the memorable days of this trip.

Ronda is located on a plateau 4000 ft above sea level. It has a natural gorge, river, and cliff to protect it against invaders. That is why Ronda has been established as a town since Roman times.

Before entering the town, Eduardo pointed out a pretty house on the outskirts and said that it was the estate of the great matador, Antonio Ordóñez. (Remember we saw his statue and museum in Malaga's bullring? There are two legendary bullfighter families from Ronda, one is the Ordóñez and the other is the Romero.) Hollywood movie star Olsen Welles and Antonio Ordóñez were great friends. After Olsen Welles passed away, his daughter scattered his ashes on this estate of Antonio Ordóñez's. Ernest Hemingway also visited Ronda often. Can't remember who made the quote "Find me in Ronda" stick.

While walking in Ronda, Eduardo told us about the free-ranged, black-hoofed, acorn-eating Iberian pigs and that their ham is called Ibérico ham (Jamón ibérico) and that Jamón Ibérico de Bellota (Bellota =acorn) is the best kind of ham that it melts right in one’s mouth. And then, we turned left into a ham store called "Casa del Jamón" where we were all treated by GCT to a slice of the finest ham in the world, Jamón Ibérico de Bellota. Very delicious and flavorful indeed. Eduardo said that this heavenly ham costs 40Euro/Kg when you buy a whole leg bone-in. A leg weights about 7 Kg. Many Spanish families buy a whole leg of ham for X'mas Holidays.

When we were crossing the new bridge spanning the gorge to go to the old town, we could feel that it was very windy and very cold today. It must be in the 30F's.  We learned that this morning Madrid, Toledo, and even Granada were all covered by several inches of snow. Luckily, we did not encounter any snow during this trip.  However, it was very cold when we were in Ronda.

We were given one hour of free time for lunch on our own in the town center. We walked a bit and found a cozy shop full of locals. We sat upstairs and ordered coffee, tea, sandwiches and churros. The churros were hot off the frying pan, and looked much more like Taiwanese 油條 than those served at the hotel's breakfast. These churros dipped into hot chocolate warmed our hearts, especially on a cold day like this. The tasty churros enhanced our fond memories of Ronda.

Today's Sevilla [pronounced as se-VEE-ya] is a culture center and is Spain's 4th largest city, popular with Flamenco shows and seafood tapas bars. Besides real life artists such as Diego Velazquez and Bartolome Murillo, Sevilla has also been the fictional setting for Carmen. The former cigarette factory where the heroine is supposedly to have worked is now part of the university. We passed by that large factory building several times by bus, but did not take any pictures.

The Moors ruled Sevilla for 500 years until 1248. On 8/3/1492, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) set sail from Palos (near Huelva, 60 miles west of Sevilla) with three ships and 90 men, hoping to land in Asia. In the 17th century, Sevilla was Spain’s largest and richest city with trading ships cruising up the river to the dock at the city. Sevilla’s golden age ended when the harbor silted up and the Spanish empire crumbled.

In the morning, we had a panoramic bus tour of the city, then a walking tour of the Barrio Santa Cruz (the Jewish quarter) and the Cathedral with a local guide. The Jewish quarter in Sevilla looked very similar to the Jewish quarter in Toledo and Córdoba.

As for the Cathedral, some guidebooks say Sevilla's Cathedral is the 3rd largest in Europe, just behind St. Peter's in the Vatican and St. Paul's in London. But when we were in St. Isaac Cathedral (in St. Petersburg, USSR) in 2004, our Russian guide told us St. Isaac Cathedral was the 3rd largest cathedral in the world, just behind St. Peter's and St. Paul's. So which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world? (or in Europe?) Without prompting, our Sevilla local guide said to us, "Which is the largest cathedral in the world? Depending on if you are ranking by the height of the dome or by the diameter of the dome, or by the square footage." Then he pointed to a Guinness Book certificate displayed in a glass case in the cathedral which certifies Sevilla's Cathedral as the world's largest cathedral when measured by square footage!

After lunch we toured Sevilla's Alcázar (castle) on our own. The Alcázar is still used as a royal residence, so it may be closed to visitors when the King or Queen were in town. Admission is free for anyone over 65, including non-EU citizens, so we went. We have read from guide books that the Alcázar was modeled after the Alhambra, and pretty soon we could see that too. Since we had been to Alhambra a few days ago, we decided not to waste time there. We exited the Alcázar and walked to the new town for sight-seeing. We passed a Starbucks, went in to buy coffee mugs with the Spain and Sevilla logo for Ayumi. She collects Starbucks mugs from all around the world.

In the evening, we joined a GCT's optional Flamenco show at a night club called "El Patio Sevillano" near the bull ring (where the Carmen story is based). There are at least four reputable Flamenco clubs in town but this one gave GCT members special treatment, and we think that's why GCT tours chose to go to this club. The show was entertaining, the after-show dinner was good. The special 30-minute introductory session (for GCT members only) on Flamenco dance before the show was educational and enlightening. The highlight of the evening, however, was Eduardo’s impromptu dance on the stage with four of the female flamenco dancers. Vincent captured Eduardo’s guest performance of "dancing with the stars" in a video posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFYo-bElMaw. Eduardo told us afterwards that he has been Flamenco-dancing since a young boy. His friends can either play guitar or can sing. Therefore, on festive occasions they would get together to play guitar, sing songs, and dance to celebrate.

Today we checked out of Sevilla hotel to move to Lisbon in Portugal. Along the way, we visited a horse farm ranch in Portugal called "Brito Paes" and had lunch at the horse farm.

While our bus made a stop for 30 minutes because Pedro had to take his mandatory 30-min break, we had plenty of time to browse the highway gas shop. We immediately noticed that a cup of coffee was only 0.98Euro, almost half the price of what we paid in Spain. We also met a Japanese couple from Tokyo who was on a house-exchange with a friend in Portugal for two months. 

The one-thousand acre "Brito Paes" Ranch has been in existence for around 200 years, and has always been dedicated to breeding and development of horses. For the past 25 years, it has concentrated on breading sports horses and bullfighting horses. At the time we visited, the ranch had 15 Lusitanian mares and 5 studs for reproduction. Most of their horses were sold to foreign countries. A member asked about prices. The lady owner, Maria Brito Paes, said they roughly range from 15,000 to 50,000 Euros per horse.

We had a fabulous lunch in a converted barn with hearty vegetable soup and stewed Portuguese chicken. We then moved to another barn to see a horse show with Maria's older son riding the horses. Maria's husband passed away 12 years ago. At that time, her six children were ranging in age from 2 to 20. Today, she and her older sons run the ranch. Breeding horses is a tough business for women to be in, but she looks strong and wise and capable. We were appreciative of the hospitality she showed to GCT travelers, and wished her much success in her business.

Our hotel in Lisbon, Hotel Tryp Oriente, is located on the eastern edge of the city, next to the Oriente train station, and across from a modern shopping mall named after Vasco da Gama. This whole area was developed for the 1998 World's Fair, so there are many new buildings in this area. In the Vasco da Gama mall there is a well-managed food court on the 2nd floor with many choices of varieties. One vendor there sells very tasty Argentine grill specialties. We had grilled calamari and grilled pork, which were really delicious. Others who had grilled steak or grilled chicken all said they were very good. Wish we could find an Argentine specialty restaurant near Boston!

Upon first checking into our Lisbon hotel, we heard the hotel staff saying "Obrigato", sounded like they were speaking Japanese! A few minutes later, we learned that "Obrigato" is the Portuguese "Thank you", which sounded very close to "Arigado" (Japanese "Thank you"). Judging from the historical trading relationships between Japan and Portugal as well as Portugal's influence on the westernization of ancient Japan, it is plausible that Japanese tempura originated from Portuguese bakarau. We wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese "Arigado" was transformed from "Obrigato". We also learned that the popular Nagasaki (sponge) cake was introduced to Japan by Portuguese missionaries during the mid 16th century.