My first trip to Haiti

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Run in Toledo

Another series of photos from my morning runs in Toledo.

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Back Home in Toledo

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The trip from Cadiz to Toledo was uneventful, but anticipated as a journey home. Auldyn felt as she was returning home as she looked forward to seeing her host family that she lived with for over two months. I could not wait to meet the family that she spoke of so fondly.

We arrived at a train station that had direct relation to the Arabic elements that were at the Alhambra in Granada. The city of Toledo is perched on top of a hill surrounded by a mediaeval fortress wall. A picturesque, storybook skyline of cathedral towers, military outlooks, and other tile roofed structures laid out in a patchwork structure. 

Basic Ingredients.

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Life in Cadiz was just what we needed after the tourist mecca of Granada and the urban density of Barcelona. Our first meal in Cadiz set the tone. A simple soup of tomato and garlic, bread, olives, and a piece of freshly fried fish made our meal. Simple, fresh ingredients… Things here are a basic, relaxed, and direct. The common theme of medieval streets continues as we became disoriented and a bit lost on the way to the hotel. It is a very old city, laid out in fragmented patters of triangles and strange bends. The layout of the streets is very exotic to me, one raised on the rational grid, but Auldyn has been assimilated to the complexity of the medieval layout from Toledo and now feels at home in the broken geometry of the old Spanish cities.

We arrived in Cadiz at 2:30 and found a lunch about 3:30. We keep arriving in cities at siesta; this experience of showing up when the city is napping misleads me. While it appeared that the city was slow and suffering from economic problems, this was not the case. I must get over this perception. At about 6:00 the shop opened again, restaurants, cafes, bars all became very busy, and most of all the plazas fill with families!

The old part of Cadiz is at the end of a peninsula, once a fortress and still defined by thick protective walls. At the far end of the old city is a beach that appears to be populated by local families and Spanish vacationers. I was prepared for hot weather, but Cadiz offers a perfect 75, sunny, light sea breeze, and low humidity. NICE One delight at the beach is the bar tucked in under the fortress wall. It is nice to be at a public beach were one can have a beer, be family oriented, and get a good meal if they wish. While at the beach I was reminded of our American - Puritan undertones as some of the women sunbathed topless. This was not a “thing” as young children played, men read books and napped, and most of the women chatted.

We did not have any major tourist destinations like Barcelona and Granada, so we have time to find and enjoy local life. For dinner one evening we headed to what we thought would be a good local bar. Auldyn stuck a conversation with a may who appeared to be a permanent part of the bar and asked about the cuisine of Cadiz. He told us we must have the fried fish and to go to one of the restaurants at the plaza were you find the Cathedral. We found our way and ordered the mixed fried fish platter. The waiter confirmed that it was the traditional dish of Cadiz. One would like to think you could travel the world and bring back exotic recipes and recreate the best dishes. But I am finding the secret is not in the chemistry, but the freshness of the ingredients. The fish was local, pulled from the sea that day. The mix of fish was what was in the net that morning. We had several types of fish, I do not know the varieties, some heavy and dense, some light, oysters, squid, sardines…. It was all excellent, fried with their heads on and bone in. It was prepared in a fresh batter that we could hear being beaten in the kitchen minutes before we were served. No sauce, no other side dishes, just a lemon to squeeze over the plate.

Families rule Sundays. One of the most rewarding experiences in Cadiz was the time we spent in the plaza just outside of our hotel. We could not have had a better location. Sundays in Spain are family focused. Sunday started slowly, people populated the streets sometime in the late morning. Most stores were closed and the many churches were offering Mass. We wondered in a the Cathedral and stayed for part of the service and we discovered a second church and witnessed a formal ceremony of what Auldyn thought may have been about the church leadership. The women were dressed in black, some of the men in red, all very formal. The formality in the Churches, Jesus guided in gold, the imposing monumentality is in striking contrast to the scene just outside of the church. The plazas are typically rimmed with restaurants, bars, and cafes with one Church anchoring it all.

Plazas are the city’s living room. Kids practiced their soccer skills, parents socialized; all ate, drank, and partook in ice cream. On two occasions we witnessed wedding parties waiting for the couple to leave the church, enter the plaza, and get in an old car to take them away. Plazas are a way of life.

The final evening Spain was playing their second game of the World Cup. This is a big deal! In a large plaza near our hotel was a bar with a television above the door. We had noticed earlier that people would gather, arrange the seats so we they could sit under an umbrella, watch the game outdoors, and be served their favorite drinks. I will digress about drinks in Cadiz…. We thought that if any place in Spain would have great sangria it would be the southern coast of Spain. I have seen sangria on the menu a few times, I have not seen many locals drinking it, nor have I found it to be on the menu of many bars and restaurants. The times I have seen it I had been in more tourist type locations, and it was VERY expensive. Fifteen or more Euros a picture!!! ($20) So I am thinking that sangria is a tourist item, not local, nor really a daily part of Spanish life. But I may be wrong.

We headed up to the “sports bar” on the plaza to watch the game. Auldyn and I both were wearing our Spanish soccer shirts. We were about 20 minutes early and the bar was three quarter full. Seats arranged facing three tv screens all with pre-game tuned in. A man came up to us and painted the Spanish flag on our faces, we ordered beer and olives and settled into watch the game. Spain played a good game against Honduras and won 2-0. When Spain scored the crowd broke out in the expected explosion of cheers then sang a couple of songs. The soccer fans ran the spectrum of Spanish society, old, young, men, women…. All were inside and outside the bar enjoying the game. Once the game was over we left the bar to crowded streets and happy Spaniards celebrating with beer, ice cream, or a late dinner. We partook in all three. 

A Fairy Tale Day at the لْحَمْرَ

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 When Vera, my student from Spain found out I was going to visit Auldyn in Spain she asked if I was going to visit the Alhambra. Possibly the most important landmark in Spain, it is a spectacular series of buildings ranging from Arabic to Renaissance, refined to militaristic, it embodies the complexity of the Spanish culture in a singular place. 

The Alhambra is located on the top of the Sierra Nevada foot hills overlooking Granada. A spectacular site with military value and beautiful. Snow covered mountains are to the west and the view opens to the east. Washington Irving wrote "Tales of the Alhambra," A fairy tale story based on his experience living there in the eighteen hundreds. It is a fairy tale setting. 

Of course Auldyn and  I decided to walk to the entrance rather than take the bus. While the 20 minute steep uphill climb may not be what most would like it added to the appreciation of the site and stratigic position it held above the city. Luckily we filled up on a breakfast of ham sandwiches and churros to provide some energy for the day. We stared by touring the Palace of the Alhambra. It was the palace of the Moorish Rulers and is of Arabic design. The layers of patters, textures, ad applied decoration created an exotic atmosphere.