Road to Iberia V ...

... though much delayed for no good reason I will try to return to where I left off in Spain - Sevilla to be exact. So, we are back at 12 March.

A long day but a lot of fun. I did my best to figure out the shower (still stinking of wet paint). I only succeeded in shooting water all the way across the bathroom, soaking the door, which Carmen found absolutely hilarious. For some reason she seems to think I leave every place a mess within 10 minutes.

We went off to find breakfast, walking forever before coming back right to where we started at Numero 3 de Oro. We ate outside - I had fresh bread and Andalusian style ham and some coffee, all very good. While we ate we got to watch an entertaining episode of life on the streets of Sevilla: a very big truck came down the very narrow street we were dining by, stopped at the cross street, and then didn't have enough room to make the turn. The driver didn't know what to do. A few minutes later a delivery van came down the same street and, of course, was blocked by the first truck. The driver looked at the situation, shut off the engine, hopped out and went into the restaurant across the street. Apparently it seemed like a good moment to get some morning cafe.

We eventually all set off for the cathedral. It is an impressive mass. After wandering around for quite a bit we went up in La Giralda, the tower attached to the cathedral. Originally it had been part of the grand mosque of Sevilla. There was a fascinating series of displays as you walked up the tower ramps showing all stages of its history. It is a bit odd to think that Arabic was the spoken language of the town once. From the top you get an impressive view of the cathedral and the town.

La Giralda herself is at the very top of the tower. She's the saint on top who holds out a huge sail to catch the wind so that she turns as the wind blows. In fact, that is what Giralda means - "The Turning One."

After lunch we walked over to the Plaza de Espana. What an amazing place that is. It looks like an enormous 18th century palace, but it is really not anything. It was built purely to look impressive back for some international exposition - it reminded me a lot of the faux Roman ruins we saw in San Francisco last summer. They were constructed for the same purpose. Now the plaza in Sevilla is often used for shooting movies, including this one.

After all this I thought I wanted to wander off with Carmen on our own to see the Achaeology Museum. It was a good choice. The museum collection is not huge, but it is very well done. I enjoyed it for about two hours.

Went back to our little pension, too tired to change to a bigger hotel. After a short nap we went out to dinner. We could see signs of preparation for Semana Santa, the Holy Week. Finally picked a Middle Eastern Restaurant called the "Alcazar." It was excellent. A good end to a good day.

In honor of Mickey's very first birthday ....

... here is a page of great birthday cakes of the past.

On Sunday we went to his christening at the big Catholic Church on the hill, then to his and Máeráed's house for tons of wonderful food, some of it Vietnamese. Then last night at the Mellow Mushroom I helped him eat his first birthday cake. It was good too.

I ate it on the run to catch my bus - which turned out to be 40 minutes late! I could have stayed for another piece of cake - or anther beer.

For those few Hello Kitty fans out there ...

... which seems to include every female in my extended family, by blood and by notion, this is an interesting piece of news from Salon.com.

Hello Kitty — Japan's ubiquitous ambassador of cute — has built up an impressive resume over the years. Global marketing phenom. Fashion diva. Pop culture icon. Now the moonfaced feline can add "government envoy" to the list. The tourism ministry on Monday named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women.

Apparently the Japanese believe this will lead to increased tourism in Japan. Maybe our "High Country" (so-called for altitude, not chemical-induced attitude) could call upon Yosef as an official ambassador to the Olympics.

Maybe not.

The Earthquate Disaster in China....

... was witnessed by some of our colleagues from Appstate, Bob White in particular. Here is a bit of Bob's first hand account in an article by Monte Mitchell of Wilkesboro that appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal.

“We all rushed outside, and for approximately two minutes, we stood in the courtyard as the temple swayed, the paving stones shook under our feet, birds flew in crazed circles, a background noise of rumbling unlike anything I have experienced in my life, roof tiles fell from the roofs of buildings around us, and we all stood in awe of an amazing moment."

Which explains why when I came into school the day after the earthquake, a day almost no one was at school because of the summer schedule, I found Marv Williamson virtually chained to his desktop computer trying to find out what had happened to our group. Up to that point he had no news about them other than knowing that Bob and the group where supposed to be right where the quake hit. Eventually the wife of one of the group leaders received a message from her husband that they were alright and contacted Marv. Thanks God.

Unfortunately tens of thousands of others were not so lucky.

We had a friend come visit over the weekend ....

... he is a former student who grew up (allegedly) to become a campaign manager for hire - usually for conservative Republicans. We let him stay over night, even though he says that he signed up to be a volunteer for Hilary Clinton! Apparently this is what happens when Conservatives go bad. (or maybe Hilary is what happens when Liberals go bad? ).

Despite Alan's political affiliations, our worthless hound, the lummox, didn't even growl at him, much less bite him. In fact all Alan had to do was play rough with him for a few minutes and the silly animal thought of him as a friend. Well, he is ... after all.

Saturday, which was the only pretty day of the whole weekend, at Alan's suggestion we went off to the Rafaldini Vineyards. It's one of the vineyards trying to turn the Yadkin Valley into Napa Valley .... but the wines still are not anywhere near as good as the price would lead you to believe, yet. Someday.

But right now at least the whole experience of going out to the part of the county that looks like the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester before the urban brawl destroyed it was wonderful. Good weather, a knowledgeable wine pourer, lots of ambiance from a faux Tuscan country villa ... it wasn't bad. We split a bottle of wine out on the patio looking off across the vineyards to the mountains. In fact, I bought several cases of wine to help stimulate the local economy.

If nothing else it will keep part of the county in agriculture.

Finland forever ...

... Jari, my Finnish colleague, sent us a message about life in Finland. Since Jen is studying over there, I thought I would post it here. Actually, it sounds a lot like parts of Minnesota.

Here's the skinny on Finland, so you're prepared:
-it's cold
-penguins are housepets
-they use reindeer to plow the fields
-they drink a lot (and I mean a LOT)
-everybody has three Nokia phones
-their favorite pastime is a wife-carrying contest

Finland rules!