We left the apartment in Granada to catch to noon bus to the airport for our 2 pm flight. The bus didn't arrive at 12 noon. We waited until 12.10 pm and decided a taxi might be our best bet in order to catch our flight, the only one from Granada to Madrid, via Barcelona with Spanair. The plane left Granada late, but we knew we had a 2 hour stop over at Barcelona for our connecting flight to Madrid. This flight actually left Barcelona airport at 6.15 pm instead of 5 pm as scheduled. What made things worse was that there were no explanations forthcoming. By this time, we (and most of the other passengers) were getting pissed off! We spend the whole day travelling from Granada to Madrid, which should have taken approximately 4 ... read more

Today was the festival of Corpus Christi. The main street was set up for the procession of the various guilds in the Seville area dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament. There were hundreds of people in the procession, as well as several floats. The floats were of various statues of saints important to the city, as well as some marching bands and the procession of the Blessed Sacrament along with a huge cast of deacons, priests and archbishops. The procession went for about two hours. The afternoon was quiet because of the stifling heat and the fact that it was a public holiday. We went to the church of the Macarena. Not the dance, but of the Madonna of the Macarena. We are still unclear about what makes her so special to the people of Seville. In ... read more

Despite some minor hiccups accessing the apartment, Seville is stupendous. We started the afternoon exploring the Cathedral and La Giralda. Spanish Catholicism in this area is like nothing else. They like dressing up the statues like dollies. However, it does little to detract from the churches. The Cathedral is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and the 3rd largest church in the world. It houses the tombs of Christopher Colombus and King Ferdinand III. The reredos (altar pieces) are beyond description. We also climbed la Giralda. Fortunately it does not have stairs, but 35 ramps to the get to the top. Apparently, when the tower was a minaret, it allowed the either the sultan or the person who calls Muslims to prayer to ride up it on his horse. It is now the bell tower ... read more

Day Four in Barcelona. Today was a quiet day. In the morning, we visited the Cathedral of St Eulalia and its Cloister. The Cathedral was nice, but the cloister was beautiful. One oddity of the cloister was a number of resident geese. In the afternoon, we went back to the Sagrada Familia. This time we were able to climb the steeples. We had to go up by lift, which took us to a height of 65 m. From up there the view was wonderful.... read more

Day Two in Barcelona. Today we went to the Montserrat, the home of the Benedictine monks and a famous Madonna. We took the cable car up to the monastery, and a funicular up to one of the many hermitages. We also walked to the chapel of Santa Cova, where allegedly, they found the ancient statue of the Madonna, after it had been lost. It had been hidden for many years to protect it from the wars, but people had forgotten where it was located. ... read more