Welcome to Andalucía! Whether it’s your first or fifth visit, we cover a lot of new info on this tour… everything from history to religion to current events. Sometimes the amount of information can be overwhelming, so I created this page to help you explore more & dig into certain topics that may have sparked your interest. Try not to read ahead too much though… we’ll be discussing everything in more detail on the bus or over meals.
The best part? All this information will remain available after the trip is over, giving you an opportunity to revisit Andalucía as well as engage with each other via the comments section at the end. I hope you find this useful & enjoyable. Let’s dive in…
Day 01 · Córdoba
Click on Rick for his personal travel tips (a PDF for your reference, same info posted by the first day’s schedule). Good advice to keep in mind!
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La bandera blanca y verde
vuelve, tras siglos de guerra,
a decir paz y esperanza,
bajo el sol de nuestra tierra.
¡Andaluces, levantaos!
¡Pedid tierra y libertad!
¡Sea por Andalucía libre,
España y la humanidad!
Los andaluces queremos
volver a ser lo que fuimos
hombres de luz que a los hombres,
alma de hombres les dimos.
¡Andaluces, levantaos!
¡Pedid tierra y libertad!
¡Sea por Andalucía libre,
España y la humanidad!
Written in 1933 by Blas Infante, just three years before he was assassinated at the outset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
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The first of a few recipes to try at home… this one for that classic chilled soup we had for dinner: salmorejo. Many more of my recipes can be found in my blog under the category food & wine.
Day 02 · Córdoba
Guide to 11 churches founded by Fernando III, promoted by the the city’s tourism information center. The 64-page PDF guide (in English even!) contains a lot of gems with some visible remnants of former mosques. It’s a fun way to explore the city.
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“Robert, I just want a salad…” 😉
It’s true: Spain doesn’t do US-style salads in restaurants… We eat tons of veggies, but perhaps not the way you may be accustomed to seeing them prepared & more often at home than out & about. When we go out, we want something special & not the salad we have almost daily at home. Many of the following options are available at tapas bars or as a course on a menú del día:
- Cogollos: baby hearts of Romaine, often served with roasted red peppers & tuna, drizzled in olive oil.
- Pimientos de Padrón: skillet-fried, mini green peppers. You might get the occasional hot one, but most are not the least bit spicy.
- Espinacas con garbanzos: cooked spinach with garbanzos in olive oil with garlic & a touch of paprika. A Sevilla specialty & delish (my recipe here).
- Pisto: basically a ratatouille, all vegetables cooked separately then mixed together & often served topped by a fried egg with a runny yolk to mix in.
- Berenjena con miel: fried eggplant drizzled with honey. A classic in the south.
- Gazpacho: a liquid salad, great on warm days. This chilled soup is made with tomatoes, green pepper, onion, garlic, vinegar & bread (my recipe here). A thicker variety made with more olive oil & bread is called salmorejo (my recipe here).
- Parrillada de verduras: only available as a ración, but a large serving of nicely presented, grilled vegetables.
- Espárragos: grilled, green asparagus in season or when canned, the meaty, white ones.
- Ensaladilla rusa: potato salad often with peas & carrots, sometimes with gambas (shrimp) or atún (tuna).
- Setas: oyster mushrooms served grilled, usually with chopped parsley & garlic.
- Crema de verdura: creamy vegetable soup, a typical menú del día first course option.
- Salpicón: raw, chopped onions, green peppers, & red peppers often with hearts of palm & some type of seafood like shrimp. Mixed with a bit of vinegar + olive oil & served cold.
Eating in Spain is an adventure with almost endless variety. Scope out what is offered by looking at the bar or see what other people are eating & point to order. Also, ask the staff questions if you see something tasty but don’t know what it’s called!
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On the flip side, we all know pork is prized in Spain. All the different cuts don’t necessarily have US equivalents due to differences in butchering. And of course, nothing goes to waste. Here are a few translations that might help: lomo/solomillo = tenderloin · costillas = ribs · carrilladas = cheeks · tocino = bacon · panceta = pork belly · pluma & secreto are from the pork butt (which is actually the shoulder, used for pulled pork in the US) · lagarto = thin strips between the ribs & tenderloin · codillo/jarrete = knuckle
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Flamenco has developed so much during its existence, but one thing is certain: regardless of change, its popularity never fades. Some recommended artists:
- Paco de Lucía, guitarist (1947-2014) – branched out into classical music as well as jazz
- Tomatito, guitarist (1958-present)
- Estrella Morente, singer (1980-present) – daughter of artist below
- Enrique Morente, singer (1942-2010)
- Camerón de la Isla, singer (1950-1992)
- Sara Baras, dancer (1971-present)
- Rafael Amargo, dancer (1975-present)
Day 03 · Montilla
I was fortunate enough to experience three intense days in September 2023 with visits/tastings in wineries during the morning, an included lunch, then afternoons of classes about agriculture, chemistry & labelling… with more wine at dinner! Fantastic experience to get to know wine lovers from all over Spain.
If you’d like to learn more about wines from Montilla-Moriles or if some aspect of the complicated process still seems unclear, I’m happy to answer any questions. Below are some videos of the processes Teresa or Noelia talked about at Bodegas Alvear (drying of grapes in the sun as well as the presses at work):
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People often ask what my experience has been like updating guidebooks for Rick Steves, so I’ve written about my June 2022 assignment in Portugal. In fact, I have an entire blog category titled “guidebook research” that covers many previous trips with a couple favorites: Italy in 2019 & Andalucía in March 2022. Fun but exhausting!
Day 04 · Úbeda
Antonio Machado poetry
Soledades, Verso XLI
Me dijo una tarde de la primavera: Si buscas caminos en flor en la tierra, mata tus palabras y oye tu alma vieja.
Que el mismo albo lino que te vista, sea tu traje de duelo, tu traje de fiesta.
Ama tu alegría y ama tu tristeza, si buscas caminos en flor en la tierra.
Respondí a la tarde de la primavera: Tú has dicho el secreto que en mi alma reza: yo odio la alegría por odio a la pena.
Más antes que pise tu florida senda quisiera traerte muerta mi alma vieja.
Solitudes, Verse 41
A spring afternoon said to me: If you search for roads in flower on the earth, kill your words and listen to your old soul.
For the same white linen that you wear, could be your suit for sadness, your suit for good times. Love your happiness and love your sadness, if you search for roads in flower on the earth.
I answered the spring afternoon: You have spoken the secret that resounds in my soul: I hate happiness because I hate sorrow.
Long before I step on your flowered path I would bring to you dead my old soul.
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View of the city from 1787… with some buildings still recognizable today.
Day 05 · Úbeda
Renaissance architecture became all the rage in Spain in the early 20th century. Many old palaces had fallen into disrepair, & rather than demolish these beautiful entryways, the elite bought them & moved them to new locations.
For example, the above-left photo was the original location of the Aranda family mansion… which got installed in Sevilla (above-right) around 1920 as part of the Casa Pickman (well-known English ceramic makers). While their original idea was not to preserve heritage as much as hint at social status, we can appreciate these works of art today.
Keep an eye out in the Alcázar in Sevilla for another example: the Puerta de Marchena. Even William Randolph Hearst wanted it for San Simeón! He had to settle for a copy…
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Reading list: a 2011 exposé on olive oil industry that’s still worth checking out… especially as harvests decrease & prices increase.
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Recently elaborated map of all olive trees planted in Spain (using data from 2018). Remember that the main varietals are picual, hojiblanca & arbequina. Look for them at the grocery store!
Day 06 · Granada
Reading list: Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (1832). Not my favorite book of all time, but it inspired many generations of Americans to visit & fall in love with Spain.
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Esperanza Aguirre —former head of the Senate & former President of the Comunidad de Madrid, highly conservative member of PP— poorly imitates the Vice-President’s southern accent in September 2024…
…which generated an immediate backlash, including this particular gem:
In heaven, four icons of 20th-century literature from Andalucía sit around a table. Poet Antonio Machado (born in Sevilla) reads the newspaper headline aloud: “Esperanza Aguirre makes fun of María Jesús Montero’s Andalucían accent.” Philosopher & essayist María Zambrano (born in Vélez-Málaga) responds: “You can tell that this woman has read very little.” Federico García Lorca (born near Granada) sits silent while poet Rafael Alberti (born in El Puerto de Santa María) says, “And least of all, us.”
This example demonstrates just how often others use a regional accent in an attempt to ridicule or belittle someone from the south.
Day 07 · Ronda
Federico García Lorca poetry
Romance sonámbulo
Verde que te quiero verde. Verde viento. Verdes ramas. El barco sobre el mar y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura ella sueña en su baranda, verde carne, pelo verde, con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde. Bajo la luna gitana, las cosas la están mirando y ella no puede mirarlas…
Sleepwalking romance
Green, how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches. The ship out on the sea and the horse on the mountain.
With shade around her waist she dreams on her balcony, green flesh, her hair green, with eyes of cold silver.
Green, how I want you green. Under the gypsy moon, all things are watching her and she cannot see them…
Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías
At five in the afternoon.
It was exactly five in the afternoon.
A boy brought the white sheet
at five in the afternoon.
A trail of lime already prepared
at five in the afternoon.
The rest was death, and death alone
at five in the afternoon.
The wind carried away the dust
at five in the afternoon.
And the rust sowed crystal and nickel
at five in the afternoon.
Now the dove and the leopard fight
at five in the afternoon.
And a thigh with a desolate horn
at five in the afternoon.
The bass-string began to sound
at five in the afternoon.
The bells of arsenic and smoke
at five in the afternoon.
Groups of silence in the corners
at five in the afternoon.
And the lonely bull with heart high!
At five in the afternoon.
When the sweat of snow was coming
at five in the afternoon,
when the plaza was covered with iodine
at five in the afternoon.
Death put eggs in the wound
at five in the afternoon.
At five in the afternoon.
…At five o’clock in the afternoon
The bull does not know you, or the fig tree,
or the horses, or the ants in your own house.
The child and the afternoon do not know you
because you have died forever.
…Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you.
Forever I sing of your style and grace.
Of the great maturity of your understanding.
Of your appetite for death with its taste in your mouth.
The sadness of your brave happiness.
It will be an eon, if ever, before there is born a person from Andalucía so bright, so rich in adventure.I sing of his elegance with words that moan,and I remember a sad breeze among the olive trees.
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Same video about the construction of the Menga dolmen that we saw on-site… how amazing that they now know exactly where the stones came from!
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Reading list: Spain in Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild (2016).
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New York Times article about the last surviving member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who passed away in 2016.
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Semi-documentary narrated by Ernest Hemingway… the clip starts by saying Reel 1 of 6, but they’re all spliced together here (about 60 min total).
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Much like Washington Irving, Ernest Hemingway brought Spain to the forefront of American interests. But was it all hype? This May 2016 Vanity Fair article talks about the inspiration behind The Sun Also Rises.
Day 08 · Sevilla
If we happen to hit the last Sunday of the month in Ronda, wake up early to hear the religious brotherhood of La Aurora walk around the old quarter & literally sing to the dawn. Magical.
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Movie recommendation: Blancanieves (2013), winning 10 Goyas of 18 nominations.
From the Premios Goya website: SNOW WHITE, by Pablo Berger, is an original take on the popular Grimm brothers’ tale, set in the 1920s in southern Spain. Snow White is Carmen (Macarena García), a beautiful young woman whose childhood was tormented by her terrible stepmother, Encarna (Maribel Verdú). Fleeing from her past, Carmen will embark on an exciting journey accompanied by her new friends: a troupe of dwarf bullfighters. A Snow White full of fantasy, adventure, emotion and humor. Never before has the tale been told like this…
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We haven’t chatted much about Semana Santa, but the festivities are an integral part of our identity in southern Spain… from the misunderstood significance of penitent hats to the idea that Holy Week transcends religion & unites people on a community level. This first post gives a few practical tips on how to enjoy the craziness, while the second post highlights some of my own favorite moments.
Day 09 · Sevilla
A LOT goes into making the type of panel we’ve seen in the Alhambra & the Alcázar. Just watch. The technique is called alicatado in Spanish.
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Here’s a request from several people in the Nov 2024 group after seeing the Sevilla Christmas market in action: our Nativity scene at home. First read this post from 2020 to understand what you’re getting into… & to see how my fears came true! After purchasing a house in 2021, the belén grew by leaps & bounds. Below are the latest photos:
Day 10 · End of tour
For over 15 years I drew & wrote by hand all our schedules just like the one above; too much info to do that now! But regardless of format, the message remains the same. Hope you enjoyed the extra info here, stay in touch, & hopefully we’ll meet on the road in the future again!! Use the comments section below if you like.
And if you’re sticking around in Sevilla after the tour is over, then have a look at my blog for additional things to see & do. I loved living here & was inspired by all the Regionalist architecture in Sevilla so much that I wrote a guidebook to it. Take care!