Last summer, I was elbow deep in seawater on a daily basis, taking care of tiny little lobsters, trying to figure out the secrets of the universe. At times the job seemed to be 24/7, with hot summer breezes throwing off my experiment and hungry lobsters demanding daily feeding, and as I looked forward to graduating with my master's dissertation in hand, I decided to celebrate. I was exhausted and overwhelmed, so I wanted to go somewhere familiar, somewhere homey, and thus I decided to return to Spain.
Spoiler alert, I did not graduate with a master's and instead decided to stay for a PhD, but it was too late, the trip was already booked. So abandoning the last few weeks of classes, my husband and I hopped on a plane and flew across the ocean to return to my home away from home, Spain.
Arriving in Madrid
As with all these cities, I've been to Madrid before. While I enjoyed it and I love the museums, I had already visited a lot of the sites and was mostly excited to get to Andalucia for Holy Week. We really only used Madrid as a place to enter and leave Spain, but we had some of the most beautiful weather of the entire trip in this city, and we couldn't stop walking around and exploring. (To be fair, if we had stopped we would have fallen asleep). The first morning we found our way to a delightful little breakfast joint and wandered through the old part of the city into the Plaza Mayor. We did go to the Museo del Prado (Goya is one of my all-time favorite artists so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see his Black Paintings again) but mostly we spent our time in the city people-watching.
Ok, not just people-watching. We spent a good amount of time eating. Eating in little cafes, eating in restaurants, and eating in markets. Below is a photo of the Mercado de San Miguel, one of the first places recommended to you when looking for tapas. There are countless stalls, surrounded by beautiful glass walls and lots of natural light. There is something in this market for everyone, from sangria to vermouth to olives to fish to paella to bull's tail to empanadas. It is not the cheapest way to eat in Madrid, but it may be the way to try the largest variety of food. Plus, the place has a constant lively buzz that matches the city.
Onward to Cordoba
Needless to say I did not plan this trip as much as I maybe should have. I knew Spain is pretty busy during Holy Week, especially in Andalucia, where Semana Santa festivities are one of the highlights of the year. Flying into Madrid and finding our way to our hostel was a breeze, but getting out of Madrid proved to be a bit more challenging. If we had booked our train tickets to Cordoba ahead of time, we could have saved a lot of money and headache. We were sure to book ahead for the rest of the trip.
However, I was so excited to get back to Cordoba during Semana Santa, when the streets are filled with the sounds of trumpets and children and the footsteps of men crawling beneath beautiful statues reenacting the scenes of Easter (or the many, many faces of Mary). When I studied abroad here, I was only in Cordoba for a couple days of Holy Week, so I was excited to get a second crack at it.
We decided to kick things off by going to the Cathedral in Cordoba again. I've been a number of times (I used to go to mass here on Sundays) but going never fails to leave me in a paralyzed state of reverence. From the elegant Moorish arches to the breathtaking ceilings to the patio filled with orange trees and fountains, I always end up on the verge of tears in this holy place. I mostly avoid the cathedral in the middle (I'm not a fan of baroque architecture, especially when it is crammed in the center of a startlingly beautiful mosque), but my husband loves the contrast between the two forms of architecture.
The cathedral has always been one of the best places to watch the Holy Week processions, but this year they decided to put up ugly red scrim and walls around the cathedral and sell reserved seating as one of the only ways to watch the procession go around the cathedral. I managed to snap the photo below by stretching my arms as high as I could above the temporary wall, but it was a shame to see what was once a festival for everyone in the community becoming more commercialized. I personally was quite disappointed in the changes and heard from a lot of the locals that they were not thrilled by it either. However, it was still possible to see the procession without these walls by going to the churches where they originated, and also by going to the orange patio inside the cathedral.
When the processions come from a church across the river, they cross the old Roman Bridge. Below you can see two sets of candle-lit figures crossing to come to the cathedral.
Cordoba, almost as a rule, is generally hot and dry. However, when we were there it rained every day. This meant that almost all of the processions were canceled during our stay (the figures are not made to withstand any sort of moisture, so if there is even a hint of rain they don't come out). However, this gave us the opportunity to wander around the oldest neighborhoods of Cordoba, where the figures remained in the churches, lit by candles. The lines to get in the churches would wrap around each church, sometimes going for blocks, but locals filed through the churches quickly to pay their respects to the figures they watch go out every year.
On to Granada and the Alhambra
Granada is stunningly beautiful. While Cordoba is like a desert oasis, Granada is more like the stunning white hill towns that drape along the mountains of Andalucia. It is a joy to wander through the cobbled streets of the Albaicin neighborhood, getting lost between the whitewashed homes and the lush flowers spilling out over the walls.
When we decided to go to Granada, I knew Nick needed to see the Alhambra. We almost missed it however! Last time I was in Spain, it was easy to get evening tickets to see the Alhambra if the daytime tickets sold out, so I wasn't terribly concerned. However, when we logged on to book our tickets two months ahead of the trip, every kind of ticket was sold out for months! We only managed to get into the Alhambra by booking an organized tour that would take us through the castle at night. Needless to say I was not thrilled, but when we got there we were told that the Alhambra was trying something new for Holy Week. They sold significantly fewer tickets for the evening, but those who managed to get into the Alhambra basically had the place to themselves. This ended up being a delight, and our guide was wonderful.
Getting up to the Alhambra was its own kind of adventure. Right at the moment we decided to start the long hike up the lush hills of Granada, a procession from a nearby cathedral let out, leaving us battling throngs up people while tripping our way uphill. It was like we were salmon trying to swim upstream. Not wet enough? It was at that moment that the heavens decided to open up and dump the rain that had been threatening all day. Within minutes we were quite wet, panting, and slipping on cobblestones. As soon as we got the ok to go into the Alhambra, however, the rain blessedly stopped. This was not the first or the last time during the trip that we would get drenched.
Both Cordoba and Granada are stunning cities, but by the end of the week I was ready to be away from the throngs of people. We originally planned to take the next couple of days in the Algarve, the sunny, southern coast of Portugal. However, the bad weather that had plagued us for the trip decided to stay, making our upcoming beach days rainy and 50°F. Disheartened, we decided to change our plans and go to Evora instead. While the weather there was not supposed to be particularly good either (the entire peninsula was stuck in an unusually cold and we weather pattern), the city nestled in what Rick Steve's described as a "sizzling arid plain" (if only) promised to have more to offer when the rain inevitably found us again. We picked up our rental car, drove into the west, and didn't realize we had crossed the border until we stopped understanding the language on the street signs. We were off for the next adventure, and this time, we had absolutely no idea what was in store.
