Understanding Spanish

Waking to the sounds of construction next door was not overly unpleasant. Once again lying in knowing there is no real pressure to do anything much takes away the pressure associated with uncontrolled noise from someone else's nearby presence. After spending a week in the country you come to understand the emotions expressed in the language even if you don't know the specific words. In this case there is no doubt these guys were banging on about their women. As tourists it's just sometimes easier to do the touristy things. Today we used trip advisor and basically did what previously minded tourists did here. Based on some sound advice we first went to the church el Salvador.

This was a fast track to the main cathedral later. In the meanwhilest though it certainly did have a couple of impressive characteristics. The first being the smoke wafting around inside. Possibly the same stuff the priests wave around when leading processions down the aisle. Can't be sure. Was fairly certain the place was not accidentally on fire due to lack of trucks, panic etc. What it was doing was highlighting the sun streaming in through the high stained glass windows thus providing a view akin to the second coming. Entirely on purpose one assumes. Guadi would've been impressed. Possibly this had actually inspired him in the past. The other impressive item was the huge intricate sculptures they'd adorned the walls with. This was apparently a brazen attempt to hide the fact that the building was originally a mosque and as such they were ejecting one god and putting their own in. This is a common theme around here as most of the old places started out Muslim and then got converted when the Christians took over. Muslims can't be too grumpy though because they had mostly built their stuff on what the Romans built previously. And where would we be if it wasn't for the Romans? Trying to dodge ex Aussie Pollies we then headed over to main attraction in town being the cathedral. This had a really impressive queue out the front..and around the corner..and another corner again..then a gate, a courtyard, a queuing maze like an airport and finally a ticket booth. We sailed straight past the whole lot of them waving our tickets from the last joint and sadistically laughing strode into the abode. Promptly being told to shut up, take the hat off and respect the the fact it's a place of worship. Fair enough. We'd had our fun with the less educated hordes left behind anyway. Depending of whose version you read this is either the biggest or the 3rd biggest Gothic cathedral in the world. Doesn't really matter that much because it is significantly big. You could fit 4 normal cathedrals in here which is pretty much what they've done. We headed to the bell tower because Trip Advisor had told us to. Up the ramps we went. 34 times. 90 degree turns between them.

Popping out into the bright light at the top surrounded by milling tourists from all nations all getting along fabulously whist the threat of the bells loomed large overhead. Never been so close to so many significantly large bells. When these suckers go off it would be like the end of the world. Luckily (or due to renovations) they didn't. Like everyone else our main aim was get many photos of the spectacular views as possible. No time to actually sit back and enjoy the show. We can do that in the comfort of our own homes after we've left. We also discovered a very clever mirror in front of Chris Colombus which is designed to do selfies to the ceiling.

By strange co-incidence it's also great for upskirting. No wonder you don't find these in Scotland. Next stop as advised by the trip thingy was to the India's archive museum. The Spanish have never got over the fact the Chris really did think the Americas was the subcontinent. This impressive building was free entry and entirely in Spanish. Luckily we have a device with an app which translates for us. Sometimes with somewhat interesting results. Often we were looking at the pig archives. The whole top level has floor to high shelves stacked with boxes housing all the precious artefacts. With no photography signs. This is to avoid people realising the sham. Closer inspection revealed no coding on the boxes. Closer again (no guards in sight) every one of them empty....oh well - at least the marble floors were a nice red colour. Lunch at a typical Spanish tapas bar and then a non touristy activity as the blogger headed off across town on an epic journey to find a laundromat and while away the hours writing inane descriptions about visiting two churches and the old building next to them. The non blogger went for some retail therapy. Afterwards we headed off to another version of flemenca dancing. There were significant differences from the last experience. More people, bigger room, had to queue to get in, no drinks supplied. All pretty much irrelevant as it's all about the cultural expression by them and the cultural experience by us. Three sets - each with the same structure: guitar starts and goes on for a while, 3 singers take turns whilst the others hum and get into the rythym and quite a few minutes later the dancers glide in seemingly under some sort of a trance before launching into the actual tap dancing, skirt lifting, bottom warbling, spinning around, arm waving and handclaping, yelling that makes up the art form. Being art - interpretation is the key and once again - whilst not understanding the words we had a pretty good idea what it was all about. It was either about lost loves, bullfighting or cats mating. It certainly sounded at times like the last option. So we went with that.

And so culturally enlightened we headed back to the first nights restaurant and had a great meal (paella and tapas) and headed home to pack for the next ridiculously early start to move on. Spain was great - would like to spend more time here - especially now we understand what the locals are on about.