The Latest from Sevilla

Iberian meats with manchego viejo (Madrid, Spain)

June 19, 2011

Hey all,

Before heading to Sevilla, we decided to get a giant plate of Iberian cured meats (jamón, chorizo, sausage, lomo) and we had our first taste of Spanish cheese, manchego viejo. That cheese was amazing!

We took our second ride on the high speed rail to Sevilla, across endless fields of sunflowers, corn, and olive trees. Spain is known for their olives, so we have tried eating them...but we are decidedly not olive people.

Sevilla itself is very different than Madrid. There are less people, smaller streets, and the architecture is very African from the time of the Moors. Everything

The largest cathedral in Spain (Sevilla, Spain)

is very colorful! There is a giant cathedral here (Spain's largest), which features a large bell tower that rings quite often. Today we visited the Alcázar, which is a Moorish style castle/palace. It was quite picturesque, and is apparently still used today for certain political events. The entire city is super beautiful, and we've seen at least four wedding parties taking pictures at the cathedral and the Alcázar.

For lunch we grabbed some bocadillos, which are basically baguette sandwiches. Husband S had a jamón and queso bocadillo, while I had a tortilla bocadillo. A tortilla in Spain is actually a potato omelette, and there is no such thing as a Mexican tortilla here. People here eat bread

A plaza at the Alcázar (Sevilla, Spain)

with everything, which is fine with me because all of the bread is amazing! For dinner we had more paella in a plaza surrounded by orange trees. There are orange trees literally everywhere, and falling oranges have become quite common and startling. Fresh squeezed orange juice is served at every single restaurant...and it's delicious!

We walked down to their famous shopping area but everything is closed on Sunday. We window shopped in preparation for tomorrow morning. On our way back we stopped by the "Metropol Parasol" which is brand new, and now the largest wooden structure in the world. It cost 90 million euros to build, and we found many people camped out under the structure in protest.

Metropol Parasol, the largest wooden structure in the world (Sevilla, Spain)

It was approximately 10 million degrees Celsius outside today, so I bought a cheap fan off the street to keep myself cool.

We decided to culture ourselves, so this evening we took in a flamenco show at a local flamenco club, Los Gallos. It was pretty fantastic...Ole! Sevilla is where flamenco originated. Sevilla is also home to bull fighting, so we wandered around their bull fighting arena. We did

Outside the matador arena (Sevilla, Spain)

not see a fight, because we thought that watching someone kill a bull would be depressing.

Anyway, tomorrow we head to Granada via regular slow train. Our internet in Granada will not be as reliable, but when we have it we'll be on Skype and try to post pics on Facebook. Join us next time as the adventure continues!

Adios muchachos!
K & S

Hoy en Toledo

Churros con chocolate (Madrid, Spain)

June 17, 2011

Yesterday we went to the Prado museum! We saw many a Goya (most exciting was an entire room filled with his "black paintings"), El Greco, and even the famed "Las Mininas" by Velásquez. Afterwards we had ham croquettes and fried shrimp, which seem to be common everywhere. We also stopped by a chocolateria, to eat churros! In the home of the churro, they are not covered in cinnamon, but are instead served with a side of warm chocolate pudding for dipping. We ate them while sitting outside at a small alley way cafe, which seem to pop up in almost every street.

Cruising the streets of Toledo! (Toledo, Spain)

Today we took the high speed train for a day trip to the city of Toledo, which used to be the old capital of Spain when it was under Muslim rule. It is a fortified city, which is surrounded by large stone walls and sits on a large hill. We went inside their famous cathedral, which is the richest cathedral in Spain, and the second largest. In the 1200s, they built it directly over the old cathedral, which had served as a mosque. It was quite grandiose, and was filled with paintings by famous artists, many stained glass windows, and other things. 

Toledo is also home to marzipan, the delectable almond paste candy made by nuns to support their nunnery. We ate a lot of it, and decided that it was delicious. This is also where they manufacture the world's best steel, so sweet swords were being sold on every corner.
 

Marzipan (Toledo, Spain)

We had more tapas for lunch, and this time had the most authentic cuisine yet. We had partridge salad, more croquettes, tuna belly cheese squares, pickled peppers, and fried cod with mayonnaise. The feature of our meal was the foie gras dipped in white chocolate... we decided that this was NOT delicious.

Tomorrow we leave Madrid for Sevilla, home of Flamenco and much Spanish culture. Ay ay!

Hasta Luego, 
K & S

More from Madrid

Inner Courtyard, Palacio Real (Madrid, Spain)

June 16, 2011 

Today is day 3 in Madrid. We have yet to overcome jetlag, and can't fall asleep at a reasonable hour...which results in us waking up at noon. This isn't that bad, since the sun doesn't set until 10 pm, and the city is all hustle and bustle since the locals start eating dinner around 9 pm.

Yesterday we went to the royal palace, where Spanish royalty of yore has resided. We did a self guided tour. My favorites were the throne room, the porcelain room (the entire room was made out of porcelain!), and the royal pharmacy (basically an outdated chemistry lab). The current king lives in a more "modest" castle on the outskirts of Madrid.

Paella and sangria at the Plaza Mayor (Madrid, Spain)

 We also went to the Museo de Reina Sofia, which is Spain's national modern art museum. We saw many a Picasso, Dalí, and Miró, among others. The highlight was Picasso's famous painting, "Guernica".

For dinner we sat in the Plaza Mayor at a typical outdoor European cafe. We had a seafood paella and sangria! Jamón (ham) is everywhere, but it's not like at home. It's typically cured and sliced thin, so it's more like prosciutto...and delicioso!

Surprisingly my Spanish is coming back to me, and between the two of us we know enough to talk to people in Spanish in order to get food, directions, etc.

If you want updates, Husband S is posting a couple of iPhone photos every day on his Facebook page (they also pop up on my page). We are also available for skyping when we return to the hotel at night, which is morning for you guys. We had a successful skype with Sister M last night. My skype name is *****, if you feel the urge!

 

Today we are off to the Prado, which is Spain's equivalent of the Louvre or the Met...a world famous museum. Afterwards we intend to do a tapas bar run, followed by churros con chocolate!

Hasta Luego,
K & S

Hola from Madrid!

Jamón tostas, croquettes, and Spanish beer!

My husband and I recently went to Spain and wee bit of France for about 2.5 weeks.  Approximately every other day, I wrote my friends and family in the style of a travel journal to describe my experiences.  This was inspired by my grandmother's travel journals, but hers were very much more meticulous and she traveled all over the world.  I decided to post mine here in the interesting blog, starting with our arrival (the shortest of the notes).  My mother is currently typing up my grandmother's handwritten journals, so eventually those will be up as well and you can enjoy a journey back in time!

June 14, 2011

Hola!

We have made it safely and are currently in our air conditioned hotel in downtown. This is important because it is very hot outside! There is a bidet in the bathroom, which Husband S is looking up online for proper etiquette. We are going to explore for "dinner" even though it is 8 am back home. Hopefully we can fall asleep after that and avoid jetlag.

Adios!
K & S

Two Down, One in Limbo

So time has passed, and I am still dealing with bills from February 2010.  Yikes.

Updates continuing from the last post:

Pathology Lab:  Success!  They finally did everything properly and Blue Shield paid them.  However, after passing the task off to my husband, it took three strongly worded phone calls to the pathology lab themselves after they kept sending us $800 bills every month or so.

Specialist:  Success!  A similar tale to that of the pathology lab.  It took a while, including many persuasive phone calls to the inept billing staff, but they did it.  Unbelievable.

Hospital:  Still unfinished business here, folks.  They actually never contacted me.  I had to contact them, because I was becoming nervous at what sort of bill collectors may be showing up at my door due to mysterious bills that I had never received or paid.  When the situation was explained to their billing department, they were surprised to see that this fiasco had been neglected for so long.  It would seem that I had just slipped through the cracks of bureaucracy, and had simply been forgotten in time.  They had long ago billed UHC, and simply needed to send Blue Shield a copy of the explanation of benefits along with a bill.  They seemed to understand this...it turns out all is now in "progress", but a quick check-up on the billing personnel at the hospital revealed that Blue Shield had informed them that it would take six months to consider their bill.  Really?  Six months to decide if you want to pay your bills?  I should be the one sending bill collectors after you, Blue Shield.  I especially thought this time delay was strange, considering that both the pathology lab and the specialist had been paid in a timely manner once their respective billing departments got their acts together.  However, being completely jaded with ineptitude from every direction, I'm just going with the flow.  We'll see if a ginormous bill shows up at my door.

Things I have done in the time it has taken for these bills to be rectified:
1) Planned my wedding
2) Got married
3) Changed my name
4) Wrote my Ph.D. dissertation and graduated with said Ph.D.
5) Spent three weeks in Europe
6) Moved 200 miles away
7) Got a new job

Apparently, I've been more productive than certain other people.

I don't have much more to talk about in terms of my health care debacles, but I will continue writing interesting things.  Don't worry.