Chris, you're making me feel like a font of knowledge. 
 
Back in June of '87 four of us young bucks (four single guys in our young 30's) took a trip around Andalucia via rented car. We flew into Malaga, headed straight up to Seville, stayed there a few days, then went on to Cordoba and Granada before heading back to Malaga. We stayed many nights in National Paradors (which I think are state-run hotels) many of which are converted old buildings and very nicely done at that (though I suppose some histo-presto types might cringe). 
 
One night we had to wing it and were lucky enough to end up in a National Parador in Jaen that was made from an old building in the center of the town. It was the night before their Corpus Christi celebration and the procession was to start out in front of our hotel at an adjacent church. That night we went around town drinking in the bars, watching the young soldiers partying with the young ladies (what is it ladies see in uniforms?). The next day we followed the procession as it followed a path of palm fronds strewn in the streets. There were a couple of heavy floats with religious symbols carried on the backs of the local men, doing some sort of a circuit of the town (maybe from one church to another). At some point there was a miltary ceremony in front of our hotel (the uniforms had changed from olive drab we'd seen the night before to multicolored dress from the a century or two before but maybe they were a different group of soldiers). 
 
We got out of Jaen as soon as the traffic cleared only to run into the tail end of the same ceremony in the next town (we were enroute to Granada).
 
We used the Michelin Green Guide to explain the significance of the lesser-known towns we passed through but it helped to be traveling with two liberal arts majors, one of whom is now a classics professor. We usually got going mid to late morning, hit a local history museum and/or an historic site each day, maybe a tapis bar, ate a nice dinner, walked around at night, ate pistachios and played a card game (Pietro?) late into the night. We went to the obligatory bull fight (once was enough, even for us red-blooded American guys) and found out an up-and-coming young star of the circuit was staying in our hotel with his entourage (one of the guys in the entourage seemed to be listening to the call-in talk shows reviewing the night's fights as we played cards in the hotel lounge/lobby). We saw some flemenco dancing (in Seville), attended a local fair and a disco as well as an open-air classical music concert in the Alhambra--we were staying Alhambra Hotel across the street (in Granada), and drove up into the Sierra Nevada mountains.
 
Lots of olive trees. It seemed pretty hot for June (I think 80's and 90's) but then it was Spain and I was dumb enough to limit my wardrobe to corduroy pants, kacki pants not having entered my upstate-NY wardrobe yet. I tried to buy local slacks but, not speaking the language, was too intimidated (I did get a haircut in a hole-in-the wall barbershop while my friends drank in a bar next door).
 
Very interesting to see the approach they take to construction. We'd see a new building going up and there were lots of props for the second floors that seemed to be gnarly tree trunks, maybe 4" in diameter, spaced about two feet apart, evidently waiting for the concrete to cure before they would get pulled out. I'm guessing they used a tile system with rebar and concrete poured on top. A lot of use of the vertical cranes in the congested cities which I hadn't seen up until then here in the US. 
 
A memorable trip with many stories to tell and pictures to show. The funny thing is I didn't buy one t-shirt or feed cap (something I find myself doing a lot these days, now that I really need the hat) on the whole trip so I can say "been there, done that, and didn't get the hat (or t-shirt)". I do plan to go back and not just "to get the hat"...
 
For a place to start try:  http://www.andalucia.com/
 
Bruce
 

-----Original Message-----
From: This isn`t an orifice, it`s help with fluorescent lighting. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Met History
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 5:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BP] Trip to Moorish Spain....


For what is probably the last trip my children (15 and 19) will take with us, I am planning a trip through Islamic Spain (Andalusia).  I have studied up on Seville, Granada and Cordoba, but am also looking for some other sights, like a barrel-maker, or other local industry - like the great references various people gave me a few years ago on marble quarries in Italy, which I couldn't get my stick in the mud family to go to.  
 
Christopher