This morning on BBC Radio 4, there was a programme by John Sergeant which explored the history of toasting – as in drinks rather than bread. It being New Year’s Eve, he was talking about the tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, and what the lyrics are all about. Written by Robert Burns [...]
Archive for the ‘Andalucia’ Category
Wandering through the lanes of Cádiz, the smell of frying fish was impossible to resist. I dived into a tiny bar and ordered a glass of chilled manzanilla sherry, made just down the coast in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Soon I was devouring tortillitas de camarones – feather-light fritters made with the tiniest shrimps. A [...]
This is not your window!
Posted: April 18, 2011 in AndaluciaTags: Easter processions, La Legion, Malaga, Semana Santa, travel
I stared, baffled and more than a little scared, at the helmet-haired lady who was shrieking at me through a thick coating of orange foundation in the Hotel Larios in Malaga. It was Easter, and I had been leaning out to watch the procession shuffling slowly up the street outside, wondering if Antonio Banderas was [...]
Mooching around…the Albayzin in Granada
Posted: December 29, 2010 in AndaluciaTags: Albaicin, Albayzin, Alhambra, Granada, Lorca
An old lady, in dressing gown and slippers, was leaning on her wrought-iron gate. It was midday. ‘Are you going down to Granada today?’ she asked her neighbour. ‘No, I’ve got everything I need,’ the woman replied. It sounded as if the city centre was miles away, rather than a five-minute stroll down the hill, [...]
Purple piglets
Posted: August 12, 2010 in Andalucia, Spanish food and wineTags: acorn-fed, bellota, iberico, Jabugo, jamon, pata negra, Sierra de Aracena
A purple piglet wriggled in my lap while another half dozen scuttled around my ankles. Born that morning at the end of summer, they seemed to be enjoying their first evening in the Sierra de Aracena in the north-west corner of Andalucía. I was staying on a farm just outside the village of Cortegana, and [...]
Unlocking a not-so-old Seville tradition
Posted: July 24, 2010 in Andalucia, SevilleTags: Federico Moccia, padlocks, Seville, Triana bridge
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking across the Triana bridge in Seville with my friend Shawn Hennessey, of Sevilla Tapas fame. We stopped to look at a cluster of padlocks attached to the wrought-iron railings, which I had never seen before, but had read about a few months ago on Inside the Travel [...]
Harvest in the Alpujarra
Posted: November 22, 2009 in AndaluciaTags: Conor Clifford, Fondales, Shelagh Munry, Taha
November in the Alpujarra is a busy time. One of my favourite places, I go there as often as I can, and had the chance to visit my old friends Conor Clifford and Shelagh Munry there last week. Having been bitten by a dog in Granada, I wasn’t on top form, but was sure a [...]
The Sacred Made Real
Posted: October 17, 2009 in Andalucia, SevilleTags: Easter processions, Martinez Montanes, National Gallery London, Pedro de Mena, Semana Santa, Sevilla, Seville
Hundreds of penitents in white habits, their identities concealed by pointed hoods with small openings for the eyes and mouths, moved slowly through a narrow street in the centre of Seville. It was Easter, and this was just one of the processions that take place in the course of a week, when revered figures of [...]
