Esculturas en el Jardin des Tuileries

I have been meanting to add these guys for a while. They were in the big garden opposite the Louvre, positioned around a large round pond, like points on a clock.

"Finish the blog!"

...I can hear you all yelling in your minds, lying awake at night waiting for the final chapter.. well here goes! It feels like a million years ago, but I'll try to remember what went down in the last few days.


On the last day in Ceuta, we went on a BIG ASS walk and found a great deserted beach.


Ceuta history museum, Micah is pretending to be a giant mole devastating the tiny village.


Back in Paris we had 4 hours to kill before the hotel would let us check in. Luckily the Pere Lachaise Cemetery was not too far away so we spent lots of time getting lost there and looking for famous dead people.


Some nice graves.
At one point, without warning, Micah busted out with a loud HUZAAH!! when we arrived at the bottom of some stairs. He did not see the hearse and funeral parade which was passing in front of us at that same moment. Below is a re-enactment.


Oscar Wilde's tombstone. Women like to kiss it.

I hope you know what this is, otherwise a Frenchie will come to your door and beat you with a baguette.


Les Invalides, with a French impostor in front.


Les Invalides houses Paris' Arms and Army museum. They had sooooo many suits of armour. Like thousands.

A tank at Les Invalides

Ho hum, and after that, we came home.

Ceuta - Spanish Morocco ( or Moroccan Spain?)

When Spain recognised Morocco's independence in 1956, they decided to hang on to a few "strategic" (read: choice) locations along the Mediterranean coast. Ceuta is one of these, so you have to cross a land border to get in.

City beach Playa Ribera - you can see Morocco in the hills behind!


The royal walls and fortifications they built to keep the Arabs out. Ceuta's been fought over for centuries, and has come under Byzantine, Moroccan (Berber), Portuguese and Spanish rule.


Reading the history of the conflicts.


Relaxing on the beach after a hard day's history walk.


Micah is excited because BOB ESPONJA is on again!!

Chefchouen

Just in the Rif Mountains there is a little village called Chefchouen which means "Look at the Mountains". Aptly named I think.

The Riff Mountains, from the bus ride in:




Walking around outside the medina. Most buildings are painted shades of blue.


We took a walk up to the "ruined mosque". This is a picture in front of a cactus fence, along the way.



The view from the ruined mosque. Amazing!

They still use donkeys to do the heavy lifting :)


The view from our hotel, in the morning.

Es salam alakum

Hello from Morroco! here is a quick update on the last 5 days; with pictures rather than photos as there is no wireless (therefore no laptop) and the old dells in the Internet cafe dont have USB drives!!

Seville, were there are lots of tourists and a big lovely square in the middle. We did a walking tour, saw a bull fight (see previous post) and went to a flamenco show.

Then we hot-tailed it out of turismo-city for the coastal village of Cadiz, where we stayed in the most-hippie hostel in Europe: Casa Caracol. The staff smoke pot all day and play music till 5am, but provide free ear plugs if you want to sleep.



Then 1 night in Tarifa, another cute little coastal village with some very old buildings and great shopping.. you can see Morocco from the beach!


From Tarifa we took the fast-ferry to Tangiers, then managed to find ourselves a shared "grand taxi" (old Merc) to Asilah, which in the guidebook is described as a better introduction to Morocco than stinky Tangiers. The medina is pretty but everywhere else is quite dirty and rubbish-strewn. We took a 1 hour walk in the hot sun looking for the fabled "paradise beach" but it never materialised :(


Next up: Riff Mountains, Chefchouan

Seville - Bullfight

Ola mi Amigos. This post pertains entirely to that most famous of Spanish past times the Bullfight, or corrida de toros (running of the bulls) as it is also known. Upon arriving in Seville on a Sunday the first thing we did after parking was to buy tickets for what ended up being the Grand Final of the Bullfighting season.

In all we watched 3 teams (cuadrillas) battle 2 bulls each. Unfortunately for the bulls involved the end was always certain. While many consider it a savage waste of life, in Seville it seemed to be very popular; the 14,000 seat arena was packed predominantly by silver haired old men smoking cigars and middle aged women dressed up like they were about to hit Toorak Village street for Sunday brunch.

A single bullfight was broken down into 3 rounds. The first round seemed to be about ascertaining the bull’s strength and movement as well as wearing it down by making it charge. It also included the first drawing of blood by the horse mounted picadores (lancers) who would encourage the bull to charge into their mounts, while they lanced the bull in the back of the neck.

The second round has three team members each trying to jab 2 colorful barbed spears into the neck of the bull, thus drawing more blood and preparing the bull for the final round - tercio de muerte.

The final round consists only of the Matador and the bull. This stage is all about the matador’s control over the bull and how close he can have the bull rush past him without being injured. Finally the Matador will attempt to plunge (known as estocada) a long blade into a specific area of the bull’s neck. If he is good he will only attempt once, the bull will die quickly, and the crowd will roar in approval. To the chagrin of the crowd and no doubt the bull several attempts will sometimes have to be made before the bull falls.

While we didn’t completely understand the mechanics of the fight, and the death of the bull and injury of the horses was somewhat disturbing, a man dressed in tights reliving a tradition several centuries old involving a frenzied 500kg bull is not something to be missed.

For more info on the Spanish form of this tradition here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-style_bullfighting. Below I’ve posted some pics in order of the three rounds described above.