Semana Santa

Hello!!! I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter Holiday!!! I had a wonderful Easter week with my Mom and Rich! I left last Thursday for Seville and met up with them at the hotel. Easter week in Seville is the biggest Easter celebration in Spain. They were expecting over a million people in the city for the festivities. During Semana Santa (Holy week) each church has 2 of these pasos (kind of a float) on display and one day or night during Holy Week they send them out through the streets to the Cathedral and back to the church, kind of like a parade. The pasos (floats) weigh more than a ton and are carried by men, there are two groups of processions each day one in the afternoon and another group that leaves around midnight. Each church sends out people in these robes and pointy hoods (very similar to a KKK outfit, kinda creepy, but you get used to it really quickly). Some processions may have as many as 3,000 people involved. Some have a brass band playing funeral processions or music composed for the procession, while others are silent.
The first procession we saw left it's church around 9 pm and was a silent procession. We were standing outside the church surrounded by hundreds of people watching the paso leave and the entire crowd fall abruptly silent, it was phenomenal, I can't even describe the impact it has.
Seville was great, the city was packed with tourists from all over. The Spanards dressed in their Sunday best for the week's festivities, including some women in traditional dress wearing their tall "combs" and black lace veils. We had some great food in Seville and great wine, including this tiny wine bar that served orange and strawberry wine! We also found some good shopping in Seville. We bought hand painted fans and I got some great Spanish "re-claimed" tile from the 1800s.
We took a few day trips while we were there. First we went to Cordoba by train. I loved it there! Cordoba, like Seville and many other cities in the south, has a very strong Moorish influence in architecture left over from Moorish occupation. In Cordoba there is a Mosque with a Christian Cathedral built right in the middle of it. Inside you are surrounded with these columns and arches of red and white. We had a great lunch in Cordoba where we ordered local dishes like fried eggplant with honey and stewed ox tail, both were surprisingly good! After lunch we found this little tea shop with great tea, infusions and belly-dancing, even Rich got involved in the show, and yes I have video of him dancing!!!
The next day it was off to Ronda, a little white village, with traditional white washed walls and Spanish tile roofs. Its situated high on a cliff, for protection. The city was beautiful and the drive through the mountains was amazing!
Our last day trip was to Cadiz, a city in the south almost completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It was stunning! The weather was beautiful, to cold to swim but not freezing or sweltering. The city is all white, with the exception of the yellow dome of the Cathedral. We visited an archaeological site where you are able to see structural remains from all the cultures who have inhabited the city since 1100 BC, from the Phoenicians to the Christians. We had a few tapas ocean-side at the Parador hotel where I had the chance to enjoy my fino (sherry) next to the water. Sherry comes from the southern region of Spain, and specifically from a city (Jerez) right outside of Cadiz.
After our week in Andalucia we all returned to Soria where we spent about a day and a half. We visited the open air market to see all the produce and meat products, walked along the river, toured a church and had a great lunch. Mom had Migas, traditional Sorian "croutons" with bacon, I had eggs flamenco, and Rich had the traditional garlic soup from the region and chicken.
The holiday was great and I had a wonderful time! I took plenty of pictures (once I had a charged battery!) and they are posted here. Check them out! Hope all is well!
Wish you were here! :)

*My next trip will be Madrid this Friday for an excursion with the biology students to the Body Exhibit. After that I am leaving for Italy April 17th for a few days in Cinque Terre and a day in Rome! I'll keep you all updated!