The Raven and the Writing Desk

Exceeded Expectations

- Plaza de Espana



- live flamenco performance. All of the artists were phenomenal. With the women's dancing, you could really see the influence of the Indian classical dancing and the belly dancing, and with the men's dancing, unlike many other forms of dance they still managed to look masculine doing the dancing.

Good

- Plaza de Toros. Our guide gave a good overview of the history and art of bullfighting and told a few off-colour jokes. I was especially interested in the links she pointed out between the bullfighting and Roman and Greek era traditions like the cult of Mithras.



- agritourism - tours of the sherry bodega and the olive ranch, complete with the history of how the products were made, how they're made today, and a lesson on how to properly taste test them. It's very interesting to see how these products were made. The olive ranch was so beautiful I was ready to sign on as a hired hand.

- the Alameda of Hercules, which was where we spent most of our free time. It had a great local feel with lots of kids and dogs running around and playing, and the weather was so great that you could sit out halfway into the night nursing your gelato.



- although the archaeological museum was small and a bit run of the mill, there were a couple of things I had never seen before, like the votive offerings of footprints to Isis and the bronze tablets of the Roman civil law, and things that I have seen reproduced in the SCA but never seen the originals of, like the Roman military diplomas (which I learned about from ya_inga's process pictures of her scroll for Arminius' knighting

- got to see the tomb of Manuel de Falla in Cadiz - a favourite composer of mine

Amusing

- our local guide had a good, slightly ribald sense of humour, but she had a couple of speech idiosyncracies, so at the bullring we learned that the matador has to "introduce" his sword to a particular spot on the bull's spine to kill it quickly, that sometimes the bull is triumphant if it manages to "introduce" one of its horns into the matador's chest instead, and that the matador has a special member of his team whose job it is to help "introduce" the matador into his tight pants.

- among the theories put forth by our guides about the origin of the word "flamenco", one was that there was a link with the Flemish nobles and artisans that came to the country after the Reconquista. Diverting as that theory is, I'm not convinced that flamenco is a Flemish style.

- at the sherry bodega, it was apparently a tradition to leave out a glass of sherry and some tapas for the mice, complete with little ladders for the mice to reach their treats



Bad

- the hotel was plagued with all sorts of minor inconveniences that are the epitome of what quixote317 has called "First World Problems" - there was no wi-fi in the rooms, you couldn't have the bathroom door and the closet door open at the same time, the water from the shower splashed out on the floor, and my room was on the third floor of the back 40 with no elevator. It was simply atrocious, dahling.

Ugly

- in Cadiz there was a cruise ship with a jumbotron so large it could be seen from street level, so that presumably you could lounge around in the pool and watch trashy talk shows instead of getting out and touring around an historic town in the beautiful sunlight.

Exceeded Expectations
- the Alhambra and Generalife gardens



- el Albaicin and Sacromonte



- the food - lamb couscous under the shadow of the Alhambra; artisanal cheeses and interesting mixed salads; ham and egg soup; YUM
- have new hair goo that gives my hair the texture and body I have always wished it had, without my having to blow dry a thing.

Good
- minimal migrainey-ness and jet lag, except today, after having ordered a soup I did not know came in garlic broth :(
- free unlimited wi-fi in my hotel room
- at Alhambra bookshop, got a book on Islamic Calligraphy (in English) and a book with pictures on the Alhambra textile collection (sadly, only in Spanish)

Bad
- with the amount of walking and the type of terrain, mostly cobblestones, should have opted for substance (Merrell walking shoes with vibram soles) over style (Chucks) in footwear
- got car sick on bus through white hill towns of Alpujarras region; followed up by rain and cold weather and soup with garlic broth
- hotel room has zero noise (yes I know, this is only a bad thing for someone whose bedroom overlooks Centre Street) and it didn't occur to me until the last night here that I could listen to internet radio streaming over iTunes for some background noise.

Ugly
- travel schedule from Calgary consisted of the following: 1. Arrive YYC 1800 Calgary time after almost forgetting passport at my house. 2. Depart YYC for LHR at 2100 Calgary time; fly for 9 hours. 3. Arrive LHR after noon London time. 4. Depart LHR for LGW by overheated bus; drive almost 1 hour. 5. Arrive LGW; wait for 3 hours to board plane. 6. Depart LGW for AGP; fly for 3 hours. 7. Arrive AGP 2300 Malaga time. 8. Depart Malaga for Granada by bus; drive for 2.5 hours. 9. Arrive Granada 0200 Granada time.

Coolest Thing I Didn't See
- One of the most famous sights of the Alhambra is a round fountain ringed by 12 lions, each one a little different. Our tour guide said a number of things about it, including that it was given to the Sultan by the Jews and the lions represent the 12 tribes of Israel (?). What I read in a history of science book was that it was a water clock constructed by one of the Sultan's scientists (the Moors, like the Greeks, had very sophisticated hydraulic automata), later taken apart by conquering Christians who could not get it to work again. Right now it is in restoration, so although we got to see the lions, we didn't get to see them in situ.

On Thursday got asked if I had any pieces of largesse I could take with me to KA&S. I did not, but I did some brainstorming with falashad about what I could make on short notice. After looking through the stash and my usual selection of references, decided I could probably throw together some coifs.

The women's coifs will be Elizabethan, based on the various extant pieces described in Janet Arnold 4. The men's coifs will be based on two boldly patterned silk taffeta coifs belonging to King Enrique of Castile (c. 1203-17) and his brother Infante Fernando (1189-1211), as described in Dahl, Camilla Luise and Sturtewagen, Isis (2008). "The Cap of St. Birgitta", in Medieval Clothing and Textiles 4: 99-142.

I started from the patterns in The Tudor Tailor and The Medieval Tailor's Assistant (men's) and Janet Arnold 4 (women's) and scaled them up onto my trusty yellow plaid practice fabric.

( It's an obscure project; you probably haven't heard of it. )
( I liked this project better before it got so mainstream. )