Ronda and its eclectic Lara Museum

Southern Spain has many pueblos blancos, white towns, often on hillsides; Ronda is one of these, perched on a magnificent gorge.  While we had wheels we visited several white towns in Andalusia.  Ronda was the most spectacular:  occupied since neolithic times, settled by the Celts in 500 BCE, eventually by the Romans, sequentially by the Visigoths, the Arabs, the Moors and finally the Spaniards.  It has a violent history, and lovely mixed architecture.  Ronda's historical use of it's gorge/cliffs for executions is considered to be the inspiration for Hemingway's account of executing fascists sympathizers by throwing them off the (fictional) town's cliffs in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The town center spans the gorge.

We began to tire of churches, especially after over-consuming in Portugal  -- the guilt, the gilt, the blood, the tears, the pain and suffering, and incredible wealth; it became easier and easier to turn away from yet another gorgeous Spanish cathedral.  Instead of Ronda's cathedral we went to its Lara Museum, a wealthy family's odd collections (collecting was a popular thing for the wealthy in Victorian times) these folks collected guns, implements of the Spanish Inquisition, typewriters, music boxes, ladies watches, movie paraphernalia, pharmacy equipment, fans, etc.  Here are bits:

In the gun collection, this revolver was made in Chicago in 1883.  Don't quite know how it worked. The round part was about 3" in diameter.

Captain's gun, about 12" in length, designed for quelling a mutiny by firing more broadly. 

Collection of early phones, the lower left one is shown larger below and looked kind of like Homer Simpson.

One of many early typewriters.

No signage and no idea what this did -- do you know?

Oak Park homeboy Ernest Hemingway shown here in a photo taken in Ronda, with members of the Ordonez family, one of Spain's legendary bullfighting families.  Ronda is the home of the country's first bullfighting ring.  

These were in the pharmacy section, ampules about 10", ca. 1880s.  Don't know.

I had no idea that folks dueled with anything other than guns.  These were dueling knives and a drawing showing the practice.  Participants were supposed to have the same knife style to duel, so there were boxed sets.

The museum's Spanish Inquisition area was scary, troubling, gruesome, fascinating.  Life size beseeching sculptures in a sunken cell set the stage for what was to come.

Chair of nails, confessional aid.

A wooden dress for drunkards to wear around town.  

This special chair had spiked wheels on the back that turned different directions and could slowly drill into a
seated umm sinner who was buckled in place.

The Judas Chair - infinitely customizable, through use of the directing chains.  The victim, male or female, would be lowered onto the spike/ "chair", targeting nether parts, depending on the physical structure and crimes, or more likely the delight of the operator.

Below left is the head crusher, which included a description of the process -- how the eyes pop out at a certain point, and the brains ooze later; below right is the "heretic's fork" -- it rendered the heretic almost mute pretty quickly.  I left out the knee crusher, the iron maiden,  and many other handy confessional tools.  It was scary and very troubling.

And Ronda also offers fish massage -- for a fish? by a fish? with a fish?  Probably should have checked on this further, bud didn't.

Who knew?: Opening Day at the Feria de Abril de Seville

Feria de Abril de Seville:  since the 1840s where it began as a livestock fair, it follows Holy Week by two weeks, to allow for recovery from the holy week's excesses.  Sevillanos like to party.  We had planned to avoid the fair and its crowds and chaos, but reconsidered when a great apartment became available.  We were there only for the first five days; and this entry while long gives scant coverage of the event.

It's a huge event in Seville and surrounds, a time for the gentry to display their wealth and livestock, for the whole town to engage in a celebration of their heritage and to party hearty.  It begins with a horse and carriage competition in the city's huge bull-fighting ring, includes a week of bullfights (Spain's finest bulls and matadors and yep, we went to one), drinking and hanging out.  Museums close, horse-drawn carriages and taxis double in price, normalcy is out the window.  The city's alive and hopping til dawn.  And it's clearly of, for and by the locals; observers are tolerated, allowed, but not really included in the main elements of the party -- the casetas (more later), the parading, the dressing up.

The opening exhibition of horses, carriages, riders and drivers was phenomenal.  Andalusian horses are proud, tolerant, intelligent and beautiful, and the finest of the breed are trained, groomed for this life, inlcudng this annual event.

Braided tails.

Note the mantillas.  Carriage riders, grooms, were well-hydrated with hand delivered glasses of white wine while they waited to enter the ring.  Nothing for the horses.

These fancy blinders were popular, and disliked by the horses -- lots of head shaking and stamping, but no revolts.

Magnificent bearing. This was one of the few single-steed carriages.

There were occasional lady drivers.

Beautiful mane braiding.  And the lady groom/handler.

Folks lined the streets to watch the gentry and their finery parade by; tickets to the bull-ring exhibition were sold out.

And there were teams of well-matched, well-behaved, beautifully groomed and attired mules (above and below), and below right, the lovely riders and drivers, sometimes traditionally clad, sometimes not.

The fair itself takes place across the river in a huge dedicated space. We walked over at 9P for the midnight "grand opening". The grounds have two main sections:  the casetas and the midway.  The casetas are tents, actually more like home extensions, owned by the patrician, wealthy of the area and by some civic organizations; some are very big, others more intimate; many have wallpaper, pictures hung,lace curtains,  fresh flowers, and lots of staff.  There are over a thousand of these where partying, by invitation only, happens.  There are 15 public tents for commoners.  

Casetas, private parties.  Sometimes the front curtains were open allowing a view, sometimes not; some parties were more sedate, some in fuller progress than others.

Party hasn't started yet in this private caseta.

A hoi polloi tent.

The midway/amusement park section was bigger, better, noisier, fuller than anything I've ever seen.  Multiple sections included bumper cars, pony rides, merry go rounds, fun houses, swing rides, little kid rides, spook and fun houses, roller coasters, so much more.  Photos can't do this justice, although the panoramic at the top attempted to capture it.  We were there before the faire was officially opened, so few attendees yet.

This bullride was easily customizeable (see operator behind the girl on the right). It provided a gentle ride e to littler kids, and a wild one forolder ones.  To the right, selling local sherry; the mechanical guys on top stomped grapes.  Other versions of this idea included donkeys stomping grapes, ladies dancing on grapes, all mechanical, all with music.  We saw probably 20 of these stands at the fair.

The fair actually "opens" at midnight with the lighting of the decorative gate constructed specially for the event.  The gate's design is an annual competition, always modeled after a Sevillan landmark; this year's winner was of the Plaza Espana.  The tens of thousands of bulbs light slowly, to a wild cheer when complete.  PARTY!

The obligatory opening-of-the-fair photo.

We were leaving soon after midnight while thousands were just coming in; I've never been in such a crush.  

The daytime full-on faire is a spectacle of another sort, with the clothing and the whole parade-around-in-your-fabulous carriage thing, or your ride-your-amazing-steed-around thing.  To be continued . . .

Portuguese miscellany

Here I am sitting by the balcony of our rental place in Cornwall, listening to and watching the Atlantic coast beach, surf, and surfers while I wait to go to lunch, and so I am working on a final blog on Portugal - talk about after the fact!  About time to move on, so let me be done with Portugal, please.  What follows are some pictures of interesting things, or at least intriguing to me; most not tourist book material, just oddities,.... or odd thoughts.

Facilities just outside the Castle San Jorge in Lisbon.  The sign on the left shows it is a urinal (and the caricature illustrates, if you can't read, I guess) and on the right you can see it below and to the left of the illustrated sign - just a metal screen to conceal from about mid-thigh up and a trough that you can't see here (sorry, men only).

Below a doorknocker I especially liked.  I saw several similar elsewhere, but this one was in Cascais.

To the left is a picture of the carriage in which Portugal's King Carlos and his heir were killed by assassins while in Lisbon on February 1, 1908.  Below is a close-up showing bullet holes in the side of the door.  The carriage is on display in the National Coach Museum in Belem.

Below a couple of AIDS prevention posters (there were quite a few) on display at the Museu de Farmacia in Lisbon.  I thought the one on Carlos and his sleeping mate(s) habits was especially pointed and done so that young people might hear the message.  (SIDA = Sindrome da Imunodeficiencia Adquirida)

Below a window in the Chapel of Bones in Evora.  I don't get the church's preoccupation with skeletal remains. 

Below left, Nancy enjoying the equipment in a parque infantil just outside the Evora city walls.

Mickey D's in Porto; the eagle is a building logo - just serendipitous for McDonald's I guess.

Amor de Perdicao, near a bus stop in Porto - message here?

A cup of machine cappuccino, 0.35 euros, in Porto - not bad!

This pieta in Braga's Museu de Alberto Sampaio looks more like the Emperor Paldatine than Mary.

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It may look like Jesus, but it is a Roman floor mosaic of Oceana.  The guy is not wearing a crown of thorns - those are crabs' legs sticking out of his head.  From the Museu Arquelogico, an ex-convento in Faro.

And this may not look like Jesus, but it is.  Usually Jesus is shown with a pretty good six-pack, but in this flagellation painting from the Museu Arquelogico in Faro he looks a little bit paunchy.

More church bones, cherubs with human skeletal parts - the main Se (cathedral) in Faro.

Below, the sign shows we are now leaving the town of Casais - common signage in Portugal.

Why not "Parar" or "Alto" - who's country is this?  Street sign in Sagres.

A picture of these was in an earlier blog, but doesn't this seem like a really cool (and more challenging) version of go-karts?  Outisde Sagres.