Lots of Walking and Ice Cream

Our plans to revisit the Bullring today were thwarted by the Metro Strike. The strike was not very disruptive, except for the increased volume on the sidewalks and buses. Fortunately, we are pretty close to everything (except the bullring), so exploring new things on foot was not a challenge, just tiring (but there’s always ice cream).



We set off to trace the footsteps of two of Spain’s literary giants, Cervantes and Lope de Vega.


It turns out the two lived down the street from each other (now named, Calle Cervantes) – must have been an inspirational location. Cervantes (the author of Don Quixote), now the more world renowned, was actually the lesser know of the two while living and died a pauper; while Vega (author of hundreds of plays and poems) enjoyed fame and fortune.


On our walk, we stumbled upon a little shop making potato chips. The kids watched the men peel potatoes; place them on the slicer; and then drop them into a vat of boiling oil. It was captivating to watch – but not too close –that oil was really bubbling. We purchased a bag of fresh chips to munch on our walk.


We had some time to kill before our guided tour of Lope de Vega’s restored, 16th century home, so we strolled up to the Santa Ana Plaza and the kids had ice cream and played in a small park. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that windy there.


Lope de Vega’s home and his history were quite fascinating. Although not all the rooms were in their original locations due to renovations of owners that came afterward, some of his original possessions were on display. And it is not surprising he churned out so many literary works; he had a lot of material from his prolific love life to work with.


All there was to view of Cervantes’ home was a commemorative plaque – pauper, remember?


After wandering through the theatre and literary hub, we found ourselves in the main touristy, shopping district again and did some souvenir shopping. With all the walking and the heat we had to stop for ice cream again. That powered us home where we had a quiet dinner.


If you were thinking there’d be no pictures today – so did I. I didn’t even have any shots of our meals (or ice cream) for you foodies out there. Then, we decided to join the locals after dinner for drinks, dessert (the kids’ THIRD ice cream of the day) and a little soccer-watching on TV (Spain vs. Portugal).

Watching...and eating ice cream...

SCORE!!!
Spain won…thank goodness!