Feb 11 - Jerez horses and Arcos

Mark gets up late today, 5:30, to work on IMS and other office issues remotely - almost got all his faxes done. No news from WA is good news.
Feeling flush, we ordered in breakfast, finished our wine, perfected our Duet for violin and cello in B minor (see photo for details), then hoisted our bags to walk to the Sants Justa Estacion - the Ave station – to pick up our car. It was a much shorter walk once we knew where we were going. Picked up our Ibesa(?) SEAT, Spanish VW, which is really an A3 TDI. Fun. Once we took off, pleasant surprise, Garmin Nuvi works great!! Off to Jerez first, and the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art. One of only 4 such training centers in the world. They pretty much breed their own horses from Spanish, Arab and English stock. Like the Lippizaners from Austria, they are born black and gradually dapple to gray and finally to pure white by 14-16 years of age. The picture below is an older one. The students / riders come from all over the world to try out. 5-6 new students each year spend 7 hours a day for 2-4 years training horses. Their graduate degree gives them a “Horse Master” after their name and they can name their price for training horses for others. Currently, a number of graduates are located in China in very plush digs training both horses and riders – 6 figure annual salary . The stables, saddlery, coach, and school museum were all beautiful on the grounds of the King’slocalpalacein Jerez. Oh, and the horses were magnificent. We watched a training session where they were leaping, kicking on command, learning to balance on their hind legs and hop, and all the other typical dressage steps.
Off to Arcos de la Frontera, our first Puebla Blancas de la Andalucia. In hind sight we think that roughly translates to “Rock hard bed at the end of the frontier”. Casa La Grande is a grand 8 suite remodeled mansion first built in 1701, literally carved into a vertical cliff looking over the agricultural plains south of Arcos. Our room is actually 15-20 feet underground with a terrace over the edge. We truly “ look down on the backs of birds” as the locals say. The only problem with this town is no matter which direction you walk to go have dinner, and we had a marvelous Italian dinner as Kathie will outline (the dinner also comes with a few glasses of Montepulciano), you have to walk (and I use that word loosely) back up hill to fall (settle gently) into bed. Turn out the lights and the “cave” gets VERY dark. Just try to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. We understand in April during festival time they close the gates to the Old City and let the bulls run, Pamplona style. A little wine, a few of these narrow streets, the elevation, and these hills, and the bulls might have a chance to get a bit of tourista. They have in the past – an Army guy stationed nearby died in 2007.
Some comments on most of the homes we see. I (Kathie) have always been a big fan of the Roman atrium style home … a central atrium with pond/fountain, cloister like columns supporting a covered walkway around the interior atrium and all rooms coming off of that walkway. It would be a lovely setting for an Alzheimer’s unit. The Spanish have done this one better in a hot climate by making the homes 2-4 stories tall. The walls are all about 3 feet thick and the central atrium acts as a chimney. Wonderful sunlit area for a short time each day, otherwise cool shade. The lower windows are open but covered with wet reed woven shades. As the air blows in the window, natural air conditioning from the wet shade drops the temperature 20-30 degrees and the hot air rises up the “chimney” providing a constant cool breeze for the inhabitants If we lived someplace hot, I’d sure build this!
Dad and I both thought about earthquakes as we went to sleep inour cave…wouldn’t want to jump off the terrace.