The Reign in Spain Falls Mainly on … well ... me

I arrived in Madrid, Spain on the evening of September 5th after a rather uneventful flight. I had brought Daphne* along with me to act as a guide, and we got to the hotel without incident. It was about midnight, so I grabbed a beer from the bar and headed up to my room.

In the morning I checked out of the hotel and drove into downtown Madrid. I had just this week seen a picture on the internet of this place called Museo del Jamon, and I had to go!





Yes it was worth driving 10 miles out of my way!

After a nice breakfast of some coffee and Jamon on a baguette, I headed out for Cordoba. While driving south, listening RadiOle, I was feeling a little saucy as I drank a diet coke and ate little slices of cured chorizo that were turning my fingertips red. While driving, I was almost brought to tears by a poignant and gripping song. A young girl was singing about how her father was seeking revenge on her lover. She was underage and was carrying the love child that had resulted from some unholy union with Soupy Sales. At least that’s what I got out of it, but I don’t know Spanish.

I stayed in the ‘Jewish Quarter’ in Cordoba. It’s a really nice area, but is a little touristy. It’s a very pretty area though.







That night in Cordoba I had a nice sausage platter with a beer and later had some Sangria …



I met a nice English couple at dinner, who invited me to stay with them in Wales. We argued a bit about gun control. They were for it … so I shot them.

Actually, we agreed to disagree as we each knew we weren’t going to change the other’s mind.

Drove down to Lebrija on Friday for the wedding. I saw this town in the distance, on a hill to the left, and swung off the highway to take a look. It was sitting by itself up on the hillside and looked like it was very well protected at one time. The town is called Carmona, and they were preparing for some kind of festival that weekend. It was a really neat little place, and it is basically out in the middle of nowhere. It seemed pretty isolated, although there were plenty of people and traffic.





I arrived at the Hostel in Lebrija around 15:00 or so, checked in and met a few people who were in town for the wedding. They were an older couple, their daughter (Dianne), and her 2.5 year old son. We decided that we would meet downstairs around 18:30 and go to the church together.

The wedding was great, the church was ornate as hell, but had these stark wooden pews and kneelers. Nancy looked radiant. The whole thing was in Spanish, but my years of training as an altar boy kicked in. I was able to make believe that I was singing the responses just as if the mass were in English.

In reality, I was quietly singing Marty Robbins’ “El Paso”. I think the only time people noticed was when I belted out the last verse…

"From out of nowhere Felina has found me,
Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.
Cradled by two loving arms that I'll die for,
One little kiss and Felina, good-bye."

But by that time, the ceremony was over, and they were walking past me down the aisle.

The reception was a lot of fun. Cocktails were served outside, and this was the man of the hour …



At least I viewed him as the “Best Man”. People just kept giving me drinks and feeding me pork products. I was in heaven!

I'm pretty sure that Nancy’s Godmother was trying to fix me up with Dianne. When we were ready to sit down for dinner, she grabs me and says, “You sit with her!”

“Uh … ok.”

Truth is, I had already kind of taking a shining to Dianne. And she didn’t give me the derisive look that I usually get from women. Her son was supposed to sit with her parents, but he ended up at our table anyway. He didn’t scare me off though, because I don’t care how much of a “big boy” he is, I knew I could ‘take’ him. He was really a good kid, but was tired and Dianne had to leave early.

Now when I say early, I mean it was probably around midnight or so. I got out of there and caught a ride with Dianne’s parents around 02:30. I think the die-hards got back after 05:00.

This old man can’t do that anymore!

I'll have more on the rest of the trip soon...

* P.S. - Daphne is the name I have given my Global Positioning System (GPS)