Spanspek

We got up early this morning for a bus trip from Madrid to Seville. Of course, we didn�t have breakfast so a coffee and muffin from Starbucks ahd to do. We have visitors from Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Mauritius, New Zealand, and the US. Everyone is very nice, though we can better judge those who speak a little English (remarkably many of them). Our guide is a very entertaining woman called Valerie. She explained how in Spanish nothing is said directly. Her example was English: it is raining, Spanish: it might be raining. I�m not sure whether to believe this but her Spanish commentary is longer than the English! Madrid is a bit like my previous experience of Spanish cities (mainly Murcia and Cartegena): very spread out and patchy on the outskirts. We soon descended into a valley which appears to be the "bread basket" of the city and then into the state of Castillo-La Mancha, the "dry lands". It is indeed very dry. Unlike Australia where one sees dry river and creek beds, here there don�t seem to be as many rivers and creeks anyway. Valerie explained that despite this La Mancha�s main industry is agriculture. They�ve evidently figured out how to do it: a rotation of potatoes, corn and sunflowers in Winter, Spring and Summer respectively. There�s also a lot of wine, which due to the lack of water and the heat, never needs assisted fermentation or additives to make a decent wine. After the Sierra Mareno we crossed into Andlucia, the "green lands". At this time of year, they�re not very green, but still it�s an improvement over La Mancha. Crops here are similar, with the addition of a lot more olive oil. There are olive trees everywhere!