Fiesta in Almería

This Wednesday Braden and I had a day off from teaching for the Fiesta Nacional de España, so we took a quick trip to the closest big city - Almería! 

On Tuesday night, we got tickets to see El Retablo de las Maravillas, a Cervantes play that was written in 1615. I don't speak much Spanish, and I speak much less Old Spanish, but I can tell you that it was hilarious. There's a pretty good summary of the play here. 

The play was in the beautiful Teatro Apolo, right in the center of Almería.

After the play we wandered around the streets and had a few tapas. We happened upon this awesome statue of John Lennon, who actually lived here with his wife Cynthia while he was filming a movie in 1966. He wrote and recorded demos for Strawberry Fields Forever in this very city!

The next day was Museum Day. We started off our morning by meeting up with a teacher that Braden works with at a local café for pastries and juice, and then he was kind enough to show us around a bit. He left us at the Centro de Interpretación de Almería, a museum all about the history of the city. Then we headed to the Casa del Poeta, where poet José Ángel Valente lived until his death in 2000. It was a beautiful old house. I think Braden may have wanted to move in - good thing the house isn't for sale, or we probably would have made an offer. Especially if the price included the shelves and shelves of books that are still on display in the house. 

 

Next up was the Museo de la Guitarra. It's pretty much exactly what you would expect - old guitars, new guitars, guitars with lots of strings... and my personal favorite, a GIANT guitar. 

Aerial view

Help, I'm trapped inside!

After that we were going to take a tour of the cathedral, but we tried to get in a couple of times, and every time they told us they would start in an hour. So we gave up and ate some more tapas. 

Outside of the cathedral 

Mr. Lion and I are sad we can't see the inside :(

Tapas fix everything!

So there you have it! Some mid-week adventures! And I'm getting VERY excited for our upcoming travels - we are headed to Madrid at the end of the month, and yesterday we booked a Christmas trip to Paris! Woohoo!!! Stay tuned folks :)