First off, I apologize for the delay in getting this post up on the blog. My reason involves a late dinner and being asked to go to a (beautiful!) old bar, founded in 1670, and then to another and another … all of this was on foot, of course, and halfway in, I was so lost in the maze of Seville’s narrow, winding streets that I could never have found my way back on my own and had to stay for the entire outing.

At any rate, Wednesday was fairly uneventful. We all went our separate ways for a morning in Madrid, and then gathered back in the hotel for the bus ride to the train. The high-speed train was really cool, and really, really fast. When we disembarked in Seville, the number of bug streaks on the front of the train was amazing.

Once out of the city, the scenery between Madrid and Seville was inspiring. We saw lonely houses, small villages, a small castle or two, and thousands upon thousands of olive trees. There were a few horses, herds of sheep and goats (together, which was interesting), and a hawk in the sky. There were also forests of short, scrub oaks, in which I understand there would have been pigs. The “free-range” pigs are apparently allowed to wander under the oaks and eat the acorns, which helps to produce the region’s famous ham. The scenery and the rolling hills and small mountains reminded me forcefully of southern California, where I grew up (or what it must’ve looked like before so many people were living there, at any rate). In reality, it was of course California that reminded the Spaniards of home.