Úbeda II

Úbeda is an interesting place. For one thing, there's hardly a non-Spanish tourist in sight, which we love. We were able to get out this morning and join the town in the typical and traditional Saturday morning shopping and strolling frenzy. That is really what we like best about traveling, just being part of the country.

Úbeda really has no tourist attractions unless you like architecture, but if you do, it's pretty interesting. In the late 1500's, Úbeda's powerful families provided secretaries to King Carlos I, who was also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, making him the most powerful person in Europe. Providing those secretaries meant that money and power flowed back to Úbeda and those powerful families competed to build the most beautiful houses and offices and churches. It was the Renaissance, and the families hired architects who had learned their trade with Renaissance architects in Italy. The result is that Úbeda is full of beautiful Renaissance buildings and what many people rate as the most beautiful and best-preserved Renaissance Plaza in all of Europe. Who am I to argue?

Here are a couple pictures of these Renaissance buildings in the middle of Moorish Spain.

Plaza Vázquez de Molino at dawn. Our hotel is the building at the right.

The food here isn't bad, either. Here's our favorite tapa, gambas a pil-pil (shrimp in a garlic/chile sauce):

p.s. At breakfast this morning, we were enjoying our coffee, our salchicas, our huevos, and the nice background music (usually some American crap, but here some nice classical music) when...Flight of the Valkeries! Wagner! Wotan! Brunhilda! Siegfried! Some things are not suitable for breakfast and, after hearing that, I can tell you that Wagner is one of them!