Our second day in Cáceres

So here are some dawn views from the apartment.

We start our second day with breakfast at El Corral de Las Cigüeñas.  This nice bar has regular music events of all types.  ( Cigüeñas means storks ) 

When we head out after breakfast we are enchanted to come across a local duet who do historic tours of the town.  They are entertaining a group of school children. My chum thinks the teachers like it more than the kids!  We are in the old Jewish quarter and the content of their tour reflects this. 

They perform Ocho Kandelikas which is a catchy Jewish song celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah, sung in Ladino, a Spanish derived language traditionally associated with the Sephardic Jewish community, whose ancestors lived in Spain before the fifteenth century.  Despite its traditional sounding tone, "Ocho Kandelikas" is a modern composition, written by the Jewish-American composer Flory Jagoda in 1983. The lyrics of the song describes a child's joy of lighting the candles.  A certain authenticity is lacking but it is great, spontaneous fun. 

The song is often performed in an Argentine tango rhythm with accompanying accordion and violins. Check it out at 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?autoplay=1&v=9h3u88wLrAQ

We find ourselves humming the tune for the rest of the holiday!  

Next we visit the Museo de Cáceres, housed in the original Moorish Alcázar with
its beautifully proportioned rooms arrayed around a small patio and preserving  the aljibe (cistern).  It is dark down in the aljibe and you can hardly see the water but can imagine the atmosphere. 

An El Greco, Cristo Salvador, is to be found and is captivating. 

We are approaching International Woman's Day and are delighted to find the is a 'Women's History' theme in the museum.  The painting below 'La Pereza', meaning laziness (!) (were there options?), shows a middle class young lady in the nineteenth century lounging in a rocking chair.  There is a piano in the background and a musical score discarded on the floor. The woman has been instructed in 'the knowledge of decoration' and has little power.  We also see costumes and tools of working women. 

La Pereza, 1882 

José Alcázar Tejedor