Last September, we went on a family holiday after a lapse of 12 years. The last time we went on holiday as a family was in 2000 when we went to Lake Tahoe for the children to enjoy a bit of snowboarding. After 9/11 no more travelling to America. However, I did a lot of travelling since then on overland adventure trips by 4WD vehicles in a convoy. In fact I’ve done five trips covering the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. So this recent family trip was meaningful since the children are all young adults.
We had about 12 days in Spain with Malaga as the hub from where we drove to Granada (Alhambra), Cordoba and Seville. From Seville we took the train to Madrid. Apart form all the sightseeing and shopping, I think our most memorable experience was the bullfight.
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| Nice weather, hard seats | Provoking the tired, confused bull |
There were six bullfights over the 2 1/2 hour session. All six bulls lost.
Bullfighting is a cruel, blood sport. And many Spanish cities – Barcelona, Malaga, Seville -- have banned it. And pressure from animal rights advocates is mounting. Madrid may ban it too in the future. But my Spanish friends in KL believe it’s all political and economics. When the going gets tough and the tourist dollar is badly needed to upkeep the splendid bullrings and the thousands of people in the business, then they’ll bring back the bullfights, they said.
However, I certainly don’t like it; the poor bulls just had no chance. Even if it could gore a matador it’d still lose the fight and be killed.
