Spain Visit to Six Cities
1 – 10 November 2016
Beware all ye who enter here
1 November 2016, Tuesday, Albuquerque Airport
It doesn’t seem that long ago we were just at the airport returning from Venice
and now we are heading off to Spain. This trip is a whirlwind tour of six Spanish cities in
ten days: Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Seville, Cordoba, and Barcelona. We’re using Gate1,
the same tour company as our Iceland trip last year about this time. We are hoping the
weather will be a bit more temperate than that trip as we’ve been spoiled by one of the
warmest Octobers in Albuquerque history. Madrid is on about the same line of latitude as
Indianapolis, and I remember autumns grouping up just north of there as brisk, turning to
cold in November, with our first snow flurries near the end of the month.
I’ve visited the cities except Madrid and Toledo, and Maggie spent three hours in
Barcelona once. Our memories of Spain are good and I’m looking forward to showing
Maggie the wonderful Moorish architecture in southern Spain.
Our flights are straightforward: Atlanta to Madrid with a longish layover in
between, but we’re fortified with entertainment options and some homemade cookies, so
we should be able to keep ourselves amused.
2 November 2016, Wednesday, Madrid, SPAIN
Our wait at the Atlanta airport was tempered by good book selections: Maggie, a
memoir by a Brit expatriate in rural Spain and me, a series of short stories about a
braggadocio French Brigadier in Napoleon’s army written by Arthur Conan Doyle
(during a respite from Sherlock Holmes). The long flight across the Big Pond was equally
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tempered by movies (two and a half for Maggie and four for me) and the in-flight meal
services. We both got a bit of sleep, Maggie considerably more than me.
We landed a bit groggy just past dawn, slipped through the entry rigmarole with
surprising ease, and met our Gate1 tour driver who navigated us through thick Madrid
traffic to our hotel where the guide for the rest of our trip met us. José provided us with
salient info about the tour and especially about our two days in Madrid. Madrid proper
has 3.3 million inhabitants with another three million in the immediate surroundings.
The first day was on our own but for an orientation session this evening. So
Maggie and I took a five-hour meandering walk through Madrid’s old town using a
provided map and my pre-tour notes to guide us. We hit a variety of Madrid’s iconic
spots: the Plaza de España with its massive monument dedicated to Cervantes with larger
than life-size bronze statues of the mounted Don Quixote and his eternal sidekick Sancho
Panza; the Puerta de Sol from which all distances in Spain are measured (after
considerable looking we finally found the 0 km plaque; the Plaza Mayor surrounded by
dignified buildings that have witnessed a panoply ranging from bullfights to Inquisition
trials and executions; a large indoor market with most of the food sold ‘ready to eat’
including a wide range of fancy tapas – a food that has transformed in recent years from
free eats at happy hour to works of art and competition with costs to match; and San
Ginés church built by Christians during the Moorish occupation.
Kilometer Zero
Fancy tapas
Early in our walk we passed the Palacio Real or Royal palace where some big do
was in progress. Some men were riding horses pulling howitzer cannons (not quite a
cavalcade) along the main street before the palace, but larger doings were occurring in
the palace’s large courtyard. Hundreds of people queued up to watch from a distance
behind barricades. From our vantage point the most interesting sight was one of two
mounted sentries on either side of the palace gate who was on a most restive horse. It
looked to me as if it had a burr under its saddle (or maybe there was a mare in heat
somewhere). It would not be still but pranced or pawed at the ground in obvious agitation
– it was all its rider could do to hold him in check. [Later we asked our first local guide
what the event was. She told us that every Wednesday a changing of the guard ceremony
is staged and, that on the first Wednesday of the month, the ceremony takes five hours.]
Although the police presence at this ceremony was modest, elsewhere in the city we
noted small groups of heavily armed police sporting body armor.
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Our farthest reach today was the Parque de el Retiro just beyond the Prado
Museum which we visit tomorrow. The park is beautiful, better kept than the palace
gardens through which we had strolled earlier – such a pretty green area in the midst of a
large city. About midway through our walk we stopped at the best known spot for
chocolate con churros (tubular donuts served with thick, hot chocolate for dipping) –
verging on the too-rich-for-my-taste – if such a thing is possible. After that rich snack we
selected a couple salads for dinner at an underground supermarket adjacent to our hotel.
We met the rest of our tour group, twenty-seven people all from the U.S.
Interestingly, almost half are immigrants from the Philippines, Burma, England, India,
and Guatemala who might be wondering if they will be able to return to the U.S. if
Trump wins next Tuesday. José gave us the basic flow for the tour: breakfast hours,
baggage handling, tour start times, etc., and so we hit the ground running tomorrow.
3 November 2016, Thursday, Madrid
We slept hard for seven hours last night which was a good thing as today turned
into a long one. We are in a Marriott Hotel these first two nights, and the breakfast buffet
was expansive and good. Uncharacteristically, I shunned the tempting sweet rolls. Last
night for a treat we had bought a Baklava sampler containing four variants of that
delectable pastry – a 28-count (though each was only two bites). Nevertheless I ODed
and didn’t want to try the “hair of the dog” remedy with the hotel’s selection.
The first part of our tour today was a bus ride around town while Paloma, our
local guide, pointed out the highlights. Maggie and I realized we had walked almost the
same route yesterday and agreed that the walk was definitely better for seeing the sights
but appreciated the guide’s information. We ended at the Prado, Spain’s premier fine arts
museum for a two-hour stroll with Paloma providing commentary to many of the mustsee pieces. For our off-the-bus commentaries, the guide uses a microphone and we each
have ear buds so that we can hear well without having to be in close proximity of the
guide – a good deal for us and much less irritating to those around us not on the tour. I’ll
just mention a few of the highlights: 1) Tintoretto’s “Washing of the Feet,” one of the
best examples demonstrating the power of perspective I’ve seen. In the center of the 17½
x 7½ ft painting, a table is canted at an angle towards the viewer. No matter where you
stand, the end of the table appears to point directly at you. If you walk slowly from one
side of the picture to the other, the table appears to rotate. It’s very odd … and wonderful.
2) Raphael’s “The Cardinal” does the same trick with the cardinal’s eyes on a much
smaller painting; 3) Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” was a
paradigm of that warped painter’s output – he’s been a favorite of mine since my first
glimpse of an original of his years ago in Vienna; 4) of course, the Prado owns many
great works by El Greco, Goya, Velázquez, and other Spanish artists’ works.
We were given time on our own to grab lunch, but Maggie and I spent most of it
in the Prado searching out other Bosch paintings since the museum has such a fabulous
collection of them. It’s worth noting that the Prado is the third largest art museum in
Europe after the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Louvre in Paris.
Once back on the bus most of us rode about an hour out of Madrid to El Escorial,
an enormous palace that Spain’s King Phillip II had built in the 1500s. It was once
considered ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ until many other ‘eighth wonders of the
world’ began cropping up, and it was one of the first to be designated a World Heritage
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Site by UNESCO. El Escorial is indeed large but not nearly as ornate as Versailles
outside Paris. It later became a monastery and is still the resting place for the royalty of
Spain which line mausoleums beneath the basilica at the center of the complex. One odd
arrangement within the palace is the situation of the bedchambers for the king and queen
which are situated on either side of the main altar of the basilica. It seemed to me while
viewing this situation that it must have been the queen who made the midnight treks to
the king’s chambers since the king’s passion would almost certainly have shrunken had
he taken this route. By the way, King Phillip II is also the king who moved the capital
from Toledo, which we visit tomorrow, to Madrid in 1561.
From El Escorial we motored back to our hotel. Maggie and I quickly readied
ourselves for our next foray as we learned that the Reina Sofia Contemporary Art
Museum has free entry from 7-9 pm. It’s worth noting that the Prado and the Reina Sofia
have an agreement that the former collects older works while the latter collects newer
works with the dividing date around 1881. So, after a crowded subway run and a bit of a
walk, we arrived and headed straight to the exhibit of Picasso’s El Guernica, his massive
protest to the bombing of said village during the Spanish Civil War. It’s considered one
of the most potent depictions of the atrocities of war in any medium. And it is striking.
The painting has spent most of its time outside Spain, not returning until Franco’s
government fell. We spent the rest of our time there viewing other modern works by Dali,
Picasso, Miró, and many others I did not recognize – some we liked, many we didn’t.
At 9 pm we headed to the hotel stopping at the supermarket to grab a snack since
we had missed dinner with all our running around. Now its almost 11 pm and we get up a
half hour earlier tomorrow for what looks like an even longer day, so I’m signing off.
4 November 2016, Friday, Granada
We checked out and drove the hour to Toledo which was originally founded by
the Romans in BC 192 but was overrun by the Visigoths who made it their capital. The
Moors took it in 712. In 1085 King Alfonso VI (along with El Cid) “reconquered” it for
Christian Spain. Then, in 1561, King Felipe II moved the capital to Madrid; Toledo lost
half its population over the years as people moved to where the power and jobs were. The
city now has a population of 35,000 with another 50,000 in the surrounding area.
Toledo sits high on a hill, a magnificent sight as you approach it, a veritable
magnet for photographers. The restored fortress Alcazar, now the country’s foremost
military museum, stands proud against the sky. We parked the bus at the bottom of the
hill and followed a zigzag of escalators (the bottom half new in the last two years) to city
level and headed off on a walking tour with Paloma. The entire old city (the part perched
on the hill) is an UNESCO site.
It’s a great city for a walking tour with narrow streets all paved in cobblestone
(avoid wearing high heels). For the first hour we had to hug the walls whenever resupply
trucks passed by as they only have a few hours in the morning to deliver goods before
they’re barred from the old city the rest of the day. It feels a bit like a rat’s maze. We
visited St. Tome church with one of El Greco’s masterworks, “The Burial of Orgaz,”
while Paloma regaled us with stories of the political intrigue behind the painting. We also
walked through the oldest synagogue in Europe. Santa María la Blanca was converted
first to a Christian church and later to a horse stable. Now no Jews live within Toledo.
Paloma next took us to a shop where gold fretwork called damascene is made to watch
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the intricate work in progress; the shop also sells Toledo steel, particularly swords for
which the city is well known.
Toledo, in the 15th and 16th centuries, was a center of learning, particularly known
for the translation from the Arabic to Latin of those ancient texts, including much of
Aristotle, which had been lost to Europe during the Middle Ages. Many of these
manuscripts were only preserved because Arabic scholars had translated them into Arabic
during their own Golden Age and Toledo provided much of the reverse-translation.
Upon leaving Toledo for our five-hour bus ride to Granada, we said good-bye to
Paloma, and José took over the job of keeping us occupied, entertained, enlightened, and
awake (the latter he was more successful with some of us than others). Some of the fun
facts he regaled us with: 1) Spain produces 40% of the world’s olive oil. This was
emphasized as we passed mile after mile with olive trees stretching to the horizon on both
sides of the road. We were moving into the region of Castile La Mancha (which also
seems to be trading heavily on Cervantes’ Don Quixote based on all the kitsch seemingly
everywhere at one of our rest stops). 2) Both the olive and the almond trees came to the
U.S. from Spain. While olive trees did not fare well, almond trees did. He said Spain dry
farms almonds whereas the soft-shell variety in the U.S. requires much care: heavy
irrigation (almonds are one of our most water-intensive crops) and pesticides to keep the
bugs at bay. This is why our almond farmers are currently under much stress while
Spain’s almond industry is not much affected by the change in climate though they too
have been hit by extensive drought. 3) Spain has historically been a major producer of
saffron that most expensive of all spices, but they are now being priced out by other
producers, primarily Iran. Evidently, we just missed the harvesting of the bright purple
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saffron (or crocus) flowers where the long red stigmas are plucked from the flower by
hand. 4) Spain is the number one producer of black truffles, a fungus caused by an
infection of the roots of an evergreen oak called a house oak. In the past, Spaniards used
pigs to find the underground treasure but have switched to trained dogs since they don’t
have to fight the dogs for the truffles when found. 5) José showed us a carob pod filled
with carob beans which are used to make a chocolate substitute. He said the word “karat”
derives from the word “carob” as the carob beans are all the same size and so were used
as a standard weight measure in olden times. The carob tree is in the locust family. 6)
José also told us that Spain has five official languages. While four of the languages are
similar, Basque is completely different. No one is sure where it came from though recent
studies point towards a people native to Spain called the Iberos.
We passed into Andalucía and through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Spain’s
tallest, and reached Granada, a city of 450,000, just in time for a group dinner. Maggie
and I both had a nice salad, a just-okay cream of leek soup, a wonderful piece of salmon
over rice, and flan for dessert. José pulled in three young musicians to play for us the last
half hour. Our timed ticket to enter the palace area of the Alhambra was for 8 pm. Built in
1238 the Alhambra was home to the royal family during Moorish rule, and it was built in
the Moorish style: plain on the outside and lavishly decorated on the inside with spacious
courtyards, all with water features as water was central to the Moors desert heritage. The
Alhambra and especially the Genralife or royal gardens and summer house were
patterned after the Koran’s description of paradise, “a shady leafy garden refreshed by
running water where the fortunate ones may take their rest.” The Christians took over the
Alhambra as well as the rest of Granada in 1492 when the last Moorish ruler realized it
was no use fighting the Reconquista any longer It should be noted, though, that Granada
had resisted it for two and a half centuries longer than the rest of Moorish Spain. Carlos I
of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire fell in love with the Alhambra and pulled
down part of the palace to erect his own palace in the style of the times. Unfortunately, it
was never finished and, after six months, Carlos left and never returned. Napoleon’s
troops took Granada in 1812 and sacked the place. Orders were given to destroy it but, in
one of those turning points in history where one man makes a difference, the fuses were
removed by a crippled soldier. Nevertheless, the abandoned palace fell into disrepair and,
in another quirk of history, it was visited by an American, Washington Irving (he of Rip
Van Winkle fame), who was passing through on a grand tour of Europe. Washington also
fell in love with the place and actually lived in the ruined palace for many months. He
wrote of his stay in “Tales of the Alhambra” which was widely translated and read. This
free publicity breathed life back into the Alhambra which was renovated and became a
“go to” destination. Today, the Alhambra is a heavily visited UNESCO site with ticket
sales limited by the UNESCO in order cut down on the wear and tear. Ticket sales and
other funding allows for the continuous restoration of the site.
Our tour began with a quick look at the Palacio de Carlos V. The large square
façade hides a surprising circular courtyard over which the night sky shone in all its glory
as the dome was never completed. The walls show blank places where commemorative
plaques were to be installed but never were. Most of our time was spent in the Palacios
Nazaríes, the old Moorish palace. We wound our way through the Mexuar where general
business was done, the Serallo where important guests were received, and the Harem
where the ruler and his family lived. Throughout the palace, the walls, ceilings, and floors
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(at least the few extant original sections) are eye-popping. The walls are plastered in
intricate geometric shapes, sometimes with Koranic quotes in Arabic. In Moorish times
these were then painted in a color scheme of red, blue, yellow, and green which can still
be seen in small patches (repainting is not done as part of the restoration).
Our guide said that the plaster decorations were formed by casts made from mud
which could be used over and over allowing for quick application. The ceilings were a
combination of plaster and Lebanon cedar inlayed in intricate designs. The plaster ceiling
in the alcoves look like miniature caves complete with stalactites. The effect when
entering a room can be overwhelming as your eyes are drawn everywhere at once. The
several courtyards were also beautiful with a reflection pool, a large fountain or some
other water feature dominating the space. The guide reiterated throughout the tour that
the water features are all “powered” by water pressure alone as the Moorish aqueducts
bringing water from the mountains maintains an adequate head. Even after a long day, the
effect of these courtyards was refreshing.
We were ready for bed when we finally reached our hotel. Tomorrow we return to
the Alhambra to tour the royal gardens.
5 November 2016, Saturday, Seville
Today was a more leisurely day. Our first stop was again the Alhambra, but this
time we walked around the Generalife which was the sultan’s garden with his summer
house at one end. The overlooks in the daytime were great even though it was overcast
and actually rained for part of the tour. We were mostly outside in the lavish gardens with
gravity-powered fountains in picturesque settings. Pomegranates, persimmons, and sour
oranges are among the fruit trees and, though the season is advanced, many flowers are in
bloom. And the gardens held the largest magnolia tree I’ve ever seen. Part of the summer
palace boasted the sumptuous Moorish designs, but part of it had been completely
refurbished many years ago in a much plainer style – the contrast is striking.
The hour and a half sped by and we were soon on the bus heading to Seville.
Again José entertained us part of the way by providing interesting tidbits: 1) In the 1800s,
Spain passed a law that any establishment selling a glass of liquor must provide some
free food to mitigate its effect. The common method was to place a small plate of some
food (a few olives, a sausage, etc.) over the glass to remind the drinker to eat something
with the drink. These small plates of food became known as tapas or “covers.” Today
tapas are the rage in Spain and beyond as small servings of increasingly creative food.
It’s common for people in Spain to move from restaurant to restaurant after work to
socialize and to drink and to eat tapas which now cost anywhere from €2 and up (usually
up). José told us we should ask for “rations” or half rations” instead of tapas in Spain as
tapas still connote something given for free (we did not find this to be the case however,
and saw signs everywhere advertising tapas). 2) At our only rest stop for lunch and to
allow the driver to rest (by law they can only drive so long without a rest), José had us
each try a pionono, a sweet from Granada – very tasty. 3) José pointed out some cork oak
trees. Every nine to fourteen years the cork layer is stripped from the trees and a number
representing the year of the harvest is painted on the now-red bark. He said Portugal leads
cork production with Spain second and Italy third.
We reached Seville around 3:30 and since we had time before our 7 pm supper
date, Maggie and I walked to the Plaza de la Encarnació to see a structure called Las
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Setas or “the mushrooms.” The city had asked for bids to turn an unsightly area around
and the winning bidder put up a modern architectural piece made of wood soaring high in
the air. You take an elevator to the equivalent of a four-story building roof where you
traverse an undulating walkway with stunning views of the city. It’s a funny looking
structure hinted at by its nickname “the mushrooms” but the place was very popular.
Supper was superb. We started with a tasty salad, followed by foccacia bread
topped with melted moncheto cheese, deep-fried eggplant drizzled with honey, a veggie
piece, a kabob with dill sauce for dip, and a smooth white custard cup topped with
raspberry sauce and tiny chocolate chips. It really was as good as it sounds.
Tomorrow we stay in Seville the whole day ending with a Flamenco show. Oh,
before signing off, the elevator in our Seville hotel is unique in my experience. Outside
the four elevators is a stand-alone control box where you press the number of your target
floor. In a couple seconds it indicates which elevator to enter. When you enter the
elevator, you push no buttons; it just goes to the appropriate floor. Supposedly, a
customer never waits longer than twenty seconds for an elevator.
6 November 2016, Sunday, Seville
Today we started a little later which I appreciated. The bus dropped us off first at
the Plaza de España where an impressive building now houses government offices. It is
built as a half oval about a block long with a large fountain in the middle of the
courtyard. It’s a beautiful brick building with much decoration including ornate pictures
in colorful tile each depicting a scene representing forty-eight of the fifty Spanish
provinces each about three feet high. The morning light showed the building to great
Maggie at the Plaza de España
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effect and we were all suitably impressed. The building was used as the Egyptian
consulate in the film Lawrence of Arabia and as a government building in the Star Wars
film Attack of the Clones. An incongruous incident at this venue was one of the various
street musicians playing for tips was in full Native American chieftain regalia and was
playing Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” on his Pipes of Pan – this was just
wrong on so many levels. José’s constant refrain over our “whisper” system when
walking through touristy areas has been “Don’t take the rosemary!” and here we heard it
a half dozen times. A couple of (he said) Spanish Roma were peddling rosemary. He said
they “give” you a sprig of rosemary and then hound you until you pay them €10 or more.
Often they combine this with palm readings.
After showing us a famous bullfighter’s bronze statue and that of Carmen (from
Bizet’s opera) which stands where her jealous bullfighter lover killed her, we headed into
old town. The streets are narrow and winding, making it easy to get disoriented which
reminded me of that old saying about travel: the best way to discover a place is to get lost
in it. As we approached the street leading from the cathedral we came upon a mob of
people. By chance we were just in time to see the procession of the statue of ‘Christ the
Great Power’ which depicts a larger than life Jesus carrying a cross on a tableau carried
by a bunch of men under cover – it looks as if the statue is really walking. They carry the
statue less than one hundred yards and then stop for a rest. The statue had been secreted
in the cathedral for the last two and a half days because its home church was in the
process of being renovated and the heavy rains in the area this last week threatened to
flood it. During this time, the cathedral has been closed to tourists, but it’s reopening
today at 2:30 which is our scheduled entry time. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people
pressed to get a look at the procession. José told us that the people of Seville are known
to glom onto any reason for a celebration; the fact that this statue has not seen the light of
day since 1939 is a great reason.
Shortly after the procession passed and the crowds dispersed, we crossed the main
street and continued our walking tour. At around noon, José cut us loose to find lunch.
Maggie and I headed to the Real Alcázar or Royal Palace. José had told us an hour would
be sufficient, but Maggie and I found that an hour quite insufficient. The place was huge,
larger than the Alhambra, and just as incredible. Many large rooms had the lower half of
their walls covered in exquisite tiles and the upper half with the same type of intricate
plaster casting as the Alhambra. The wooden ceilings, too, rivaled those of the Alhambra.
We entered room after room to be yet again overawed by the beauty of each. The place
was a maze of rooms and, at one point, we were completely disoriented. As time ran
short, we hurried through the maze trying to take it all in. In several places we saw
figures of animals and even of people which belied its Moorish origins, but we were told
that much of the palace was repurposed after the Reconquista. The palace also had
several large courtyards with water features and manicured greenery. We had no time to
explore the large garden adjacent to the palace which is about three times its area. Using
an audioguide, we could imagine easily spending half a day here.
The reason we had to rush was our 2:30 guided tour of the Cathedral. We were
the first group to enter the church after its two and a half day closure, so Gate1 must have
some pull locally. The Moors had originally built a mosque (1184-98) on this location
which was later consecrated as a Cathedral in 1218 after Seville was retaken by the
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Christians. In the 15th century the mosque was pulled down (except the minaret) and a
Gothic Cathedral was built atop the foundation (1434-1517). The result is the largest
Gothic Cathedral in the world and the third largest Cathedral (by volume) after St. Peter’s
in Rome and St. Paul’s in London. It has forty-four side chapels and is enormous in scale.
Spain was the richest country in the world during this period because of its New World
plunder, and that opulence is on display; for example, the massive main altarpiece is pure
gold while the wooden framing has gold leaf. This altarpiece was cleaned just two years
ago and it sparkles.
Christopher Columbus left from Seville on his fated voyage to the New World
making the city the gateway to the Americas for years to come: all ships and goods to and
from America came through Seville via the Guadalquivir River. As a result, Columbus
plays a major role in Seville’s history and folklore. In the Cathedral stands a large crypt
of Christopher Columbus held up by the figures of four kings representing the four
districts of Spain at that time. In order to give an example of how cryptic the metaphor in
art can be to the neophyte, let me provide just one example: the King of Leon holding up
one corner of Chris’ crypt holds a lance in his other hand. The tip of that lance is piercing
a pomegranate lying on the ground. The word for pomegranate in Spanish is “Granada,”
and Granada was the last Moorish city retaken in the Reconquista – is that tricky enough
for you?
While I had read about this in my pre-trip research and so was not thrown by our
tour guide, she provided a few other tidbits our way that I suspect fall into the category of
“tour guide apocryphal information” (for instance her origin of the phrase “stinking rich”
coming from the smell of the putrid bodies of rich people buried in the floor of the church
smells fishy to me). I had read an article some years ago about how some tour guides
fabricate interesting “historical facts” for their own amusement or to generate better tips
since tourists love the odd story. Ever since then, my spidy sense tingles when I hear a
likely whopper.
After our formal tour of the Cathedral we were free to climb the thirty-four ramps
to the top of the church’s bell tower. The tower is the sole vestige of the mosque. The
minaret was converted to a bell tower and, when an earthquake shook the top part down,
it was replaced with a weather vane which spins around giving the tower its popular
name Giralda meaning “she who turns” in Spanish.
Back in the hotel, Maggie and I ate a salad, bread roll and cheese before our
evening Flamenco show. Flamenco means “arrogant” or “insolent” which seems to fit the
proud dancers in this genre. We had front row seats before a small stage upon which a
troop of seven dancers (one woman topped eighty-years-old!), two “singers” and two
guitarists regaled us with foot-stomping, hand-clapping, castanet-clacking, fingersnapping entertainment. The physicality of the dances is something to see.
7 November 2016, Monday, Madrid
We were up and off to Cordoba in no time this morning. In the 10th century
Cordoba was by far the largest city in Europe (according to José) at a population of
300,000 which is about what it is today. Our main attraction today was Cordoba’s
mosque-cathedral. Cordoba’s history (as Roman for 700 years, Christian Visigoth for 150
years, and Moorish for 500 years before the Reconquista made it Christian again) is
reflected within the mosque-cathedral. The courtyard is full of sour orange trees, a
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Moorish influence; the bell tower was first a minaret, but has been bricked up with bells
hung in the tower. Inside you are confronted with row after row of Roman pillars, 856 in
all, that the Moors repurposed for their huge mosque, the largest in the 8th century. Above
the pillars are double arches in broad red and white stripes offering a kaleidoscopic effect
as you peer into the distance. Shortly after entering, you come upon a transparent area in
the floor through which you can view a section of the Visigoth Christian church ten feet
below upon which ruins the mosque was built. Making your way straight across you find
an exquisite mirhab, the niche in a mosque that points towards Mecca orienting the
faithful to prayer. However, when you circle back to the center of the enormous space,
you are suddenly confronted with the inner parts of a Christian church: altar, choir, pews,
etc., built in a combination of styles (Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo) with a soaring dome
rising well above the mosque’s roof. The sudden shift from mosque to Christian church
takes some getting used to, especially since, while sitting in the church’s pews, you can’t
help but see you are surrounded by an enormous mosque. It’s hard to imagine how this
structure even exists!
Our local guide told us that when the Christian Reconquista reached Cordoba, the
bishop at the time just consecrated the mosque to be used as a church. Destroying the
mosque and building a new church (the normal process as, for instance, as happened in
Seville) was too costly since the Christians still had the rest of southern Spain to conquer,
and money for war trumps money for a church every time. Then, much later, a new
bishop was installed in Cordoba and was appalled that a mosque was used for Christian
services. He pushed hard for a plan to place a new church inside the mosque. Though
resisted by the locals, the bishop eventually convinced the emperor Charles V, and it was
done; several hundred old roman pillars were removed in the process. Regardless of how
it exists, this mosque-cathedral was my favorite experience in my first pass through
southern Spain in 2003, and it remains so on this tour.
We were given one and a half hours for lunch so Maggie and I headed off to find
a couple of interesting plazas I had noted pre-trip and then found a quiet café with
outsides tables, half in the sun for Maggie and half shade for me. We ordered three tapas:
a deep-fried eggplant drizzled with honey, marinated sweet pepper strips with tuna, and a
dish both José and our local guide recommended called salmorejo which has been
described as a sort of creamy gazpacho thickened with bread but without the veggies, and
then sprinkled with hardboiled egg bits and pieces of jamon (a local ham). All three were
winners, a light lunch to carry us back to Madrid.
Before leaving Cordoba, we saw an old Roman bridge still used by local traffic
until recently and a Moorish aqueduct. Then it was on to Madrid. Let me take this time to
add a couple of notes: 1) Both José and our local guide have referred to “gypsies.” Other
places in Europe the term “gypsy” has been replaced by “Roma.” 2) José said it’s not
legal to own a gun in Spain unless it’s for hunting and then you must have it checked
every year to see if it’s been fired. Also, you cannot carry a gun around. 3) In Spain
staying in school is emphasized so much that it is illegal to get a job before turning
sixteen.
We had a half hour to freshen up upon arriving in Madrid before climbing back
on the bus for an “illuminated Madrid” tour. For me it was not worth the time in stop and
go traffic as we basically drove the same route and saw the same things – except at night
– as we saw on our first Madrid bus tour. However, our last dinner together was
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excellent. It was again served tapas style, a series of small dishes shared by the table: a
salad, cheese and jamon, ratatouille, stir-fried chicken, a beef dish, a Spanish tortilla
(which in Spain is an omelet with potatoes and onion), fried cheese sticks with jamon,
bread, wine, water, and ice cream for dessert. Excellent! Maggie got a nice piece of hake
instead of the meat dishes. Tomorrow we take the fast train to Barcelona on our last
stage.
8 November 2016, Tuesday (election day), Barcelona
After breakfast we took a bus to the train station for our two and half hour train
ride to Barcelona. The scenery for part of the ride was beautiful in the morning light, a
little bit of snow in the distant mountains, quaint villages, some scenes reminding us of
New Mexico. By the way there are two couples from Taos in our group making six New
Mexicans out of 27 guests, an unusual percentage.
Barcelona is a compact city with 1.7 M people and an additional four million in
the metro area. From the train we boarded our bus for an orientation ride around that area
of the city we might want to visit on our own. So, after checking in, grabbing a quick nap
and dinner (Maggie a vegetable paella and me a pizza), Maggie and I walked to the main
tourist area to view the modernist architecture for which Barcelona is known. We stopped
to admire La Pedrera, a house designed by Gaudí. The outside walls have a wavy pattern
resembling the sea; wrought-iron seaweed fronts each balcony; and Poseidon rules over
all on the roof. Just a few blocks towards the Mediterranean is another Gaudí classic
called the Casa Batlló with skulls for balconies, bones for columns, and dragon scales for
the roof. Gaudí is beloved by Barcelona which boasts many of his architectural oddities.
José told us that Gaudí might be the most outré of the modernists because he never left
Spain and so his inspiration didn’t get watered down by exposure to foreign artists. José
explained that the modernists era was short-lived because it was not practical – how do
you furnish a room with curved walls?
As evening fell we proceeded down La Rambla, Barcelona’s main tourist drag, to
the monument to Christopher Columbus near the Mediterranean shore. We turned east to
get photos of Javier Mariscal’s giant smiling lobster originally built to sit atop a seafood
restaurant and a piece by Lichtenstein called “Barcelona’s Head,” an homage to the styles
of Gaudí, Picasso, and Miró. Then we headed back to our hotel via Barcelona’s
convenient metro to our hotel to rest for our last full tourist day tomorrow.
9 November 2016, Trumpday, Barcelona
For our last day in Barcelona we took another bus tour, this time with a local
guide, but we covered much of the same territory as with José yesterday which was a bit
frustrating to me. The first stop was atop Montjuic Hill one of the 1992 Olympic Games
venues with spectacular views over the city and harbor. The second stop was to do a
waling tour of an old section of downtown called Le Born which contains the Picasso
Museum which I visited on my first trip here. We also stepped into the Santa Maria del
Mar church for a look. For our third stop our guide walked us around the outside of
Gaudí’s masterwork, La Sagrada Familia. Funds for this massive church in modernist
design began being collected in 1866 – all funds for its construction have been from
private donations. Construction began in 1882 with a thirty-one-year-old Gaudí taking
over in 1883 when he changed the buildings design to its current look. He devoted his life
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to the project though he continued doing other projects. By the time Gaudí died in 1926
after being hit by a tram, he was living in the church. Construction was halted because of
the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1954. In 2010 the interior was complete and the church
was consecrated by the Pope. Projected completion date for the central steeple is 2026,
the centenary of Gaudí’s death. Our walking tour of the exterior was abbreviated because
of the gusty winds which literally staggered you as you walked. Our local guide said she
had never seen the wind this strong.
Yesterday on the train, Maggie had bought online tickets to view the interior of
La Sagrada Familia at 2 pm so, after a short visit to our room, we jumped onto the metro
to ride to the site. I had visited Gaudí’s creation in 2003 but, at that time, scaffolding
obscured much of the church’s interior. Even then I was much impressed. Without the
scaffolding, the interior is stunning. The columns, made from a variety of stone, rise high
before branching out like trees to the ceiling. Much of the design is based on nature as is
much of the symbolism. Gaudí’s design diffuses the light entering from the many stained
glass windows as if being filtered through the leaves of a forest. The eastern windows are
in cool colors (blues and greens) to signify the cool of the morning and those facing west
are all reds, yellows, and oranges. We were there in midafternoon and the colors suffused
the whole nave. Standing in the back of the church looking the length of the nave to the
ceiling above the altar, the view is surreal; the CGI-like clarity does not seem real. While
ultraconservative people might find many aspects of Gaudí’s creation not fit for a church,
we only had one such comment. The figure of a crucified Christ is suspended above the
altar. Above the Christ figure is an umbrella-like feature that Gaudí designed to funnel
light down on the cross and altar … and this it does well. However, Maggie took one
look at it and declared it to be “hang-gliding Jesus” and, I have to admit, her description
is impious but apt.
Hang-gliding Jesus
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For those not familiar with the church’s exterior, a brief description is in order.
The church is built on a scale of the world’s other great churches. It has eighteen spires:
twelve for the apostles, four for the evangelists, one for Mary, and the central spire to
represent Jesus has not yet been built but will soar over all the others. Over the eastern
entrance is the nativity story in larger than life-size figures and over the western is the
tale of Jesus’ last days. Gaudí wanted the church to be a Bible lesson unto itself. My
descriptions fail to do justice to the unconventionality reflected by Gaudí’s design – if
interested, Google it and be prepared to be shocked.
Towers from La Sagrada Familia
Before leaving, we toured the church’s museum which provides much info on the
architectural approach. It’s interesting to learn how Gaudí incorporated some of nature’s
solutions in his design. I should mention that our ticket included a trip by elevator to the
top of one tower where you can glimpse details at close range like the stylized fruit atop
each tower. You also cross a catwalk from one tower to another. However, the towers
were closed today because of the high winds with gusts so strong at street level that
people were often caused to stumble. When here in 2003, I did the tower tour which also
provides great views over the city in addition to getting a closer inspection of the towers.
By the way, the church construction costs have historically been paid by individual
donors, but contributions began lagging until the 1992 Olympics shone a light on
Barcelona and, in particular, La Sagrada Familia. Since then ticket sales, at 10,000
guests per day average, have begun paying a large part of the construction costs.
After dinner we had our last meeting to discuss departure details. Maggie and I,
along with some others in our group, leave the hotel at 3:30 am to catch a 6:30 flight. The
hotel is providing us a picnic breakfast which is nice. We fly to Paris – Atlanta –
Albuquerque and get home tomorrow evening. When we get there, America, “You got
some ‘splainin’ to do!” (WE voted before we left home.)
Hope you’ve enjoined sharing our non-bicycle holiday.
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