Spain 2005 – BillzPage

For Allie’s fourth grade Spring Break, Barb, Allie and I jetted off to Spain to see Maggie and get our first taste of the country.

With Maggie living in Madrid, we felt like Spring Break 2005 was a good chance to visit the country for our first time. I had technically been in Spain before, attending a network management conference in Barcelona in 1999 or so, but I had barely gotten outside the hotel during that week. I saw remarkably little of the city and don’t even remember having any good meals…which is a sad accomplishment.

Laurie and Maggie helped me plan in the months before we traveled. We wanted to visit some of the highlights in Andalusia, figuring that it might be a little warmer in the south during March. I wanted to get outside Madrid and was fascinated by the mix of Muslim, Jewish and Catholic cultures in the region. It would be a tight timetable to try to squeeze in several cities in just one week; we knew we wanted to see Cordoba and Granada, and as it happened, Maggie would only be in Madrid the latter part of the week. We worked out an itinerary that started and ended in Madrid, with stops in Cordoba, Granada and Toledo.

Mom and Dad visited Spain on one of their retirement trips in the 1980s and spoke highly of the Parador system of hotels in converted castles and monasteries around the country. I wanted to stay in at least one of these hotels that usually required reservations months ahead. I was pleased we were able to get into two, in Granada and Toledo.

Saturday, March 19

We flew to Madrid, I’m guessing out of Dulles, I’m guessing on United, maybe some of it on points though I don’t think we upgraded.

Sunday, March 20

We arrived in Madrid in the early morning and made our way by taxi to our hotel. We chose the Hotel Preciados to be somewhat close to Maggie’s neighborhood and also near the city’s main attractions. It turned out to be a friendly, smaller hotel in one of Madrid’s main shopping districts. Very convenient and comfortable, if not exactly modern.

We were able to get into our room to clean up and rest a little after the flight. In the afternoon we took a little wander around the heart of Madrid, starting with the massive square in front of the Royal Palace. We were rather overwhelmed by the size of the palace, square and surrounding buildings. We didn’t go in any of the buildings, nor did we really have much sense of what we were looking at beyond our basic guidebook descriptions. It took a lot out of us just walking around. I think we also made it over to the Plaza Mayor and Puerta de Sol on this initial wander but did little other than walk through the squares.

I don’t specifically remember our first dinner in Madrid, but it was in one of the restaurants near the hotel. We were hard pressed to make it to 8pm when the restaurants opened. Maggie was not in town and we were due to get on the road the next day, so we had an early evening.

Monday, March 21

We rented a car I’d reserved ahead from Avis at a city office a few blocks from the hotel. My challenge was to get from the car rental office back to the hotel to get the girls and then exit Madrid as quickly as possible. It worked reasonably well. We left some of the bigger bags at the hotel and followed the main roads out of town toward the south.

I was pleased to find that once we got onto the highways, it was very much like driving on interstates back home. Except faster. The Spanish highway system was excellent and easy to navigate.

The drive to Cordoba passed through the region of La Mancha, famous from Don Quixote. I had made several stabs at reading the book but never made it all the way through. Nevertheless, it was fun to see the actual territory of its setting. We kept a lookout for windmills but mostly only saw giant modern turbines and one or two tourist replicas built as roadside attractions. We stopped at one for a bathroom break and a Diet Coke. Our nod to culture.

Famous La Mancha windmills…we didn’t see

La Mancha was a high, dry plain — I hadn’t realized that Spain’s central plateau was quite so high or dusty. The rain in Spain does not mainly fall on this plain, though it is Spain’s largest. The flat geography made for easy driving, though. We had fun spotting the enormous bull signs erected on ridges near the roadside, visible from miles away. We didn’t know what they were but later discovered they were advertisements for Osborne sherry. Great signs, terrible advertisements for sherry.

We made it to Cordoba in a few hours and found our way to the old section of town where our hotel was located. I haven’t tracked down the name of our hotel but it was a small place in the twisty heart of Cordoba. I’m sure I found it through TripAdvisor or one of our guidebooks. We had to park outside of the old town and wheel our luggage to the actual hotel. I don’t remember much about the hotel but it was very centrally located to the main sights.

The old town was quite lovely with whitewashed buildings crowded over narrow winding streets providing natural cooling, so they told us. We got lost a little taking an afternoon walk to get oriented. We scouted out sights that we would explore further the next day. We must have also taken a walking tour because I remember having a guide tell us about various buildings and some of the history of the city, including the Jewish Quarter where we admired the statue of Maimonides.

That afternoon we encountered our first Semana Santa (Holy Week) “pasos” or slow, mournful processions through the streets. Hundreds of people marched slowly behind a drum and horn band playing baleful tunes. Eventually we saw the highlight of the procession, a group of men carrying the actual paso, a heavy gilded float depicting one of the stages of Christ’s passion. The crowd was dour and penitential — it made for a very downbeat mood. New Orleans Mardi Gras it was not. Heathens that we were (and are), we had no idea Holy Week was going to be a thing during the time we were in Spain, but this was not to be our only encounter.

After finally navigating around the parade (or vice versa, really…we were stuck until it passed), we made our way to a restaurant recommended in our guidebooks. We got there around 7:30pm, still on American time, and pressed our noses to the glass of the closed restaurant. Eventually they saw us and let us in to have quite a nice meal, even though we were the only ones seated. Only by the time we finished did other diners start filtering in. Not only were we heathens, we were stereotypical American tourists to boot.

Tuesday, March 22

Our first stop in the morning was the Mezquita or Grand Mosque-Cathedral where we got tickets for an early tour. This was one of the main sights I wanted to see and I was not disappointed. The interior of the former Grand Mosque with its maze of arched columns is one of the architectural wonders of the world. The cathedral stuck into the middle of the structure is a physical metaphor for Christians reimposing their will on Moorish Spain.

For whatever reason (were cameras not allowed?), I took no pictures of my own so I’ve borrowed some from the internet. I could have spent much longer taking in the different perspectives and nooks and crannies of the building but the tour shuffled us along and we were out within an hour or so.

For a time in the 9th-10th centuries, Cordoba was one of the largest and most advanced cities in the world, a testament to Moorish learning and tolerance in the midst of Europe’s Dark Ages. For a time the seat of power was the Alcazar, near the Grand Mosque. We headed there next and took a tour. The Moorish structures were largely destroyed in the 12th century Reconquista and a new castle complex started in the 14th century. The palace was one of the primary residences of Ferdinand and Isabella in the 15th century when it also became a headquarters for the Inquisition. I’m not sure how much of that we learned at the time — I think not much. I was most impressed by the gardens inspired by Moorish designs.

Next we crossed the Roman Bridge of Cordoba which had been newly “pedestrianized.” There was a small museum on the far bank that offered views of the bridge and city.

We covered a fair amount of ground in Cordoba in one day and hardly scratched the surface, but I had a glimmer of the layered sense of history I’ve encountered in other cities including Jerusalem, Rome, Xi’an and London. I’m still fascinated by Cordoba’s short flowering as one of the world’s leading cities marked by tolerance of three major religions followed by centuries as a quiet backwater.

I think we drove the two hours to Granada in the late afternoon. I remember it being a pretty drive with hillsides of almond trees in flower.

We drove straight to our hotel for two evenings, the Parador de Granada located in the Alhambra palace complex. The hotel is one of the jewels of Spain’s parador system. The buildings date back to the 14th century mosque complex and had been a convent for nearly 500 more years.

Wednesday, March 23

Our room at the parador was spacious and included a nice patio where we had breakfast before heading out to explore the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a hilltop complex of palace buildings, fortress, gardens and other structures built over different periods, most dating from the 13th-15th centuries. It represents the late pinnacle of Moorish design in Andalusia.

Our tour of the Alhambra started at the oddly out-of-place Palace of Charles V, started in the 15th century but never completed. The main building never had a roof until a few decades ago. It now houses the ticket office, a small museum and features a lovely circular open-air courtyard which serves no special purpose but has become a nice venue for concerts.

The Alcazaba (Fortress) opposite Palace of Charles V

Our guided tour began in the Nasrid Palace complex, including the Court of the Myrtles.

The heart of the Alhambra is the Court of the Lions. The courtyard is an “architectural materialization of Paradise” which I didn’t quite apprehend but I thought it was lovely. We were maybe not its most respectful visitors.

I was quite entranced by the geometric designs used throughout the Alhambra. They were gorgeous in their own right and some of the finest examples in the world. I also wondered what design ideas we might be able to use in our Pfefferkorn house still under construction. I can’t exactly say we ended up using any, but there was a lot about the designs that I liked.

After the Nasrid Palaces our tour headed over to the Generalife, or summer palace and gardens. This area offered great views of the city of Granada, particularly the Albaicin or Moorish quarter, and a look back across the valley toward the Alhambra. The Generalife also contains the Water-Garden Courtyard which I found to be even prettier and more precise than the gardens of the Alcazar in Cordoba. The walls enclosed, quieted and cooled the courtyard and focused attention on the peaceful sound of the fountains. A very clever design.

Looking over the Albaicin quarter of Granada

I know there was a lot more to Granada that we missed. We didn’t head into the Albaicin or the other sights in town, nor did we venture into the Sierra Nevada Mountains where I bet there are some spectacular views. Nevertheless, I was greatly impressed by our day at the Alhambra. I’d like to make a journey back to spend more time.

Thursday, March 24

The next day we drove several hours to Toledo, not far from Madrid. We had reservations at Parador de Toledo which we found was actually on a hill outside of town offering fine views of the city but walking distance to nowhere. I think there was a shuttle into the city. That afternoon we went into town and did a little reconnaissance on our own before connecting with a walking tour. We were already a little tired of cathedrals and palaces so we didn’t see all of Toledo’s finest offerings, but I do remember spending time and being impressed by the Synagogue of el Transito. After the tour we retreated to the hotel for a nice dinner. We had our first real experience watching a chef slice paper thin pieces of jamon from a whole smoked ham leg. Very impressive and very tasty, too.

On the hilltop by the parador, Toledo in background

Friday, March 25

We drove back to Madrid, returned the rental car and connected with Maggie. We were ready to see one of Spain’s great treasures, the Prado Museum. We walked over from the hotel and went to the ticket office only to find the museum closed for Good Friday. None of us had considered that possibility.

Maggie was apologetic as we went along the Paseo del Prado and found a swingset. Allie and Maggie had a fine time for a few minutes while we considered our options for the day.

We found that two of Madrid’s other art museums were open, so we headed to the nearby Thyssen. I quite enjoyed going through this museum, home of one of the world’s largest private collections. Its displays were laid out chronologically which helped me appreciate the evolution of styles from early European through Renaissance, Baroque and so forth all the way into the 20th century. The museum was sizeable and impressive but on a manageable scale to go through in a few hours, unlike, say, the Prado or Louvre.

We still had an hour or so and energy enough left in the afternoon to go in the Reina Sofia Museum which is focused on 20th century art. Maggie led us more or less on a beeline to Picasso’s Guernica which was suitably awesome.

Fully satiated with art museums for the day, we retreated to the hotel for a short rest, but Maggie still had plans for us that evening. She booked a table at a flamenco show that included dinner. I think the show started at 10pm which was past Barb’s bedtime but Allie was very excited for it. We had to navigate through another parade of penitents in the street, this time replete with the scary pointed hoods, but we made it in time. We ended the evening with one last pass through the Puerta del Sol, stopping at the statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, representing the coat of arms of Madrid.

Saturday, March 26

Our final morning in Madrid I finally found a good cafe near our hotel for churros, chocolate and a nice ham sandwichy thing for breakfast. Much cheaper and tastier than the hotel’s continental breakfast. We also had a little time to kill before catching our flights so we sought out an internet cafe so Barb and I could check emails. The hotel didn’t offer decent internet service. The internet cafe seemed particularly seedy and we could only buy an hour access but that was the state of the world pre-wifi. Eventually we made it to the airport for our flight home.

Before we left, Maggie presented us with two tiles from her apartment building. We never did see her living arrangements nor meet her roommates, but it was at least partly because they were in the process of renovating the building (I think themselves, by hand). She mentioned the building’s 19th (18th?) century tiles and I expressed an interest. She very kindly brought us these two which have graced our dining room ever since.

In all, this was a very pleasant, though very quick, introduction to Spain. My appetite was whetted to return and see more. Barb was a little less enchanted by the late eating hours and never got comfortable with the food. Once Laurie started to spend more time in Spain we had even more incentive and opportunity to visit. I’m glad to say I’ve been back several more times, once with Allie. I haven’t talked Barb into returning, though. Her loss.