Tag Archives: Christian church

1st January 2023: The Lotus Flower {Egypt, Winter 2022-2023}

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I read somewhere once that you should start the year doing what you love, that is why I decided to go out on the 1st January 2022. I could have never imagined 2023 would start as it did, in Cairo [القاهرة] of all places. As a settlement, Cairo can be traced to the Babylon Fortress, built around the 1st century BCE, but its real foundations were laid in the second half of the 7th century by the Fatimid dynasty. The city survived the Caliphate and kept spreading. Today, it is the largest metropolitan area in Africa, and the 12th in the world with 22 million people.

After waking up around 7:00, I was the first in my group to go down to have breakfast, and when I did, I saw that the breakfast buffet had added a ‘hangover’ buffet – Ibuprofen, Strepsils, painkillers in general… I thought it was hysterical. To be honest, I was tired and sore from the pyramid climbs, and probably a bit hungry since dinner had been… strange. One out of three was dealt with after some coffee and a very… British breakfast somehow – scrambled eggs, potato wedges, roasted tomato, a sausage… this gave me energy for the day, which we were to spend in the Unesco World Heritage Site Historic Cairo.

Departure was scheduled for 9:00 – too late, in my opinion. First, we got caught up in the horrible traffic. Then, when we arrived at our first destination, we had to turn around because the bus parking lot was full. On the way we caught a glimpse of the City of the Dead (Cairo Necropolis, or Qarafa [القرافة]). In this area, tombs, mausoleums and houses cramp together, up and down. Some people have made their houses out of the mausoleums due to Cairo’s crazy urbanisation. The City of the Dead was created almost at the same time as the city of the living.

Cairo, City of the Dead from the moving bus. A bunch of low constructions with flat celings or domes, with some trees sprinkled inbetween.

We also saw the ending of the Cairo Citadel Aqueduct [سور مجرى العيون]. Though originally designed during the Ayyubid period between the 12th and 13th century, it was later reworked by several Mamluk sultans (13th – 16th century) to expand water provision to the city. Today, it does not carry water, and it is under ‘redevelopment’ in order to display it as a heritage monument.

Aqueduct. Built in dark grey bricks, it has been buried by the sands of time so only the upper part shows.

Finally, after way too many scares with the bus, we reached the area called Coptic Cairo. It is located in what used to be the fortress of Bayblon, and in order to access it you have to go down a flight of stairs that feels way too long due to the pyramid climb. I do know a thing or two about soreness, and as I was hopping down the stairs as fast as I could, someone complained that it was unfair that I was ‘fresh like a lotus flowers’ while they were sore. That made me laugh – I guess I’m more used to being in pain than others.

The Coptic Catholic Church is the main branch of Christianity in Egypt. The Coptic Church seceded from Catholicism in the 5th century due to disagreements about the “nature of Christ”. Coptic Catholics believe the same general things as other Christian faiths, and fast a lot – 40 days before Christmas (7th of January), and 55 before Easter. They have a different Pope and rules for priests. Copts are a minority in mostly Muslim Egypt.

Our first stop there was the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus [ϯⲉⲕⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ ⲛⲓ⳥ ⲥⲉⲣⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲛⲉⲙ ⲃⲁⲭⲟⲥ ϧⲉⲛ ⲡⲓⲥⲡⲉⲗⲉⲱⲛ]. Christian traditions tell that the Holy Family fled the Massacre of the Innocents. In the nativity narrative, Herod, King of Judea, ordered the killing of all male children under two years near Bethlehem, in order to get rid of the “King of the Jews”. Having been alerted by an angel, Joseph took Mary and infant Jesus to Egypt. According to the tradition, they rested in the cave underneath the church, now turned into a crypt. The church is dedicated to the two martyrs, who died for their faith in Syria in the 3rd century CE. The building, erected in the 4th century, has a central nave and two side aisles, with 12 columns, probably quarried from Ancient Egyptian monuments and temples.

Collage. The upper part shows the Coptic chruch. The walls are made out of red brick, and the altar is hidden by a wooden structure. The lower picture shows a crypt with a small wooden altar, brick ceilings, and white columns

We then made a small stop at a Roman Tower, one of the Roman emperor Trajan’s addition to the original Fortress of Babylon (not that Babylon, the name was probably corrupted from the Pharaonic name). Trajan also created a quay back to the Nile, which has now dried out.

Ruins of a rounded tower built in white and red bricks. The colours alternate to create horizontal patterns.

We had a small stop at a bazaar shop, then we went into the so-called Hanging Church [الكنيسة المعلقة or ϯⲉⲕⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲉⲥⲓϣⲓ], officially Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church [ϯⲉⲕⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲧⲉⲑⲉⲟⲇⲟⲕⲟⲥ ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ ϧⲉⲛ ⲃⲁⲃⲩⲗⲟⲛ ⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ]. It is called the Hanging Church because it would have been suspended over the water gate of the Roman Babylon fortress – though today the ground is higher and the view is less impressive. It was built somewhere between the 7th and 9th centuries, and holds over a hundred icons. It is built in a basilica style, with 13 pillars representing the apostles and either Christ or Judas – depending on where you read. The rich decoration, with mosaics and reliefs, especially on the outside, mixes Arabic and Coptic motifs.

Collage of the Hanging church. The façade is sandstone, carved with Coptic and Arabic designs. Then there is a courtyard with a staircase that yields to a white building with two bell towers and a wooden porch. The lower picture shoes the interior, with the altar behind a wooden structure, very decorated ceilings and bare stone columns

That was all for Coptic Cairo, as we moved on towards what should have been our first stop – the Citadel of Saladin | Qalaʿat Salāḥ ad-Dīn [قلعة صلاح الدين الأيوبي]. There was going to be a high price to pay for all that time in the bus that morning, we just didn’t know yet. The Citadel was built by Saladin in the 12th century CE. Saladin was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. He became Sultan of Egypt in 1171, fought the Christian Crusaders, and conquered Syria. He was considered smart and noble, even by his enemies.

A sand-coloured wall with two minarets peering from the background

In the Citadel, we visited the Mosque of Muhammad Ali [مسجد محمد علي] in the Southern Enclosure, also called the Alabaster Mosque. It was built in the first half of the 19th century in the Ottoman style, and had to be completely restored in the 1930s due to cracking. It has two minarets, and a metal clock tower – the Cairo Citadel Clock, which apparently was a gift in return for the Luxor Obelisk that currently sits in Paris. The mosque has a courtyard for ablutions, and although the interior is usually carpeted, the carpets were out for cleaning, which created an interesting effect. It was my first time in a mosque, and I was pretty impressed by the huge glass lamps. Most of the courtyard and the interior are covered by alabaster – the upper part of the interior is only wood – and the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali is built in Carrara marble.

Muhammad Ali Mosque collage: from the outside, it has two domes and two minarets. It is built in stone, brick and slate. The inside courtyard is built in white-grey alabaster, with an ablution fountain in the middle and a metal clock tower that feels out of place. The interior of the mosque is also built in alabaster, and the lights reflect on the floor, creating a dizzying effect. Everything inside is carved and decorated with tiny motifs

Before leaving, the Citadel, we went towards the wall to catch a view of what is modern Cairo, in what we were told is called the Wall of Saladin, which is basically the limit of the Citadel. Looking very carefully, one could spot the pyramids in the background, among the high rises.

A ruined medieval wall, with a view of Historic and modern Cairo in the background. A floating image superimposed shows a high-contrast close-up of the skyline, making the pyramids visible through the haze

Afterwards, we went back to the bus to find the restaurant we were supposed to have lunch at – a “luxury boat” on the Nile that tried to short-change two of us – a travel-mate for 20 EGP and me for almost 60 EGP. We had nothing of it, though I had to be a bit more forceful than he did. We finally got into the most interesting part of the day at 15:17 – The Egyptian Museum in Cairo [المتحف المصري]. Considering that the museum closed at 17:00, this was outrageous. We had to run through the museum, with the tour guide complaining that we were not fast enough – he actually grunted that I was not there when I was. Considering how many people there were, we spent time trotting behind the guy, trying not to lose him.

We saw – thankfully – the Tutankhamun Galleries, with his sarcophagus and mask. I say thankfully because at this time, the treasures were scheduled to move onto the Grand Egyptian Museum next to the pyramids within the same month – and the tour guide could not even tell us where exactly the treasure was. We also saw most of the masterpieces:

  • Galleries of Yuya and Tuya (18th Dynasty), containing most everything regarding this couple, including the Book of the Dead
  • Statuette of Khufu (Cheops) in ivory, a tiny representation of the pharaoh, the only sculpture of his in existence
  • Scribe statue CG 36 (Fifth Dynasty)
  • Menkaure triads, in alabaster (Fourth Dynasty). Statues of deified Menkaure.
  • Narmer Palette, a cosmetic palette considered the “first historical document in the world”, documenting the union of Lower and Upper Egypt by Narmer (Dynasty 0, 3000 BCE) with the first hieroglyphs
  • Bust of Akhenaten, Amonhotep IV
  • Sphinx statue of Queen Hatshepsut
  • Small wood sculpture compositions from different tombs
  • Sarcophagi from several pharaohs and noblemen
  • Rahotep and Nofret (26th century BCE)
  • Statue of Seneb and his Family (25th century BCE)
  • Face of Queen Hatshepsut

Cairo Museum Collage: a view of the building, striking pink; the first gallery showing the top of a few pyramids and some colossal statues; sarcophagi.

Cairo Museum Collage: Close up of a black basalt sarcophagus, showing colourful hieroglyphs; canopi jars; a sitting scribe; a spynx.

Cairo Museum Collage: Face and Sphynx of Queen Hatshepsut; bust of Akhenaten; mummy

By the time he actually cut us loose, it was almost closing time, 16:40. I managed to wander a little on my own, and at least catch a glimpse of some colossal statues and the exhibited pyramidia (tops of the pyramids). I am not going to lie, I was miffed. We should have gone out of the hotel earlier, and if the bus could not enter the Citadel, we could have walked for ten minutes rather than waste an extra hour driving around Cairo. The best, though, was still to come. My travel-mates had come later than me, but they left earlier than me – almost 12 hours earlier. Back in Aswan I had tried to organise a day trip for myself for the second, and throughout the bus rides, I insisted thrice about organising something, but was just told that my pick-up was 14:00.

We were driven around Cairo for a little while after the museum until we reached the area known as Islamic Cairo | Al-Mu’izz’s Cairo [قاهرة المعز], the heart of the Unesco Heritage Site – it is also known as Historic Cairo or Medieval Cairo, and it existed before the current city expansion, built throughout the Middle Ages around the Citadel. It is surrounded by a wall, that can be crossed through a number of monumental gates. We had a walk down Al-Muizz li-Din Allah al-Fatimi Street [شارع المعز لدين الله الفاطمي], the most important artery of the historical city, with a number of historical buildings, such as the Qalawun complex [مجمع قلاون] and the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Barquq [مسجد ومدرسة وخانقاه الظاهر برقوق]. At the end, there is a tourist market that we were told was Khan al-Khalili, but I was not able to find the historical part of this famous souk, and to be honest, I did not feel too comfortable hanging out alone – we were given an hour of time to ‘do shopping’ here. Though the street itself was quite neat, and the buildings were nicely lit, again, I was not in too much agreement with the timing, and the shopping area was not welcoming at all – at one point I was sent a child to beg me for a pound, and she kept crying around me. One should never give money to beggar children, as it encourages the practice, but it was hard to force myself to ignore her.

A collage of Medieval Arabic buildings at night, lit in pink and green lights. The decoration is rich and ellaborate. The street is full of people.

When we came back to the bus, we got on route towards Al-Azhar Park [حديقة الأزهر], and a supposedly famous restaurant with views. Though it has very neat views from the terrace, the set menu was weird. The barbecued meat was okay, but it came after way too much rice and fries. I’m not sure how much the restaurant got from the extra trip price (60€ per person) though.

A collage. The biggest picture shows the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the background, lit in purple for the night, with a darkened garden leading up to it. Two other pictures show the entrance to the restaurant, and a small Arabic fountain. The other two picrures show Cairo skyline, and the food we were served: Egyptian bread, hummus, and a barbecue of chicken and lamb meat

Most of the group was exhausted and they had to leave at 3:00, so we just bailed out on the rest of whatever was planned. I insisted on the following day and I was told I’d receive a call to my room the following morning. We said goodbyes to the tour guide, and I said my goodbyes to the rest of the group.

I went to bed wondering what time I would get that call. I set my alarm clock for 7:00 just in case.

12th & 13th November 2022: Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

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Here’s a little secret – people don’t like flying on the 13th, even less when it’s a Tuesday. Thus, I came across a bunch of awesome offers for the 13th of December, which unfortunately I could not take up due to work uncertainties. What I could muster was a mini getaway on the weekend of the 12th/13th of November, to the northern Spanish town of Santiago de Compostela. There were a few reasons for this choice – one, cheap flights; two, I’ve recently started considering a route through the so-called Camino de Santiago (St. James’ Way); and three, pandemic shuffled ‘Holy Years’ round so there was a special gate to the cathedral open that I wanted to see. I flew out around noon on Saturday and came back on Sunday night. It was a perfect plan for a decompressing getaway.

Santiago de Compostela is known as one of the most important pilgrimage cities in the world. According to the Christian tradition, the tomb of Apostle James was found in the area in Middle Ages (different sources vary throughout the 9th and 11th century), and the pilgrimage to visit the remains became one of the most important in the Christian faith, alongside Rome and Jerusalem, to the point that the pavement proudly states that “Europe was built on the pilgrimage to Santiago”. While I’m not religious, I have a thing for religious architecture, and as mentioned above I’ve been thinking about the Camino for a while, and visiting the goal felt a good way to start organising how I wanted to look at things.

However, let’s say it wasn’t the most perfect getaway ever. Though the flight was on time, and pretty short, there was turbulence – not something too out of the ordinary, but here’s something you might not know about me. Back in the mid-nineties, I sort of crash-landed in the Santiago airport, so let’s say I was not so invested in a bumpy flight.

As the flight had been very cheap (about 30€), I had decided to splurge a little in the hotel – and I found a not-so-bad offer of half-board at the Parador de Santiago – Hostal Reyes Católicos, downright at the centre of the city. It is located in the old pilgrim hospital, and it is a magnificent building, aside from a five-star hotel. I arrived around 14:00, and the room was not ready – fair enough. I wanted to get there early in order to drop off my luggage, and make sure I could arrange my dinner reservations for a convenient time. One of the reasons I decided to book half-board in the Parador was to guarantee myself a meal late in the evening, as I had booked a walking tour at 20:00, and the main restaurant served dinner till 22:45.

Wide shot of the Parador. It shows a severe building with an ornate gate. The sky is bright blue.

Unfortunately, the check-in staff “had booked me” at 20:30, and they asked if that was okay. I replied it wasn’t, and explained the reason stated above – the staff then said that they could accommodate me at 22:00 at the secondary restaurant, but not at the main one. I answered that then I’d have dinner at 22:00 at the secondary restaurant then, but the staff asked me to check the menu. I stated that it did not matter. I needed my dinner to be at 22:00, and if the main restaurant wasn’t available, it would have to be at the secondary one. The staff asked me to check the menus, and I explained again that I had a tour from 20:00 to 21:30 – I needed dinner at 22:00. I thought that was resolved, and as it was too early to get a room, I picked up my camera, left my backpack in the locker room, and went on my merry way to explore the outdoor “monumental route” within the historical city Ruta Monumental de Intramuros. The old city of Santiago is part of the Unesco Heritage Site Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain Caminos de Santiago de Compostela: Camino francés y Caminos del Norte de España.

As I had tickets for different activities in the cathedral booked for the previous morning, and the Sunday forecast was rain, I decided to do most of the walking on my first afternoon. I started off in front of the cathedral façade in the square Praza do Obradoiro (the Artisans Square), which hosts the town hall in the former Neoclassical palace Pazo de Raxoi, the Parador itself, and the main – but closed, will get into that later – entrance to the cathedral Santa Apostólica y Metropolitana Iglesia Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, with its Baroque façade called Fachada del Obradoiro.

Baroque façade: two towers and twin set of stairs, fenced away.

I walked around the cathedral, and stopped at all the other squares: Praza da Acibecharía (the Black Amber Workers Square), Praza da Quintana de Vivos (Living Villa of the Living Square) and Praza das Praterías (the Silversmiths Square).

A collage of views of the cathedral of Santiago.

I walked down Rua do Villar, which is the closest to a main street the historical town has. I strolled around the historical centre – there are many interesting buildings and churches, alongside the market. At some point I entered a bakery, but I kinda ran away when I heard the prices they were charging.

Santiago Route. An archade, a fountain, an ornate corner with a coat of arms carved into it.

After an hour and a half or so, I found the convent-turned-museum Igrexa e Convento de San Domingos de Bonaval that has become the ethnological museum of the Galician people Museo do Pobo Galego. The museum itself was not too spectacular, but the building itself was fantastic. One of the most amazing things was the triple-helix staircase that joins the different floors on one side, and the remains of the gothic church (where I got to climb the pulpit). To the side there’s the pantheon for illustrious Galicians, including one of the few female historical figures in Spain – poet Rosalía de Castro.

Monastery and museum. The pieces include a humanoid stone idol, some Christian figures in polychromated wood, and two pipes

View of the triple staircase, from above, from below and through the door from one of the sides.

A view of a gothic chapel, showing an empty altar.

This was around 16:30, and even if I was not even a bit hungry, my legs shook a little. Thus, I decided that I needed to find a supermarket to buy a snack – I only had coffee before I left for the airport at 9:00. Before getting to the supermarket though, I walked around the former orchard and graveyard of the convent, now a picnic-friendly park Parque de San Domingos de Bonaval, full of ruins and fountains.

The previous church, from outside, on the right. There's a winter tree in front, and some old niches on the left wall.

I grabbed my snack and went back to the monumental route until I was back at the Praza do Obradoiro. I walked around to see the sunset, and caught a glimpse of the light playing on the façade of the church Igrexa de San Frutuoso, and some nice views from the adjacent park (which turned out to have been another graveyard) Xardín do Cemiterio de San Frutuoso.

Santiago sunset. Upper picture shows the church of Saint Fructuoso, and the lower one a view of the nearby park with the sun setting in the background

It was around 18:00 at that time, so I could finally check in – which I did, only to find out that the staff I had talked to had decided not to book my dinner in the end, which lead to me needing to explain about my tour again to a new staff who told me they couldn’t book me at 22:00 on the secondary restaurant! It had to be at 21:45, but they could notify the restaurant that I would arrive a bit later. I was really not impressed by the whole thing, even less when I apparently needed a bellboy to guide me to my room and carry my backpack– and of course get tipped.

I had my snack and then went on to explore the building. As I did, the sun completely set, so the different lights were cool. The Hostal Reyes Católicos used to be the pilgrims’ hospital. It is a huge rectangle with four interior cloisters named after the four Christian Evangelists, the inner areas having been refurbished into the rooms.

The four gothic cloisters of the Parador. Two have some greenery on them, the other two are just grey and built.

A few minutes before 20:00, I left for my tour. Although I’m not a big fan of tours and group activities, I had had my curiosity piqued by a “theatrical visit” of the historical centre of the town called Meigas Fóra. In the area of Galicia, a meiga is a type of traditional witch, good or bad, depending on what side the person speaking about them is – in this case, the guide being a supposed-meiga, of course they were all neat and nice. The tour was supposed to tell about the different legends and interesting supernatural trivia of the town, but just ended up being a bit watered-down walk around those graveyards-turned-parks I had walked before. The coolest thing was finding the pilgrim’s shadow Sombra del Peregrino, a fun game of light-and-shadows in one of the squares around the cathedral.

A view of the cathedral of Santiago at night, illuminated, on top. On the bottom, a column casts a shadow onto the wall behind it - it seems to be that of a man with a walking cane and a travel hat.

Hilariously though, as we were walking, someone approached me to ask in wonder if on top of taking the tour alone, I was in Santiago all by myself, in total awe of someone travelling on their own. She said that she would never be able to do so – while she took selfies of herself because the people she was “touring” with could not be any less interested…

After the tour I went to have dinner – guess what? At 22:00 h! Let’s say that it was not the greatest experience. The restaurant staff had their hands full with a table of around 20 drunk “pilgrims” who had come all the way from South America and were rightfully celebrating – albeit loudly and a bit obnoxiously (all that pilgrim wine, no doubt) – that they had reached the end of the Way. The rest of the patrons were, including myself, four one-person tables, which made me wonder if they just don’t book one-person tables in the main restaurant after the first shift. The floor staff – basically one working waiter, and one wandering waiter – was overwhelmed by the table, and it took me over an hour to finish my dinner – which was some local octopus (pulpo a feira), a roasted great scallop (Pecten maximus, not only a delicious shellfish, also the symbol of the town and the related pilgrimage, called vieira in Spanish) and a piece of the typical almond pie (tarta de Santiago).

Dinner: pulpo, a scallop and a piece of cake.

Then I went to my room for a nice hot shower and to get some sleep. I was surprised then to find no extra blanket in the wardrobe, though there was an extra pillow. This was around midnight already so I decided not to hit reception for the extra blanket and just cranked up the air-con on and off to stay warm. I slept on and off, too, but it was not too much of a long night.

The next morning I had breakfast and set out for my day at the cathedral, Santa Apostólica y Metropolitana Iglesia Catedral de Santiago de Compostela. Santiago was built around the 7th century legend that the apostle James the Great, Santiago el Mayor, was buried in the area of Galicia, after having reached Spain to convert it into Christianity. In the 9th century, a tomb was discovered among some abandoned Roman ruins, and the local bishop had “the certainty” that it was the Apostle’s tomb. The bishop informed the King, who was the reported first pilgrim, and later ordered that a church should be built to commemorate the finding.

As the number of pilgrims grew, the church became too small, so subsequent temples were erected. The current interior was built between the 11th and the 13th century in a very pure Romanesque style, but the exterior was covered in the 18th century, in a very adorned Baroque style, which is also the style of the altar.

The most important piece of the cathedral is the Portico of Glory Pórtico de la Gloria, the Romanesque entrance to the 12th-century cathedral, with 200 sculptures carved in stone in the three-archway portal. The entrance now is locked away, you have to pay to see it, and photographs are not allowed.

For starters, I climbed up to the roof of the cathedral and the bell tower – not really the bell tower but the “rattle tower”, as the bells chime on the eastern tower, and the rattle is played on the darker, western tower. The roof was restored as recently as 2021, and from there there are some nice views of the town.

The towers of the cathedral from the room, and some aereal shots - one shows the Parador cloisters from above.

Between visits, I went inside the cathedral, where the pilgrims’ mass was about to start. I might have stayed out of curiosity had I been in town for a longer period. Then I visited the portico – since pictures were not allowed, I’ve rescued some 1995 ones from when I were in town as a teen.

Three shots of the very baroque altar in Santiago - it is heavily decorated and painted gold. On the bottom right, a silver urn, also very ornated, supposedly where the remains of St. James are.

A collage showing several sculpures of the Portico of Glory - Romanesque statues richly coloured and decorated, they look placid

After wandering the cathedral for a bit longer, I made the most out of the last hour of sunshine to head to the park Parque da Alameda to find the spot Miradoiro da Catedral next to a huge centennial eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus globulus labill) Eucalipto centenario, a 120-year-old specimen, considered one of the oldest eucalyptus trees that was planted in Europe after captain Cook “discovered” Australia and the species was introduced by Fray Rosendo Salvado.

A panoramic view of Santiago, showing the cathedral.

My next stop was the museum of pilgrimages and Santiago Museo de las Peregrinaciones y de Santiago, which was free due to the Covid recovery plan. It features a collection of items related to Saint James Way, and other important pilgrimages of the world, including the Japanese Kumano Kodo [熊野古道], and the Muslim Mecca Pilgrimage Ḥajj [حَجّ]. The upper floors are dedicated to the hagiography of Santiago / James through the Way and in the city.

Museum of Pilgrimages. A collage that shows a wooden statue of Santiago on a white horse, sword raised; other depictions of Santiago as pilgrim; some paper scallops decorated by kids; and a Japanese sacred gate.

Later, even though I should have gone to eat a bite, I headed to the monastery and museum Mosteiro de San Martiño Pinario, religious complex built between the 16th and 17th centuries, though the inner areas and chapels date from the 18th century. Today it’s a cultural centre, and alongside the church, it features a museum with block prints, fossils, an ancient pharmacy… The church has the most baroque Baroque altarpiece I’ve ever seen, and two choirs – one behind the altar, and the other one up on the second floor.

Exterior of the monastery, including the double downward staircase, and a picture of the interior, showing a very Baroque altar painted in gold.

Finally, I stepped into the museum of the cathedral Museo de la Catedral de Santiago de Compostela, which features the entrance to the cloister, library, and the upper galleries, aside from artistic and religious treasures such as the original stone choir, wooden carvings, and tapestries. I was also able to access the upper galleries and look at the rain in the Praza do Obradoiro, and later the crypt.

A collage showing the cloister of the cathedral of Santiago while it rains outside, and the former Romanesque choir, carved in stone.

Romanesque arches and columns built in stone, and a cast ceiling.

After one last visit to the cathedral and its shop, I got myself a last souvenir – a silver and black amber bracelet I had seen upon arrival, and took a taxi back to the airport in order to fly back. All in all, I was not too impressed by the city nor its inhabitant, and I was pretty disappointed in the Parador. I think it has put me off the idea of doing the Camino as much as I thought I wanted to, but not every trip is perfect, I guess, and I hope my memories warm up with time.

A silver and black amber bracelet. The silver is very fine, and the gem is bright black.

Walking distance: around 11.68 km (18659 steps) on Saturday and 10.58 km (16931 steps) on Sunday, not counting airport transits

15th October 2022: The castle in Olite and the cathedral in Tarazona {Aragón & Navarra Oct. 2022}

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Today, Olite is not much of an impressive town – but it has a dream castle Palacio Nuevo de Olite. The original fortress is reported to be a first-century Roman building where the Old Palace stands now. The first mention that we have of the old castle dates from the 13th century. In 1388, as Carlos III of Navarra (whose grave we had seen the previous day in Pamplona ) starts the process of clearing the area surrounding it, buying houses and so. The official ampliation of the palace started in 1399, and the actual construction of the new castle in 1402. First, the keep was erected, then the surrounding towers, without much planning, giving was a capricious space with staircases, yards, and even a hanging garden. Construction ended in 1420.

When Navarra was annexed to Castille, the decline of the castle started. Later, during one of the several Spain-France wars, soldiers’ distraction caused the first fire in 1794. later, in 1813, the castle was intentionally burnt down in 1813 to avoid that the French made a stronghold out of it. The wood-decorated room were completely destroyed and only the stone walls remained, although barely. The castle was used as makeshift quarry from then on, until in 1902 the modern regional government bought it. In 1925, after considering three proposals, it was decided too restore the castle using Jose Yárnoz Larrosa, who became the main architect. He chose a restoration style known for aiming to make things “as they should have been” – so rather idealistic. And one has to admit that the castle does look pretty cool, even though apparently it does not preserve the original structure too much. Throughout this time, a mulberry tree might have thriven for about 500 years.

The point of this is that the castle is cool. Pretty much fake, but cool.

After having breakfast, I set off for a few pictures. It was not too early in the morning, even, but at least the square was empty and clean, unlike the evening before. I stopped to examine the entrance of the church Iglesia de Santa María la Real. The church dates back from the 13th century, and is famous because of the decoration of its main façade and the sculpture around the portal, though personally, I was more taken by the atrium just in front of the church. While it does obstruct the view of the façade, the architectural ensemble ends up looking super cool – except for the little porch built in the 2015 restoration that… well… might be necessary but does not allow for the best view.

Church Santa María la Real: Gothic façade with an arched atrium in front of it. The portal is decorated with religious figures

I went around the complex formed by the two Medieval castles Palacio Viejo and Palacio Nuevo de Olite, the walls and the old egg-shaped building that used to work as a snow-powered fridge of sorts.

Collage with different sights of the new Olite palace. The walls, archs and merlons are shown, brown-gold colour. Some of the pinnacles have grey slate pinnacles.

We went in. The restoration of the palace is “in style” so you cannot tell what is new from what it is not. The inner area includes access to the towers, the keeps, the so-called King’s gallery, the hanging garden, and the centennial mulberry tree. I climbed about half of the towers and the keep itself, and I have to say it was pretty fun.

Palace of Olite - Gothic archways, one bare, one full of vegetation, and views from the towers, showing the merlons, pinnacles, and the rest of the towers

Palace of Olite - looking from the interior, the structures show vegetation and the pinnacles. The last part of the collage shows the mulberry tree

Unfortunately, when we left the castle, we were not allowed into the church Iglesia de Santa María la Real as there was going to be a wedding – despite being no notice outside but the normal opening times, within which we were. Sometimes I feel tempted to take pictures even when I know it’s not completely okay, in order not to miss opportunities later. Before we left town, we found a nice viewpoint to try to catch site of the whole castle.

Palace of Olite from afar. It looks like a fairytale castle with pinnacles, walls, merlons and flags.

Afterwards, we drove southwards towards Tarazona, back in the region of Aragón. It is not a big town, with but an interesting point to get to know – the cathedral Seo de Nuestra Señora de la Huerta de Tarazona. Built throughout the evolution of Gothic art, between the 13th and the 15th century, it was later enriched in the 16th century with Renaissance decoration and interior, and sprinkled with Mudejar details. The cathedral is in the middle of restoration, and the organ is fenced off. The cloister shows lots of panels on the works being done, too.

Tarazona cathedral - outside. The façade looks weirdly grey, and the belltower is on the right, darker. A close-up of the dome shows its Mudejar influences

Interior of the Cathedal of Tarazona, showing Gothic columns and the Baroque altarpiece. The cloister is modified Gothic with arcs and spikes. A close-up of the Mudejar-style bell tower.

We had lunch after visiting the cathedral, but we did not feel like staying around until the archaeological gardens. Thus, we just took the car back home, even though we might have been better off checking out some more places in town. Lesson learnt then, more planning is required in this kind of escapades…

14th October 2022: Pamplona, the city of the bulls, and Olite {Aragón & Navarra Oct. 2022}

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In order to avoid crossing Zaragoza, we tried to go around it. Unfortunately, trying to save up 30 minutes, we ended up wasting an hour at the entrance of the highway, and we reached the city of Pamplona or Iruña. Today, it is the capital of the region of Navarra, which is roughly the size and shape of the old Kingdom of Navarra, which existed roughly between 1162 and 1512, when it was conquered by the Catholic King Fernando.

There had been a slight misunderstanding on who was going to plan the day – I was convinced my father had not wanted me to do it, but when we arrived he turned to me and I was supposed to know. In summer, I had drafted a small itinerary, but as he was supposed to have taken charge, I had not gone further. It turns out, I should have. Fortunately, I still had the map on my phone and the opening schedules on my travel notebook. Unfortunately, I had not really delved into all that the city has to offer and we missed a few interesting thing

Thus, I tried to take charge, but not too much because it’s hard to balance that with my parents. Even if we have travelled together before, I tend to let them do the planning and only insist on some stuff I want to do or see, and that’s how they end up at dinosaur parks (≧▽≦).

We left the car in a parking lot underneath the congress centre and walked towards St. Nicholas Church Iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari Eliza. The first building dates from the 1100s, and it was built along the now-disappeared walls, as a defensive construction at the same time as a religious one. It was demolished and rebuilt location makes the building awkward, and to add insult to injury, we arrived almost at the same time as mass started, so we just took a quick look.

Iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari Eliza - exterior with pointed arcs, and inside, showin the altar

We walked to the next church dedicated to St. Lawrence Iglesia de San Lorenzo, actually associated to the Unesco World Heritage Site Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain Caminos de Santiago de Compostela: Camino francés y Caminos del Norte de España. The current building is Neoclassic, and the façade was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century when the original was damaged during war. On the right of the main nave, a side chapel holds the famous sculpture of St. Fermin, the patron saint of the town. The chapel was built between 1696 and 1717, when the sculpture was placed there. Every 7th of July, the sculpture is taken out in the religious procession. From the 6th of July and for a week, Pamplona celebrates its local festivals, famous around the world for the encierros, or running of the bulls. While there are similar runnings all throughout Spain, the encierro in Pamplona was popularised by Ernest Hemingway, the American novelist, in his work “The Sun also Rises” (1926).

Church of Saint Lawrece - Neoclassical façade and interior, with the sculpture to Saint Fermin, the patron saint, in a red cape and a mithra, surrounded by red and precious metals.

We continued onto main street Calle Mayor, which ends at the main square Casa Consistorial de Pamplona, which opens to the main square Plaza Consistorial. The building was erected between 1951 and 1953, though the project kept the 18th century façade, halfway between late Baroque and Neoclassic.

Pamplona town hall / council hall, with flags hanging from the balcony.

We continued onto the cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary Catedral de Santa María la Real de Pamplona. The building is Gothic (French Gothic, actually), with a Neoclassical façade designed by Ventura Rodríguez (who also worked on the Basílica del Pilar in Zaragoza). One of the most interesting things in the cathedral are the paintings on the walls and columns themselves, just non-religious decorative motifs. In front of the altar lie the tombs of King Carlos III of the Kingdom of Navarra, and his wife Leonor of Trastámara (or Castille).

Cathedral of Pamplona, including a close-up of the bright polychromy in red and blue, and the altar, from far away and a close-up. The most distinctive feature are the pointed arched and the very clean masonery.

In the inner area, there is a beautiful cloister, and you can climb into the false ceiling, see the kitchen of the former convent. And, let’s not forget – they have a stamp, because it is one of the “official” starting points of St. James Way, Camino de Santiago, and also part of the Unesco World Herirage Site related to it.

Collage: Cloister in Pamplona cathedral. The gothic ars are pointed and ornate, standing on bright green grass. One of the corners shows a fountain, the other the iner walkways

We stopped for lunch, then we walked by one of the “iconic” points of the bull-running, the corner at one of the streets of the route – Esquina de la Estafeta, and continued on until we reached the bullfighting ring Plaza de Toros de Pamplona, but since we are not big into the culture, we did not enter.

We did stop by the sculpture to the bulls and runners Monumento al Encierro, a huge bronze composition with a number of real-life pieces: nine bulls (six fighting bulls and three guiding bulls) and ten runners.

This bronze sculpture represents several life-sized bulls and runners. The runners are in front of the bulls, and one of them has been trampled.

Finally, we went to have a stroll alongside the walls of the former citadel Ciudadela de Pamplona. Although now it is a park, and only the foundations are left, the Citadel was one of the most important defensive constructions in the Spanish Renaissance, in the shape of a five-pointed star.

Several angles of the Ciudadela of Pamplona park. Not much is seen except for the building foundations, though they stand two or three metres high.

After that, we took the car and drove towards the town of Olite also known as Erriberri , where we were going to sleep. The town was home to the Monarchs of Navarra, and today there are two distinctive buildings – the old palace Palacio Viejo de Olite, where the Parador de Olite stands, and the new palace Palacio Nuevo de Olite. Originally the most extravagant Gothic castle in Europe, it burnt down during the war against the Napoleonic troupes, and was rebuilt in 1937 using the philosophy of bigger, cooler more teeth. We checked in at the Parador and I collected my stamp. From our room, we could see the main structure of the old palace, as we had a very long balcony.

Old palace of Olite. There is a tower on the right and an old Medieval house to the left. The building is made of irregular masonery and the windows are perfectly rectangular.

We went for a walk, and were surprised at how many people there were in the area. We sneaked into the church Iglesia de Santa María la Real, but did not take any pictures as (once again!) mass started. We planned to come back the following morning as it was barely a 30 seconds away from the door of the Parador.

On the left, a modern red-brick house stands on older arcs. The façade sports a protection made of intricate white ironwork. On the left, a Romanesque church, blocked by construction and a tractor.

We walked around for a little and were not too impressive by the Medieval city centre, but we did find the typical balconies and the Romanesque church of St. Joseph Iglesia de San José.

We were beat, to be honest, it had been a stressful day after a short night’s sleep, so we turned in early after dinner. I did not even think to wander round to see if I could get any cool pictures of the area, because the area was packed and I was exhausted.

13th August 2022: Smoothness in Chaos {England, August 2022}

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As rail strikes rolled out both in London and the rest of England, I was thankful I had found out in advance. The hotel internet was patchy and I would have had trouble booking a coach ticket for the airport. I decided not to try and cram more than I had already on my plate for the day, and stick to my booked tickets and original timing.

I took an underground line to Victoria railway station, from which I went to find out where my airport coach would leave from. After that, I walked from Victoria coach station towards Westminster, stopping at Westminster Cathedral, a rather out-of-place Neo-Byzantine building, which serves as the Catholic cathedral. Designed by John Francis Bentley, it was completed in 1903. It was closed for service, unfortunately.

Westminster Cathedral, a Chrsistian neo-byzantine building: a view of the exterior, in white and red brick, and the open doors showing the inner altar from afar

Due to the strikes and potential issues, Westminster Abbey had rearranged its opening hours, and waived all the “entry times”. So basically it was a bit on the chaotic side, though I arrived for my own timeslot, as I had calculated that would be all right for the tour I had signed up for. The abbey is officially called Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. It was a originally a Benedictine abbey, and William the Conqueror, in 1066 made it the “official coronation ceremony” place, and many Royal Weddings have occurred there. It is built in the Gothic style, with Neo-Gothic towers. Furthermore, most British monarchs were buried there, along with a number of personalities that were either earthed there, or had memorials erected – Darwin, Newton, Hawkins, Shakespeare… The Abbey features a 19th-century wooden choir in the middle, and an outer cloister in early Gothic style. It was bustling with people fighting the audio guide and extremely hot though. However, this completed my tour of the Unesco World Heritage Site of “The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church”

Westminster Abby, a Gothic Protestant Cathedral. Collage showing the towers and main entrance, the inner Norman altar in golden wood, the ceiling in the nave, and the cloister

Before the train strikes and the chaos in English airports, I had booked a 12:15 “Westminster Abbey hidden highlights” tour as my last activity in London before taking the Stansted Express to the airport. The change of plans meant I had to take the 14:00 h coach instead of the 15:00 h train to be at the airport by 16:00, to make sure that I would have plenty of time to go through security. That meant that I unfortunately had to cut the tour short. Event then, I got to see St Margaret’s Church, the old Medieval sacristy, the inner chambers of Samaria and Jerusalem, and got close to coronation chair. Not bad at all, even if I unfortunately had to miss the library to walk back to the station.

A collage showing an archaeological excavation (very professional holes on the ground, some showing a hint of brick foundations); the Coronation Chair and the hanging flag over it; ornate wooden ceilings; and a mythological-themed tapestry hanging from a wall

I have to say that the return was exhausting. Even with one hour difference, I got on the coach for the airport at 14:00 and did not land until 22:00. However, flying out of Stansted always has a good thing – goodbye sushi!

Tray of sushi and sashimi

All in all, this non-weekend weekend was an amazing mental break! Even if the last day did not work as originally organised, I had a heads up in order to prepare my contingency plans. I got to see something that I always wanted to see – and even if Stonehenge was smaller than I thought, it was not disappointing. Also, I checked that entering the UK after Brexit is pretty much the same as before, so I can organise more escapades in the future, because I still need to go to Jurassic Coast…

Walking distance: 11.27 km / 16672 km

12th August 2022: Stones, the reason for the trip. Lots of Stones {England, August 2022}

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I was convinced I’d sleep like the dead and set a couple of alarms. Unfortunately, laundry and house service got going at 6:30, and woke me up. At least, the room had a kettle and some instant coffee which, along with one of the sandwiches I had procured the previous day, got me going. I made sure that the camera was charged, put everything I needed into the backpack and strolled off. My hotel was close to Earl’s Court, and I was walking to South Kensington to check out sandwich and coffee shop. And – to my eternal surprise – to queue for a museum! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people waiting for a museum to open in my life.

I’m referring to the Natural History Museum, one of my favourite ones. This time, it was a must, so I booked free entry with the special exhibition – “Dippy is Back”. Dippy is the diplodocus cast replica that used to stand in the middle of the museum, the Hintze Hall (where now the whale skeleton hangs). Dippy was the first of its kind to go on display in the world. The original skeleton was discovered in 1898 by railroad workers in an area called Sheep Creek, in Wyoming, USA. At the time, Andrew Carnegie had made a fortune in the American steel industry, and become one of the most important philanthropists in the US and the British Empire. He paid for casts of the bones to be made (some sources also say that he bought the actual skeleton, some that he had sponsored the dig) and sent to museums in Europe and South American. For the first time the public got to see a whole dinosaur skeleton, which was actually named Diplodocus carnegii after Carnegie. Dippy was gifted to the National History Museum in 1905, and was exhibited there until it went “on tour” around the United Kingdom in 2017.

Here is a little trip down memory lane: back in the mid-nineties I was a teenager in London with my English class. We had free time and they wanted to go to Harrods, so… instead I got myself into the Tube to go to the Natural History Museum just to see this dinosaur (I also ditched the group in the British Museum, but that’s another tale). The point was that I was around 14 or 15, bouncing through London by myself, on my way to see this very cool dinosaur! And I did not have to listen to people being rowdy, nor try to keep the peace in group – I was alone (scared out of my skin, true), but I was free by myself. And for me, that was very important, even if I would not come to realise that until recently.

The fossilised skeleton of a diplodocus, seen from the front. Lots of people are trying to take pictures with it

I saw Dippy again in 2011 when I went to London, but I was surprised when he was not there in 2018, shipped around the country in a travelling exhibition. For some reason, knowing that it was there made me really, really want to see it again. Since the pandemic, you need to reserve at ticket at the Natural History Museum, even if it’s free, so I booked mine for 10:00, to be there first thing as they opened – thus the queuing-before-opening.

Originally a gallery of the British Museum, the Natural History Museum was first designed by civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke, and then it was revised by Alfred Waterhouse, who redesigned the façades in a Romanesque-like style, with architectural terracotta tiles to withstand the British weather. These tiles have flora and fauna decoration and reliefs. The building was finished in 1880, and all the material had been moved by 1883. In the 20th century, the museum rebranded itself as a separate entity from the British Museum, and in recent years different areas and expansions have been opened.

Anyhow. The gates opened a little before 10:00 (If I lived in London I would totally be a member and stroll the museum before opening hours), and the queue started moving. There were lines for ticket holders and non-ticket holders, but my ticket was not even checked. Thus, I just moved towards the area where Dippy was and spent a while there. I felt a little emotional, thinking that, in a way, I owe that dinosaur one.

After seeing Dippy, I wandered around the dinosaur gallery for some time, then I went to buy a sandwich and have a coffee and a painkiller, because I had a long day ahead of me and my head was buzzing a little – I needed to get that under control beforehand. At 11:40 I took a coach with a company called Anderson Tours for an organised day trip: Stonehenge Special Access – Evening. Even though I am not too keen on guided tours, I will admit that they can be handy at some particular circumstances. They will never become my preferred choice of travel, in this case, choosing a tour was the best option.

Regarding Stonehenge, if you want to get up close and personal with the stones, you need a VIP ticket, which means you have to be there before they open to the general public, or after they close, and for that you need transportation – either a taxi, or renting a car, and a hotel as close as possible. The Stonehenge VIP ticket is around £50, and I booked my tour for £135, a full-day tour, including coach, Stonehenge at sunset, and two other destinations, with pick up and drop-off near my London hotel. In the end, that was cheaper than a taxi or a rental plus a hotel near the site (I did a lot of maths before deciding to book this). Anderson Tours offers different combinations of “Stonehenge and…”, with places like Bath or Bristol. However, those are easily reachable by train, and I can explore them on my own. Nevertheless, there was a particular trip that interested me – it went along two or three spots that are a bit off the beaten track, and related to the theme – a Neolithic tomb and another stone circle. This particular tour happens only on certain specific Fridays, thus why my “weekend” away was not such a weekend, as I had to make sure I was in London on the 12th.

The first stop of the day was West Kennet Long Barrow. A long barrow is an elongated prehistoric (3800 – 3500 BCE) stone monument that has been linked to the worship of the dead and the ancestors. Sometimes, human remains have been found in them. If one imagines what Great Britain was at that time, the south-east area would be the one with less tree coverage, and therefore the best option for primitive people who had started to settle and use agriculture. The counties of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset have a lot of chalk-rich soil (the Salisbury Plain), which makes it difficult for tress to root and grow. Thus, it would have been easy for the primitive humans to settle and build their villages and monuments. Today, the whole area is known as Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, listed by Unesco in 1986, and it includes over 700 prehistoric monuments from the Neolithic and Bronze Age.

Collage: elongated mound of dirt on top. On the borrom, the gate. On the left the protective slabs, standing upright, and on the right, the entrance. It is a construction of vertical walls made from grey slabs and another slab on top. The interior is dark.

West Kennet Long Barrow is situated in the middle of a farm. There is a tiny parking lot to the side of the road, and a fifteen-minute walk to the barrow itself. It is one of the largest built in Britain, and around 50 sets of remains have been identified, along with pottery, beads and other personal items. Around 2000 BCE, it was closed down and barricaded, then discovered in the 19th century and scientifically excavated and restored in 1956. It is private property under the care of British Heritage. Apparently, all these sites have become a point of pilgrimage for neo-pagans, and on this day, there was a bunch of them chanting inside the barrow…

On the opposite side of the road from the barrow stands Silbury Hill, a mound or artificial mountain. It stands 30 metres high, with 160 metres in diameter wide, and it is estimated that half a million tonnes of material (mostly local chalk) were used to build it throughout several generations of humans. It cannot be climbed, due to a collapse a while back, that would have been neat!

View of a small hill and dry grass.

After that, we headed off to the village of Avebury, which hosts the largest Neolithic stone circle, with smaller circles inside. It originally had over 100 stones, and it might have built between 2850 and 2200 BCE. Today there is a village in the area, with a few shops and museums in the centre, and a lot of sheep grazing the area. Around three quarters of the circle is still standing, along the henge (long ditch that used to be built with the stones in Neolithic circles).

We had two and a half hours in Avebury – a bit too much, I would say – to explore the Avebury Stone Circle and Henge and its sheep. The guide told us about ley lines and trees that were supposed to have inspired Tolkien’s Ents from “The Lord of the Rings”, and I needed to ask about the geology of the stones – here I learnt that they are made out of sarsen, like the Stonehenge ones. Sarsen refers to silicified sandstone blocks, common in the area, and it has been proven that the ones used in the megaliths come from Marlborough Downs, some 25 km away (35 km from Stonehenge). Once we were dismissed for our “free time”, I walked along the three fourths of stone circle remaining.

A collage showing different megaliths from the Avebury stone circle. Small pillars mark the spots where the stones have been lost. There are some sheep grazing on dry grass.

There are other places to visit in town, such as a Medieval manor with a dovecote. The stables of the manor are the site of the archaeological museum is hosted, and here I made a mistake. I should have got in, but I wanted to visit the church, and by the time I was done, the museum was closing down. Live and learn. There is also a tiny chapel, and a lot of souvenir and “crystal” shops.

The Church of Saint James dates back to the 1000s, though later centuries saw the addition of many items, such as the aisles and the 15th-century wooden roof. The nave and the chancel are separated by a one-of-a-kind wooden rood / screen with an original 13th century base. There are Saxon windows and a Norman font. It is a fantastic little church.

Gothic church, from the outside. The inside shows a wooden Normand altar, the standard altar, and a carved stone baptismal font

Finally, the time came. At 17:30 we met up on the way to the coach, and then we started off towards the highlight of the day – Stonehenge. Stonehenge was erected between 3000 and 2000 BCE – the primitive human somehow got the sarsen stones into Salisbury plain and planted them so they stood in a circle. They measure up to four metres long, and some of them are arranged in the shape of trilithons – two large vertical stones (posts) support a third one (lintel) which is set horizontally on top of them, with carved studs so the structure fits like a snap. There is a tear-shaped monolith standing a few metres away called “Heel stone”, which marks the entrance.

Some of them are indeed collapsed now and some are covered in lichen – there is a special type of lichen that only grows in three places in the world, and that is one of them. For thousand of years, these stones have remained standing, and the first historical study of them dates from 1666, carried out by an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer John Aubrey, and has been restored a several times, especially during the 20th century, when they were roped off and a fee charged for entry.

Currently, the stone circle belongs to the Queen of England, and according to the British Ancient Monuments Bill, it cannot be touched or altered in any way that is not to preserve its current status. In 2020, a core taken from the stones during the 1958 restoration was returned. This allowed researchers to analyse the composition and prove that the megaliths are indeed sarsen from the Malborough area.

The rules when you are allowed into the stone are “simple”: do not touch the stones, do not step on the stones, do not hug the stones, do not lick the stones, do not get naked among the stones. Judging by the tone in the guide’s voice, all that has happened before. Apparently, there are a lot of ley-line believers, neopagans and neodruids wanting to “connect” with the earth energy there (there is even a “yoga at sunset group”). In a kind of compromise, they allow you to take off your shoes and socks – which I did not do.

According to archaeologists, Stonehenge was designed in alignment the Winter Solstice sunset. The site was probably a celebration of the end of the worst of the winter before days started getting longer again. Other theories propose that it was originally a burial site that became a place to worship the ancestors.

The great thing about the after-hours tour is that you get to see the sunset around the site. Our timing was 18:45 – 19:45. The guide was nice too, and gave us “permission” to wander around and did not expect to listen to him all the time – don’t tell me twice. I explored and wandered to my heart’s content. We stayed there for about an hour, and it was really cool. I mean, not magical or “I feel the magic of the earth” or anything, but the circle is a fantastic piece of engineering, especially considering it was built five thousand years ago, before writing was even invented. Sometimes, humans are neat.

Stonehenge collage. Two shots of the megaliths standing on dry grass, from the outside; the sun shines between the darkened stones. One shot from the inside of the circle, showing the megaliths circling inwards.

It was over sooner than I would have liked, but about an hour later we were back on the bus after hitting the souvenir shop – where I got a guidebook – and we arrived in London around 22:00. When I got off the bus I just walked to the hotel, had my sandwich. Good thing I had left the window open, too, as it made the temperature slightly more tolerable – I own up though, I slept with the fan on, but… like a rock. Or a stone.

Walking distance: 11.96 km / 18742 steps
Coach distance: 317 km

11th August 2022: 21 hours straight of ups and downs in London {England, August 2022}

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The first thing I had to do was waking up for a 6:30 flight – though considering I did not sleep very much that night due to the heat, I’m not sure if that it counts as waking up. The previous day, the airline had sent warning emails about arriving at the airport early – three hours before the flight would have meant being there at 3:30, so… not really. I arrived at the airport around 5:10, and I was at the gate by… 5:20, I’m not even kidding. While I normally do not queue to enter planes – the advantages of backpacks, I just kick them under the seat – I had been assigned seat 1A, which meant I had to put my luggage into the overhead compartment. I had decided to take a small backpack too, because I would be carrying it around for a while, and it would get searched in a couple of places.

Surprisingly, despite Brexit, the Ryanair strikes, airport chaos, and the fact that apparently the automatic passport reader cannot cope with my new look, I made it into the United Kingdom first and straight to London without a glitch. Not only that, I managed to get my Oyster recharged without any problems, and as soon as I had bought some food, I was on my way to the first stop of the day: Crystal Palace Park, for which I got to ride the shiny new underground line, the Elizabeth Line, then the Overground. Even though there are another couple of landmarks (that might warrant a visit when / if the restoration project finally goes through), what interested me in Crystal Palace was a collection of Victorian sculptures – the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Though Ancient Greek already knew about fossils before the current era, it was in the 19th century when it hatched as a “science”, according to some spurred by Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. Fossil hunters ran amok, excavating and spoiling the North American badlands. In England itself, Mary Anning kept discovering cool things. There was a sort of a “Dinosaur fever” – the Victorians became fascinated with all things prehistoric. In 1852, a number of extinct animal reconstructions were commissioned to be erected in the gardens of the Crystal Palace, after the World Exhibition. Using the knowledge available at the time, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkings, a natural history illustrator and sculptor, who did his best according to scientific knowledge at the time.

Not all the animals represented are real dinosaurs, but the nickname stuck. From today’s standards, most of the reproductions are extremely inaccurate, with some exceptions, such as the ichthyosaur (discovered by Mary Anning around 1811), and the plesiosaur (of which Mary Anning also found a skeleton in 1823, and then another in 1830 – I love that woman). Today, the park is organised in several “islands” where you can see the sculptures, though the water was a bit down due to the heatwaves:

  • Amphibians and therapsids: Dicynodon and Labyrinthodon
  • Marine reptiles: Ichthyosaur, Mosasaurus, Plesiosaur and Teleosaurus
  • Dinosaurs and pterosaurs: Hylaeosaurus, Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Pterosaur
  • Mammals: Palaeotherium, Anoplotherium, Megaloceros and Megatherium

I have been aware of these sculptures for a long time – since I was a child and started liking dinosaurs. However, only recently did I find out that they really existed, and where they were. I arrived at Crystal Palace station a little after ten (making whole travel from the airport about two hours). I walked by a small farm with typical fauna such as… an alpaca, then I ate my sandwich overseeing the first island.

A collage showing differet statues of prehistoric creatures. Some try to be dinosaurs, and they look almost comically wrong, like giant iguanas or chameleons. There is one plesiosaurus looking rather acurate - it has a long neck and flipers. Finally, some mammals: a deer with huge antlers and a tiny horse-looking creature

I walked around for about an hour and then I set on my way back. Though I had planned to have a relaxed day at first, I had to adjust due to cancellations and train strikes. It was around that time that I calculated that I could actually cram my original Thursday and Saturday plans onto Thursday, plus the alternative plans I had made if I tweaked the time a little. So I back-rode for another hour towards the city.

Near Tower Hill stands the Sky Garden, on the 35th floor of the 20 Fenchurch Street building, designed by Rafael Viñoly. Sky Garden is considered the highest garden in London, and a fantastic viewpoint of the city. I almost accidentally came across the option to book a free access ticket for this – while I had not wanted to pay for any morning / early afternoon activities in case my plane was delayed, I figured out that I could book this for free, especially as they go stupidly fast! I made my 12:30 timeslot with a few minutes to spare, but I was let in after a queue, ID check, X rays and metal detection.

The Sky Garden features two terraces full of plants (landscaped by Gillespies), a couple of restaurants and bars, and an “open” gallery which has glass above your head so the feeling of opening dissipates – the glass is stained and scratched. It was one of the “must-do’s” in London I had never visited before, so I thought it would be a good opportunity. Fortunately, they have relaxed the rules on no bottles because of the unusual high temperatures.

After wandering around for a bit, I continued onto Saint Dunstan in the East Church Garden, the ruins of an old Wren church destroyed by The Great Fire of London and destroyed again during the Blitz (World War II bombings). Dating back to the 1100s, it was opened as a public park in 1970. Aside from being a very cute building park I wanted to see for a while, a music video by the band VAMPS was filmed there.

Ruins of a gothic church turned garden, with hanging ivy and bushes overgrowing the walls and windows

As it was lunchtime, the park was bustling with people, so I just had to move on rather quickly, and went back to the underground to get to the area of Westminster. I had originally booked tickets for Saturday (back in May) but then they were cancelled due to “repair work” going on that day (I do wonder if it was a security measure related to the strikes though).

But of course, first I feasted my eyes on the very new Elizabeth Tower clock tower aka Big Ben – though Big Ben is one of the bells in the tower, but nobody really cares about that any more.

Elizabeth Tower, shining gold with the restoration. It almost looks fake. The clock marks Quarter to two.

The Palace of Westminster or Houses of Parliament is the centre of the United Kingdom’s turbulent political life. The current palace was built after the previous one was destroyed by a fire in 1834. The new palace was erected in the Neo-Gothic style, and it was mostly finished by 1860, although it did open to be used in 1835. There was a competition regarding the design, which was won by sir Charles Barry. The Palace of Westminster holds the two chambers where the British government meets – the House of Lords and the House of Commons – alongside the Norman Porch, St. Stephen’s chapel, and the different corridors where the MPs vote or discuss state matters. I’ll forever be amused that “for security reasons, photography is not permitted in these chambers with dozens of cameras for TV broadcasting and Internet streaming”, but alas. The woodwork on the Norman Porch ceiling is fantastic, and some of the decoration choices, such as Churchill’s sculpture are… interesting. It is noteworthy that it is part of the Unesco Heritage Site “Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church”.

Collage: a view of the houses of parliament (London), with the Elizabeth Tower on the left. Two shots of the Norman Hall, a huge ward with an intrincate design of wooden ceiling. A gothic corridor with a wooden door and some coloured glass panels

Afterwards, I just found my way to the hotel – though I had to wander a little to find the nearby supermarket, bugger those never-ending attached-house neighbourhoods, rested for a little and then went to the station to go to the theatre – I wanted some extra time to check out where my airport coach would leave, so I gave myself 45 minutes for a 22-minute trip. It turns out there was train trouble and I was barely on time, taking an alternative route instead of the direct one.

When I realised my flight timing would give a free evening in London, I booked tickets for the Apollo Victoria Theatre to watch the “Wicked”. This musical tells the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from the point of view of the witches, and somehow gives the “Wicked Witch from the West”, Elphaba, an amazing personality and backstory that resonates a lot with me. For the same price as the ticket I was eyeing back in the day, I found a VIP upgrade just one seat over, so I was entitled to a drink and “snacks”, an early entry, along with access to the “Ambassador Lounge”, a tiny reception hall with access to a private restroom.

“Wicked” was great. The actress who plays the main character, Elphaba (Lucie Jones) came out a little yelly though in her solos. The duets with the other female singer (Glinda, Helen Woolf) were fantastic, and the male love interest’s (Fiyero, Ryan Reid) song was absolutely great, even though he is a character I have never cared for.

Apollo Victoria Theatre: the inner theatre, showing a dragon and a closed curtain showing a map of Oz. The outer theatre: there is a sign reading Apollo Victoria Wicked, and everything is lit green. The VIP lounge, with a glass of soda, and some chairs. The cast at the end of the show, taking their goodbye bows.

By the time I was out, the trains were running again, and one-to-three-minute delay on a line that runs every five minutes or so, and I was at the hotel by 23:00, absolutely beat. The room was extremely hot, because London is absolutely not ready for heat, so I had a snack in front of the fan, took a shower and then got some sleep – 21 hours on the go were over. Funnily enough, by the time I went to bed, I had that wobbly-world jet-lag feeling I have after my first day in Japan. It must have been the barely sleeping the night before. I fell asleep very fast.

Walking distance: 30.52 km / 46192 steps

25th July 2022: Half a day {Salamanca, July 2022}

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Mondays are always tricky because a lot of things close then. We reprised our latte/croissant and visited the Tourist information office that claimed that everything was open – which… was incorrect. My companion wanted to see Iglesia de San Marcos, a Romanesque church which has an interesting circular shape, probably built in the 11th century (that we had found in the book we got from the cathedral).

A Romanesque church. It has a round nave and a short bell tower with two bells.

We saw the local market Mercado Central de Salamanca, designed by the same architect as the Casa Lis. As this is a public building, it was in working order – though funnily enough, all the fishmongers were closed – no fish in Salamanca on Mondays! The building is modernist, with iron structures and colourful windows.

A Modernist building with colourful glass windows

To finish off the morning we went to visit the palace Palacio de la Salina, also a public building so also open. The architect in the project was Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón (who also designed the University building in Alcalá de Henares). It was built in 1538, mainly in Plateresque style, with some Italian elements.

The patio of a Plateresque palace, in gold tones with a lot of decoration on the stonework

Right across the park from the palace there is a lonely Renaissance tower Torre del Clavero. It was a 15th-century defence tower, with a square base that turns octagonal in height.

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We walked around for a while longer, had lunch, and our train back left around 3:30. It was a rather uneventful trip full of gothic, modernism and iron, which I really enjoyed. I keep trying to get to like guided visits, and I have somehow got fond of climbing up towers.

Walking distance: 11737 steps / 7.31 km

24th July 2022: Up, up and down {Salamanca, July 2022}

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After a latte and the best croissant I’ve had in a long time, we went over to see the gothic palace Casa de las Conchas, which was built between 1493 and 1517. The façade is decorated with sandstone-carved shells (concha, in Spanish). The exterior sports ironwork-protected windows, and the interior a patio with artistic arches.

The gothic palace called House of Shells. There are hundreds of them carved on the façade. The inner patio is carved in golden stone, with very thin columns and lots of decoration

It was still early for our visit to Palacio de Monterrey, a 16th-century Renaissance palace inspired in the Italian style of the time, combined with Plateresque decoration, which was heavily imitated later on in the 19th century. The building currently belongs to the House of Alba, probably the most prominent Spanish noble family. The House opened the palace to the public, and the inner area cannot be photograph – it was weird anyway, with some antiques and art pieces, but all of it was… prepared and staged, though the carpets were rolled out of the way. In this case the only option to sneak out a picture was from the tower, as a member of the staff followed us all the time.

Monterrey palace, built in golden-like masonery. The roofs and towers are decorated, and there is a row of windows alongside the upper floor.

Next, just in front the palace, we visited the 17th-century church Iglesia de la Purísima, in Italian Baroque style. Its altarpiece is considered to have one of the best images of the Virgin Mary in her Immaculate Conception advocacy.

A Catholic altar showing the Inmaculate conception in the centre, she is dressed in blue, and standing in front of golden clouds, with angels around her. The back of the altar is built in white stone, and ornate.

Our next spot was the second university of Salamanca, the see of the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, a building called La Clerecía. As the original university went secular, the Jesuits built a clerical university. The building, built in Baroque style between the 17th and 18th centuries is composed of a church, a cloister, a patio and a magnificent staircase, forming the complex (read: guided tour) called Vita Ignatii.

Collage: On the left, a very baroque church from the outside, also showing the gold inner altar. On the right, some shots of the upper and lower cloister, the patio is ornate and reddish, the staircase is made completely out of stone.

Then there are two towers that give out really awesome views of the town, named Scala Coeli, the stairs to the Sky.

Views of Salamanca from the above: the dome of the church from the outside, the cathedral, the House of Shells, and the bells.

It was rather hot, so we had some unremarkable lunch and went to the hotel to wait out the blunt of it. It did not really work, and we eventually tried our luck with some more sightseeing. The first stop was the garden known as Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, based on a literature work Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea or La Celestina. It is considered the first Renaissance writing in Spanish, and it echoes with Romeo (Calisto or Calixto) and Juliet (Melibea), with an extra character, the old matchmaker Celestina, who is a horrible person trying to break the lovers up to marry Melibea to someone else. Though the writing does not have a firm setting, some say that it is probably Salamanca, where the author attended university. It was nicely shaded and had nice views.

Gate to the gardens, a bust of Celestina (the fictional character), from the cathedral, and some flowers: star-shaped and orange, bell-shaped and red.

Then, we wandered off to see the bridges over the river Río Tormes again: both Puente de Enrique Estevan and Puente Romano. Next to the Roman bridge there is a statue of a verraco (ancient Celtic sculpture) Verraco del Puente Romano, which is supposed to have been there since the 16th century. A bit to the side, there is yet another literary monument, which represents the book El Lazarillo de Tormes, Lazarillo being the word for “guide dog (for the blind)” in Spanish (such an eye-seeing dog). Also written in the 16th century, it is considered another of the peak writings in Spanish, telling the story of a young lad who learns to survive by gathering street-smarts and shedding off any morals he ever had, finally settling in Salamanca with his unfaithful wife: Monumento al Lazarillo de Tormes.

Collage. The historical bridges in Salamanca: the Roman one, made from stone with wide archs, and the iron-architecture one, in greyish-green. Sculptures: Lazarillo with his master, and a prehistoric bull or pig, with a flat head

Then we found a very air-conditioned and interesting place – the automobile museum Museo de la Historia de la Automoción (which reminded me a little of the Megaweb Toyota City Showcase and History Garage in Tokyo). It has a lot of classic cars, and some historical pieces such as vehicles that belonged to dictator Francisco Franco or the writer Camilo José Cela (and air-con).

A collage of some cars: A Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Wolkswagen 600; and a Harley-Davidso

I had then booked myself an evening visit around sunset time, to go up the towers of the cathedral, an experience called Ieronimus, with the hope to see some cool sunset and night views. It makes sense, right? Wrong. I should have realised when it turned out to be a guided visit that most of it would be inside, listening to the guy fanboy his own city – then he started speaking about the Lisbon earthquake and its effects in Salamanca and gave out wrong information. I stopped listening to him at that point. There was a light/music show in the cathedral, and I did get some neat pictures, but honestly? The choir concert in the old cathedral would have been a much better choice, had we known about it.

Views of Salamanca at night, with the gothic architecture highlighted by the illumination. The city looks Romantic and mysterious.

Walking distance: 13017 steps / 8.00 km

23rd July 2022: Plateresque Salamanca {Salamanca, July 2022}

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Officially in western Spain, Salamanca stands next to the Tormes river and sports a Unesco World Heritage title for its old town. I was five or six the first time I was there, so it’s not like I remembered anything from it, except memorising excerpts from the book El Estudiante de Salamanca (José de Espronceda), my favourite Spanish Romantic poet.

Salamanca is known due to its university, which is considered one of the best in the teaching of Spanish as a second language, the oldest Spanish university and one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1218. There are actually two universities, but we shall get to that later.

There is a period in Spanish history referred to as the Gold Century, Siglo de Oro (Not an actual century, the given dates are between 1492 – the year when the Catholic monarchs finished conquering the country, Europeans realised America existed, and the first book on Spanish grammar was published – and 1659 – when the Pyrenees treaty was signed after the war with France). It was throughout this period when Salamanca thrived, especially late-time Gothic styles and early Renaissance ones. Then of course Baroque later on, but you know my stance on Baroque by now I guess… The mixture of late-gothic and Renaissance gave way to a unique style, Plateresque – with a strong Gothic base and a blend of Mudéjar, Flamboyant Gothic, Lombard and Tuscan Renaissance elements and decorations. Plateresque is characterised by heavy decorations sculpted onto the main architecture, especially in the typical fusion of doors and altarpieces. The motifs are plants, animals, shields and medallions… All and all, an impressive style considering we are talking about carving stuff on stone – in the case of Salamanca, a lot of it is sandstone, which gives the old city a golden tone.

We had to take a couple of trains, but and made it to Salamanca around 10:30, and were in the city centre a few minutes later. After dropping the luggage at the hotel – I had been requested the hotel to be near the cathedral and I found one which was literally across the street from one of the flanks. Then again, here’s the thing – Salamanca has not one but two cathedrals: the Old Cathedral Catedral Vieja de Santa María and the New Cathedral Catedral Nueva de la Asunción de la Virgen. Apparently, instead of building over the old one, they decided to keep both, making the historical complex unique in the country.

The New Cathedral was built mainly in Gothic style with later Baroque add-ons, with an ornate Plateresque façade. It was commissioned by king Ferdinand V of Castile, and built between the 16th and 18th century, in the Gothic style, even though this was at time when Gothic was already in decline. However, the town authorities wanted it to “match” the old Romanesque cathedral. A cupola and a choir were added in the Baroque period, and the façades were decorated in the Plateresque way (in a 20th-century restoration, someone thought it would be funny to add an astronaut to the decoration, causing some hoaxes to pop up afterwards). The most important architect who worked in the new cathedral was José de Churriguera, one of the leading Baroque architects / sculptors / urbanists.

A very ornate Gothic cathedral. The entrance has so many carvings that it actually looks organic, if not for the fact that it is made out of golden / reddish stone

The New Cathedral connects to the old Cathedral, which is late Romanesque / early Gothic in style (I know, it’s confusing. Historically, the old cathedral is between Romanesque and Gothic, and the new one between Gothic and Renaissance – and this is the reason why the Gothic makes the two cathedral “match”). It was built between the 12th and 14th centuries. The most impressive thing in the Old Cathedral is the altarpiece, in which the highest-quality paintings were made by the Italian Dello Delli. On the way out, I let myself be tempted by a paper guidebook of the city – which was helpful because we had to remake all of our plans a couple of times.

Interior of a Romanesque church - the nave has very high and severe-seeming columns

Afterwards, we headed off to the main university building Universidad de Salamanca, the first university building. The university was founded by King Alfonso XI in 1218, which makes it the oldest university in the whole Spanish-speaking world. The most important building today is the Escuelas Mayores, the upper school, built between 1411 and 1533. The façade, which looks towards the newly-discovered New World is sculpted in the Plateresque style, with a ton of decoration – and the most famous motif is the frog that stands on top of a skull. The university was built around a cloister for the students of old, and it has the most amazing library I have seen in a long while – selfishly (I’m joking of course) closed to the public. There is also a chapel and the classroom where the Spanish academic Fray Luis de León, who was famously jailed for four years, and picked up his lectures with “as we were saying yesterday”. The cloister has two floors since the 19th century, and in the centre there is a small giant sequoia (which I thought was a simple fir). There are chapels, and halls, and areas where university holds events.

Very ornate entrance to a building. there are two doors (four or five times as tall as a person) and the decoration, all carved in stone, is on top. Three floors of decoration, with columns and shields. A close-up shows a frog on top of a skull.

The problem with Salamanca is that the entries and exits of the building make you have to backtrack a lot (and the horrible street lights), but I love Gothic so I did not mind wandering around anyway. After the Escuelas Mayores, we went to another university building the lesser school or Escuelas Menores. Today, there is a cloister which dates from 1428 with a Baroque upper veranda. In one of the side halls there is a fresco panting that used to be in the library and that was moved over in 1950. The fresco represents a night sky was used in teaching.

Gothic patio and a suck picture of a fresco painting, showing stars and the representation of constellations

We had lunch, then we went to the Dominican monastery Convento de San Esteban and its church. The current monastery dates from 1524-1610, and it was built over the previous one. The façade of the church is considered the best example of Plateresque, and José de Churriguera also worked in the main altarpiece. The monastic building has a portico with Italian loggias, typical of the Renaissance. The cloister is mainly Renaissance with Gothic features, and a small temple in the middle. The ambulatory in the cloister has beautiful Gothic columns and nerves on the ceiling.

A convent, built in ornate gotic style. The covered corridor around the cloister shows pointed arches and rich decorations

Right in front of the monastery stands the Dominican convent Convento de las Dueñas. The building is Baroque, and before being a convent it used to be a palace – which has caused the convent to have some eclectic elements of architecture, such as the Mudéjar arch mosaic or doors. The inner cloister is Plateresque and full of roses and flowers.

A Baroque building. The inner patio is decorated with plants and Moorish-seeming blinded arches

Next, we found the tiny Romanesque church Iglesia de Santo Tomás Cantuariense, where I happily sicced the oh-so-bored guide onto my companion.

Small Romanesque church in reddish-gold stone. It has a tiny bell tower.

After a stop for a cold drink we went to the Art Nouveau and Art Déco Museum Museo de Art Nouveau y Art Déco Casa Lis, which is one of those places that takes itself very seriously and does not allow photographs. I got scolded for having my camera to my side even closed – but I have to admit that I did sneak up a few things with the phone, mostly because I wanted a record of the central hall with the glass ceiling, and the green windows from the inside, more than the decorative details, though some of them were pretty nice. The Lis house was built by Andalusian architect Joaquín de Vargas towards the end of the 19th century for the first owner, Miguel de Lis.

A Modernist building with brightly-coloured glass in the ceiling and walls.

We headed to the main square Plaza Mayor for dinner, and then to see the pretty lights. On the way we found the other university Universidad Pontificia and the palace Casa de las Conchas, which we would visit the following day.

The main square was another of the city landmarks first designed by Alberto Churriguera, and later one of his nephews – it seems that the Churriguera family claimed dibs on doing stuff in Salamanca. The square is fantastic by day but when night fell and the lights were turned on, it was unbelievable. We had some local sausages and cheese for dinner at one of the street tables in the square.

A plate of sausages and cheese, and two views of the Main Square in Salamanca, one in daylight, one at night, and lit up. The square buildings have a lot of windows and arches on the ground floor

Afterwards, I wandered alone for a while, to revisit some of the sights at night, and a couple of new ones.

Salamanca at night. The cathedral is lit and the ornamets almost shine. The Modernist house is lit in green and blue lights.

I headed off to the riverside of Río Tormes, which as any river has bridges. The first one I found is the Puente de Enrique Estevan, commissioned in 1891 in order for the town to be ready for the new cars. It has six iron arches and at night it is lit in bluish light. A few minutes downstream stands the older stone bridge Puente Romano, which according to the legend was built by Hercules – it dates back to the first century, but it has been heavily rebuilt and reconstructed through the years, especially after it was damaged by a flood in the 17th century.

A collage showing an iron bridge, and a stone bridge, both lit in the dark

Finally, around midnight, I went back to the hotel for a shower and sleep.

Walking distance: 17269 steps / 10.76 km

29th May 2022: La Orotava, Icod de los Vinos & Parque Nacional del Teide {Tenerife, birthday 2022}

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I got up rather early in the morning (especially considering that the Canary Islands are an hour behind my usual time zone) and I was surprised at how many people there were already on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife before 8:30 on a Sunday morning. I drove out of the town and headed north-west, where I came across my first stop – a viewpoint of Mount Teide called Mirador de Humboldt honouring the German explorer from the late 18th century (though I kept thinking that there was a missing penguin opportunity there). The viewpoint overlooks the ocean and Mount Teide, which Humboldt climbed in 1799.

Mount Teide, a volcano, looms in the background. The top is bare and barren, but the slopes look green and fertile, with plantations and some villages. In the foreground, there is a bronze sculpture of Alexander Humbolt, sitting on the low wall of the lookout, and looking to the side.

I continued driving towards La Orotava, the municipality which Mount Teide actually belongs to. After parking the car, I walked towards the historical centre and ended up at the square Plaza de la Constitución, which stands next to the church Iglesia de San Agustín. Mount Teide loomed over the streets, ready to celebrate Pentecost Sunday. And guess what? The main church is called… Parroquia Matriz de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. The initial hermit church was built in the 15th century, and it was completely rebuilt in the Baroque style throughout the 18th century, though the interior was remade in the 19th century and there was yet another renovation in the 20th century. It is considered the most important building of the Canarian Baroque.

A collage of La Orotava. The buildings are built with white plaster and black volcanic rock. Mount Teide peeks from the background.

The most representative construction in La Orotava is the “house of balconies” Casa de los Balcones. The house was built in the 17th century. The façade shows a front-long balcony on the third floor, and five smaller balconies on the second, all of them made from dark teak wood. The interior holds a museum, but I decided to give that a miss because I reached there at the same time as a very disorganised group of forty or fifty people who were going in at the time.

A colonial house. It is built in white brink. It has three floors. On the ground, there are brown windows. On the first floor, five balconies, with decorated ironwork. On the second floor, a long balcony or gallery in dark wood.

Instead, I went back to the car and drove towards Icod de los Vinos. There, my first stop was the butterfly house Mariposario del Drago, since the ethnographical museum Museo del Guanche is closed.

A collage showing colourful butterflies - red, orange, blue, black, black and white. One of them is chilling on the shell of a turtle, and another one is caught mid-flight. Most are on flowers and plants.

The butterfly house stands next to a botanical park Parque del Drago built around the symbol of the town – and maybe the whole island – the Drago Milenario. This is the largest and oldest specimen of Canary Islands dragon tree or drago (Dracaena draco). Folklore says that it is a thousand years old, hence the name “the thousand-year-old dragon tree”, though in reality, it is probably around 600 years.

The dragon-blood tree. It has a knotted grey trunk and bony branches. Around it there are bright-green palm and laurel trees

The park, built around the drago, holds local species trying to reproduce the local biotopes with height, there is also a small volcanic cave. It was here where where I managed to catch my first glance at the local fauna – two of the endemic lizards (though not as big as the one I had seen in the museum): lagarto tizón (Gallotia galloti) or tizon lizard, a blue-spotted male and a brown-striped female.

Two lizards. One camouflages on the grey and brown ground. The other on has a brown tail, but the body is black and bright blue

Then I went back to the car to climb up a crazy slope until I reached the visitors’ centre of the lava tube Cueva del viento. A lava tube is a “cave” formed the flowing lava of a volcano. As the outer part solidifies, the inner core continues flowing until it empties the tube. The guided visit is the only way you can enter the tube, so I had reserved that a few weeks earlier.

The visit started with a small introduction in the visitor’s centre, with a lot of “gotcha” questions on the guide’s part. I tried really, really hard not to be a smartarse, but I did sit down on the floor at a point because I did not feel like standing around for twenty minutes. The important information we received was that there were two types of lava that had formed the island of Tenerife: pahoehoe and block lava.

Then we took the centre’s vehicles to the outer area of the cave, where we could see the solidified lava, now turned into stone. Pahoehoe lava is basaltic, it flows slowly, and it is the responsible for creating the tubes. As it flows and solidifies, it creates undulations and wrinkles. On top of it, only small trees and bushes can grow.

Old Pahoehoe lava trails. The rock looks wrinkled or similar to pillows.

Block lava is more acidic, with a higher silica contents, it flows less and creates “blocks” as it solidifies. Pines can be found growing on top.

Pines around an old colada, which seems rocky and broken.

The cave itself was very cool. Unfortunately, there were a couple of families with kids and grandparents, all trying to be braver than the next – and thus acted loud and boisterous. More interesting information – mummified guanche aboriginals had been found in the cave, along with remains of a giant rat and lizard that were the ones reproduced in the Museo de Ciencia y Antropología de Tenerife. It is one of the biggest lava tubes in the world, with up to three levels and maybe 18 km of tunnels, though only a short walk can be had.

Inside the lava tube. It looks alien, like the rock is going to start dripping any second

Back in the parking lot, I had a snack and headed off towards the Parador de las Cañadas del Teide, where I had booked my next couple of nights. On the way, I went through several amazing volcanic landscapes that I could not photograph as I was driving. However, I did stop at several lookouts throughout the Parque Nacional del Teide.

Mirador de Samara.

Pines growing up on the dusty remains of a lava flow. In the background, there are three mountains - three craters of the same volcano

Mirador de las Narices del Teide, which shows the collapse on the mountain during the last known eruption.

A view of the black collapse of lava from the last eruption. Everything is barren, brown and grey, except for a black spillage coming down ominously. The sky is blue in the background, which makes the whole thing look even more bizarre.

Mirador Zapato de la Reina.

The top of Teide. This is the point where vegetation has become scarce, with low bushes, that creep up the slope. The summit looks naked.

Finally, I arrived in the area of Las Cañadas del Teide or Las Siete Cañadas where the Parador de las Cañadas del Teide stands. I was lucky that the season was good to see the flowering bugloss Echium wildpretii (tajinaste in Spanish), an endemic flora species mostly found on the Teide slopes. After checking in I wandered around the different tracks and paths – Cañada Blanca, Roques de García and Mirador de la Ruleta, which show the different stages of various volcanic eruptions.

Mount Teide rises in the background. It looks wrinkled due to the different eruptions. At its foot, a low building, looking completely out of place. In the foreground, small bushes in grey and green.

Collage: Different rocks and structures created by lava and erosion, the rocks are reddish or grey, and they have weird shapes. The tajinaste is a tall bush, with tiny red flowers, it stands about 1m above the rest of the plants.

I turned in early, and I had booked my dinner in the Parador both nights I’d be sleeping there, so that was an easy one. The staff made it a little awkward though, even if I was not the only solo traveller around. After dinner, I tried to get some pictures of the night sky, but I was unsuccessful.

28th May 2022: San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Bajamar & Santa Cruz de Tenerife {Tenerife, birthday 2022}

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I had a four-day weekend that happened to overlap with my birthday, so I decided to get myself a present and I booked the four days out – I wanted to visit the Spanish island of Tenerife. I seemed to have a streak of luck finding a decent flight, a couple of good hotels and a free permission to visit the peak of Mount Teide, a non-extinct volcano that happens to be the highest peak in Spain. I also decided to rent a car for the first time so I could travel around the island and do different activities in different places.

The plane left on time at 8:15 on Saturday – and I have to say that I love my IKEA travel bag, because it has a huge capacity but the perfect size to place under the seat, therefore I do not need to queue up for boarding to make sure I can stow the carry on. We taxied at the correct time, but when we got to the runway, we stopped. It turned out that one of the sensors was giving a warning of a 400 ºC temperature on one of the wheels. It turned out to be a false alarm, but we ended up with an hour-long delay that ended up cascading.

I reached the airport and got my rental – Volkswagen Polo I had to learn how to reverse. Once I was done with that, it was surprisingly easy to get by. I drove off to San Cristobal de la Laguna and went off to visit the historic quarter, which is a Unesco World Heritage site as an example of colonial architecture – Centro Histórico de San Cristobal de la Laguna. Most of the buildings date back to the 15th century, and the design was then copied in different colonial cities in South America. The houses are painted in different colours and most of them sport amazing woodwork in their doors or balconies.

It gave me a pretty distinct “Disneyland” feeling as the pedestrian streets are plagued with cafés, brand shops and bars. It was packed with tourists like myself flocking in guided tours from the tourist office, which seemed to only open to gather groups in order to hold those tours. As the week before my trip had been work-crazy, I had not been able to plan in detail, so my plan was to hit the tourist office, gather information and move on. This did not work out, and on top of that, the cathedral Catedral de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios was already closing down when I arrived – due to the delay. Other interesting but closed buildings included the church Iglesia Matriz de la Concepción, and several palaces including Casa de los Capitanes and the reconstructed Palacio de Salazar.

Typical buildings from Canary Islands. They are colonial in style, with big doors and windows. The façades are painted with different colours.

Typical buildings from Canary Islands. They are colonial in style, with big doors and windows. The façades are painted with different colours. The streets are wide and full of people.

I’m not going to say that I was disappointed, but I was really not digging the atmosphere, so I decided to move on. Instead of following the initial rough plan, I decided to head off to the tiny village of Bajamar to see the “sea pools”. Built in the petrified lava coast, the Piscinas de Bajamar are swimming pools fed by ocean water that keep swimmers safe from the rocks and the waves. I was lucky enough to find a very good and easy parking spot.

I wandered around the promenade Paseo Marítimo de Bajamar, saw the pools, the beach, and the mini lighthouse Faro de Bajamar.

Waves coming into the volcanic beach, which does not have sand but big black blocks of rock.

I moved onto Santa Cruz de Tenerife afterwards, ditched the car and checked into the hotel, then went off to explore. I walked by the market complex La Recova, also called Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África.

A bright orange building. It has a low, wide wall, and in the centre a clock tower

The tower of the church Iglesia Matriz de la Concepción (yes, again, but another one). The church has been repeatedly rebuilt and renamed between the 15th and 18th centuries. The current building is Canarian Baroque / Tuscan style.

A church with a bell tower. The building is white clay with black rock; this style is typical in the area

My first real destination was Plaza de España where the defensive castle Castillo de San Cristóbal used to stand. Now there is a fountain / pond and you can see the foundations of the castle.

Collage. The former site of the castle, now converted into a fountain or lake. On the other side, the castle foundations, and a cannon.

Next, I found another important square, Plaza de la Candelaria, but it was unfortunately under construction.

A grey building with construction work being done on it

So I moved on to the science and anthropology museum Museo de Ciencia y Antropología de Tenerife. It was rather underwhelming at first, as most of the “exhibit” were photographs. Eventually I reached the “good” stuff, with reconstructions of ancient and extinct animals such as the Canarian giant rat and the Goliath Giant lizard – we’ll come back to those eventually. There were butterfly collections, reproductions of marine animals, rocks and meteorites. In the archaeology ward there were mummies – that was a little unnerving to be honest, I thought we had learnt a little more respect about the ancient cultures.

Before the Europeans arrived in the Canary Islands in the 15th century, there was a previous civilization in Tenerife, called the guanche. The guanche settled in the island around the 6th century. While it is not clear where they came from it is thought that they came from the north of Africa, as their language was similar to those in the Berber language group. They lived off the cattle and the land, and their economy was clearly based on the goat, which they used for everything – food (meat and dairy), clothing, bone tools, and mummification material.

Collage of the museum: a prehistoric carved rock; preserved giant rat and lizard; models of fish; a meteorite; rests of mummies (a foot and an arm)

After the museum, I walked along the harbour and saw the modern concert hall Auditorio de Tenerife, designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava, whose style is easily recognised – even though in recent year he has drawn criticism for going way beyond budget and his building having problems due to “over innovation”.

The auditorium. It looks like the sail of a yacht, all white.

A few steps further stands the tiny fortress Castillo de San Juan Bautista, built between 1641 and 1643, and rebuilt the following century. I would have loved to see the botanical garden, but it closed early – as most things seemed to do.

Small castle surrounded by a moat that fills up in high tide.

I took a small detour to see the former arsenal Casa de la Pólvora, built in masonry in the 18th century. Eventually, I went to the supermarket to buy some dinner and snacks for the upcoming adventures, and called it a day after 14 hours on the go.

Armourine building. It looks like a treasure chest, built in grey rock

13th March 2022: The outskirts of Madrid (Spain)

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I’m usually rather enthusiastic when I visit new places, but if there is a place that I’ve found kind of over-hyped, that has been the park Parque del Capricho, in Madrid. “Capricho”, which means whim or folly – in its architectural meaning of an often extravagant picturesque building erected to suit a fanciful taste, or building erected for decoration, typical of the French and English decorative gardens from the 18th century. The park is located in Madrid, and the only romantic garden that remains in Madrid. It was promoted by the 12th Duchess of Osuna between 1787 and 1839, and became a recreational area for the nobility of the time. Some of the most important gardeners and landscapers of the time worked on its design. It was declared Historical Garden in 1934 and restored in 1999.

So it is a garden, with some plants, some flowers, and a bunch of weird-looking decorative items, that takes itself a bit too seriously. It won’t accept pets and you can’t bring any food inside (it has some cage-looking “lockers” were you can leave your stuff.”. There is a strict capacity control that does nothing for it not to feel ridiculously crowded on a regular nice-weather Sunday. Maybe it improves in spring / summer, and with fewer people, but I had some stuff to do in the area and that is why I made time to visit today.

It had been raining all week, so I had mostly scrapped my plans. It was a great sunny day though so in the end I decided to get there. Parking the car was ridiculously easy – though the parking spot was maxed out, I found a very easy one in the avenue next to the park – good, it was close as I would not put my sandwich in the crappy-looking lockers and preferred taking it back to the car. Then I walked in, and explored for a couple of hours – and don’t tell anyone, but I ate a piece of candy, just to be rebellious (≧▽≦) (and to make sure I did not sugar crash without any food around, but that does not really make for a good story).

While I of course did not expect everything to be blooming and colourful and green… I hoped that it would have at least maintained through winter. No such luck. A bunch of areas were fenced off, the footpaths were swamped with puddles, and the water in the ponds was not as clean as it should have been. Exploring the 14 hectares took me about an hour and a half, considering that I did go into all the little paths, but all the buildings were closed and / or under constructions. There is a Civil War bunker in the park too, but that is only open through pre-booked guided visit and I did not know I was going to do this 30 minutes before I jumped on the car. The few flowers that had already bloomed included the garden pansies (Viola × wittrockiana, which are after all winter flowers), and the yellow and white daffodils (narcissus, maybe the subspecies jonquil Narcissus jonquilla). There were a couple of black swans (Cygnus atratus) at the main pond, and mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) on every second water body, including fountains.

Pond in the park. There are some flowers and buildings around it, and a black swan sunbathing.

Collage of different park decoration: a bush labyrinth, a fountain, and some decoration reminding of Greek temples.

Afterwards, I took a small detour to see if any of the Japanese cherry trees in the park opposite the street Parque Juan Carlos I had started blossoming. The answer was not at all. But the point was heading to the restored castle Castillo de la Alameda. The castle dates back to the 15th century, though there are older remains underneath, and it is thought that its presence is the one that got all the aristocrats to flock to the area, as it switched from defensive castle to palace.

The remains of the castle feature an irregular moat with lobe-like structures in the corners, and the restored keep, which stands up to the first floor, though it must have been much higher. An interesting characteristic of the castle is that it was built using a kind of mortar made from flint. I have to say it was a nice surprise, free to visit.

A clover-shaped castle ruins, all white. There is not much of the castle left, but the moat is almost intact, though empty

To the side of the castle there is a casemate – a fortified machine gun emplacement from the Spanish Civil War, called Nido de Ametralladoras (Machine gun nest), a semi buried cement block for snipers of sorts to defend the position.

Concrete block that was used as a machine-gun base

Then I moved onto Mejorada del Campo a little town near Madrid that only has one tourist attraction – a… handmade cathedral. Of sorts – Catedral de Justo Gallego .

Justo Gallego was born in 1925. Deeply Catholic, he became a young monk-in-training but had to leave the monastery when he contracted tuberculosis. He made a vow to erect a cathedral to the Virgin Mary in her “Lady of the Pillar” avocation, and he sort of did. Throughout the next 60 years he worked on building the cathedral, using recycled material, and on his own. His work came to fame when a soft-drink company made him the star of an advertising campaign, which made him and his work famous.

The cathedral has 12 towers, a crypt, two cloisters, a baptistery, and the main nave is 20×50 metres, with a 35 metres high dome. Most of it was done by hand, using discarded items such as tubes and bicycle wheels. It is garish and childish in its decoration, but I found it to have some strange allure. The cathedral has drawn the attention of international artists and institutions, and apparently Gallego built it without any blueprints or knowledge of construction. Upon his death, an architectural studio started working on “legalising” the cathedral (from an urbanistic point of view; it is not an official Christian building) and is it is now under management from an NGO. It was just a bizarre thing to see, but interesting since I was in the area (sort of. Construction made the route stupidly long), glad I’ve visited it at least once. I did catch a European white stork (Ciconia ciconia ciconia) coming home to one of the towers.

Cathedral made out of recycled items: pipes, plastic bottles, irons... there is a dome and a nave, in bizarre colours.

A stork approaches one of the towers of the cathedral

I drove off afterwards, and I have to say the weather that day was amazing – just in-between two piss-poor ones, so yay spring escapade.

Walking distance: 11.18 km (16916 steps)

26th February 2022: A Medieval Fair in Tendilla (Spain)

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Tendilla is a tiny village in the area of Guadalajara, Spain. It was declared a town – by Medieval standards at least in 1394. About a century later, the County of Tendilla was founded. By that time, the local cattle fair, around the festivity of St. Matthew, was considered one of the best in the Kingdom of Castile, with the Catholic Monarchs bestowing their blessings on the town. Among the most interesting areas are the long covered arcades, and the unfinished church dating back from the 16th century, Iglesia de la Asunción.

The cattle fair was rekindled in the 1990s, and today it is called Feria de Mercaderías de San Matías. The closest weekend to the 24th of February, St. Matthew’s day, a Medieval market is laid along Main Street, with edibles, trinkets and artisan items. The village becomes decorated with flags, pennons showing off real and assumed heraldry items.

This year, I decided to get there as some family members were going to be in the house they own in the village. I arrived at around 10 am, and by that time most the village was already full. I got deviated, but it was not hard to find a parking spot. Unfortunately the weather had not decided to accompany and it was rainy and freezing all day.

The fair stalls had begun to open, but first we made a run for the local grocery stores to grab some ingredients for lunch. The typical thing to eat in this time are migas, which are basically fried breadcrumbs with paprika, pork, garlic and a fried egg on top. We also bought sweets and confectioneries, just because we could.

At noon, we walked along Main Street Calle Mayor. The stalls were already open, and even in the bad weather there were quite a few people. Some were even in costume, dressed in Medieval outfits, as dames, knights or noblemen.

A wide street. There are flags hanging above and from the balconies, and shopping stands on the right. the sky is dark and heavy, as in all the pictures taken

A wide street. There are flags hanging above, and shopping stands on the both sides, selling hand-made jewellry and trinkets.

A Romanesque church with a bell tower. The church is unfinished.

Main square. It has a pole in the middle, and colourful ribbons run from it to the buildings around the square. The floor has been covered in sand, and the houses are decorated with flags. Lots of people walk around.

To the end of the village, a small “farm” had been installed – oxen, horses, cows, goats, donkies, sheep, rabbits, piglets… Due to the ‘health situation’ which for once was not Covid but avian flu, there were no ducks or hens or any kind of bird. You could hold the bunnies, but I really really wanted to hug the huge draft horses.

Farm animals: a donkey, two piglets, cows, rabbits, a sheep trying to eat the camera, a working horse.

Farm animals: goats trying to escape the pen, oxen ignoring the camera, a black-and-white cow wanting pets, and a working horse looking tired.

Someone had not really thought positioning carefully though, and right in front of the farm – and the piglets – stood the food stalls, especially a roaster, whose cooked pork was… suspiciously similar to the piglets in the farm *coughs*.

On the other side of the farm, the locals had started preparing the communal migas – every visitor is entitled to a plate of them, but it was way too cold to queue. Instead of being topped with an egg, though, they are sprinkled with torreznos, pork lard fried and preserved.

A huge barbecue with pork roasting and sausages. The barbeque itself is round, and it's big enough to fit at least a dozen ribcages, ten pork legs, and twenty or thirty sausages.

A person using a shovel to stir a huge pot of breadcrumbs being cooked, and a close up of the severd plate: orange-looking breadcrumbs with dried fried pork lard on top.

On our way back we ran into the horse parade and show, which was held in front of the town hall. The riders of El Duque Espectáulos, dressed in Medieval and Templar costumes, trotted and galloped along the music.

A group of medieval-looking horse riders making their way through the crowds

An older man making a golden horse trot and gallop on command, the horse is photographed mid-hop

Riders in medieval clothing galloping on the Main square

We stopped to buy some torreznos to take home, and we got given the tourist treat – a cloth bag with a huge box of fried pork skin. It is tastier than it sounds, honest!

A tote bag reading Tendi (the rest of the writing is obscured), with a box of torreznos inside

We had lunch at home, and not to show off, but I do think our breadcrumbs looked much better. We made them ourselves, with chorizo meat and eggs sunny side up! They looked so much better than the communal ones, right?!

A plate of migas. The breadcrumbs look golden, and there are pieces of pancetta and chorizo mixed with the bread. On top, there is a fried egg, sunny-side up

Finally, after lunch, we took another stroll, but the weather was miserable, raining and cold – which was so mean because the following day when I had to work it was nice and sunny, and there was a bird of prey exhibit.

Romanesque and Baroque buildings, deserted in the rain. One of them is a tiny hermit church, the other a column, and the third a palace that has seen better times

But all in all I spent a nice time with family and got to pat horses and goats. I guess there are much worse ways to spend a Saturday.

Walked distance: 6.20 km (9866 steps)

18th – 20th February 2022: Extremadura, the not-at-all-wild west of Spain

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With everything that keeps going on in the world, my little travel gig seems insignificant. Here it is, anyway, for the sake of completion.

18th February 2022: Jam and Ham

After a crazy crazy period, and within a just-slightly-less-crazy period, we made space for a mini escapade – just under 48 hours, but it was an interesting mental reset. We took the car and drove off to Cáceres after I finished work in the afternoon. The trip should have taken a little over 3 hours and 15 minutes, but we spent about 70 minutes caught in several traffic jams – or just a very long jam with different instalments.

Sunset from the road. The orange light zigzags through the grey and blue clouds

Cáceres is located in the autonomous community of Extremadura, which is famous because of its particular grassland with dwarf trees called a dehesa. The typical animal farmed in the area is the native Black Iberian pig – a traditional breed of the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus). Through breeding with wild boars and millennia of adaptation, the Iberian pig has grown accustomed to eating oak acorns, and thus it has become a key part of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the breed has great tendency to accumulate intra-muscular fat. This means that its meat is delicious, especially as sausage. The most famous treat is the “Black label” (Etiqueta Negra or Dehesa de Extremadura) ham: a pig raised in the dehesa, fed acorns and natural grass, and whose meat has been cured for at least 20 months.

The area of Cáceres is also known for its sheep-milk cheese, Torta del Casar. It is a strong-flavoured creamy cheese that comes from controlled sheep, also raised in the dehesa. The cheese is especially curded with rennet made from cardoon (Cynara cardunculus). Another typical food from the area is the local paprika Pimentón de la Vera, which is made from smoked local red peppers. All three – ham, cheese and paprika – hold European Protected Designation of Origin certificates.

Of course, not everything is food in Cáceres. After we checked into our hotel near the historical centre, we headed off to the Main Square Plaza Mayor de Cáceres, which features the town hall, the former wall gate called Arco de la Estrella (Star Arch), and one of the watch towers Torre de Bujaco.

The medieval square of Caceres by night. It looks like a castle, with arches, battlements. The sky is completely black.

We found a place inside to grab a bite, and we tried the sausages for dinner before turning in – acorn-fed pork ham, loin, chorizo, morcón (similar to chorizo), salchichón, and patatera (pork mixed with potato and paprika in sausage form).

A plate of sausage slices and ham

Walked distance: 1.79 km (2838 steps)

19th February 2022: The Old Town of Cáceres

The Old or Walled Town of Cáceres, Ciudad Vieja de Cáceres was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1986, and it is easy to see why. It is a small knot of streets between the ancient city walls and the gorge where cars can barely drive, sprinkled with Medieval and Renaissance palaces and manors. After finding an open café, we had breakfast, then headed off to explore that. Since it was a bit before 9 am, most everything was closed – but it was also empty, which was good. We crossed the Arco de la Estrella next to the Torre de Bujaco and walked into the walled area.

The medieval square of Caceres by daylight. It looks like a castle, with arches, battlements, and irregular bricks making up the walls.

We walked past the co-cathedral – to which we would come back later and several palaces, and we ended up at a two-level square called Plaza de San Jorge (St. George Square), towered over by the peculiar-looking church Iglesia de San Francisco Javier – note the white-painted towers.

A church with two twin bell towers, both in white. Between them, the body of the church, in grey rock. In order to access it, you have to climb a staircase, which has a small sculpture of St George attacking the dragon

There was a small palace to the left, and while the building was closed off, the gardens Jardines de Doña Cristina de Ulloa were open, albeit as it was early February, still in winter mode but for some berries and roses.

Wintery garden with bare tree. There are also evergreen bushes and trees, stairs, and benches.

We wandered around for a while, the headed off to a visit we had booked in advance – the manor / palace of the Lower Golfines Palacio de los Golfines de Abajo, which has nothing to do with their position in the social scale, but literally the position within the city hill – in the lower part. The family is known to have owned the palace from the time of the Catholic Monarchs, in the 15th century, till the death of the last descendant in 2012. This woman willed all the heirloom to a foundation that today manages the palace. The foundation got the palace renovated and brought some of the furniture from other properties belonging to the family – among them a glass lamp way too big for the room it was set in, and a sofa which was identical to the one that used to be in my great-aunt’s living room… The lower floor holds the recreated rooms – with more or less success and taste – and a smaller area decorated with Medieval paintings which were discovered by accident. The upper floor holds a small ethnography museum and some documents from the family’s library. Unfortunately, the foundation takes itself a little too seriously and won’t allow you to roam freely in the palace or take pictures, except for the inner Castilian patio.

Gothic palace, with an ornate roof and a small cloister or patio.

After the palace, we walked a whole minute and a half for the co-cathedral Santa Iglesia Concatedral de Santa María. It is the oldest church in town, built around the 15th century, in a Romanesque-going-Gothic style. Outside the church, at the base of the tower, there is a sculpture of Saint Peter of Alcántara. Inside, the altarpiece was carved between 1547 and 1551, in unpainted pine and cedar. The tower can be climbed, and I decided that I wanted to do that, despite not being what I usually do. It was empty enough that I felt comfortable doing so, and I was treated to some nice views.

Collage: a gothic church with a bell tower; the inside showing a bare-wood altarpiece; the sea of columns from above, and a view from the belltower, showing another church and the roofs of some low houses.

By the time we went out, the city had already been taken over by walking tours and guided visits. There were so many companies that the guides put stickers on their tourists so they could herd them round. We backtracked to the Baroque church with the white towers Iglesia de San Francisco Javier (also known as Iglesia de la Preciosa Sangre), where there is no worship today. Instead, there is a huge collection of nativities (hundreds of them, literally). In order to visit the nativities you have to go up a perilous metal staircase. Once on the second floor – after having survived the peril – I decided to continue on the relatively safer stone staircase to one of the towers – only one, I did not climb up both of them. The lower floor holds two last nativities, a classical one and a hilarious set up made out of Playmobil, a German company that makes plastic figure toys.

Collage: The interior of a church with a baroque golden altarpiece, and a collection of Nativities.

We moved onto the following manor, to the side of the square, Casa Palacio Becerra, which shows some antique elements, and the house structure.

Inside a Renaissance palace, with a low arch, a glass lamp and a red carpet that try to look eclectic and end up looking bizarre

Later, we walked to Stork Square Plaza de las Cigüeñas. European white storks (Ciconia ciconia ciconia) are typical birds in Extremadura, and one wonders how they have not decided to make food out of them. In the tower stands one of the few towers that has kept its merlons, as the Catholic Monarchs were very into tearing tower tops down when they conquered a site. The adjacent manor, Casa de las Cigüeñas, hosts the military museum Museo de Armas Aula Militar.

A building with a tower. The inside is a museum, and there are some swords, firearms and Moorish decoration

At the end of the square, in yet another palace – two of them, actually – lies the Museo de Cáceres, the local museum. The part in the Casa de Las Veletasis a regular archaeological museum, with the kind of things you would expect – prehistoric, Roman and Celtic remains, more modern artefacts. The other area, Casa de Los Caballos, hosts the modern art gallery.

Gothic building turned into a museum. The pieces shown are funerary stelae, prehistoric animal representations - bulls or pigs - and jewells, a boat, and Roman emblems

However, the palace was erected on top of the local Arab cistern or aljibe. It is the best preserved in Spain and it has been gathering the rainfall water since the 10th century. Pretty impressive piece of engineering if you ask me.

The aljibe: a moorish basement filled with water. The columns sustain horseshoe shaped arches

Afterwards we still had some time to kill until it was time for lunch, so we wandered around the area of the Jewish quarters or Judería, under the watchful gaze of the local Cerberus.

Narrow streets, and a guarding dog looking suspicious

We had lunch in the local Parador de Cáceres, so I of course got my stamp. As a started we ordered the famous local cheese Torta del Casar cheese.

A tray with bread slices and breadsticks, and a cream cheese with spoons to be spread on the bread

In the afternoon we had a look at another church Iglesia de Santiago de los Caballeros. The church of St. James of the Knights was built in the 14th century over an older temple dating back from the 12th century. The altarpiece was carved and coloured by one of the most important sculptors of the Spanish Mannerism, Alonso Berruguete (1490 – 1561). This time I did not climb the tower – which had been happily colonised by a couple of storks.

Gothic church with a golden altarpiece. A stork snoozes on one of the towers.

After a little while, after sunset, I decided to skid around and have a walk through the old city at night. The artificial light made it look eery and romantic in the most… historical sense of the word. I came across some cats begging for food from a bunch of schoolgirls, and one of them very indignant because the girls would not beg it to take the food!

Different buildings of Cáceres at night. The are lit wit strategic lamps to give a mysterious feeling. There is also a white fluffy cat sitting and expecting food

Walked distance: 9.04 km (14766 steps)

20th February 2022: Trujillo & Oropesa (Toledo)

On this day I managed two more Paradores stamps. Trujillo is a town a meagre 30 minutes away from Cáceres. It also has a traditional / Medieval city centre, set around the main Square Plaza Mayor de Trujillo. It was the birthplace of one of the so-called conquerors during the colonisation of South America, Francisco Pizarro, whose equestrian statue, Estatua ecuestre de Francisco Pizarro (by American sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey). Other highlights in main square include the corner balcony in the “Conquest Manor” Palacio de la Conquista.

The large Reinassance square of Trujillo with decorated palaces and a sculpture of Hernan Cortez on his horse

One of the most interesting churches in the area is Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor. Its tower dates back from the 13th century, but was almost completely rebuilt in the 16th century. Inside the richly painted altarpiece was erected around 1490. Apparently, my newly-discovered activity of climbing towers yielded to a new adventure, as for a few minutes I ended up locked down in the bell tower – I guess I’m a Disney Princess now (≧▽≦).

Gothic church with gothic golden altarpiece.

I got an hour and a little to wander round the town, so I climbed up to see the Muslim fortress Alcazaba de Trujillo (also called castle). Built between the 9th and the 12th century, it is a huge building with a defensive wall, an aljibe or cistern, several towers and a Christian chapel.

Moorish castle, from the outside and the inside. The walls and the battlements are amazingly well-preserved. It seems that the castle is built around the natural rocks defending the area

Then I hurried towards the other edge of the city to get my Parador de Trujillo stamp (only cheating slightly. I was there, after all). On my way I happened upon the Torre del Alfiler, with a family of storks happily clattering away the late morning.

Storks on top of a bell tower

I backtracked to the Plaza Mayor and I had twenty minutes before our rendezvous time, so I decked into the church Iglesia de San Martín. Its origins date from the 14th century, but it was not finished till the 16th century – which makes it so that the thick Romanesque walls are mixed with Gothic and Renaissance elements. No tower this time, but the second floor holds a religious museum.

Romanesque turning Gothic church. The inside is plastered in white and the celing above the altar and the nave retains the original decorated stone ceilings

After getting a general idea of the Medieval town of Trujillo, but it being a “working Sunday”, we moved on rather quickly, and drove off until we made it for lunch in Oropesa (Toledo) which also holds a Parador – Parador Museo de Oropesa, the first monumental Parador opened in 1930. That makes three stamps in two days, I’m almost impressed with myself!

Plain building with ornate balconies, and cars parked on a row in front of it.

The Parador is adjoined to the castle Castillo de Oropesa, which was unfortunately closed, but I shall put in on my list of “to re-explore”. It was built by the Arabs during the 12th – 13th century, probably on a former Roman fortress. Today, the Old Castle is joined to the New Palace and both belong to Paradores.

Classical Romanesque castle with towers and turrets. It looks heavily restored.

After that, we drove back home, and as we got a couple of wrong turns, we ended up avoiding the traffic jam we had found on our way to Extremadura, which was convenient!

Walked distance: 5.57 km (8836 steps)

1st January 2022: Barranco de la Hoz & some towns around (Spain)

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I found myself socially free on the first so I decided to kick off the year by improvising a hike – and when I arrived at the parking lot I realised I was crazy person #3 to have the same plan. To be honest I kind of went along the flow for half of the day trip, with just a faint idea of what to do.

My first stop was an area in the natural park Parque Natural del Alto Tajo. One of the tributaries, the River Gallo, has eroded a deep valley in the sandstone and calcareous rockbed – Barranco de la Hoz, which translates to something akin to “Gorge Ravine” (though technically it could also be “Sickle Ravine”). The gorge is located in the north of the province of Guadalajara. Two hundred million years ago (Early Triassic period), the area was covered by the same sea that gave way to all the fossils that can be found in Albarracín and reached the muddy areas where dinosaurs left their footprints in Enciso.

When the sea level receded, it left behind different layers of rock, that have been painstakingly excavated by the river Río Gallo for the last two million years or so (Quaternary period). There are conglomerates at the very base of the gorge, and red sandstone, calcite and dolomite in the upper parts. The vertical wall is around 115 metres high. At the base there is also a small hermit church. According to the legend, during the Middle Ages, the Virgin Mary appeared to one of the shepherds in the area – that is the reason why the area is also called Barranco de la Virgen de la Hoz. Next to the sanctuary there is a restaurant / hotel, and a parking lot. Along the river bank there are several tables for picnics and so.

Being the insomniac I am, waking up after the New Year celebration was not excessively hard. As mentioned though, as I was not sure I would be free until the previous evening, I just went along the flow of the day. I drove off and reached the gorge at around 11:00. The the car measured a temperature of -1 ºC. I was wearing five layers anyway so I was all right. Just before reaching the parking area, I had to yield to a sounder of wild boars.

The sanctuary is the starting point of a path of around 400 steps carved and sculpted onto the vertical wall, ascending over 110 metres. The climb was not as hard as I expected, especially as the sun shone on the steps. I reached the mid-viewpoint in less than 15 minutes and sprawled on the stone ground for a little to bask in the sun. As I continued upwards, I encountered a small lizard doing the same sun-basking routine – Iberian wall lizard Podarcis hispanicus (maybe?). I finally reached the top of the gorge and I was the first on the upper viewpoint area for a while. Throughout the hike up, the strata can be clearly seen, along with fossilised ripples, fracture lines and the hints of some folds. The steps and viewpoints are protected by markers and verandas (helpful at points).

Halfway up a reddish sandstone wall. The picture faces the rising sun, and at the bottom of the ravine is the river, with the evergreen trees around.

Close up of a lizard hidden amonng leaves

Although you are technically supposed to stay on the trail, I honestly wanted to explore the upper edge of the gorge, so I went towards the rocky cliffs to the east. I came across marks caused by of boars, and European wildcat (Felis silvestris) paw prints, I also saw some birds of prey (very maybe a golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos) , but not the right time to see much fauna – probably because around noon people started arriving with dogs. Also, it was stupidly warm for a first of January… Good thing I was using the good-old technique of having a lot of layers and shedding / putting them on as I felt warmer or colder.

A panoramic view of a rabine, with the river at the bottom.

A panoramic view of the top of a ravine, with the cut-off walls dropping from sight

A view of the vertical sandstone walls that create the ravine

A flying bird of prey and some animal tracks: a paw print and removed ground from a boar digging for acorns.

After an hour or so, I made my way downwards and I visited the church now that it was empty and walked into the area where the legend says the Virgin appared.

A hermit church built against / into the vertical wall of the ravine

Then I walked around the river bed for a while. The river bank was covered in frosted leaves, and the water was quite cold. I layered up again…

The wall of the ravine from the riverbank

Ivy and fallen leaves on the ground. The rims are white with frost and ice

At around 13:15 I decided to head over to Molina de Aragón. It was New Year’s Day, so I did not expect anything to be open, so I just wanted to wander round for a while. Though the town is considered one of the coldest places in the area, when I parked it was warm. I found the castle Castillo de Molina and wandered around for a bit. The castle has three distinctive parts – the walled fortress, the lone watchtower Torre de Aragón, and the back area, which was cordoned off, but not walled, Prao de los Judíos. The first Arab castle or alcázar was built the 10th century, over an older Celtiberian hill fort. In the 12th century, it was conquered by the Christians and rebuilt in the Romanesque style. Out of the eight towers that the castle had, four of them have survived, along the ruins of two more.

A rectangular castle with quite a few towers and battlements on top. Around half of it is reconstructed, the rest is in ruins

Afterwards, I took a stroll down the town. There are many churches dating to the Medieval times, most of them Romanesque style, some already showing hints of Gothic: Parroquia de San Felipe, Iglesia de Santa Clara, Iglesia de San Pedro, Iglesia de San Martín, Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor de San Gil. There were also some mansions and palaces.

Buildings in Molina. They all look reddish due to the characteristic rocks used to build them

I tried to locate a bridge I had seen trying to find a parking spot, and it only took a couple of wrong turns to do so. The bridge is Puente Viejo, the old Romanesque bridge, built in the reddish calcites that are characteristic of the area. From there I also peeked onto Monasterio de San Francisco, originally from the 13th Century, though the current building dates from the 18th century.

A reddish stone bridge over the river. It has three arches, but today only the left arch is over the river, the other two are over grass.

A church with an angel on top of the belltower

It was already late afternoon, and I had a couple of options. In the end I decided to head back in order not to drive through the sunset – at this time of the year, the sun’s glare would hit me square in the eyes in the highway. However, on my way towards the gorge, I had driven through a tiny village, Rillo de Gallo, where, for some reason, there is a Modernist-style house, called, more or less formally, El Capricho Rillano (The Folly in Rillo), as a lot of Modernist buildings have the “whim” name in them. It was apparently erected by a builder who apparently liked the aesthetics, without an architect being involved. It was… interesting, though the village was tiny and it was difficult to get into it and find a place to leave the car without blocking a street.

Bizarre modernist house. The construction looks wavy, with snakes and twisted columns. The balcony is held out by gigantic hands.

That was the whole day in the end, I drove back home, and did not have much trouble with sunset. As a whole, I drove around 300 km, and walked just a little over 10 km. And it was way warmer than expected for a first of January! Here’s to hoping that it was a promising start to 2022…

6th November 2021: Torrejón de Ardoz & Guadalajara (Spain)

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No matter how much some people demonise it, one true thing is that a great chunk of the Spanish general income is dependent on tourism. That’s why when the 2008 recession hit the country, many areas or municipalities tried to fabricate tourist attractions where there used to be none. Torrejón de Ardoz is one of these places – despite shouldering a huge debt, it gambled a couple of tourist lure. One is a huge winter lights (Christmas) display, which runs from November through January. The other is a huge park in a former slum, called Parque Europa, Europe Park.

Parque Europa was described as “Pharaonic” upon its inauguration in 2010. It covers a whooping 23 hectares of trees, bushes, ponds, rides for kids and replicas of different European monuments and landmarks, both real and art depictions. I can’t be sure if in the end the park managed to break a profit, but the reviews online do sound like it did.

In winter, the park opens at 9.00 am, and I thought that if I managed to get there relatively early in the morning, I might find a free parking spot around the area. Online reviews do talk about limited parking space aimed to fill the pay-per-car parking lot close to the entrances, so I thought I’d try to leave the park in the streets of the industrial complex nearby. After a couple of Sat-Nav mishaps – human-caused aka I forgot the adapter for it to work in the car (≧▽≦) – I was on my way and I reached the neighbourhood a bit before 10.00 am. As I was driving towards my intended parking spot I caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, so when I turned and found a random parking spot, I decided to just ditch the car. There were many double-parked cars ahead so I thought the rest of the street would be packed. At that time in the morning, I could have just parked in front of one of the access gates without problems, apparently. So I had to walk two whole extra minutes!! In the end though, that parking spot was even closer than the ones I planned to look for – so it was all good.

I wanted something to do in the morning outside the house so I did not have a plan per se (to be honest, I had long made the afternoon plans and I wanted something to do in the morning to make the most out of the disposable contacts). However, as the fountains were turned on at noon, I wanted to leave them for last. Fortunately, most of them are in the same area of the park – which is shaped like a ham of sorts. At that time most of the children rides were closed, and I was mostly alone except for people jogging or walking their dogs, and it was rather chilly. But I wanted to see the replicas, so that was all right.

These are the monument replicas that are hosted in the park, in the order I saw them, turning clockwise from the entrance I used:

  • Puerta de Alcalá (Gate to Alcalá), Madrid, Spain. Neoclassical gate to the former walls in Madrid. Today it is considered World Heritage as part of the “Paisaje de la Luz”.
  • Torre de Belém (Belém Tower), Lisbon, Portugal. Officially named Torre de São Vicente (Tower of Saint Vincent), a 16th-century port fortification for Portuguese explorers, with high symbolism and ceremony.
  • Tower Bridge, London, United Kingdom. Crossing the River Thames, it is one of the most iconic London landmarks.
  • Kinderdijkse molens, the Windmills of Kinderdijk, Netherlands. The original windmills were designed as part of water drainage to drain the excess water in the Alblasserwaard polder.
  • Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), Berlin, Germany. It is one of the most characteristic landmarks in the country, a monument built in the place of a former wall gate in the 18th century.
  • Den lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid), Copenhagen, Denmark. This small sculpture is displayed on a rock in the a promenade in Copenhagen, and depicts the mermaid in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale becoming human.
  • La tour Eiffel (The Eiffel Tower), Paris, France, built for the entrance to the 1889 World’s fair and one of the most visited monuments of the world.
  • Michelangelo’s David, Florence, Italy. One of the masterpieces of the Renaissance sculpture, standing 5.17 m of white marble. This replica I didn’t get to see because it had been either stolen or taken away for restoration.
  • Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain), Rome, Italy. Dating back from 1762, the fountain is a “more dramatic” version of a previous one at the end of one of the Roman aqueducts. The fountain was turned on at noon and it had just a little water.
  • Manneken Pis (“Little Pissing Man”), Brussels, Belgium. It is a bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy peeing into the basin, dating back from the 17th century.
  • Atomium, Brussels, Belgium. This stainless steel building was constructed for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, and renovated between 2004 – 2006. It stands 102 metres high and some of the spheres are open to the public and hosts exhibitions.

There are also “adaptations” or monuments that you can “sort of” identify but have been more freely reproduced.

  • Greek Theatre, based on the Athens one, with the Winged Victory of Samothrace watching over in a bit of an artistic license move I guess, considering it was a ship figurehead. The actual one is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The theatre is built into the slope of the central pond of the park so visitors can see the light and sound show in said pond when they are held.
  • Plaza de España (Square of Spain). The centre of the square is the famous “Puerta del Sol” in Madrid and the older Post office. Its back represents the Main Square of the city. Other houses represent different regional buildings throughout Spain that I was unable to recognise.
  • Viking Ship fountain. There is not much I can say about this. It was one of the fountains, and this one was turned before any of the others.

Inspired by paintings, there are two other monuments.

  • The Three Graces. While the park’s webpage claims that the sculpture is a copy of the one that Antonio Canova created, it looks like it was sculptured using Ruben’s painting as inspiration. This one was the first monument I saw.
  • “Van Gogh’s bridge”, a wooden bridge inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting “The Langlois Bridge at Arles”. I missed it at first so I had to backtrack and I did not find a good angle to see it from the side.

An original piece is the fountain called Plaza de Europa, Europe Square, a circular square with stars forming little fountains. This was one of the fountains I had to wait till noon to see and to be honest, I was… underwhelmed, expecting way more by the pictures on the website. I’m not sure if it was just “winter fountain” or whether the sprouts were set on low because it was a bit windy.

What was interestingly impressive was the original piece of the Berliner Mauer, the Berlin Wall. During the Cold War, after WWII, Berlin was partitioned into West Germany and East Germany with the erection of the wall in 1961 (in what was called the Berlin Crisis of 1961). It was all built within the eastern border as it was the USSR who decided to put it up. The Wall separated the city halves for decades, there were even deaths as people from the east tried to defect to the west. The wall officially but metaphorically fell in November 1989 as the political powers who had driven its building agonised. The piece that stands in Parque Europa originally stood in Postdamer Platz and was ceded to Torrejón by the city of Berlin and it stands behind the Brandenburg Gate.

There are many other areas and activities for kids. A number of them were already opening up by the time I left, others seemed to be on hold due to pandemic concerns. The park has different things to draw attention too, such a giant bird cage (mostly full of parakeets), three life-sized elephants made out of bush, gardens, or an artificial waterfall – which did not get turned on. I saw a lot of birds too – magpies, swans, mallards and some very territorial Egyptian geese (I think that they were Egyptian geese. I’m absolutely sure they were territorial).

I left Torrejón at around 12:30, I think. I took care of some errands on the way, had lunch, and then I headed off to the second part of my self-imposed day off. A late-Halloween activity that ran throughout the month of November: Arquitectura y escultura funeraria in Guadalajara: a walking tour with a focus on the funerary architecture and sculpture in town. Well, at least with a stop at those places that are directly controlled by the town hall, missing those that are not. Yes, I voluntarily signed up for a guided visit! Unfortunately, information on Guadalajara is rather difficult to find, so I thought there might be interesting knowledge to be gathered (Narrator’s voice: there wasn’t).

The tour started at the local cemetery Cementerio Municipal Virgen De La Antigua, where we saw several tombs and pantheons dating from the 19th century and the early 20th century. These included:

  • Panteón de la Tropa, the “Troop mausoleum”, a communal grave for soldiers who died in the African campaigns, where supposedly some of the Civil Wars victims were buried. It actually is not the place, but legends are legends, I guess.
  • Panteón de los Marqueses de Villamejor – a neoclassical mausoleum where a noble family was interred.
  • Monumento funerario de la Familia Cuesta Sanz, a creepy obelisk-looking tomb.
  • Some smaller mausoleums (or big graves) Panteón de María Luisa García Gamboa, Panteón de la Familia Chavarri, Panteón de Josefa Corrido de Gaona, and Panteón de la familia de Ripollés Calvo. All these are stone tombs with a rounded roof that drains off rainwater.
  • Panteón de los Condes de Romanones, the place of eternal rest of another noble family, whose head was the son of the previous one.
  • Kittens

We then walked off towards the chapel Capilla de Luis de Lucena. Luis de Lucena was a doctor and a priest who was born in the 15th century. He died in Rome as he worked as a doctor for the Pope, but he expected to be buried in this chapel, adjacent to a now-disappeared church. The outer area is built in brick, and the inner ceilings have several frescoes, even if they are rather deteriorated as the town had no money to take care of the art during the 90s and the early 2000s. The chapel was never used as a burial place, and now it is a tiny museum that keeps rests of other disappeared churches in town, especially the funerary sculptures.

The final spot was the crypt of the church of St. Francis – Cripta de la Iglesia de San Francisco, built in dark marble and similar to the one in El Escorial. This is where the Mendoza duchy family members were buried, but the area was ransacked by the French during the Napoleonic wars and the remains were taken to Pastrana afterwards, so the crypt is currently empty. Which is good considering the way some of the tombs are shattered…

This concluded the tour so I was free to go. I saved up the entry fee on the chapel and the crypt as the tour was free. Most of the tour was just crawling from one point to the other and there was not that much new information to be learnt. Maybe there is jut not enough information to be found…

Driven distance: around 83 km.
Walking distance: 13.14 km

22nd & 23rd October 2021: Zaragoza Getaway (Spain)

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We had a silly day-and-a-half and it turned out that for some reason a commuting train to Madrid took about as long as a high-speed train to Zaragoza, a town in the area of Aragón that we scratched off our summer route because there are lots of curves in the Pyrenees and time was limited.

22nd October 2021: Churches, Museums and a Palace

The train to Zaragoza arrives at the Delicias station, which is a bit away from the centre of the town, so we took a taxi to the hotel. This was around 9 am so we were of course not expecting any room, what with check-in being 2 pm – we just wanted to drop off the overnight bag. Not being able to give us a room seemed to upset the receptionist quite worried, and he promised to call as soon as a room was available. Honestly, I just set my phone to flight mode because we were starting to visit monuments right away, as the hotel was just by the most important square in town Plaza del Pilar.

Zaragoza is home to one of the most important Christian icons in Spain, the Virgin Mary of the Pillar, Virgen del Pilar. The image is hosted in Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar. The bulk of the current cathedral-basilica was built between 1681 and 1686 in the Baroque style, but was later modified quite a few times and it was finalised in 1872. Interesting items in the church include, aside from the virgin image, some frescoes painted by Goya, the main altarpiece, and two bombs that fell within the church during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Zaragoza is very anti pictures inside so I had to sneak them in. Sorry, not sorry.

After a small detour to say good morning to the river, Río Ebro, and the Puente de Piedra (stone river), the second building we visited was the Old Market Exchange building – Lonja de Zaragoza. This was the first Renaissance building erected in Zaragoza, dedicated to commerce, with an amazing Gothic-imitation ceiling. Today it is used for exhibits, such as paintings or sculptures.

Coming out, we almost walked into one of the fountains in the square, Monumento a Francisco de Goya, featuring the artist – a brilliant Spanish painter from the Romantic times. He was as brilliant as bad-tempered though. Behind the fountain stands the cathedral, for which we had tickets for 11 am, and it was still early for that.

Thus, we started the route of the Caesaraugusta Museums. Zaragoza was founded in Roman times under this name (where an Iberian dwelling used to be) and in the latest decades, this Roman past has started being dug up. We first visit the museum focused on the original forum, Museo del Foro de Caesaraugusta where we could see the foundations of the old city and walk into the sewers (yeah, it’s cooler than it sounds). The Roman ruins date back from emperors Augustus and his successor Tiberius’ reigns.

After that it was almost time for our reservation to visit the Catedral del Salvador also known as La Seo de Zaragoza, the other cathedral of the town, literally at the end of the same square as the other one. The cathedral mixes several architectonic styles: Romanesque, Gothic and Mudéjar, these last tow being among my favourite styles, so a total win – Renaissance and Baroque elements were added, including the towers. The cathedral has a tapestry museum with a lot of works, not exactly “pretty” but rather impressive.

Following the cathedral we walked towards the rest of the Roman museums, but we made a small detour to look at the Mudéjar tower of the church of Mary Magdalene, Iglesia de Santa Magdalena.

Then we reached the museum of the Bathhouse, which was open but closed – let me explain. They run an “Audiovisual” and close the museum door for as long as it runs. It runs every half hour so finding the thing open seems to be hard. Thus, we moved onto the next archaeological site, related to the old Roman Theatre Museo del Teatro de Caesaraugusta. The theatre was apparently discovered by accident in the early 1970s, and it is apparently one of the biggest Roman theatres in Spain.

We tried our luck with the Bathhouse Museum again Museo de las Termas Públicas de Caesaraugusta. Unfortunately, just like before, we walked up to it while the audiovisual was running, and the concierge made a very studious effort not to see us – so we just peered over the glass roof to see what is left of the main bath.

More impressive was the river port museum Museo del Puerto Fluvial de Caesaraugusta, which keeps the foundations and some of the clay amphorae that were used for import / export.

And believe it or not, we did all that before lunch!! Therefore, we decided it was the right time for a break. We headed back to the hotel to see if we could wash our hands (and take off our facemasks for a while). To our surprise, the hotel had given us an upgrade to a junior suite, so we had a sitting room, a full bathroom and a bedroom – and a balcony that went all along the three. When I opened the window I could hear people playing the piano on the street, as there was some kind of festival going round. Believe it or not… I got to listen to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Rufus Wainwright’s Hallelujah.

We had lunch outside in a place that my companion enjoyed called La Lobera de Martín – not a cheap place, honestly! However, we splurged a little. We shared a smoked fish salad and I had a side of fresh Foie. As a main, ordered steak tartare, which to my surprise, was prepared for me next to the table! For dessert I tried the home-made berry yoghurt. I have to admit that I was totally planning on having a tiny dinner (or completely skip it!) at that time.

After lunch we walked along one of the main arteries of the town, Paseo de la Independencia, to find the Basílica Menor Parroquia de Santa Engracia, to at least see the outside, since we could not fit visiting the interior and the crypt with our tight schedule. One of the most interesting things about this church is how its façade is built like an altarpiece.

Next to the church stands the neo-Mudéjar post office, built in typical bricks from the area – Oficina de Correos de Zaragoza.

And finally, we looked at the current Science Museum, Museo de Ciencias Naturales, the former Medicine University. Why? Because that’s where my parents met *cue romantic music*!

We did not go in though, because we needed a break and had booked a ticket for 5pm somewhere else, so we decided to raise our feet a little for a while in the hotel room – the sitting area was nice though unfortunately there was no more sun on the balcony, else I would have totally impersonated a lizard there (I did scare a pigeon away though, even if the startle was mutual). Our next target was the Medieval palace called Palacio de la Aljafería – a fortress that combines Islamic architecture and ulterior Christian elements. The Moorish palace was built around 1065 – 1081, and it holds a magnificent garden called the Golden Hall with a portico made out of interlocking mixtilinear arches (I totally looked the word up, and will forget it promptly). The palace was taken over by the Christians 1118 and became a palace for the monarchs of Aragón. It was not modified until the 14th century, and in the 15th Century the Catholic Monarchs extended it further into the Mudéjar Palace. Today it is the meeting site for the local government. I adored it, to be honest, I loved the Golden Hall most of all, but the original ceilings in the Christian palace were also really cool.

We walked back towards the Plaza del Pilar (probably through some streets we probably shouldn’t have, hindsight is 20/20 they say), and we reached the church of St. Paul Iglesia Parroquial de San Pablo. The restored interior leaves a bit to be desired, but the exterior, built between the 13th and 14th centuries in the Mudéjar style – it has an octagonal tower in dark tones, with the upper roof added in the 17th century with richly decorated with tiles and windows. It is worth mentioning here that several Mudéjar buildings in Zaragoza, along with others of singular architecture, are declared Unesco World Heritage Site.

Between the church and the square we walked by the central marketplace Mercado Central de Zaragoza in the late 19th and early 20th century, in a combination of stone and iron-and-glass architecture.

Close to it we could see some of the ruins of the original Roman walls Antiguas Murallas de Romanas de Zaragoza, which are actually sprinkled all through the town and mixed with the Medieval ones at points. There, a lady was happily chatting on the phone while her child climbed the walls – so in case it is not evident, here’s a social clue: if there is any kind of barrier / signage around something, it should not be climbed on.

To finish off the day we visited the Museum dedicated to Goya Museo Goya. Goya, whose complete name was Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 – 1828) was a painter and printmaker from the Romantic age. He is probably one of the most important artists in Spanish history. He was a royal portraitist, fresco decorator, and also painted and printed many critical and fantasy works. To be honest, the museum was a bit underwhelming – with few of the minor works, and one of the least impressive major works, the Christ portrait. There was however a whole room full of prints.

After one more visit to the square, where I managed my only complete picture of the whole (night-lit) Basílica del Pilar from that angle, we just headed to the hotel. There was a sandwich shop at the entrance, so we took one each and had a late light dinner as we watched Night at the Museum in the hotel bathrobes – because it was cozier than turning up the heating. I did not sleep too well as the fire alarm was right on top of the bed and it kept flashing – at one point I thought that an electric storm had hit, but it was just the alarm…

23rd October 2021: Papercraft and walks

The next morning we had breakfast and headed off to the origami museum and workshop EMOZ: Escuela Museo Origami Zaragoza, located in the “Stories Museum” Centro de Historias. I remembered the exhibition from a few years back in Museo Cerralbo in Madrid, with an actual-size hippo, so I have to admit this time I was a little… underwhelmed, probably because the temporary exhibit ended up being “abstract” paper folding…

However, in the very same building there was a very fun exhibition about the evolution of household appliances throughout the 20th century. That was cute!

As we got ready to draw a close to our day-and-a-half getaway we went to say goodbye to the river Río Ebro. We walked by the modern Puente de Zaragoza bridge, and crossed over the Puente de Piedra, the traditional stone river of the town. The current one dates back (although reconstructed) from 1440, but there are records that a previous Roman one stood in its place and was destroyed in the 9th Century. Between the two bridges a flock of cormorant seemed to be sunbathing.

From Puente de Piedra I took my last picture of the Basílica del Pilar before we had a nice milkshake, then headed back to the station to take our train back. By the way – I find it ridiculous that the stations have blocked 60% of the seats while they’re filling up the platforms and the trains as normal…

Total walked distance: 8.69 km

15th October 2021: Torija & Brihuega (Spain)

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The castle of Torija is another of those things I’ve regularly driven by and thought ‘I have to visit one day’. Even though I had been warned that it might be disappointing as it had nothing inside but some touristic promo. Boy, was I in for a ride.

I arrived in Torija at around 10:30 in the morning and upon entrance I saw the demand that a reservation had to be made using a QR – the thing was free but it did not allow for 10:00 or 10:30 reservations – you had to pick it up for 11:00.

The castle Castillo de Torija was built in the 14th century, during a time of strife among all the factions and kingdoms of Spain. Later, in the 19th century, it was taken over by the French during the so-called Peninsular War against Napoleon’s troops, after basically the king Ferdinand VII gave Napoleon Spain wrapped in a bow. Napoleon made the king abdicate and installed his brother on the Spanish throne. There was a popular uprising in 1808 to fight off “the French”, who did not like this new attitude. During the war, the castle was occupied and then blown up. The current reconstruction dates back from 1962.

So there I was. The castle was empty – literally – but nobody was allowed before the reservation time because of ‘capacity rules’. So everybody in the castle was in the hall – yours truly, two other tourists, and four employees. All in the hall. Rules are rules again, but in the times of Covid, it feels utterly stupid to do this to ‘control capacity’ – since the rest of the castle was empty.

There was nothing really worthwhile to see in the castle – none of the interiors were even interesting and some of them were almost embarrassingly bad. Just a few pictures and models and mentions of the famous regional honey. I had been warned that it was going to be ‘disappointing’ but this was utterly ridiculous.

Thus, I continued off on my drive and I reached the village of Brihuega, which aside the lavender fields has a number of historical buildings and curiosities and was declared historical site in 1973. I had left the visit to this village for Friday because there were online tickets for the castle on sale, and therefore I had gathered that it was visitable that day. Right? Wrong, but that comes later.

After being unable to find the spot I wanted my Sat-Nav to take me due to blocked streets, I dropped the car at a public parking lot at the edge of the village, then I walked towards the medieval core of the city. The first item I came across was one of the gates to the medieval wall Puerta de la Cadena.

I strolled towards the centre but after a block or so I saw an archway that drew my attention. Upon turning towards it I found myself in front of the church of Saint Philip, Iglesia de San Felipe, which I had seen in my previous flash-trip. The church dates back from the 13th century, and it is a ‘transition’ church from the Romanesque to the Gothic building styles.

I backtracked towards the main street and reached the main square where the tourist information office stands. Here I learnt that there was going to be a popular festival the following day and that explained why some of the streets were blocked. After a quick stop at the tourist information office, where I got a map and a pamphlet, then I check about the process I had read for visiting the Arab caves – Cuevas Árabes. What the Internet told me was that I had to go to the butcher’s and ask the owner to let me in.

It was true – it turns out that the caves are private property and only he has decided to open up his. The Cuevas Árabes are a number of tunnels excavated into the rocky bed in the 10th and 11th centuries. They run around 8 km underneath the village, but only around 700 metres can be visited. The temperature is constant throughout the year at around 12ºC, so it is thought that they were used for food storage, and several sites say for wine. There are a number of large earthenware jars that are indeed used by winegrowers, but Arabs historical Arabs wouldn’t be drinking wine? I’d put my money on oil, but I really don’t have information to make more than a guess.

The butcher asked me what I wanted, I answered that I wanted to visit the caves. Then he proceeded to ask if I wouldn’t be scared – I paid (2.50€) and I went in after reassuring the guy I would be okay and he explained that I would also find some Visigoth archways, older than the Arab caves themselves and probably a starting point for them. The caves were the highlight of the day, really cool and mystifying, although I kept half-expeciting the owner to jump at me and try to scare me.

After the caves I headed out to the castle area, for which I had to cross another of the wall gates Arco de la Guía.

I found myself in a small square with the castle Castillo de la Peña Bermeja to my left. The castle is mixed with the graveyard in a very strange organisation. Unfortunately, it was closed (despite the fact that the website was selling tickets for the day – so glad I did not want to pay almost double in advance!). The castle is of Arab origin, built between the first and third centuries, and it gathers its name from the reddish colour of the mountain it stands on (Peña Bermeja means Vermillion Crag).

I also got to visit the inside of the church of Saint Mary, Iglesia de Santa María de la Peña by pure chance. The church was built during the 13th century, and it hosts the image of the patron virgin of the village.

Then I walked back towards the car, passing by the corridor they were building for the running of the bulls, I saw some more buildings, such as the convent of Saint Joseph, and the traditional fountains. Then I deviated towards the medieval walls Murallas de Brihuega, which was the last spot for my three-day on-and-off adventure.

Driving distance: Around 68 km (without counting the Sat-Nav merry-go-round)
Walking distance: 7.33 km

8th October 2021: Tamajón & Cogolludo (Spain)

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When I went to the waterfalls of the Aljibe I drove past a little village I had never heard of before – Tamajón, and a side sign reading “Pequeña Ciudad Encantada de Tamajón”. The term “Cuidad Encantada”, meaning Enchanted or Magic City, is used in Spanish to refer to karst formations. Karst is the name of a particular topography, created by the dissolution and chemical weathering of soluble rocks, chiefly but not just limestone.

The particular Spanish karst landscapes were formed by precipitation of salts – calcium carbonate – in the quiet waters of the Tethys Ocean during the Mesozoic Era (251-66 million years ago). Plate tectonics made central Spanish arise during the Cretaceous (the later subdivision of the Mesozoic, 140-66 million years ago) emerge, and the calcium carbonate became exposed to the elements, which started the erosion process. The most famous karst landscape in Spain is the Ciudad Encantada near Cuenca, which I guess spread the name.

Tamajón has a short hiking route around its karst formation, and while it is true that they are on the relatively smaller size, there are different shapes. I started my hiking route at the Ermita de la Virgen de los Enebrales, hermitage church dedicated to the Virgin of the Juniper Forest – the current building was reformed in the Renaissance style, thought the actual dates are shaky.

I started on the hiking route from the hermitage, along the road, and there were no markings there, so I kind of winged it for a while. After I took the first turn and started going up the rocks, I found the painting marking the routes – I had a handmade map because someone had shared it online, so I just went along it, and when I finished I redid about a fourth of it to take a detour to the other side of the road. There are cracks, arches, caves, cavities and capricious forms. I spent about an hour and a half walking around almost completely alone, which was awesome.

On my way back I stopped by the Church of the Assumption Iglesia de la Asunción, also a Romanesque – Renaissance mixture. The porch is typical of Romanesque churches in the Camino de Santiago (St. James’ Way), to shelter pilgrims.

As it was still early and I was relatively close, instead of driving home I headed off to another village called Cogolludo. I parked the car at the edge of the village and walked towards the main square, where there is a famous Renaissance palace Palacio de los Duques de Medinaceli. It is considered the first Renaissance Palace built in Spain, and it is reported to have been finished in 1492. The palace was designed by Lorenzo Vázquez de Segovia, with exquisite decoration, and the blaring lack of towers, which were very popular at the time. If I’m ever in the area again I might want to try to see the interior, which is only open in the guided visits.

The Palace stands in the main square Plaza Mayor which has a typical Castilian arcade with stone columns (unfortunately workers, sun and cars made it hard to take a good picture of it).

Cogolludo has two churches, Iglesia de Santa María de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies) and Iglesia de San Pedro (Saint Peter), both dating from the 16th century, but both completely closed down.

Finally, there are also the ruins of the Medieval Castle Castillo de Cogolludo, but there was not much incentive to climb up. All in all, it was a short but interesting morning – though I glad I teamed the two visits up, going to Cogolludo on its own would have not felt productive.

Driven distance: around 115 km
Walking distance: 7.27 km