Spain, March 11-24, 1984
Because of our fabulous trip to Spain in 1975, but only as a couple, we wanted the Kristen and Fritz to learn to love the country as we did. Of course we invited our adopted grandfather, Manny Elson, to join us—always a wonderful addition.
We have a plan...and a map!
Saturday, March 10 - Our non-stop flight from Chicago-Madrid is cancelled. We are re-booked on Capitol airlines from Chicago to JFK, then non-stop to Madrid via Iberia. Kristen, the devoted reader, in the Chicago airport. We meet up with Minneapolitans Bill & Suzanne Joyce at O'Hare. Boarding Capitol to JFK. Sunday, March 11 - We arrive at 7:45 AM in Madrid without any bags, but a really nice place to stay (the dollar is strong--much more so than on our 1975 trip to Spain).
Still Sunday, March 11 - We check the map by our hotel, then head straight to the Prado. A few hours at the museum are followed by a few hours of sleep; A view of the Ritz from our hotel room. That evening we walk to the Puerta del Sol and up and down streets until we reach the Palacio Real. We have a fine dinner near the Plaza de Oriente. Manny manages to scare up some toothpaste and brushes.
Monday, March 12 - Madrid sights. We go to Iberia, get assured our luggage will arrive that AM (which it does), get reimbursed for our inconvenience, then head off to the Royal Palace; Real Musical - Palacio Real; Palace Court clock; Real guards; Budding photographer and subject.
Inside the Palace courtyard.
We cross the street to bask in the sunny park. Next door a man suns his legs beneath statue of Philip II. Painter folds up his operation for siesta.
Philip IV, said to be best statue in all Madrid (from a design by Velasquez).Scenes in and around the park.
We resume our sightseeing. A 'local' (Manny!) directed us to this bar for lunch. Murals and a man beneath a cross contemplates murals.
Philip III
Walking along Gran Via; Telephone Building; Statue of Columbus rear left; Jack poses beneath the monument.
Parque del Retiro; Jack, a handsome gent; Symmetry at sunset; Joyces run into us as at El Mounia for dinner! Moon over monument.
Tuesday, March 13. Museo Lazaro Galdiano - exquisite! Mercado San Miguel. Royal family presides over main staircase (unsure where). We buy warm hats for cold heads followed by churros and hot chocolate.
Wednesday, March 14 - Avis delivers our SEAT car to the Palace Hotel at 9AM and we leave Madrid for Toledo. We drop our bags at our parador, then head back to tour that not so 'golden biscuit rising in the blue Castilian sky.' Here Christian, Jewish and Moorish cultures once productively coexisted; View of Toledo from our Parador: approximately the same spot from which El Greco painted it.
With guidebook in hand; we tour El Greco's 'house', see the famous synagogue, el Transito, in Juderia (one of two that remains out of the eight synagogues once in this quarter). Young Spanish students ask for LLH's autograph (unsure why!). San Pablo and Toledo artwork.
Monastery erected by the Catholic monarchs to thank God for their victory over the Portuguese at Toro in 1476. Fetters on this (and other church) facades were taken from Christian prisoners freed from the Muslims in Andalusia; Eagle (symbol of St. John) supports royal escutcheons. Isabella and Ferdinand built his before the capture of Granada & thought this would be their burial place, hence the monograms, crests, etc.
Mudejar ceiling in cloister.
Lunch in a former convent. Left favorite guidebook here--nuts. Bought wonderful marzipan across street; Some familiar tourists study the burial of Count Orbaz by El Greco (1586) in Santo Tome church; 22 paintings of El Greco here! Plaza del Zocodover. Cervantes stayed at inn on this square; Through the arch to Museo de Santa Cruz.
Cathedral. Superb art collection and transparente; Fritz plays a machine while we warm up on churros and chocolate; We return for one night at the Parador where we all have a lovely meal (I have partridge in chocolate sauce, Fritz charms waitress),; Manny describes it as 'one of the nicest evenings ever in my life.'
Barcelona! Thursday, March 15 - We leave Toledo and drive all day to Barcelona. Can't find the hotel, so a friendly native has us follow his car and takes us right to the Colon across from the Cathedral. Manny demonstrated exercises before bedding down. Jack and I walk on the Ramblas while Fritz falls asleep; Two friends on their bedroom balcony. On Friday ,outside the Cathedral, I think I hear a riot starting, only to realize it is policemen leaving City Hall!
Friday, March 16 - We start the rainy morning with a Cathedral tour; Arches; Cathedral cloister.
More than enough water in the Cathedral cloister and they're used to it! We then head to the Museu Frederic Mares (Catalan sp.) which Michelin claims has 2 floors + vault. We find an additional 2 or 3 floors; More than enough religious art for a while.
Catalan crucifixes. A helping hand; Fred Astaire look? Tour guide and attentive student (Jack and Fritz).
After finally leaving the Mares museum, we head into the rain and are gently cornered by the man above who asks us to "please eat at my wife's restaurant." We reluctantly do, and end up having the best meal of the trip. Fritz makes great friends with the duo; The flyer Carmen Lopez' husband gave us.
We then head over to, and down, the Ramblas where we tour the waterfront and this reproduction of Columbus' flagship; Fritz talks with young lady; Statue of Columbus as seen from Santa Maria.
We leave the Barri Gotic (where we had purchased our organillo in 1975), and buy an umbrella on the way to Gaudi's Parc Guell. At the graceful entrance to Gaudi's planned garden city.
We leave the park. Manny & Fritz take the subway home. Kristen, Jack & I walk down Balmes & Passeig de Gracia where we see more of Gaudi's work (luxury flats) and savor the many Art Nouveau buildings.
Saturday, March 17 - Santa Maria del Pi, a 14thC Catalan church. We walked from our hotel by lovely buildings and stopped in this church along the way to Montjuic. Sights on the way from the Plaza de Espana to the top of Montjuic. In Montjuic Park we tour the lovely Catalan Museum, then walk over the top of the hill (where some boys driving try to grab the red bag from around Manny's neck--scary!) to the tourism Spanish Village. It's raining hard so we leave.
Saturday afternoon. We go out on the prowl while Manny rests in our hotel. Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Gaudi died in 1926 (hit by a tram) and left no plans for this church; Steeples on the other side; Work on church was restarted in 1940 but is nowhere near complete on its 102nd birthday.
Tibidabo Church cum Amusement Park; Funicular's end at top of Tibidabo; We hear Vespers here; Laughing tourist; Photographer cum family at funicular.
Sunday, March 18 - Barcelona to Valencia via Tarragona. Kristen feeds pigeons before we take off; Roman aqueduct, Tarragona; Roman wall outside archaeological museum; Roman arena on Mediterranean.
Sunday eve, March 18 - Valencia & the Fallas!! We arrive in Valencia to watch the parade where many of the neighborhoods' residents march to the cathedral, carrying flowers to the Virgin; Bands playing 'Valencia' always got the most applause.
All ages march to Mary; Mantillas on parade.
We follow the parade to the cathedral; Flowers are accepted, people blessed; we then go outside the cathedral where the crowd movingly sings an anthem. We ate this man's churros and his wife's chocolate. After the cathedral we proceed on our Pagan ways.
'Ninots' by nighttime, satirical figures of wood, papier mache, and polychrome; Stories are also told at the bases of the massive figures.
We have dinner in a hotel, walk some more, the sit in the park in the main square for the fireworks which end the eve's festivities; Fireworks by moonlight; Supposedly all Spanish towns compare their fireworks to those of Valencia at Fallas. V. truly sets the standard for all; Palm trees tied up so they don't ignite; The final burst!
Monday, March 19 - Fritz has a cold so he and E.J. stay at the hotel. K,J & I go into Valencia & first hit a neighborhood church where members throw candy to the crowd then march into town. Candies from a lady; Another parade!
We then wander back to the cathedral's square; Flower figures & flower paella; Street fair on the other side of the cathedral.
Pacified; Just a few people come to see the tile virgin cum flowers; Many want their picture taken with the virgin.
At the lonja, the old commercial silk mall, we study the making of Ninots & Fallas' history; Market and marketeers; The student.
Street performers and vendors.
Main Square replete with E.T. and his saucer; Tracas, continuous fireworks overhead.
More churros and chocolate.
First Place kiddie Ninot.
Rio Turia; After a dinner of paella served by a waiter straight out of the movies (or opera), we walk about a bit more, cross the river for the last time & go home to rest. We sleep and are awakened at 12 & hear fireworks, but miss the burning of the Ninots!
Tuesday, March 20 - Ubeda. We stop here on the way to Jaen. We are sure this will be a hot tourist spot in 10 years!
Goats on hill overlook patchwork quilt of olive fields; The Parador.
Baeza arches. Major arch built for Charles V on his passage to Seville to marry Isabel of Portugal in 1526.
Tuesday/Wednesday, March 20-21 - Jaen; Our castle Parador where we spend the night.
Tough storming of this castle.
Overlooking Jaen; Sierra Nevadas in the background.
Cordoba. We arrive just as the mosque has closed, so we take a carriage ride around town. We start the tour by the edge of the mosque and Guadalquivir River; Manolete, favorite bullfighter; Seneca's statue, hometown boy made good.
Watering the horse by the Mezquita at the tour's end; A patio, one of many the guide pointed out to us!
Seville!! the views from our room. The hotel.
We arrive late afternoon so of course we take a carriage ride; Master Fritz at the reins; Plaza d'Espana; Maria Luisa Park; Museum.
Thursday, March 22 - We start with the Alcazar. Wall in background is only remaining Alcazar of the Almohads; rest built by Peter the Cruel. One of the purest & greatest examples of Mudejar architecture; Court of the Maidens, Peter the Cruel's (1350-69) Palace.
Alcazar Gardens.
We then cross the street to the Cathedral, the third largest cathedral in Europe. The constant guide cum attentive students. The kings of Castile, Aragon, Navarre & Leon carry Columbus' casket.
Man offers to take us to lace factory - it is merely a sales ruse. Walnut-pea game along Sierpes. Jack gets taken in twice, loses L6000 which makes Fritz very nervous. Beautiful old Sierpes apothecary. We then climb the Giralda after lunch for a view of the city.
Views from the Giralda. Patio de los Naranjos.
We then do a quick step to the Casa de Pilatos; Mudejar and Renaissance combine in this 1540 palace named for, and partially copying, the praetor's house in Jerusalem.
In the square outside Pilate's house we put the camera on a bench and do this timed photo to onlookers' amusement; On the balcony outside our room. Fritz buys ice cream for this man's dog: he is a New Yorker who asks Jack if he can sue the U.S. government for passage back to the States.
Friday, March 23: Granada. We leave our hotel in Seville early and head for the fairly short drive to Granada. We leave luggage at the hotel Alhambra Palace and head for the afternoon at the Alhambra and Generalife (which fortunately doesn't close for siesta!); On the Alcazaba Tower wall (watch tower). Alcazaba built in 9th C. and is oldest part of the Alhambra; Mexuar Court.
Court of the Lions; Court of the Myrtles, which adjoins ugly palace of Charles V.
Lookout of Lindaraja; View of the Generalife from the Alhambra; Court of Lindaraja; Cupola, Hall of the Two Sisters.
We then make our way up the hill to the Generalife (which Fritz pronounces as if it sold insurance!). Partal and Tower of the Ladies; New Gardens at Generalife (summer palace of kings of Granada); Springtime Alhambra and fields as viewed from Generalife; Court of the Long Pond.
Water, beloved by a desert people; Albaicin and Sacromonte from Generalife; Hotel Alhambra Palace as viewed from Alcazaba.
'How hard it is for the daylight / To take its leave at Granada / It entangles itself in the cypress / Or hides beneath the water.' - Federico Garcia Lorca. Capilla Real; Catholic monarchs on right, Juana de la Loca & Philip the Fair on the right; A polychrome of young Isabel.
Saturday, March 24 - We leave our hotel in Granada (making a nice quick stop at Lowe's) then beat away the gypsies who want to polish our shoes or sell us apples, to get to our car. We have a lovely drive through the Sierra Nevadas, stopping at the Moor's Sigh, to the coast; A town in the Sierra Nevadas, toward Sierra del Chaparral; Salobrena. The road is more crooked than we anticipated but we make the plane!