FROM THE GREAT CITY OF LAKES AND THE ISTHMUS, MADISON, WISCONSIN, THIS IS IKE’S DISPATCHES TO THE WORLD, MUSING FROM THE PROFOUND TO THE MUNDANE AND LIVING LIFE OUTSIDE THE CONFINES OF ORTHODOXIES THAT DETER PROGRESSIVE THOUGHT, HUMAN RIGHTS AND A JUST AND EGALITARIAN SOCIETY
Fascinated by the number of palaces that dot the Spanish landscape, I decided to visit one that was not so far away from Pantoja and indeed still within the Madrid province. It is in a nearby city called Aranjuez. This small city is situated between the Tagus and Jarama rivers. But its fame comes from the Royalty that it houses. King Felipe II in the 16th century had declared it a royal site, probably because of its geographical features and being in the plains of two important rivers in ancient Spain.
There are numerous royal palaces scattered all over Spain where the kings or queens and their families winter, summer, autumn and fall, or just go to get away whenever they felt like leaving town.
The Royal Palace of Aranjuez has however been converted to a museum with every furnishing and articles in the palace preserved in the condition they were several centuries ago. These include the king and queen’s bedrooms, baths, study rooms, diplomatic rooms, royal courts and every kind of setting you would expect in a king or queens quarters. The palace interior basically depicted the monarch’s daily lives at home.
One of my favorite rooms in the palace was a porcelain room that has every inch of wall and ceiling covered in porcelain figurines of people doing various daily activities. Imagine a mural that spans the entire wall and ceiling space in a small hall, but instead of painted colors, the mural is molded figurines to the minutest detail. I was saddened that picture taking are not allowed inside the palace, but at least I had good pictures of the exterior and the surrounding royal gardens.
The opulence in this palace oozed with incomprehensible wealth for that era. Surprisingly, their taste then could rival the taste of modern day billionaires. The physical palace itself was humongous, with adjoining rows of servants and military quarters discreetly flanking the mega mansion. The size is further boosted by the Royal Gardens that was a work of art by itself with unique blending of the watercourses diverted from the nearby rivers, in essence ensconcing the palace in the heart of a natural habitat as well as a technological powering of the water system in the palace. Maximizing the aquatic surrounding, intricate and ornamented fountains were erected all around the palace compound and gardens calling to mind a mythical Garden of Eden. They were the most elaborately detailed fountain structures I had seen in a long time.
Toledo is best described as the ancient city on the hill. It must have been deliberately and strategically built on the highest point of the surrounding countryside with a 150-degree view, perhaps to safeguard itself from enemy attacks in the belligerent epoch in the Iberian Peninsula. No, I am not talking about Toledo, Ohio in the US, but Toledo, Spain, which is the capital of Toledo Province in the Autonoma Communidad of Castilla la Mancha. When it was founded during the Roman era in Spain, the name was the Latin ‘Toletum’ which eventually evolved to the Spanish Toledo. Toledo is just 70 kilometers south of Madrid and had been the capital of Spain before the Muslim invasion and take over of the city.
Emerging from the bus station, you have to do a hefty climb to get into the city, and a further steep climb though the ancient parts of the city to get to the very top, which sprawls into the major plaza and several ancient buildings that are currently living monuments of the city. As you wind your way up the city, several gift shops beckon you with assorted displays of ornamental and actual swords. The city was known for its steel and iron works. It was the chief supplier of swords, knives and such implements in the days of yore and still does so today, hence the ubiquitous display of swords, knives and cutleries in every gift shop. I really liked some impressive decorated swords with embroidered steel ornaments for its handle but wondered how that would fit into my luggage as a souvenir. Instead, I settled for table-size decorative gift-item swords and gold and silver necklaces that seem common there too.
Meandering around the plaza mayor which doubles as what we would regard as downtown in the States, I pulled some money from an ATM (by the way, that and using credit card for purchases are the best way to obtain money in Europe if you want to avoid the exorbitant exchange rates when you manually change dollars into euros) and headed in the direction of the Catedral de Toledo (Cathedral of Toledo). The cathedral is built in the Gothic style. King Ferdinand III of Castille and Leon, accompanied by the archbishop and most important booster of the edifice, Jimenez de Rada, laid the first stone of the church. The construction was finally completed in 1493, yet the church is still standing in great condition and actually in use.
The Cathedral is the most important monument and museum of the city of Toledo. The charge for the tour of the church was 7 Euros but it was well worth it. The cathedral had been very instrumental in the annals of the catholic traditions of Spain as well as the world in general as it had hosted so many synods and the last one concentrated on the implementation of the Treaty of Trent (which made sweeping reforms, set dogma and clarified virtually all Roman Catholic doctrines especially those contested by the Protestants).
The magnificence of the church is indescribable given the grand detail of every inch of plaster or whatever they used in those days. To achieve this feat without the modern construction equipment we have today humbles any one standing inside or outside the church today.
With the cathedral tour under my belt I headed to the next most important monument of Toledo, the Alcazar. Built by the Romans in the third century but renovated by King Alfonso in 1535, it served as a military garrison, which understandably was very well located. It now houses the regional library and the Army museum. You could pretty much see all of Toledo lying at its foot with the confidence that no approaching armies could breach its boundaries without detection. If you knew nothing of its history you would assume it is some kind of city hall built in the 1970s. The only outward hint of its original purpose as a castle would perhaps be the statute of a lady wielding a sword in a non-menacing manner as if saying, ‘I welcome you with a smile but would chop off your head if you make a wrong move’. On the other hand, she might have been saying, ‘people of Toledo fear not, I am here to protect you’.
As usual in all the places I had visited people were very warm and friendly. The one surprise was when I cornered a passerby to take my picture at the gate of the ancient city, a guy driving past noticed my red Wisconsin Badger shirt, slowed down and yelled out “Go Badgers”! I was so excited hearing that cheer in a foreign land that I whipped around towards the roads with both hands in the air belting out, Yeah! Go Badgers! Everybody else noticed I was excited but could not figure out this sudden burst of excitement from this lone big black guy.
A television crew taping some kind of lighthearted variety program on the plaza asked if they could interview me. Well, while I could understand some Spanish I could not string a sentence in the language. So as they interviewed me in Spanish I responded in English along the general gist of the questions I thought they were asking. Maybe the interview ended up on the cutting floor, but at least I had my 5 minutes of fame in Toledo. Afterwards some policemen in the area took pictures with me, the just-minted celebrity! Ha…
Traveling from Marbella to Granada was by itself a topographical delight. It was indeed a steady even-rolling climb from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea towards the high elevation that ended up in snow capped mountains and elegant scenery that included tunneled passes under mountains and highlands. There were occasional dizzying moments when the car gingerly drove on very narrow strip of road on the side of the mountain with vertical drop of several hundred feet below to the foothills on the opposite side of the car.
The journey was not uneventful as the Jaguar a friend and I were traveling in died about 45 minutes before Granada. Apparently the night before, the car had a tire-leak, which was not noticed until the car belly grazed the sturdy iron frame of the massive, compound gate and busted the oil tank. It was not until the oil completely dried out and the car stalled that we realized what had happened, despite the earlier tire change.
Magically after about twenty minutes wait on the highway, wearing neon bright jackets every stalled motorist was required to wear on an interstate highway, two motorcycle highway cops appeared to assist. By then the equivalent of Triple A had sent a tow truck to tow the car to a garage and another van to take us to Granada.
Settling into the Granada Palace hotel atop the highest point in the city, right behind the famous Alhambra, I opened the window to gaze at the ancient and modern city that sprawled out from below the foothills of the cliff the hotel perched on to the far-flung foothills of the snow capped mountain that enveloped the city like a bowl protecting its precious content.
The Alhambra is a magnificent edifice built by the Muslim rulers of Spain centuries ago. The buildings are standing strong today as if they were just completed. It took about four hours to tour all the rooms and compounds and its towers and intricate gardens. It is unbelievable, but for the evidence before you, how they could craft such huge spectacular and fortified edifice without the use of modern construction equipment.
Wanting to enjoy the view of the city as the ancient rulers of Granada saw it at night time, I walked the ten minute walk from my hotel into the courtyard of the famous Alhambra to enjoy the view and get bathed in the fragrant air scented by perennial trees and flowers that I learned had been part of life in the red fort for centuries. A giddy excitement washed over me knowing that I was standing in the very compound and in its natural form as did those who lived there for centuries. Gazing at he same walls, breathing the same scented air, towered over by the huge brick outlook posts that gave what appeared to be a 360 degree view of this sprawling ancient city and all the hillsides to the distance…and mesmerized in the snow capped mountains surrounding me as though it was some giant bedspread under a moonlit night. I bet any enemies approaching the city from any of the mountain passes would have been spotted so easily.
The next day, I went for a full tour of the Alhambra. The tour lasted for hours, as there were what in American terminology could be considered about 15 long blocks of intricate property serially linked to each other by a labyrinth of manicured flowerbeds and unique landscapes. Every block constitutes its own set of compounds with characteristic features that range from ancient subterranean baths, women quarters, sculpted gardens, waterfalls, servants quarters, religious courts and palatial dwelling quarters to simple yet efficient irrigation system that watered the gardens and created the waterfalls that cascade, hum and murmur all around you.
Inside most of the buildings, the bright intricate ceiling and wall paintings still survive till date and in some cases, in their original multicolored arrangement.
Later in the evening, I descended from the hilly cliff of the Alhambra to what is today the downtown area of the city to enjoy the bustling events on the plaza, with lots of street festivals of Santa Cruces, and the elegantly period dressed horsemen that gave horseback rides around the web of narrow streets of the city for a fee. The downtown was abuzz with open-air cafes, street entertainers and wandering tourists. The city was indeed alive that evening and I suspect every evening, as Spaniards know how to unwind and enjoy their leisure time, if not spending time at the beach. Thanks to the surprising diversity of the bustling downtown, I dined at a Turkish restaurant amidst the conviviality that the Santa Cruces festivities foisted on the city that week.
The Costa de la Sol, or the sun coast belt of Spain is essentially the Mediterranean shore that forms a semi-circular natural southern boundary of this peninsular country facing the continent of Africa across the sea. There is a little known fact that Spain has two provinces, Ceuta and Melilla lying across the Mediterranean in the continent of Africa surrounded by Morocco. I had fun with a semantic argument with a Spaniard when I remarked that their two provinces were in Morocco, Africa. But he quickly corrected that they just share borders with Morocco. Further west of the Costa de la Sol is also Gibraltar, which though on the peninsular is actually a British exclave, therefore part of the United Kingdom. Its geographical feature, the Rock of Gibraltar, is its famous landmark.
The Spanish worship of the sun is evidenced by the seemingly contiguous cities that line up the entire Mediterranean coast within Spanish territory. The four proximate beach cities I spent days in and thoroughly enjoyed were the cities of Malaga, Torremolinos, Fuengirola and Marbella. Most middle class Spaniards have beach houses or condominiums on the beach, in spite of the numerous hotels that dot the Sun coast. This pleasurable indulgence is understandable as most people see the beaches as a natural destination for weekend get-away, therefore a logical location for a second home.
The beaches were not only very spacious with white fine sands and clear Mediterranean waters lapping the shores, they were often teaming with people, families of all ages, both Spaniards and other Europeans escaping the harsh weather of their more northerly countries. It was like a perpetual picnic. Many of the retired folks permanently live on beach luxury homes that form a contiguous parallel within two-minute walking distance to the beaches. Even eating establishments set up restaurants right on the beach, and all you need to wake you from your lazy afternoon lounging on the Marbella beach sands is a dining bell when lunch is served in the surrounding restaurants. Even clubhouses for international chains like the Marriott staked their beach front claim on the sandy beaches.
Europeans seem very comfortable with nudity that there are no designated areas where you could not parade the beaches in the buff. You are constantly sauntering among fully clothed folks and those that have no stitch of fiber on their body. Amazingly, no one seemed to care or raise eyebrows. Nudists go about their business so naturally as though they are intermingling with city folk in a downtown thoroughfare.
When you decide to retire from the beach, usually as late as 10pm or whenever you want, you could then head out for dinner, as Spain is famously known for its very late meal hours. In that same relaxed fashion, the night clubs don’t get going until about one o’clock in the morning. That was my pleasurable experience in Torremolinos.
It was so much fun and uniquely exciting on clear days at the beach when I could gaze at the silhouette of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco across the Mediterranean towards Africa.
Extremadura is an Autonoma Communidad (state) in the southwestern corner of Spain that borders Portugal. It has two provinces, Badajoz and Caceras. I traveled extensively in Badajoz where my friend and professional colleague, Francisco Carlos (Paco) is an attorney for a local government, stationed in a sleepy but very nice, tightly knit town of Bodonal de la Sierra. Of all my travels in Spain, this town gave me the best glimpse of what a Spanish village life is like. This surprisingly was not too different from the big city life san big city attractions like clubs, theaters, museums etc. However, you never felt like the inhabitants of the village lacked basic amenities. Virtually everyone owned a car or cars, lived in very comfortable houses. Uniquely, buildings springing up today by village codes follow the pattern of the ancient exterior of dwelling places, creating the impression that the town is stuck in time.
A typical communal entertainment is the regular bull runs in the small town plaza in what could be termed the downtown…the buildings facing the plaza are the town government buildings, the church, local bars and couple grocery stores. While the plaza is enclosed for the Bull Run, few brave young men jump into the enclosure to taunt the bull for a chase as in this YouTube video of one of such events. While most Americans would flinch at the entertainment at the expense of the animal, bullfighting and running of the bulls is still very ingrained in the Spanish culture that they won’t be giving that up very soon.
All the lavish modern amenities shine once you get past the austere exterior. A theory advanced by my friend was that the austerity came from the Moorish/Muslim influence that encouraged external humility. This seems replicated in all the ancient cities I visited in Spain. Residential buildings that look ordinary outside, sparkle with intricately designed colored marbles and tiles once you open the front gate…and the deeper you went into the house the wider it becomes with majority of them having atrium where tall palms and so many other flowering plants add to the aesthetic beauty of the homes. Imagine having a front yard with multicolored blooming plants and nice hedges, and then bring that into the enclosure of the walls of the house. That is the view that awaits you behind the gates of some austere-looking homes from the street.
If you thought the decorative brick and terrazzo work in the living quarters of most houses was a relic of the past, think again. While in Bodonal, a friend of Paco, Pablo, from Portugal, who is a skilled workman in such ancient art invited me to the interior of a new house he was aesthetically outfitting. I watched and help him lay out the marbles set in floral giant templates he had securely fastened to the floor canvas and lower sidewalls. Breaking and arranging the marbles looked chaotic until you stepped back to see the beautiful pattern he created in that seeming chaotic arrangement.
Driving around Badajoz was like riding a roller coaster atop undulating mountain ranges. The landscape could not be more beautiful and peaceful. It looked virgin for the most part until you come upon ancient Roman ruins where most of the area was dotted with roman settlements that thrived there centuries ago. Within the state the ancient city of Merida in the Caceres province is a testament to a roman city that basically survives till date.
At first blush you would think the area was remote and walled off from the rest of the world, but you would be surprised if you travel down to Zafra and visit a language institute where lots of Spaniard adults are actively engaged in several language classes; ranging from the European English, French, Dutch, German to many oriental languages. Spaniards appetite for languages could be traced to the usual Europeans interest in being polyglots as well as the economic integration of Europe. Others want to appreciate opera or some philosophical texts in their original languages. That’s what I call the spirit of Enlightenment. It’s so funny that here in America some are still fighting to protect an English-only language heritage.
Sevilla the third largest city in Spain was just a short train ride from Cordoba. The train station Santa Justa was an architecturally pleasing edifice that was clearly as large if not larger than some of our big city Union Stations in the US.
Sevilla or Seville as it is known in the English-speaking world is the capital of Andalucía and is a major hub of finance and culture in the southern region of Spain. The city was founded by the Romans and was named Hispalis but when the Muslims took over in the seventh century, they gave it an Arabic name from which Sevilla is derived. The metropolitan area of greater Sevilla has a population of over a million people. It is the third largest city in Spain following Madrid and Barcelona. The uniqueness of Sevilla is its very well preserved old walled city now ensconced in the greater modern city. It was always fascinating making a left or right turn while driving in the city and suddenly realizing you are in the old city that was built centuries ago. The roads become suddenly narrower, with just one lane of traffic forcing pedestrians to plaster themselves against the wall each time a car drives by on some streets. But just as you are getting comfortable in the confined reality of the tightly close architecture of centuries ago surrounding you, you emerge into the openness of the greater very modern Sevilla. Turning around you probably would notice portions of the ancient wall that rings the old city behind you or the cobbled stone paving of the older streets. And looking further away you catch glimpses of a Roman aqueduct built centuries ago when the area was under roman rule.
Part of the city’s cultural charm is the multitude of Gothic, Mudejer, Baroque and Renaissance architectural pieces that seem to adorn most of the old cityscape. The Cathedral of Seville is one of such edifices. It was built on the site of the city mosque after the re-conquest of the city from the Muslim leadership. The interesting feature is the bell tower, which was originally the minaret of the mosque. In putting a Christian stamp and still preserving the history, the lower portion remained the original minaret but the upper portion was reconstructed into a recognizable church bell tower. It is famously known as the Giralda.
Another feature with a military purpose is the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold), which was built by the Muslim dynasty of the period as a watchtower for the defense of the city. The tower is an outpost built by the shore of the main river, Guadalquivir, which runs through the city from which the city controlled the boat/ship traffic in the old days. As a defensive posture a chain is extended from the tower across the breadth of the river thereby to check enemy movement towards the city.
An enduring cultural festival that I was privileged to participate in was the Feria de Abril (April Fair), also called La Feria de Sevilla. The fair which started in 1847, and was originally similar to a county fair in the US where livestock is displayed is now a six day affair marked by eating, drinking, dancing and partying to the wee hours of the night. In the evening hours, a new attendant might think they are witnessing a festival of lights, as outlines of every structure in the entire large fair ground is brilliantly lit in rows that create the illusion of a mini colorful city. The entire display is behind a very elaborate main entrance that is molded in patterned lights that look like a sculpted wall of incandescent bulbs in the form of an arched gate overlooking the fairgrounds.
The fairground is actually a large expanse of open land close to the river. During the fair, rows of booths or Casetas (as they are called) are set up by families or businesses and other organizations lining up made-up streets named after famous bullfighters. The women dress in elaborate traditional dresses with gathered and flared out ruffles at the bottoms that fan coquettishly during flamenco or sevillanas dances. The men dress in dark suits with top hats called Cordobes. Not quite the attire for an evening out on a warm city fair evening. But I sure donned black suit, white shirt and tie and was just one of the Sevillanos that evening.
I was a guest at a professional colleagues family Caseta. The two-room Caseta was an impressive space with a wet bar, kitchenette and even restroom facilities. Luis my friend is a well-regarded magistrate so most of the folks invited to his and his wife’s Caseta were fellow attorneys and jurists. Luckily most of them spoke English so it was enjoyable comparing legal systems as we downed gobbles of drinks, noshed on assorted snacks (tapas) and swayed to the Sevillanas dance performing right there in our own Caseta. It was one occasion that everybody mingled with festive abandon and celebrated their traditional roots as they indulged in cultural traditions that give them a uniquely Sevillana identity. Indeed, I was one of them that evening.
You may not have heard the name of the city of Cordoba feature prominently in contemporary discussions about Spain but it was once the medieval capital of Spain as well as the richest city in the world at the height of the Umayyad dynasty that dominated Spain following the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711 AD. Before then, it was an ancient city founded by the Romans and served as the capital of the Roman province of Hispania.
My recent European ride on a high-speed train, which is not common here in the US, was from Madrid to Cordoba. The train eerily plowed through the countryside of the Autonoma Communidad (autonomous community/state) of Madrid, Castilla La Mancha into the state of Andalucía, the southernmost state of Spain. You knew you were in Andalucía when the housing patterns and colors change dramatically from elsewhere in Spain. Majority of the towns you sped through had their houses gleaming in blinding white paint. It was later explained to me that it was a logical response to the hot climate that could reach 100 degree Fahrenheit in the summer months, so the white colors help deflect the sunlight and reduce absorption of heat into the houses.
What puts Cordoba on the map and as a world heritage center is the Great Mosque, La Mezquita. You bet I was there, exploring the grounds and the intricate maze of the architectural masterpiece.
La Mezquita supposedly is on the site of an ancient Roman catholic church, which was confiscated by the Muslims and converted to a mosque when they captured the city. However, they expanded the original mosque set up after the capture into a huge edifice in the unique Moorish influenced architecture of the period to a size that made it the second largest mosque in the world. When the catholic kings re-conquered Cordoba in 1236, they returned it to a church status and instead of tearing down the magnificent edifice; a huge cathedral was reconstructed right within the Mezquita even as the entire perimeter was left intact. You now basically step into a mosque courtyard, get passed the massive carved gats, step into the bowels of the spacious mosque and then find a basilica inside.
The original church was believed to be St Vincent constructed about 600AD, which was taken over by the Muslims and outfitted into a Mosque about 784 AD. The successive Muslim rulers kept adding and expanding the Mosque until the last addition to the current size was done in 987 AD, which is a span of about two centuries.
Wondering inside the cavernous space of the Mezquita, without warning you find yourself in the middle of the very ornate church cathedral that is sandwiched without any external walls in the bowels of the former Mosque. And that actually is the bishopric of the Catholic Diocese of Cordoba. The picture above shows parts of the church alter within the mosque interior.
Long before becoming the headquarters of a Muslim caliphate, Cordoba was a very Roman city, and the evidence abound in a few of the houses standing till this day and well maintained roman pillars and columns that dot the downtown landscape. There is still a roman bridge from those ancient times that must be an engineering marvel, even gazing at it with contemporary eyes. The Fortress or Alcazar features prominently in the city, as is the case in a majority of the Spanish cities. It was also very intriguing to note the diversity of ancient Cordoba during the Muslim rule, as there were designated Jewish, Christian and Moslem quarters of the city. La Juderia, the Jewish quarter is a pleasant neighborhood for a tourist to stroll around today to enjoy the quaint beautiful well-decorated floral facades on the small houses and narrow streets and plazas. The public piety was a bit jarring, as it is so unusual, at least in America to find alters on window ledges facing out into the street, with statues of the Virgin Mary or Jesus and holy water font for passersby to break their stride and make quick ablution, muttering some silent prayer.
I had the pleasure of staying in one of the ancient buildings dating back to the roman times that has now been refurbished as a hotel, Palacio del Bailio in the old quarters. It was not until the 16th century that the current building, a medieval palace, was superimposed on the original roman edifice dating back before the Common Era. Back then, I was told; it served as the forte and quarters for roman military leadership. It made sense it was converted into a palace after the roman rule was long extinguished.
An interesting feature was the floor of the dining area that was made of clear glass, from where you could look down as you ate, to see a well preserved original colorfully tiled roman floor several feet below. It also features a roman bath in the basement part of the building, which now serves as a spa but actually consists of various stone constructed Jacuzzi with varying set water temperatures and snaky tunnels for short-lap swimming. In some ways it felt spooky to the modern sensibility, imagine swimming around under your basement. Bearing that in mind though, the hotel also has an outdoor swimming pool embedded in a well-designed garden that bathed the surroundings with jasmine, rose and other flowery scents.
The melding of the modern into different eras of the ancient fabric of Cordoba gives the city a unique quality. Being on a high-speed train route makes Cordoba a true fast trip back into time.
