La familia por encima de todo - siempre - Valencia, Spain and Canary Islands
Valencia, Spain and Canary Islands
Where I stayed
Valencia plus Paradors in Alamagro, Alarcón, Tortosa and Teruel
"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." Tim Cahill
Introduction
Surprisingly, it is almost four weeks since our last report. The longer duration is probably because the pace - for us - picked up somewhat with the visits by both of our daughters and our son-in-law. But more on that shortly. There has been a very noticeable lowering of temperatures over the last month and we now tend to be around the 20 – 25 degree C mark most days. Inland, however, in the past week we were down in single digits a couple of times. The locals clearly feel the cooler conditions much more and nowadays most are wearing scarves and jackets or coats. In the street markets, the change has been marked with the appearance of more cold/wet weather clothing and even gumboots. So I guess it is true…summer is officially over.
Trip [back] to La Mancha
Our son-in-law, David, has run a number of marathons abroad [including Tokyo, Chicago, Boston and New York] and this year decided to take advantage of our Spanish sojourn to add a half marathon in Spain to that list. He had selected the late-September Medio Maratón in Alcázar de San Juan so we arranged to meet him and Janine [our elder daughter] in Ciudad Real then stop over at a couple of the Parador hotels the nights before and after race. Trish and I hired a car – kindly upgraded by Avis from a VW Golf to a BMW Series 3 Touring – in Valencia and spent the night preceding their arrival at a country inn about five kms outside Cuenca. The inn itself - Cuevas del Fraile - was being renovated and by the time they finish, it will be quite something. It is well set up for conferences and weddings etc, with lots of sports for the younger ones should they become bored with all that old people stuff - mini-golf, tennis, basketball courts and pool. The night we stayed coincided with the arrival of the Spanish Audi TT Club which was doing a convoy holiday around the region. We counted over 20 cars, many of them clearly not stock off the showroom floor models. It was interesting watch the boys proudly show off their racy toys…while their wives/girlfriends opted to compete with fashion – tight jeans and very high heels.
Cuenca
We had arrived at the Cuevas del Fraile about lunchtime so after a bite to eat, we put our feet up in our room for a spell before heading back into Cuenca [pop ~ 60,000] to look around the old city which offers a well-preserved example of a medieval fortified city. It was originally built by the Moors in the late 8th Century and was governed by the then Caliphate of Cordoba [about 450 kms to the south]. It was eventually conquered by the Castilians in the late-12th Century. An interesting town with castles, arches with buildings atop, cobble streets and Spain's first Gothic cathedral – which has just undergone some internal renovation. The city's main attraction, however, is the 14th Century casas colgadas – the hanging houses, suspended from sheer cliffs overlooking the Rio Huécar. We accessed the city via a very tall iron footbridge which has a somewhat unsettling sway to it when boisterous youngsters "do their thing" on it. They say it's not the drop that will get you but the sudden stop at the other end. Fortunately, we lived to tell the tale. Adjacent to the iron bridge, is the former Dominican convent which today houses one of the Paradores chain’s hotels, the Parador de Cuenca.
Castillo de Belmonte
The next day we headed south to Ciudad Real to meet Janine and David who were travelling down from Madrid by bullet train. Stuart couldn’t resist a small detour to visit the 15th Century castle at Belmonte. After being occupied throughout the 15th and 16th Centuries, it was largely abandoned over the next 200 years before coming into the hands of the influential Guzman family who restored most of it in the mid-19th Century. Since then it has served as a Dominican monastery, a prison for the local district and as an academy for the Francoist Youth Movement. After again being abandoned, it was declared a cultural monument [similar to our Heritage tags] in 1931. It has since returned to the Guzman family who fully restored it in 2010 then opened it to the public. Today it is a very well presented tourist attraction reflecting predominantly furnishings from the mid-19th Century but with glimpses of earlier times. In 2014, Belmonte also hosted the inaugural Medieval World Combat tournament which appears to be now a regular event. From the battlements, we witnessed the locals practising for that event and the annual Moors vs Christians ceremonies.
Parador de Almagro
From Belmonte, we headed 150 km further south to Ciudad Real, the capital of the Ciudad Real Province. The city is developing as a long-distance commuter suburb of the capital – Madrid - as the high speed train takes only 53 minutes to cover the 185 kms between the two cities – only eight minutes longer than Metrolink’s 33 km line between Upper Hutt and Wellington. Probably more reliable as well. We didn’t get a chance to get a good look at the city because we had to return to Alcázar de San Juan to pick up David’s race pack before the registration office closed but we eventually were able to check in at the hotel about 7.00pm.
Our hotel, the Parador de Almagro, occupies the former Convent of San Francisco, which was built in 1596. The accommodation rooms are converted from the original monks’ cells but considerably much more luxurious [and undoubtedly much more comfortable]. The Franciscan monks order occupied the Convent continuously through until 1942 although there was a short period in the mid-1800s where it served as a hospital. The facilities were absorbed into the Paradores fold because dwindling monk numbers forced the convent’s closure. Probably not surprising given that "records indicate that at midnight monks would leave their cells to begin a three-hour prayer in the church. After a short repose, bells would sound again to signal the onset of more prayer followed by mass and another prayer. At 10:00 am, the monks would receive some refreshment before setting out at midday to begin a day of work as preachers in the neighbouring villages." The old "you will get your rewards in heaven" carrot was clearly not working any more.
Race Day
An early start the next morning as David needed to be at the race town by 9:30 to complete the registration formalities and warm up before the race commencement at 10:00. The day started off reasonably cool but by the time the race started, it was up into the 20s and reached 29 degC by the time that the leaders were coming home. Not the greatest race conditions. However, with well over 900 runners competing, David managed a very commendable 61st place and 7th in his age group; pretty good considering he had landed in Spain only a couple of days earlier. Having perused the registration list, we think he was the only overseas runner. Once he had freshened up, we headed to Puerto Lapiçe, the next town to the west for a morning coffee/beer. The town claims that it is the one portrayed in Cervantes’ classic where Don Quixote is "knighted" by the local innkeeper and sent on his odyssey – nothing like a bit of folklore to attract the tourists. The “inn” today has a small art museum which highlights the Don’s adventures.
We then headed back to the east to the other side of the race town for lunch at a restaurant - Las Musas - that we had discovered last year. Again, it did not disappoint – separate bacalao confitado, octopus and pork dishes followed by two delightful dessert dishes. After a long and thoroughly deserved lunch, the runner with his support crew got back on the road north to our next bed at the Parador de Alarcón. En route we stopped at the Castillo de Belmonte to enable Janine and David to have a quick visit to that impressive castle.
Parador de Alarcón
Alarcón is a medieval town about 80 km southeast of Cuenca and located on a very narrow gooseneck on the Rio Jucar. The castle itself – originally an 8th Century Moorish fortress situated at the narrowest point of the land - is surrounded by ancient but well-preserved crenellated walls. It completely dominated the town and, being surrounded on three sides by 70 metre high cliffs, it forced any medieval attacker to try to take the defences head on along a very narrow peninsular and attacking into the teeth of the defences. A daunting task... but not an impossible one. In the early stages of the Reconquista – the Spanish crusade to take back their lands from the Moors - King Alfonso VIII captured the castle and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, it is part of the Parador chain. It has retained much of the medieval feel enhanced in the public rooms by beautiful bare stone and Castilian wood, softened by a range of banners and fabric coats of arms and colours.
The local folklore suggests that the black stains in the mortar in the encircling castle walls are actually the blood of a would-be assassin. A local “bad lad” had fancied the daughter of the lord of the manor [LOTM] but on being rejected and sought revenge by hiring an assassin. However, LOTM caught wind of the plot and turned the tables on the assassin. The story goes that, as some construction was being done in the castle, they mixed the assassin’s corpse in with the mortar, hence the black spots. Don’t you love a good legend? Real bedtime story stuff.
Back in Valencia
The next morning from Alarcón, it was back to Valencia. On arrival, we took the opportunity while we had the car, to show our visitors around the port area of Valencia and along part of the Turia Gardens “green belt”. Janine and David actually had the apartment next to ours so it simplified arrangements over the next two days of their stay in the city. On our first night back, we had an enjoyable dinner at El Olivo which we had visited previously with Annette and Stephen Henry and, on the second evening, returned to Casa Montana for another memorable meal. J & D packed an awful lot of sightseeing into their two days here and the “oldies” wisely let them do their own thing while we rested up for each evening’s drinks and dinner. All too soon they were on the bullet train heading back to Madrid for their journey home to NZ. It was terrific being able to witness new sights here in Spain with them and share some we hadn’t seen before…and kind of reminded us that we were missing family – especially grandchildren – more than we had appreciated.
Plaça de l'Ajuntament
The city makes great use of its public spaces, in particular the one that our apartment looks out on to, the Plaça de l'Ajuntament.
Over the past two months, it has been used for two sustainability exhibitions, one focussing directly on the environment and the other on the use of sustainable transport. The latter concluded with Family Cycling Day when cyclist of all ages, including many family groups, cycled through the Plaça, a “parade” that took over an hour. Suspect that anyone in Valencia who had access to a bicycle came through that day.
A couple of weeks later [Saturday 9 October], we then witnessed Valencia Festival Day which saw the whole Plaça closed off to traffic for the day as the Valencians came out to celebrate their identity. It culminated with a massive fireworks – mainly crackers – which went on for about 15 minutes and ended in a crescendo where it was simply continuous noise with hardly any separation between one bang and the next. Not the greatest for the eardrums but the locals seemed to think it was definitely a fun event. That was followed by the city’s dignitaries – didn’t realise they had so many - parading through from the Plaça to the Cathedral in Plaça de La Reina about 300 metres away. Lots of cheering from the crowd – not sure whether it was because they supported them or because they thought they were leaving town - and “royal” waving back from the marchers.
Just when we thought festivities were over for the day, we noticed them placing rows of seating along the street so consulted Mr Google and learned that we were to be treated to the annual Moors & Christians parade, which commemorates the Christian Reconquista and the anniversary of the day on which James I of Aragon and his Queen, Violant of Hungary, entered the city. We found it would start at about 5pm so we headed back out into the fray. Apparently, back in 1238, James had a number of affiliated lords who had signed up their fiefdoms for the war to expel the Moors from the city and the parade was recognising the many different groups. The parade lasted just on four hours and the last groups came through well after the street lights had come on. The costumes were quite spectacular and it seemed like the whole of Valencia was present – one half parading and the other half watching. It was clear that the Christian had been the winners on the day because those representing the Moors got their slot in the parade after darkness had fallen. Nonetheless, everyone in the audience seemed to be without favourites and the bands - many comprising very energetic drummers - which accompanied the marchers were just as enthusiastic [for that also read loud] at 8:30pm as the first ones who came through three hours earlier. Overall, a colourful, noisy and fun festival event.
The following Sunday, we witnessed the Valencian Medio Maratón which concluded in the Plaça. The full Valencia marathon will take place in November and rather than ending in the Plaça, will transit it twice en route to the finish line on the large reflecting pool in the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias. We plan to head out to watch the action at the finish line that day.
This week the Plaça has been occupied by a literacy exhibition which is seeking to increase people’s - particularly children’s - interest in reading. Throughout the week, schools brought classes of all ages to attend outdoor seminars, with younger ones having stories read to them by some of their local heroes.
Kieren’s arrival
About a week after we said farewell to Janine and David, we were welcoming Kieren from San Francisco. We had noted that morning that the shops, including the Central Market, were closed but had no idea why so dropped into the local Information Centre which was open to learn that it was Hispanic Day which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas on 12 October 1492. A little ironic given that Spain was celebrating one of their now adopted sons going one way over the Atlantic, while we were welcoming one of America’s adopted children – Kieren now a naturalised US citizen – back the other way. After settling her in at our apartment, we took her on a late afternoon stroll through the old city and discovered group of food and craft stalls - an extension of the Moors v Christians theme – surrounding the Torres Serrano near one of our favourite sangria purveyors. So we just had to introduce her to the tastes. By now, Kieren was fading fast so we were soon heading back to the apartment to enable her to catch an early night. That suited us because we had planned a three day road trip taking in a couple of interesting Paradors to the north of Valencia, starting the following day.
Road trip
The next morning we were down at the rental car outlet [Alamo this time] reasonably early and very pleasantly surprised to find that yet again we had been upgraded from a VW Golf – this time to an Audi A4. When making the hotel bookings, we had tried for Tortosa and Alcañiz, two old forts/castles but were only able to get into the former. Fortunately, we were able to replace Alcañiz with Teruel further to the west in Aragon. The trip would take us into three of Spain’s eastern provinces – Catalonia [Tortosa], Aragon [Teruel] and Valencia. The drive north was very easy being mainly on an “A” road, with a 120kmh speed limit separated dual carriage way.
Tortosa
We arrived in our first stop, Tortosa, about midday and after checking into our hotel went for a walk into town. The Parador de Tortosa is a converted castle [Castle of Sant Joan, or Suda] built by the Moors in the 10th Century, on the site of the old Roman acropolis sitting atop the hill overlooking today’s city. The site has the only outdoor Arabic cemetery in the whole of Catalonia, with the foundations, the walls and a well remaining from the Islamic period. It was subsequently extended by the Spanish into a more substantial fort. In its time, it has been a Knights Templar castle, a palace, a prison, a military garrison and now a Parador hotel. The town still has a number of reminders that it had been under Muslim control for just on 400 years until Reconquista, part of the European section of Pope Eugene III’s Second Crusade in 1148. The victors took a leaf out of the earlier Roman play book by dividing the city and its territories up among the victorious elements, many of whom were foreign crusaders and religious orders.
We stopped for lunch at small restaurant behind the Cathedral then walked around a section of the old city near the Rio Ebro. The Cathedral of Santa Maria de Tortosa sits on what was originally a Roman forum, then a Visigoth Cathedral and later on a mosque. It was a little surprising to find a concentration of Muslim families still living in the shadow of the Cathedral. We also came across signage to indicate that Tortosa was on one of the tributaries of the Camino de Santiago, the St James Walk, which transits across the top of Spain culminating at Santiago de Compestela. We arrived back at the hotel late afternoon and after a few tapas and drinks in the bar, jet lag caught up with Kieren so we called time and all headed off to bed.
Alcañiz
We got away from Tortosa reasonably early – for those on holiday that is about 9am. We had opted to head cross country a little to enable Stu to check out the castle/inn that we had been unable to book, the Parador de Alcañiz. Another Islamic centre during the time of the Moors, it finally fell to the Christian troops in 1179. The former castle/convent which has a commanding position on a hill overlooking the city and the Rio Guadalope, was later extended to incorporate an 18th-century Aragonese palace. We stopped for off for coffee, rest break and walk around the palace area. Even though it is now a commercial operation, it still retains much of the opulence of days gone by. After a short distraction watching the vultures soaring above the town, we were back on the road. In the wild west of China is the Taklamakan Desert and in the Uigur language, Takla Makan means “you can get into it but can never get out”; it has something in common with Alcañiz. We set Carlotta - our car’s GPS – on the road to Teruel but clearly she had not received the day’s road outages and kept sending us down a one way road that had diversions before the scheduled turn off point. After three visitations to the same spot, we told Carlotta to keep quiet, “did it our way” and managed to finally escape.
Again, the road from Alcañiz took us through a very hilly section. The weather had deteriorated somewhat and we were having to deal with light rain. Coupled with the fact that the road was no longer a divided highway, some care had to be exercised with the reduced road conditions. Clearly, some drivers fly [drive] in the face of danger and sometimes they lose. About halfway through the hills, we spotted a helicopter on the ground up ahead and a couple of minutes later, we came to a halt behind a stream of traffic liberally flanked by police cars with flashing blue lights and fire engines adding their red to the display. Finally, as the line of traffic was allowed to creep slowly forward one lane wide, we came across the reason. There was a car in the side drain which was now only about half its original size and further up the road, there was another which was definitely no longer drivable. There were ambulances on the scene but given that the helicopter had shut down, we suspected that there had been no survivors. Maybe the Alcañiz vultures had been a premonition. Sobering thoughts and reinforced the need to take care.
Teruel
We arrived in Teruel about mid-afternoon and after checking in, we had a quick meal in the hotel’s restaurant. The Teruel Parador is a more modest affair. Built in the mid-1950s, it was designed along the lines of the earlier Mudejar palaces. A reasonably modern but nonetheless comfortable stopover. However, it was the city of Teruel which held our interest and after a short rest – oldies [and youngies] needed their afternoon break – we headed into town.
The city is the capital of the province of the same name and like Alcañiz, is within the Aragon region. With only about 36000 inhabitants, it is Spain’s smallest provincial capital. Small in size, but big on atmosphere and a really pleasant surprise. It has a much more temperate climate and minimum temperatures in winter can drop below zero.
The city is steeped in history but perhaps it is the Spanish Civil War battle for which it is best known. Between December 1937 and February 1938 during the worst Spanish winter in twenty years, the Republicans and Nationalist fought a battle considered by most as the bloodiest of the war and ultimately, its turning point. The battle saw the city first fall to the Republicans then be retaken by the Nationalists. Throughout it was subjected to heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. Over 140,000 casualties were sustained by both sides, over half being by the Republicans who could ill afford the losses.
The city today is renowned for its Mudejar art, its dinosaur fossils and its fabled lovers:
Mudejar Art. The Mudejar is a combination of the decorative features of Muslim architecture and the Romanesque and Gothic style of the Europeans. It shows in the rounded and pointed arches, the filigree work, the use of wooden ceilings and the coloured ceramic tiling. This architectural style, a combination of elegant style and pragmatic construction is visible throughout Spain but Teruel is considered to have some of the most representative examples of mudejar art in Aragon and in Spain overall – as far as the locals are concerned. The Cathedral and a number of towers in the city carry these striking Mudejar designs and are simply quite beautiful.
Dinosaur Fossils. Like Enciso further to the west in the La Rioja area – which we visited last year - the province of Teruel boasts several dinosaur fossils deposits. It has a Dinopolis park which seeks to “bring to life” so to speak these huge – and sometimes small - creatures that preceded us on this planet. For those with an interest in dinosaurs [here in Spain], Lori Needleman has produced a blog for The Huffington Post – see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-need leman/dinosaurs-northern-spain_b_298861 3.html
City of Love. While Paris and Rome – and probably a few others - think they may have cornered the market on the love thing, Teruel has “living” examples that they are the real deal on this issue. Back in the 13th Century, there were two young people – Juan Diego and Isabel – who had loved each other since childhood. Isabel was from a titled family but Juan Diego was more from the other side of the tracks. He asked for her hand [and probably the rest of her too] but her father declined – “you’re not rich enough, son”. However, after persisting, Juan Diego is granted a period of five years to make his fortune [and thereby become acceptable]. He dashes off to war to win his fortune which he manages to do and with the deadline about to expire, heads home to Teruel to re-present his case. However, not being aware of Juan Diego’s improving position, Isabel’s dad had decided he needed a back-up plan and had arranged her marriage to some titled [and wealthy] dude. Just as the wedding ceremony is concluded, Juan Diego rides up, only to be informed that he can no longer claim his kiss or the bride. That night he scales the castle walls but on managing to reach her chambers, she informs him that it can never be as she is now a married woman whereby in anguish, he falls down dead. At his funeral the following day – wonder how she explained away the dead body in her chambers - the now Mrs Isabel lifts the veil off Juan Diego’s face and gives him the farewell kiss she had denied him the previous night. You guessed it…she then drops dead draped over his body. Now we know this is a true story because the two lie in state today in San Peter’s Church in Teruel. [Photographic evidence attached]
Albufera
The following day we headed back to Valencia. We arrived early afternoon so decided to visit Albufera, the Nature Reserve Park to the south of the city. The park has a variety of wildlife habitats such as sandbars, marshes, rice fields and of course, the Albufera Lake. The lake was originally a marine gulf which gradually became shut off from the sea and ultimately evolved into a freshwater lake. It is now one of the most important wetlands in Spain and birding societies which run tours into the park, claim that during migration up to 100 different species of birds can be seen. Separately, eight of Spain’s 27 different species of bat can be found in the Albufera. Probably another reason for the bat’s appearance in the city’s crest but more on that in the next report.
With Valencia being the home of paella, it stands to reason that there would be rice paddy fields nearby and the Albufera has them in spades. Indeed, there is considerable pressure put on the conservationists to allow the rice growers to expand their operations and reclaim more land for farming. We stopped at a restaurant in the park for lunch, looking forward to sampling a good paella only to find that we had chosen an Italian restaurant – and they didn’t even have risotto on the menu. Oh well… there is always tomorrow.
Remainder of Kieren’s stay
The remaining four days of Kieren’s stay were just as hectic, devoted to:
Sightseeing – a morning wandering around Calatrava’s splendid Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, an hour in the Fallas Museum, a brief visit to San Nicolas Iglesias, and a stroll through the old city to the Torres Quart.
Shopping therapy – at the Central Market, at the regular Tuesday Street Market with over 400 different stalls, the upmarket shops in Calle Colon and the L’Eixample district, and the craft shops in the Plaça Redonda.
Lunches at:
Vuelve Carolina. This is one of Quique DaCosta’s restaurant – his bistro version of the offering in his one star restaurant upstairs that we had enjoyed last year. Quality was superb and the dishes divine. Razor clams especially tasty. Well worth a repeat.
Casa Montana. Our favourite tapas restaurant. You probably guessed that given the number of times that it has appeared in our reports. All dishes have been of an exceptionally high standard on each visit and taste consistent. Alejandro and his team certainly know how to look after their guests and produce a great dining experience.
El Pony Pisador. Finally, the paella. This small backstreet restaurant had been recommended by our host, Jaime. Finally, we managed to find it and were definitely not disappointed. Moister than most we had tasted and full of seafood – baby squid, prawns, mussels and lobster. A definite re-visit is in the mix on this one.
But, as with all good things, they must come to an end. At 3.30am on Thursday this week about four phones and iPads start telling people to get out of bed and at 4.00am, Kieren’s taxi arrived to take her back to the airport for her flights to San Francisco via Frankfurt and Seattle. The apartment again seemed empty. So…two short visits by family which have really been a load of fun and enabled us all to see a little more of the Spanish countryside over the horizon from Valencia.
Well, time to call this one quits. Hope you have enjoyed it and all the best till our next communique.
Mis mejores deseos y adios – best wishes and goodbye
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” Martin Buber