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3 May: Barcelona to Madrid, Spain
Got up, checked out, and hit the road. BTW, the breakfast buffet at the hotel we stayed at (Gran Vía) was the best I've had so far. And only $6. Includes the works, tortilla española, eggs, bacon, seven different kinds of pastries, juice, etc... I filled up because there was a 5.5 hour drive to Madrid. The first part was a confusing tangle of streets and traffic jams. Once we got about 30 minutes outside the city we were fine however. The driving rain didn't help matters any.
The spanish countryside around here was vast. Vast and relatively bleak. Scrubby and red. Reminded me a little of Arizona, but with a little more water. A couple castles on top of mesas that looked like they came out of the painted desert. As you get closer to Madrid you start to see bullboards. Random unadorned large (30x20m) silhouettes of bulls. Evidently it must be the mascot around here.
I miss the germans and their efficient roads with signage galore. In Madrid, you don't know what street you're on, what street you're passing, or anything in the general vicinity. The only signs you get tell one where plazas or other roundabouts are, which of course, are not labeled on your map. We had to stop at a gas station to buy a relatively expensive but comprehensive map of Madrid to get anywhere close to the hotel. After I got us lost by misinforming Stacey, who was doing quite well with the map, we found the hotel. Actually we found the parking garage we thought was near the hotel. The hotel is on a street that isn't labeled on any map in existence.
Get to the hotel and check in about 5 minutes late, but they don't care. We go inside and lay around for a bit and recover. Then we go get our bags and the translator. We got a little hungry so we went to the El Corte Inglés next door and I got a club sandwich and Stacey got a big hotdog baguette. Then down to the basement to get some snackies for the room. By this point we were pretty much done. This hotel has no cable, but does include breakfast and a break on parking. $80 in the heart of the action... ¿why not?
4 May: Museos de Madrid, España
The Prado is gigantic. It's so big it seems to defy description. Almost every painting inside is a major work by a famous painter. You've heard of them all, (Titian, Raphael, Rembrant, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, Velásquez, El Greco, Bosch, Botticelli, etc.) The list goes on. The museum contains over 3000 paintings and the management sees fit to move them all around every year to keep printing new guidebooks that seem out of date as soon as they are printed. The part of the Mona Winks book we got referred to rooms that were closed and even in the existing sections all the paintings were moved. We spent about 6.5 hours in the museum and didn't see everything. If you are going to wear yourself down to the bone, this is the one. Where to begin? Geez. I wrote it all down. Six hours in a museum leads to a full journal, tunnel vision, and a hastily written notebook. Considered putting it on a separate web page, and I probably will eventually.
A lot of the paintings mentioned here can be found at the Spanish Arts Page. Furthermore, some of the names are in Spanish, and some are in English. It's what I wrote down first.
We started dabbling around in the Rennaisance. We saw a multitude of paintings by Titian about Mythology (Room 9), including the very famous Satyr & Nypmhs and the Three Graces. The 3 Graces were quite, umm... can I saw Rubenesque, and revealed an erotic playfulness that seems at odd with the Catholic Spanish Kings. Then moved directly over to the Netherlands. Saw a lot of meta-paintings by Rubens and his school. These are paintings of rooms with a lot of paintings. My favorite was Jan Brueghel "De Velours"'s La Visita y el Olfato, it includes an insane amount of detail. In the next room, Stacey really loved the shading of Schalcken's Effect of artificial light. Then we moved next to Peeter Neefs' Iglesia de Amberes.
Then we went to the cafeteria and got ourselves some food and a coke. Not the best food, but a requirement. I also had a bottle of the dreaded Cruzcampo. It is worse than my brother told me. Ugh. Then onto a multitude of Tintorretos and Veronés. The Purification of the Madianite Virgins appeared on the ceiling and whilst looking at it, the security guard told me to sit up. Veronés famous Moses Saved From The Water along with more infamous Jesus and the Centurion. That last painted was painted to appease the Inquisition when his previous painting Cena en casa de Levi included many extra-biblical things. He painted the ultra-orthodox catholic passion scene to make nice. Tintoretto's relatively unimpressive but seductive work The Lady Revealing her Breast was, like wasabi, very pungent at first but left little taste in the mouth. There were more Titians than you can shake a stick at in this museum.
What struck me about this museum was the ability to see the same motif done by dozens of master artists. I saw Judith and Holofernes (where the latter get's beheaded) by pretty much every Italian masterpainter not named Michaelangelo. The crucifiction done by everyone from El Greco to Boticelli to Velasquez. Saturn eating his son by Titian in a glorified way, to Goya's dark depraved bug-eyed god eating the arm of his beheaded daughter. It makes even a philistine art-ignoramous like me appreciate the mastery of technique of these masters, and later ones like Dalí. However I'll never get Pollack. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Next was the El Greco wing. Unfortunately many of these paintings are at the Art Museum in Vienna until September. This includes my brother's favorite Christ carrying the cross. And even from the small photo I can see why. El Greco was able to, years ahead of his time, express a realistic and emotional dimension to all of his portraits and religious works. I took a picture of a couple of them, but all of them are masterworks. My favorite was probably the Crucifiction. Then we walked past a bunch of increadible busts and scuptures by Leone Leoni. Increadible detail, including realistic bronze chainmail. I took a picture of some three-dimensional porcelian work, by Benadetto Cervi Pavese, with a depth of about 4 inches. Wow!
Then onto the German Rennaisance. Albrecht Dürer's self portrait is awesome in the exquisite detail. Since he used to be an engraver, every ruffle in his, well, dress appears to go along with his long flowing locks. WE took a picture of Hans Baldung Grien's The Harmony or The Three Graces side by side with The Three Ages and Death. Very evocative to be displayed next to each other. But enough about them. Let's get to the Scary Room! This was the Flanders Renaisance. Including the Presentation of Jesus with the obscenely long and overdrawn roman faces, a portrait of brain surgery, suicide, and an old lady tearing her hair out. Ouch. But insanity prevailed in the next room.
Hieronymus Bosch was a genius and a master. And he was completely insane. His works seem to be the precursor for Dalí-esque surrealism but about 500 years too early. Look at the right side of the Garden of Earthly Delights. The whole painting with its frankly obscene center, it's non-catholic Adamist (read in sex-is-good) marriage of Adam and Eve on the left side. This room is worth a visit just to see Medieval combined with Renaissance, Mystical Vision, and downright insanity.
Then we went past a lot of Botticellis and Raphaels. The famous Botticelli is three of a set of four painting depicting The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti. The upshot is that a guy had a vision of a wood where a guy kept getting a vision of rejected lover who ends up chasing down the rejected lover and feeding her heart to the dogs. The first guy happens to be a rejected lover and sets up a feast in the same wood where he saw the vision to show his lover not to reject him either. The last panel, in a private collection, shows them getting married. So enlightened.
Next was the Spanish Masters, and to my favorite painter in the museum, Velasquez. The painting I liked the best was Los Borrachos, with Bacchus crowning a master drunkard, but your eyes are on the guys mugging for the camera to the right. It's beautiful. The very famous Vulcan's Forge brought me back to my old art classes, where this was one of my most favorite paintings. The guy second from the right with the "you've got to be kidding me" face is priceless. Stacey was shocked to see Las Meninas the most famous Velasquez painting which she had to study for quiz team back in high school. His painting of Christ Crucified is also quite powerful, with the downturned and obscured face with an empty background. It looks like something that makes you feel penitant, instead of most of the other "instructive" or "glorious" paintings in the collection.
Then onto Goya. We went the wrong way around. We saw the Dark Paintings first (including the aforementioned Saturn. He painted this in his 70s after his time as a Tapestry Cartoonist, and a Political Radical. He was stuck on the outskirts of town discarded by the revolutionary atmosphere. On the walls of his house he painted first some upbeat normal landscapes. Then, for an unknown reason, he went through and painted dark almost evil images. Broad brushstrokes with a witches sabbath and other dark things. Then we went back in his career to the famous 2nd and 3rd of May paintings. As a witness to the massacre of Spanish loyalists at the hands of Napoleon's hired troops, he painted quite a powerful anti-war statement. The first painting shows a troop of Egyptian guards killing indiscrimately the outmatched mob. The second shows a dejected firing squad killing some collaborators who escape the first day. They seem to raise their hands asking "Why?" From this we went back to his tapestry cartooning days. Frankly, these are forgettable. Compared to all the other masters here, Goya's early days are bad. Very bad. Tiepolo, he was not.
Then we went finally to a set of etchings that Goya did on the horrors of war. They were quite interesting, and as closing time was approaching we figured it was time to go. We had seen almost all of the museum, but had to skim through certain parts. This is a place that requires study, and we gave it only the most cursory glance. We made our way to a McDonalds to caffinate ourselves and to show off how much of a buttinsky I am.
After that, the Centro del Arte Reina Sofía was open for another two hours. To be efficient on time, and to combine our relative lack of interest in Modern Art, we decided to caffinate and head on over. The main highlight of this museum was Guernica by Picasso. It is one of the most powerful pieces of Art I've ever seen. The depiciton of war on this stark monochromatic painting, the cubism seems to add to the desolation. Little touches, like the armpit hair on the crying woman, the fingers on the dead baby lying in her mothers arms, the anus on the bull. Painted in response to the first saturation bombing (by Hitler no less), it replaced his original intention for the Spanish entry for the Expo that year.
Next we went to the room of Salvador Dalí. Within a period of a few years you can see a Cubist self portrait, a relatively realistic and touching painting of his sister, to a simplistic painting of a girl at a window where the texture of her dress across her figure is the best rendition of wind I've seen. As Stacey puts it, "He has Mad Talent." His paintings of an invisible man, showing an impressive optical illusion; El Gran Masturbador where words fail, and an interesting bust colled Retrato de Joella done in collaboration with Man Ray.
Next we saw the harder to relate to and see as art sections. Jose Gutiérrez Solana had some very interesting paintings. One painting of relatively scary clowns. Stacey liked La visita del Obispo with an old touching woman and a guy angry at the painter. My favorite was called La procesión de la muerte which is Sci-Fi Deluxe with a Pensive Grim Reaper. Death by Rodin. Sounds like a good perfume.
In the temporary area we saw an exhibition of Vicente Huidorro y Las Artes Plásticos. Lots of wall art combining typography, layout, and poetry. Stacey thought it was stuff our friend Karen would decorate her walls with. Then we went past a room of Dada, to an exhibition by Robert Frank. He's a relatively famous photographer and filmmaker, but I knew of him because he did the cover design and photographs for the Rolling Stone's Exile on Main St.
Then we hit our limit. 8pm and 8 hours of museums. We stopped by an internet cafe to update the website and winddown a little bit. Then to the hotel and blessed sleep.
5 May: Madrid, España
After a relatively late start due to the previous day's exhaustion, we headed out to the Palacio Real on the west side of Madrid. First we stopped in the Puerta del Sol. We stopped at a Salon to get a recommended meat-filled pastry, which was quite good, and then walked to the Plaza Mayor. It looks a little bit in style to San Marco Square in Venice with a large relatively uniform building surrounding you on all sides. The section facing us contained a relatively intricate mural, and I took a picture of it. However, on closer inspection it wasn't really that good. Oh well.
Then we went along to the Palacio Real, the main palace of Spain. When the capital of Spain was moved from relatively cramped Toledo to Madrid, the kings started to build this palace. It is huge. 2500 rooms, of which we see 24. The main courtyard is surrounded by a cathedral on the south, the palace on the north and east, and by a gigantic park on the west. After a relatively eagle-eyed X-ray operator saw my Swiss Army Knife and stored it for safe keeping, we got on the english tour. Informative tour guide (although a little bit of a nebish, constantly cleaning his fingernails) and a really bad crowd. There were about 4 high-school age girls who kept chatting and giggling loudly, so much so that random people were telling them to shush. There was the increadibly stuffy Indian fellow with the Oxford accent talking about how rebellious he was by crossing the autobahn on foot. And the other british couple where the female couldn't stop bitching. And there was the same couple from Kansas we saw the previous day at the line to the Prado. The guy told me he was from a collection agency. Ha ha. But enough about them.
This palace is regal. This is the supposedly third best palace in Europe, but it beats the hell out of Schonbrunn (Vienna). The amazing tapestries, frescoes by Tiepolo, clocks that dazzle, and ornate stucco to die for. Rococo spleandor. However most of the rooms we saw after the Throne room were fairly mundane by comparison. I still prefer Linderhof (Bavaria) and the Residenz (Wurzburg). Stacey was impressed by the shear size, and the fact that its still used for state occasions. I like the Royal Chapel. Decorated to the hilt; its a mini basilica containing the relics of St. Felix.
My personal highlight was the only existing collection of a Stradivarius quartet. I got a picture of the viola (and hopefully me taking the picture). Architecturally, the sheer size and the beautiful stucco and frescos really steal the show. This was built at the height of power of a grand dynasty, and everything from the wallpaper to the granite mosaic floors show "Here lies a king." However, I would have to say that it's not as stunningly beautiful as the Residenz or as over-the-top as Linderhof.
Afterwords we went to the adjunct Royal Armory (if that's your cup of tea, this is awesome), and the Royal Pharmacy (is that anyone's cup of tea?). Then we stumbled back to the Plaza Mayor to get some food. We ate at Púpito with a view of the square itself. I evidently have lost some brain cells because I was staring at the menu, which was half in english, and then asked in my best Spanish, "Tiene Ud. una menú en inglés." Ugh. Stacey had the Salami sandwich, whilst I had the Torilla Española and Patatas Bravas (which are fried potatoes in a creamy tomato sauce). After a while, the music started. First was a seranading accordianist who wasn't welcome, then came a scruffy guitarristo. This guy was great, had a voice similar to the Gipsy Kings. Powerful. It really enhanced the atmosphere, except for the table of british people next door were quite rude (and later stiffed him). I really like eating on Terraces. After that we got a hotel room in Toledo for two days hence and found an internet cafe to update the website. We decided to forgoe the Thyssen museum due to our inability to look at any more art for a few days.
More notes on Spain so far (more risque). Spain has a much more laid back schedule than the US. Lunch is between 2-4 pm, dinner from 8pm-12am. People generally work until 7:30 and take a big siesta during the day. The country, except for the coast, seems to shut down in July and August. However the biggest thing is the dress. We have entered the land of tight pants. Pretty much every girl we see has a fitted leather coat and really tight pants with no visible lines. Regardless of the size or shape of the woman, this seems to be the standard dress. Futhermore, on the street, the people seem to be as friendly as New Yorkers in a snowstorm. I feel relatively battered from all the people hitting me with bags. Only one person in Barcelona apologized for bumping into us, and that was because she ran over my foot with a baby carriage.
However, the flip side is that this place seems really vibrant. The streets buzz at night with a throng of people much greater than in all the other cities that I have visited. There is much more public displays of affection (by teenagers of course) than in other places. I'm also not sure my ability to speak Spanish actually gets me more courtesy or less, whereas everywhere else I was treated quite kindly by trying to speak the native language (not as much in Italy). My impression of the country is that I will want to come back and try and negotiate the countryside to get a real impression of non-city and non-touristy life. And I'll come back in September!
6 May: Valle de los Caidos & El Escorial, Spain
Note: Be sure to come back to this section until I remove this little note. I'm adding more detail as I go on...
This morning, we checked out of the hotel and headed out to the major outside attractions of Madrid: the Monasterio de El Escorial and the Valle de los Caidos. We arrived at El Escorial in the Morning. We weren't sure we made the right turn until we saw the gigantic monolith looming on the horizon. This building sucked up 20 years of the New World's gold, and they do have something to show for it. Planned as a gigantic monastery with a special chapel and quarters for the King, Philip III called this his home after making Madrid the capital.
Monasterio El Escorial
The ticket includes entry to four things: the monastery, the gardens, the library, and the chapel. Since this was a Sunday, the Chapel was pretty much booked all day. We saw the gigantic ornate chapel from the closed gates. Beautiful, and probably worth coming here not on a Sunday. Since neither Stacey nor I can fake being Roman Catholic, we didn't even try. We also didn't make it to the gardens; but enough about what we didn't see...
The trip starts with museums, the first containing a priceless collection of art. This is the kind of art that if it were in a museum in the US, it would be a major stop for art lovers. Original Raphael, Titian, El Greco, etc. Most of the royal collection was placed in the Prado, except for the masterworks that were already at El Escorial. Then onto a archetectural museum that is interesting but devoid of context or english descriptions. Even translated, it wasn't that impressive.
The Monastery itself is amazing. The walls are covered with masterworks, the furnishings are exquisite. The coolest things were the doors. Each door was wood inlay with different colors of wood and 3-D textures. I took many pictures, but I doubt they'll capture the jaw-dropping nature of the carvings. Off the beaten path is the Room of Battles; walk up the two flights. A room about a 30m long covered with a gigantic mural depicting the defeat of the Moors. One room contains a set of paintings of all of the royal palaces, another contains a set of maps (and me being a geography geek, I loved it). The gardens are topiaries that are quite beautiful, but after a while, you are amazed more at the effort required to keep them up than their sheer beauty. I guess I'm getting a little jaded.
I'd suggest getting a guided tour (we didn't). I spent my time trying to understand the passing Spanish guides. However, to truly appreciate the museum would require some lingering whilst the tours go by. There was one increadibly unruly child that evoked the ire of the Spanish. This is the first place I've seen strangers scold a child. But then again, I haven't seen many top-of-the-lungs, ain't-no-stoppin'-me tantrums.
After the Monastery, we went to the library. My brother, at the time, wrote it down as one of his favorite parts, and I can see why. The ceiling is covered in a Sistine-like rendition of the liberal arts. The walls are covered with bookshelves from walnut similar to those in the old British Museum's Library. In each of these shelves are period books. In the center are part of a dwindled collection of period scientific instruments, including a Ptolemaic (earth-centered) model of the heavens and a map with a grossly misshapen North America. It has california as an island (if you only knew of Baja, wouldn't you do that)?
Then we got in the car and drove the 15 kilometers to Valle de los Caidos.
Valle de los Caidos
The Valley of the Fallen is a crypt/monument/cathedral carved out of solid rock by the defeated Republicans after the Spanish Civil War. It contains the crypt of the founder of the Falange party, and Francisco Franco. It holds the urns of over 50,000 casualties from the Civil War. However, the first thing you see is a gigantic cross being supported by four figures, hovering over a neoclassical building surrounded by a relatively large rock formation. It is so large, and so massive, it is a monument that is more wonder-of-the-world material than large-homage-to-God. In any case, the Masses here aren't held in the afternoon so we got to look at the place.
After the obiligotory metal detector (complete with airport X-ray scanner), you head into the Ante-Chambre. Large hollow room with a bookshop and a set of doors on the other end. As you pass it you see a large set of intricately made iron doors and a large 100m long tunnel. The cathedral is in the shape of a cross, a very extended cross. On the sides are chapels containing neo-Medieval Tryptychs of the plights of Jesus and the Apostles, capped by gigantic marble carvings of different renditions of the Virgin. Between these chapels are large tapestries, reproductions of a 16C work depicting in grim terms the contents of the book of Revelations. Over the top, to say the least.
Then you enter the Nave itself. As you enter, four knights representing the armed forces with downtrodden faces guide you in. On the ceiling is a mosaic representing Jesus before the masses (on what occasion I don't recall). In the center is a 14C carving of the last supper and a gigantic wooden crucifix. This crucifix stands under the gigantic one on top. Further on is the Monk's Choir. This is used by the Benedictine Monastery on the other side of this piece of the rock. We drove around to the other side to take a look after we were done.
This place is all about size. Gigantic sculptures of Jesus, gigantic crosses, gigantic tapestries, gigantic. It overwhelms with size. The best part of it seems to be the view you get from the front patio and the stark realism that facism is bad. After this we drove to Segovia over a quite nice mountain pass. It was kind of cold up there.
Segovia is a great town. It has the coolest Roman Aqueduct we've seen, and posibly the best one out there. It looks beautiful and is actually functional (the backup water supply). It wasn't that late, so after checking into the hotel (and for the first time letting another person drive the car) we walked down to the aqueduct. We climbed up to the top, and after finageling up a few dangerous highs, I got a really cool photo showing the whole length of it with a bit of the internal plumbing visible. As we walked down and along the town we stopped by the most interesting carousel either of us had ever seen. It had a Jules Verne theme, with an octopus, a rocket that actually went up and down, a cello, and a pterodactyl skeleton. If they had those when I was young, I would love carousels.
7 May: Segovia, Spain
Segovia is a great town. We got up, had breakfast, and requested that our car be taken from the valet area (no parking downtown, just near the aqueduct). But for only 1000 pts a day, I don't really care. When the guy handed us the key, it had been about 20 minutes and I was quite perturbed. However I was to be welcomed by a throng of boys and young men ogling my car. I casually walk up and open the trunk with my key and watch them all ogle some more. Stacey and I put the bags in the trunk and before leaving, I make sure to give them a show by taking down the top from the car door. I stare at the faces on these guys as Stacey looks at me in my moment of Testosterone-laden bliss. We drive on amid cheers of "Que Bello," and I turn to Stacey. I'm grinning from ear to ear. Hehe
The drive to Toledo is more annoying than anything else. We have to go back to Madrid and take a bunch of strange turns. We get to Toledo and negotiate the trafic to find the parking garage near the Alcazar. Toledo, like Rome (or Somerville), is build amongst seven hills, and the old city is walled in and contains numerous small steep roads. We find our nice hotel near the main Square and check in. After a few relatively long days we get some well needed sleep.
8 May: Toledo, Spain
Got up in the morning without getting enough sleep. And this was one of the most packed days yet. We started off in the morning heading towards the car at the Alcazar. We couldn't figure out how to enter the building, and it only got 1 star, so we walked back through town to the Cathedral. The ticket you get includes one-time-only entry into four areas: the choir, the sacracy, the chapter room, and the treasury. Between 11 and 6 on this day, you can only enter the cathedral with the ticket. The day before, there was a prayer session against the killing of a prominent politician by ETA, the Basque Separatist Terrorist group.
Cathedral
The guidebook started off describing the cathedral with the phrase "¡Holy Toledo!" And he wasn't kidding. This place was gigantic Gothic, but the ornamentation was crazy. This is the first cathedral with a lot of dark wood, which makes it seem much more vibrant, and dusty. Most of the wood is inlayed with gold which makes all the carvings jump out.
The choir was the best we've seen yet. The bottom of the seats on the upper chairs include polychromatic grotesque carvings. I wrote down that it looked like stains that cause the color variations, but it may actually be different colored wood (like in El Escorial). Above were dark (as in never cleaned) alabaster arvigns of biblical figures. On the seatbacks of the lower chairs was an exquisite carving of the Christian victory at Granada. Due to lack of space, it wasn't as elaborate as the hall of battles (Escorial), but was impressive for the detail of the work and the survival over more than 4 centuries.
Next was the transparente, a large baroque window thrown into the gothic surroundings. Underneath this window was a large stucco carving of yet more biblical figures. The painting on the window and flowing from the window to the back of the choir below was rennaisance but a little more flamboyant. The light from the window shows through at noon to the aforementioned choir-back through a window in the middle of a marble carving of the virgin with child onto a holy relic. That's the holy relic of the cathedral, the identity of which I couldn't capture from the Spanish tour guide. Underneath the 30 ft high carving of the virgin with child is a marble floor of at least three colors with 6-sided stars.
Then the sacracy, which again, by itself, would make it an art destination, contained yet more masterpieces by El Greco, Raphael, Van Dyck, Goya, etc. At some point I'll stop being awed by all this art, but not yet. The El Greco's here were amazing; a painting of all of the apostles and evangelists, and the very famous Las Lágrimas de San Pedro. The look on the face of suffering and pain, whilst turning skyward for reflection and hope. It seems inconceivable that all that is communicated with two streaks of black paint. However, a earlier painting of the same thing in Granada by El Greco wasn't nearly as powerful. El Greco's painting of San Lucas was a self portrait, and was quite more pale than the other apostles and evangelists. After almost running down some nuns in full habit, I came across Tristan's Christ On Cross. Very different, showing Jesus in increadible suffering, with the man on the moon a bit more human than real. Stacey really liked Juan Bellini's Entierro de Cristo where the right arm conveyed in dramatic detail the dead and limp body. The ceiling was another impressive fresco with a picture of heaven with the name of God in Hebrew. The next room had some archbishopric vestiments, with an embroidered cape that caught Stacey's eye.
Then onto the Chapter Room. The Ceiling was a mudejar design with wood and gilded carvings in the shape of a notched out square (on all four sides). Along the walls were paintings of the Archbishops of Toledo from 103 CE to the present. The Tresury had some large pieces made of large amounts of gold, but the most interesting thing to me was the gift of a really lame glass sculpture to Toledo by Toledo de Ohio.
Santa Cruz Museum
After eating at the McDonald's in Plaza Zocodover, we headed to the Santa Cruz Museum. It was quite complicated to find, and once there we were greeted by free entry. This house, a 16th century masterpiece was beautiful and deserted. This museum didn't seem to contain much stuff. A few headstones, a quite interesting collection of religious tiles upstairs, and downstairs a bunch of stuff that seemed to come out of an old catholic churches basement. However, one room contained masterworks by all the big names. Many of the El Greco's (including Penitent St. Peter) were missing at a travelling exhibition in Grenada and Sevilla. Well, since it was free, we felt we could walk without haste to the Judería.
Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca
This is a 12C synagogue built in the Mudejar style, that was converted into a church in 1411. The ark was replaced with a gigantic altarpiece of the Virgin with Child (note a pattern). Most of the truly interesting things seemed to be locked away in the top of the place. Most of the columns were restored in the 20C, and all that was once Jewish was removed. All that seemed to remain was the moorish carvings and arches. However, they were unbelievably beautiful and well worth the admission.
Parenthetical aside. Turns out 1492 seems to be the only date in Spanish history you need to remember; final defeat of the Moors, expulsion of the Jews, Columbus discovers America. Pretty heady stuff for a single year. Although Napoleon wrecked enough havoc to make 1808 pretty important.
Burial of Count Orgaz
On the side street heading towards the main part of the Jewish corner is the Church of San Tomé. The only thing that this has is the El Greco masterwork the Burial of Count Orgaz. Possibly his most famous painting (including a self-portrait and one of his son), it costs a pretty penny to enter. Yet, it seems right to see a painting in the spot the painter intended. Actually, it moved walls in the burial chamber to better facilitate viewing without impacting the actual worshipers.
It is an extremely impressive painting. It depicts a burial of a count from the 14C who died and left most of his belongings to the church. Legend has it that two saints decended from heaven to help bury him. In the mid 1560s, the bequethment was being challenged by his subjects. When the church won the case, the priest ordered this as a commemoration of the burial. Each face is a portrait of its own. We stood for about 10 minutes taking it all in. It's one of the best things I've seen so far on this trip. No distractions, just art as
it was meant to be viewed.
El-Greco House and Museum
Entry to this was also free, probably due to the fact that many of the good ones were at that travelling exhibition. The best parts of this were the large painting of Toledo done by El Greco in the back, and the house itself. Although this is called El Greco's house, he never lived here. He lived in a house like it, and it was quite cosy and beautiful. Lots of courtyards and beautiful furniture. But the painting of Toledo was the main attraction. It was one of the only El Greco's I've seen that wasn't of a portrait. Well worth the price of admission.
Next was the other standing sinagogue and sephardic museum. Build in 1352, the style of this place was more ornate and loaded with Hebrew Carvings with mudejar (moorish) arches and carvings. The church this was eventually converted into Church used by monks. Starting in the 50s, they restored it back to its original state (more or less). In one of the courtyards, they show you part of an ongoing archeological excavation. The main hall is quite a bit to take in, and the loads of tourists were a mixed blessing. A artistic rendition of the hebrew alphabet, filled with cabalistic meaning, was the temporary exhibition. I thought my Dad would love it, so I took many pictures.
The museum itself isn't that good, however. Most of the religious objects are on loan from the Israeli Museum, and the English descriptions are paltry. However, one room on the side details the history of the Jews in Spain, and that was quite cool. The womens gallery had the best view and I took many pictures.
After that we were pretty much dead. We stumbled back to the hotel for a nap, and then out again for food. We went along the recommended street and found a place that was hopping. Then we asked for the restaurant, which was upstairs. The guy had to turn on the light. The food was good and comprised traditional Castilian cuisine: Sopa Castellana, Cochinillo Asado, Paella, and Horchata. Quite good. Then off to collapse.
9 May: La Mancha, Spain
Today we drove to Sevilla. On the way out of Toledo we found this crazy mall called Heron City. It was a truly 21C mall with a light show and a water show worthy of Disney. We ate at the Burger King here and bought a bunch of stuff at the VIPS. We got here around 1pm, and since nothing in Spain seems to start until noon, most of the places were closed. But we got our fill of snackies and drinks and went on our way.
La Mancha is called the Spanish Nebraska, and they are right. Excruciatingly boring drive and hot weather. Lots of bullboards and a few Tío Pepe signs along the way. But pretty much until you get to Córdoba, there's nothing to see. However, after my drives along the Mediterranean coast, and my big cross-US trip a few years ago, it went well.
Getting into Seville was easy. Finding a parking spot was impossible. We followed the handy signs to the hotel to find the hotel to be on an alleyway that was impossible to get to with our car. There wasn't a place to turn off for a long time, so we drove to a parking garage. To just get a map, we parked in a garage about 1km from our hotel. One hour later we ended up back in the same garage since all the others were full. We were both getting frustrated (although me more so) as we repacked ourstuff and carried it the 1200m to the hotel. Once in the hotel it got worse. We were staying in the Judería of Seville, which is filled with tiny passageways all alike. Once we found the hotel, we checked in and our hotel was in the annex. Las Cases de la Judería the hotel is called. Annex my foot.
A very helpful gentleman who spoke little english but a very clear and fast Spanish took us down the alleyway to a doorman who opened a door for us. Then we crossed a corridor to reach a street. At the street we turned right. There was a nice courtyard with a beautiful fountain on the left, he mentioned we might want to take a picture. Then about 50 paces down he showed us the concierge/reception desk for the "annex." Over the next year they are going to buy a few more Casas and convert them into hotels. Then we make a left turn onto a side street and after a little bit more we encounter an unnumbered gate. This is our hotel. After waving to the camera to be buzzed in, he leads us up two floors to the room. Inside the room there are two small beds in one room and a very nice living room. The room is quite nice, except that we really have no idea how we got here. This reconstruction is based on reading a large map using a magnifying glass.
At this point we were both quite pissed, tired, and angry. On the way to get a little food, we stopped at an internet place to comment on the website about how much we hated Seville. It was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, but here is my opinion. Do not drive in the south of Spain. When I come back to this place, and I will, I will take the train. In fact, I have another trip planned out for a bit. Starting in Bordeaux, go around the coast to Lisbon, then Andalucía and Gibraltar, then up through the riviera.
Then we headed back to the hotel and opened the mini-bar and went to town. Three beers and a bunch of snacks later, we were able to get some sleep without the urge to strangle.
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