Ten years ago today we were staying in the delightful town of Santillana del Mar in Northern Spain.
There is apparently an old saying that Santillana del Mar is The Town of Three Lies, since it is neither a Saint (Santo), nor flat (llana) and has no sea (Mar) as implied by the town’s name. However, the name actually derives from Santa Juliana (or Santa Illana) whose remains are in the kept in the Colegiata, a Romanesque church and former Benedictine monastery.
Posted in Cantabria, El Cid, Food, History, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Cantabria, Cantabrian Mountains, Culture, Jean Paul Satre, Life, Santillana del Mar, Spain Festival
I began this series of posts about Entrance Tickets in April 2014 and this was one of the early ones. I cannot really explain why but I have always kept my Entrance Tickets and they remain safely stored in a travel memory box.
The series of posts cannot go on much longer however. I am running out of material, not because I no longer visit places when I am travelling but because so many places no longer issue paper tickets. Booking is done on line and instead of a ticket there is a QR code on a mobile phone to swipe through a scanner.
I like the feel of a ticket, I like told it between my fingers and judge the quality, this one at Cordoba was especially fine and then I like to carefully put it in between the pages of my guide book to make sure that it doesn’t get creased.
I think that this is rather a shame. Places generally need to be booked in advance with an allocated time slot. It is no longer possible to wander up to a entrance booth, hand over cash and receive a nice shiny Entrance Ticket in exchange. Somehow it takes the spontaneity out of city break travel, everything has to be done according to a timetable.
Posted in Africa, Arts and Crafts, El Cid, Europe, History, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Andalusia, Antequera, Cordoba, Culture, El Cid, Parador Hotels, Photography, Reconquista, Travel
Leaving the market it occurred to us that we had practically done everything there was to do in Sigüenza and it was only just past lunch time so we walked to the railway station to see if there was any possibility of catching a train to another city on our ‘to visit’ list, Zaragoza.
The station was curiously quiet, there were no staff on duty and the main hall was being used by a group of small boys playing indoor football. We found a timetable but it revealed a train service so infrequent that it was practically useless so we abandoned that idea and decided to drive to nearby Atienza instead.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, El Cid, History, Hotels, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Atienza, Castilla-La Mancha, Palm Sunday, Plaza Mayor, Ruta de Don Quixote, Sigüenza, Spain postcards
Oviedo is only a small city, only just scraping into the top twenty largest cities in Spain and it isn’t even the largest in Asturias so it didn’t take that long to walk around the historical centre and after a brief stay we continued our drive south.
Posted in Cantabria, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Asturias, Cantabrian Mountains, Castilla y Leon, Culture, Life, Lyon, Mountains, Oviedo
For a small town the cathedral is an immense building and one of the most important late Romanesque buildings in Spain which was built to symbolise the power of Bishop Don Bernardo who began construction in the twelfth century. It has three naves and a main chapel with an ambulatory and a dome and around the outer walls are a series of commemorative chapels which reads like a who’s who of the local campaigns of the Reconquista.
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, History, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Atienza, ‘el doncel de Sigüenza’, Cathedral of Siguenza, Culture, Don Martín Vázquez de Arce, El Cid, Life, Sigüenza
“It gave me vertigo to imagine what it must be like living up there, a permanent aviator above the trees” Ted Walker – ‘In Spain’
Posted in Arts and Crafts, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, Hanging Houses, Life, Photography, Travel
El Cid is the national hero Spain, the knight who reclaimed Iberia from the Moors of North Africa. He was born (nearby) and buried in Burgos and the modern city doesn’t let you forget it.
The Puente de San Pablo (San Pablo Bridge) is the most famous in Burgos, crossing the Arlanzón River in the spot where the San Pablo gate to the city used to stand.
The bridge is decorated with statues of nobleman and famous sons from Castille, including El Cid and his warrior allies and also his wife, Doña Ximena Díaz.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Burgos, El Cid, medieval weapons, Poema de Mio Cid, Reconquista, Ximena
In my A to Z, W and X were difficult and Y has been no easier. This is a hotel balcony in Segovia in Castilla y Leon in Spain…
We were staying at the Sercotel Infanta Isabel and we had one of the best rooms in the hotel on the second floor with a perfect view of the Plaza Mayor lined with cafés and bars and with the Cathedral directly opposite.
As it went dark it was nice to sit and watch the square melting from afternoon into evening with plenty of sociable activity. There were lots of Segovians walking out in families and we joined them in the busy streets and looked for somewhere to eat.
Click on an image to view the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Hotels, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Life, Photography, Roman Empire, Segovia, Travel
Hopefully we are on the countdown to overseas travel but until that happy event happens I continue to trawl through the archives. On 11th April 2014 I was in the town of Sigüenza in Spain…
It was raining so we took our time over breakfast and it was mid morning by the time we left the hotel and there was a simple choice – up the hill to the Alcazar or down the hill to the Cathedral. We decided to start at the top of the town and make our way to the bottom.
Lined on each side with caramel coloured houses with terracotta tiled roofs, the Calle de Valencia followed the line of the old medieval town wall and half way to the castle we passed through the Puerto del Porto Mayor which was once the main gateway into the narrow streets of the old town and from here there was a final twisting climb to the Plaza del Castillo and the inevitable Parador Hotel.
Due to geography, tradition and culture, Antequera is called the heart of Andalucía and was once considered as a suitable candidate as a base for the regional government but it eventually and inevitably lost out to Seville.
It is a delightful town with a castle and a cathedral and tiny narrow streets where balconies spill over with flowers. Andalucía does wonderful balconies.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Andalucía, Andalusia, Antequera, Culture, El Cid, Life, Reconquesta, Ronda
Have Bag, Will Travel 