And so I come to the end of my A to Z of balconies and finish in the delightful city of Zamora in Northern Spain.
Zamora is only a small city for a provincial capital, close to the border with Portugal and situated on the river Duero (Duoro in Portugal) and most famous for having the greatest number of Romanesque churches of any city in Europe.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Castilla y Leon, Culture, Hotel Conventa Spa, León, Life, statues, Zamo
When it comes to taking pictures I like doors, statues, balconies and washing lines, Kim on the other hand likes people pictures so I thought I might share a few of them with you.
This one was taken in the Spanish village of Carmona in Cantabria…
Carmona is a delightfully quaint village with tiny cobbled streets with wild flower verges and where sunlight spilled into the dark corners of the workshops where traditional wood carvers were busy making customary products of cattle yokes, sandals, clogs, canes, and cutlery which, I am told, are distinctive to rural Cantabria.
I say that in a slightly cynical way because I got the impression that there isn’t really a great deal of tradition here and that whilst a man was busy whittling wood in an open barn for the benefit of the tourists there was probably a factory somewhere full of modern drills and lathes where the products for sale were being produced for sale to the coach loads of visitors who visit daily.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Motoring west once more on the Autovia del Cantabria the rain stopped and the sun came out again and after a few kilometres we left the motorway for the village of Liendo to find our accommodation. As usual this wasn’t that easy and we made a couple of circuits of the sleepy streets and tried to understand directions given to us in impenetrable Spanish before we chanced upon it hiding behind a high stone wall and with only a very discreet sign to identify it.
We were staying at the small Posada La Torre de la Quintana, which was a converted stone mansion with an impressive façade and surrounded by carefully manicured gardens. And we were delighted with our choice of accommodation, which was rustic and authentic and we were lucky to have the best suite in the hotel complete with a glass fronted balcony.
Posted in Europe, History, Literature, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies of Spain, Cantabria, Castilla y Leon, Laredo, Liendo, Life, Photography, Travel
On 11th March 2009 it was the final day of a driving vacation to central Spain. We had visited the cities of Cuenca, Toledo and Avila and finished in Segovia. On the final day we were taking a drive across the mountains back to Madrid,
We stopped first at the Royal palace of San Ildifonso o la Granga…
The Royal Palace is set in extensive gardens in the French style of Versailles that was built for Philip V in the early eighteenth century and remains today an official residence of the King of Spain. The Spanish Royal family used to like to leave Madrid in the baking hot summer months and take up residence in the mountains where the climate is cooler and more agreeable and looking around the place it was easy to see why.
Posted in Europe, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Castilla y Leon, Life, Madrid, Photography, Rascafia, San Ildefonso, Spain Royal Family, Travel
The seven hundred year period between 722 and 1492 has long been known to historians of Spain as the ‘Reconquista’ and the Spanish have organised their medieval history around the drama of this glorious event which over time has become a cherished feature of the self-image of the Spanish people.
Posted in Africa, Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Babieca, Burgos, Castilla y Leon, Cordoba, El Cid, Gladiator, La Tizona, Moors in Spain, Reconquista
While the current travel restrictions are in place I have no new stories to post so what I thought that I would do is to go through my picture archives and see where I was on this day at any time in the last few travelling years.
On 23rd May 2013 in was in the Spanish City of Burgos in Castilla y Leon…
This is the City of the Spanish hero El Cid, and here is warrior statue looking fearsome with his grizzled beard, wild cloak flowing madly, his sword La Tizona, too big for an ordinary mortal extended menacingly ahead of him, his eyes fixed ferociously on an enemy army as he led a charge against the Moors sat on his magnificent famous white horse Babieca.
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Alvar Fanez de Minaya, Burgos, Caminho de Santiago, Castilla y Leon, Culture, El Cid, Life, Saint James the Moor Slayer
This is the last (for the time being) of my favourite places in Spain…
“Sometimes the Spaniard will resent your attempts to use it (Spanish). Sometimes he believes it to physically impossible for an alien to understand it. Sometimes he cannot actually convince himself that you are speaking it…” Jan Morris – ‘Spain’
“Catedral?” I enquired and the poor man (victim) that I had selected just stared back at me with an expressionless face as though I was a visitor from the planet Mars. So I tried again but this time, remembering that upside down question mark thing at the beginning of the sentence I tried to sound a bit more Spanish, “¿Catedral?” but his face went so blank that I thought that he had surely died from shock and premature rigor mortis had set in.
I don’t know if you agree but I have to say that Catedral sounds a bit like Cathedral to me so I don’t know why this was so difficult but his solution was to call someone else over who was an obviously educated man who spoke excellent English and with optimism I tried again “¿Catedral?”
To my horror he adopted exactly the same blank face as the first man so I tried again in various different accents and voice inflections. “¿Cat-edral?” “¿Catedraaal?” “¿Caaatedral?” Nothing, Nothing, Nothing. I really could not understand why this should be so difficult.
If a Spanish man came up to me in Lincoln and asked for directions to the Cathedral, however he might pronounce it, I am fairly sure that I could make out what he was asking for! Eventually I gave up, added the Anglo-Saxon h sound and just asked in English for directions to the Cathedral and amazingly I immediately made myself understood and the man smiled and said “Ah, Catedral!” which, I am fairly certain is exactly what I said in the first place and then having cleared up this little confusing matter he went on to give very clear and very precise directions on how to find it.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Canal de Castilla, Canal du Midi, Castilla y Leon, Culture, Life, Paencia, Plaza Mayor, Spanish language
Last time in my favourite places in Spain I was in the tourist town of Ronda in Andalusia in the South, today I am three hundred and fifty miles north through sun-baked Extremadura and into iron-hard Castilla y Leon.
After several hours of motoring we came to Ciudad Rodrigo, which is the last city in Spain before reaching Portugal, a fortress city built to protect the western border of the country and as we approached we could see the walled castle and its fortifications standing proud and defiant on a rocky outcrop in a commanding defensive position.
Gone now are the whitewashed Pueblos Blancos, the click of the castanets, the flash of flamenco and the swirl of the matador’s cape because there is a demarcation line in Spain roughly along the line of latitude of Madrid which divides the country in two, to the north the environment becomes harsher, the landscape is more severe and the towns and cities are made of stone.
Click on an image to scroll to scroll through the gallery…
And some views of the Rio Agueda from our hotel room…
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Literature, Natural Environment, Portugal, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Castilla y Leon, Castles of Spain, Ciudad Rodrigo, Culture, Life, Peninsular War, Portugal
I am sharing with you some of my favourite places in Spain; I started with Santillana del Mar in Cantabria and close by are the mountain villages of Bárcena Mayor and Carmona.
After an hour or so we left the main road and took a minor route into the mountains where the fields became smaller, the grass became greener and the sky seemed a great deal closer as we drove past verges of wild flowers sheltering under the dry stone walls, soaring buzzards and occasional herds of the horses of Cantabria as we climbed high into the clouds, way above the snow line with strips of ice clinging defiantly to the crevices where the sun didn’t reach.
Bárcena Mayor is said to be the oldest town in Cantabria and was declared a historic-artistic site in 1979. Because of this designation it is now one of the most visited places in Cantabria as tour buses fill the road and the edge of town car park but it was quiet enough today and we walked through the pretty medieval stone streets and houses with wooden balconies and washing lines in a hanging mist which added to the character and the charm of the place.
Click on an image to scroll through the Gallery…
Alcalá de Henares completed our road trip around central Spain. Thanks to everyone who joined me on the circumnavigation of Madrid, next time in Iberia I will head further north into Castilla y Leon and towards the Northern Kingdoms.
Before that I am going to visit some historical sites in France…
… And then I am going to Naples in Italy…
… As always you are welcome to join me…
Posted in Cathedrals, El Cid, Europe, History, Natural Environment, Postcards, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Bugos, Castilla y Leon, Salamanca, Valladolid, Zamora
