Spain

Córdoba Plaque

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A sonnet by Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627), one of the great poets of the Spanish Golden Age and a native of Córdoba. The city places this poem on several buildings as a kind of literary homage:

¡Oh excelso muro, oh torres coronadas
de honor, de majestad, de gallardía!
¡Oh gran río, gran rey de Andalucía,
de arenas nobles, ya que no doradas!

¡Oh fértil llano, oh sierras levantadas
que privilegia el cielo y dora el día!
¡Oh siempre gloriosa patria mía,
tanto por plumas cuanto por espadas!

Si entre aquellos despojos y ruinas
que ennoblece el genio y dora el Baena,
tu memoria no fue alimento mío,

nunca merezcan mis ausentes ojos
ver tu muro, tus torres y tu río,
tu llano y sierra, ¡oh patria, oh flor de España!

Meaning

Góngora is lavishly praising Córdoba:

  • its walls and towers (Roman and medieval legacy),

  • the Guadalquivir River (“great river, great king of Andalusia”),

  • the fertile plains and surrounding sierras,

  • and Córdoba’s glory in culture and warfare (“by pens as much as by swords”).

 

Then and Now – Spaghetti Westerns

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Somewhere deep in the deserts of Spain scenes like this were filmed,

Here, Lee Van Cleef was very upset and probably wanted to kill someone.

Today, the situation is hardly any different,

I took this snap on the “down low” because the Spanish lady who was drying her clothes SNARLED at me as I walked by.

Sadly, as far as I can tell, the residents of Los Albaricoques in Spain are NOT happy to have tourists in their town. It is a small town – and a poor one, by the looks of the infrastructure and tremendous trash all over the village. Oddly, there are new signs directing tourists to the key points where scenes in movies were shot. But I could see no benefits to the tourists, except for the many disruptions and “gawkers” this brought into their lives.

Morella

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Valencia, Spain, is the home of the majestic Valencian language – although  most people know its dialectical form, Catalan, somewhat better. And deep in the Valencian countryside sits a hill, and high on the hill sits the medieval village of Morella. The village dates back to Roman times, and in fact it is surrounded by ancient Roman aquaducts:

It’s one of those difficult places to capture photographically, just because it is so big and impressive. But what I remember the most was thinking what it must have been like for the Romans living here, raising their children in the hopes they become great Roman Legionnaires, warriors, fierce gladiators, or lion hunters.

Today, the situation with children is a bit different: the swords are gone, none of them has slaughtered a wild animal, and instead these children are sitting and playing Nintendo.

My passion when I travel is to identify those local things, well known in a place but unheard of outside of it. In this part of Spain, this would have to be flaons,

The amazing roundabouts in Barcelona

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If you’ve ever spent time driving around Europe, you’ll notice a few trends that depend on geographic location.  One of those trends is that, the farther south you drive towards Spain, the more lanes the roundabouts will have.

Roundabouts in Northern Germany is likely to have no more than a single lane.

Roundabouts in Northern and Central France are likely to have two lanes.

Roundabouts in South France are likely to have three lanes.

But once you cross into Spain all bets are off, and as this snap shows, the roundabouts can have many, many lanes:

 

L’Albufera de València

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Geologically speaking, these things are not uncommon. A river or estuary that empties into a saltwater sea will sometimes form a lagoon. Over time, the sediment causes the lagoon to become a closed lake, and the water changes from saltwater to freshwater.

That’s what happened here, just south of Valencia in Spain, not too long ago, in the 17th century, L’Albufera de València:

Today it is a wonderful, relaxing place to visit – especially in the warm Spanish evenings.

 

You can see a wonderful old map I discovered hanging in the local village bar.

The small villages are connected to the lake by a series of narrow canals:

By the way, the astute reader will notice that I wrote L’Albufera de València, which is the Valencian language version of the Spanish La Abufera de Valencia.  My Valencian friends tell me that Catalan, although somewhat more well known, is a dialect of Valencian.

Were medieval cities planned?

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It seems unreasonable to think that the streets in medieval cities were somehow planned. But when I travel through medieval cities, I can’t help but notice the large number of small streets that are optimally laid out to frame a view of the large, central cathedral.

This one is Santiago de Compostella, in Spain (from which you can see the Cathedral of St. XXX):

This one is Mulhouse, in Alsace, France (from which you can see the Cathedral of St. Etienne):

 

And this one is Paradeplatz, in Zurich, Switzerland (from which you can see both the Grossmünster and Frauenmünster cathedrals):

Is this just coincidence – or are these cathedrals and towers visible because they were designed to be visible?

Prime Meridian in Spain

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The Prime Meridian is the universal definition of 0-degrees longitude  – but did you know that until recently, there were different prime meridians in use, such as the Greenwich PM and the Paris PM?  I only learned this a few minutes ago, when posting this picture I took on the AP-2 highway, near Candasnos Spain between Zaragoza and Barcelona:

You can see the Cypress trees on both side of the arch, which are a well known sight in southern Europe.

It is wonderful that the Spanish would build an arch – but it is a bit sad they didn’t also add a turnoff, so that you could stop and enjoy the moment less fleetingly.