Madrid: My trip started poorly, early on March 19, when for 2 hours I was stuck on a plane on the tarmac of the airport in my home town, Tucson.  After returning to the departure gate to disembark, we learned the destination airport in Dallas had closed several runways for excessive wind. That put my arrival in Dallas back by hours, thus missing my next connection to Heathrow, London. Upon arrival in Dallas the airline, American, texted me that they had changed my flight to a later one going direct to Madrid. I wound up in Madrid 3 hours early – Amazing. A day later I read the news that Heathrow was totally shut down for days due to a fire, occurring just hours after my connection was originally scheduled there, thus had I still been routed through Heathrow I might have been stranded in London for an unknown number of days. Wow. I have had, at least 3 times, major international flight disruptions in the past, but this could have been the worst. I arrived in Madrid so early that I could not re-book my airport pick-up and transfer to my central apartment, so had to use the metro subway system with my luggage in tow, which was very crowded as usual.

The Spain apartment was nice, just two blocks south of the city central Sol Plaza, and dead in the middle of the highest concentration of tapas bars and dining in Madrid. I was pretty much out-of-it the first day due to the 8-hour time change, but was fine after several glasses of red wine, a meal and 11 hours of sleep.

Daily, on the Jacinto Plaza just a half block south of my apartment, gathered the usual groups of young black men, undocumented migrants from across the Mediterranean, with their knockoff items for sale (t shirts and purses); they work in large groups – some always on the lookout – with their items spread on sheets with the four corners tied to rope cords held by the men. When the national police make their routine appearances, the men pull up the ropes, enclosing the fake goods in the sheets now slung over their shoulders, then take off running.

Cadiz: On Wednesday I took the train from Atocha Station to Cadiz – it was not an Ave highest speed train, but still plowed along at 160 Km/Hr (100 mph) on the high-speed rail system – past Sevilla on older tracks it slowed to about 80 mph. I last visited Cadiz in 2012 and arrived then just before they held a grand prix motorcycle race, so the town was packed and I only could get a room for 2 nights. This trip I booked 5 days, and had time to look around. Cadiz is the oldest continuously occupied city in the Western world. It became the major Western port of the Phoenicians around 800BC, then became the major Western port for the Romans around 100BC, and finally became the major sailing port for several hundred years for all Spanish trade with the New World – Columbus sailed from here on his second voyage. The old town used to be an island 3,000 years ago, now lying entirely on a circular peninsula of about 1 mile in diameter, with only a very narrow tongue of land connecting it to the marshy mainland. Most streets really are passageways, pushing traffic pretty much to the exterior. Stone bulwarks still form much of the sea walls, defensive against pirate attacks during the trade with the New World. Cadiz now is visited almost daily by giant cruise ships – the main squares fill with tourists during the day. The ships sail in and out at night.

I visited the Cadiz Museum again. The terrific art gallery was closed for repairs, but the Archaeological section was open, and I once more was awed by the Phoenician artifacts from the period when “Gadir” was the major Eastern port – from about 800 to 300 BC. Here are displayed the two astounding sarcophagi from the 5^th Century BC, each weighing about 4000 lbs. and carved from marble mined in the Greek Cyclades Islands. Also displayed, the fine 5^th C BC terracotta Phoenician Gaditanas in emulation of the Goddess Astarte.

My apartment was 4th floor with balcony doors opening onto the cathedral square, with views of the Eastern Cathedral tower and the crowds below. After the Burmese earthquake, I woke occasionally at night with fear of an isolated earthquake (the town is earthquake prone) because my building was falling apart. It had dangerously steep and narrow stairs up to my 4^th floor apartment, with no lights at night (I used a flashlight). The interior of the apartment itself was new and quite nice, but the building’s stairwell and outer interior walls were in bad repair. I believe the owner is an elderly lady who lives on the ground floor. I was checked in by, I think, a son-in-law. Booking.com does not give that type of detail.

Sanlucar de Barrameda: I traveled by bus from Cadiz north to Sanlucar, a smaller port town where the Guadalquivir River (which flows through Cordoba and Sevilla) flows into the Atlantic. Magellan’s voyage, the first to circumnavigate the world, sailed from and returned to Sanlucar. Today, the Guadalquiver River has silted up the port and so it no longer can handle larger ships. It is surrounded by marshes and a national park for bird-life; unfortunately, the ferry boat to cross the river to the park is permanently closed. The great fort also is closed for repairs, leaving not a lot to do or see in Sanlucar. Still a delightful town, full of tabancos and sherry cellars, with a couple of better than decent Indian restaurants. My Hotel Barrameda is lovely, with patios covered with tiles, and a roof-top outdoor area with fabulous views over the Plaza Cabildo with its fountains and tapas bars.

Tomorrow I travel a short distance inland to Jerez, the great center of sherry bodegas, with the wonderful but strong white finos. Till later. Dave

I took a local bus from Sanlucar on the Atlantic to Jerez, the town which originated and gave its name to the fortified wine known as sherry. It is a pretty town with a wonderful cathedral and Alcazar (fort). I last spent some time at one of the tabancos (sherry houses) with the owner who spent a great deal of time explaining to me how all the various types of sherry are produced (these include “fino”, “oloroso” and “Pedro Ximenez” among others). Personally, I have found I prefer the dry fino of Cordoba, which cannot be called a sherry because it is not produced in the township of Jerez (similar to permitting the names “Tequila” or “Cognac” only for that produced in the region).

I took the train from Jerez to Cordoba, an Alvia train which “only” travels at 275 kph rather than 320 kph as does the Ave (for the metrically challenged that is only 170 mph). I have written many times over the years about Cordoba, which for a time challenged Mecca as the most important holy city of Islam in the 9^th to 12^th Centuries. The great mosque, the “Mezquita”, at its current size covers almost 6 acres, and, of course, is a World Heritage Site. As I have written much in the past, I will not repeat here the many attractions of Cordoba. I did, as usual, eat a number of plates of Berenjenas a la Cordobesa, deep fried thin slices of eggplant drizzled with honey; I also ordered many times the famous local Salmorejo Cordobes, a cold tomato, bread, garlic and olive oil mix blended into a thick consistency and garnished with hard-boiled egg and bacon crumbles.

My last report included two photos of me seated with refreshment – one with a local red wine and the other with a Spanish beer. The attached photos below include yet another such pic, but this one with the Cordoban fino – just so you know the photos are varied.

As I on this trip have been doing less photography and tourist site visits, I have made it a “reading” trip. I started with Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, translated to English in the 19^th century by Ormsby (considered by scholars as the most faithful translation, and by me as the best because the use of 19^th century scholarly English I think best captures the scholarly old Spanish of Cervantes). I have finished Part 1, and am halfway through Part 2; I find the first more enjoyable and much funnier – the second is drier and seems to me a little more plodding. All in all, the book is one of the longest and most widely read and translated classics in existence. I checked an online source (reliability uncertain) where the claim is the book only is about 20% shorter than War and Peace, perhaps the longest classic ever. Anyway, a number of the stories had me laughing out loud. Sancho telling the story of the shepherd trying to cross the river still makes me chuckle every time I think of it.

I also have just finished reading a translation of “Lazarillo de Tormes”, author unknown, published about 40 years before Don Quixote and referenced by Cervantes. Lazarillo is from Salamanca where the story begins, and has a famous scene at the huge carved rock bull (a “veraco”, one of pre-Roman stone carvings found in central Spain) which still stands at the beginning of the Roman bridge over the Tormes River. Lazarillo perhaps is the second best known ancient Spanish novel, much shorter than Don Quixote, and the writing set the design for “picaresque” novels where the protagonists basically are lovable scoundrels (Huckleberry Finn is such a work).

Finally, I also brought Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” to read a second time when, and if, I go to Pamplona, where Hemingway wrote much of the book sitting in the Café Iruna where I also like to sit and drink beer on the main plaza. I am reading also crime and sci fi novels but they do not relate to my travels.

I now am in Salamanca spending 2 weeks in a lovely 2-bedroom apartment, with 6 glass doors opening onto balconies over the Plaza Sesmeros and the 12^th century church San Julian & Santa Basilisa. The weather for two days has been almost freezing, with on and off sleet or small hail showers and high winds – the reports say it should start clearing today and get warmer and more spring like. Later. Dave

I last wrote that in Salamanca I had rented, for 2 weeks, a 2-bedroom completely refurbished apartment inside a 16^th century Renaissance building by the Plaza Mayor and Market; I was looking for the first week to see numerous “Pasos” (floats), where the devout “cofradias” (brotherhoods) solemnly parade through the narrow streets and alleys, day and night to the beat of somber drums, carrying the huge decorated wooden floats with scenes mostly of Jesus’ suffering and death; these somber celebrations are famous in Spain and have occurred for hundreds of years for Easter week.  Unfortunately, the entire week up to Easter Sunday noon, was non-stop frigid rain and heavy sleet with blustery winds howling through the narrow streets (at sea these would be called squalls). Basically, all processions were cancelled as they started, as they could not carry the heavy and ornately decorated floats in the wind and rain. What a disappointment. Then Sunday noon it cleared, and the weather was spectacular for the week after Easter. Bad luck for the processions. With no current Pasos’ photos, I have included below a photo of a photo board the Salamanca tourist agency posted on the Rua Mayor to show tourists and locals alike what to expect.

With the heavy rains which have covered much of South Western-Central Spain, the Rio Tormes had crested at a very high level but not done any damage, and provided beautiful views across to the ancient cathedrals. Everywhere were a dozen varieties of Spring flowers in bloom, including my Mediterranean favorites the blood red wild poppy blooms. I previously wrote that I was reading a number of books this trip related to my destinations. So – speaking of the Rio Tormes, I finished the short ancient book Lazarillo de Tormes, written anonymously and published in 1554, which features Salamanca as the original start of the tale. There is now a new bronze statue of Lazarillo and his first blind master at the start of the Roman bridge over the Rio Tormes, just behind the 2,500-year-old stone bull which features early in the story. I have also now finished both parts of the very long Don Quixote by Cervantes, first part published in 1605, which refers to the book Lazarillo. Although I have seen some scholars claiming the second part of Cervantes’ tale, published in 1615, as superior, I totally disagree. The first part is ever so much cleverer and amusing; the second part for me was a bit of a drag and unfunny. (I need to mention again, I have tried on occasion to read bits of both books in the original Spanish, but the Spanish is very ancient and dense, and so one must search for the best of dozens of translations.)

My apartment had, of the total six balconies, two glass paneled doors and balconies over the small Sexmeros Plaza with its water fountain. I used Perplexity AI to try and determine the origin of the name “Sexmeros” – the AI answer was, that though there was no current translation or information, the Romans when in Salamanca had a form of taxation called “Sexmos”, and the AI thought it likely that my Plaza was named by the Romans for the location of this tax collection, and the name has survived 2,000 years even though no one currently knows or remembers the origin – I find this interesting.

As with Cordoba, I have lived in and traveled to Salamanca numerous times in the past 22 years, and have reported extensively on the town’s history and structures, so will refrain from repeating here.

The exchange rate for buying the Euro with US dollars has increased exactly 10% since I made my trip plans and bought the air tickets. All the other payments such as lodging, food and train travel are current so my trip now is costing 10% more than anticipated.

I traveled by regional bus from Salamanca to Ciudad Rodrigo shortly after noon on April 28. Nothing out of the ordinary presented itself until arrival in Ciudad Rodrigo. I went to two different restaurants near the bus station – both had outside tables crowded with local workers – but was told no hot food was available and I was not allowed inside. Confused, I assumed the restaurants ran out of their specials, and walked to my hotel. There I found the young girl behind the counter giddy with trying to explain that all of Europe was without power in a massive cyber strike. Well, that was the beginning of the total blackout for all of Spain and Portugal and southern parts of France, and also the beginning of rampant speculation and misinformation. Small, ancient, fortified Ciudad Rodrigo had no traffic lights or elevators or underground metro, or trains, or traffic – bottom line I managed to find an open fruit vegetable stand and bought some provisions and wine, then sat on my outside balcony until evening when power came back on at 7pm. The larger cities had chaos for 2 days with the entire shutdown of the underground metro systems, traffic controls, elevators ( I read Madrid had over a thousand elevator evacuations) and trains (I heard Spain had over 200 trains stranded in between towns and in need of evacuations), etc. I realized how primitive things seemed with no power, meaning no TV news, no internet, no cellular phone service, no messaging. Basically, no idea of what was going on until power was restored.

Ciudad Rodrigo dates to before Roman times, but is most remarkable for its 35-foot tall, 40 foot-thick walls and ramparts which completely surround the ancient parts of the small city. Just beyond the walls, trenching drops down another 15 feet or so, which trenches then are surrounded by secondary walls. It seems impenetrable, but modern warfare (19^th Century) cannons made all the difference. An early battle occurred here in 1814 when Sir Wellington’s forces took out Napolean’s French forces by use of days of cannon fire which ultimately breached the 40-foot thick walls. The town’s 13^th century cathedral sits just inside the Northwestern walls, and Wellington’s forces fired perhaps thousands of cannon rounds to breach the walls near the Cathedral. Many of the rounds went just over the top of the walls, and the front of the Cathedral is pockmarked from the battering.

My first day was dark, and my third day was heavy rain all day, so unfortunately, I had only one nice day of exploration, but the fortified town is so small I made it around both the upper walls and lower walls, as well as getting semi-lost on the numerous winding alleys and streets.

I currently am in Valladolid for 4 days, then will travel for the first time ever to Oviedo in the Northwest. Later. Dave

First, a general report on the weather. I expected some rain in March when I arrived, but by now I have experienced rain on a majority of days I have been in Spain, in all parts of the country and through mid-May. I checked AI and was told Spain is experiencing, in some cases, record rainfall this year. May normally is lovely Spring weather with wildflowers, but only occasional rain. This year it seems to have rained most days, with only an occasional couple of sunny days in a row. Sort of discouraging. Now in Burgos it finally is blue sky and warm.

I visited for the first time the Museo Nacional de las Esculturas, or Sculpture Museum, in Valladolid. What a marvel. The building was the Colegio de San Gregorio, a Renaissance masterpiece, particularly the entrance and the inner courtyard. The sculptures, which actually include early oil paintings on wood and Roman mosaics, cover times from Rome through the post-Renaissance. Huge rooms full of complete carved and painted altar pieces from a number of now crumbled monasteries and churches. I don’t know how I missed this must-see my last visit to Valladolid a year and half ago.

As I wrote extensively fairly recently on Valladolid, I will pass on repeating its cultural charms now.

I have been traveling in Spain for 22 years, and have enjoyed photographing and studying the architectural styles, particularly that of old churches, from Visigoth times through Baroque. I have noticed, though never really researching, the lack of churches between the Visigoth Kingdom ending in the early 8^th Century and the Romanesque style commencing in the 10^th Century. In Oviedo, capital of Asturias, I finally was made aware of why this gap period exists. The Moors defeated the Visigoth Kingdom in 712, so ending the Visigoth architecture period – the Moors conquered almost all of the Iberian Peninsula but failed, fully, to conquer the Kingdon of Asturias. It was from Asturias the Reconquest commenced, so in Oviedo there exist several palaces and churches architecturally labeled Pre-Romanesque (I think the label “post-Visigothic” would have been a more accurate label for the Spanish style). The major examples of pre-Romanesque were constructed early in the 9^th Century by King Alfonso II, who defeated the Moors. I have photographed 4 major examples, pics included below, all commenced under the reign of Alfonso II in Asturias, which clearly show the continuation of the Visigoth style of columns and capitals, but also showing the general shape of the naves and columned windows presaging the Romanesque.

Oviedo is famous (I just found out) for its family-owned cider businesses, where they grow the apples, crush them and ferment the cider to about 6% alcohol and with natural carbonation. The cider then is bottled in 700ml bottles and corked and sent to the dozens of Cidrerias (cider bars) in Oviedo, most of which are along a single steep 2 block long street running uphill (unless you have started from the other end). The bottles cost about $5 and are uncorked and then poured only a swallow at a time. The waiters constantly come around to the table or bar to pour an inch into your glass – the pours are made holding the bottle as high as can be reached, with the glass held in the other hand as low as possible. The waiter never looks at the bottle or the glass, but stairs straight ahead to be able to see both the bottle and glass at the same time out of corners of the eyes (see pic). The cider hitting the glass foams greatly, and is to be downed immediately before the foam disappears, said foam to add to the the fragrance. All I know is the pours are not terribly accurate – the wet tiles and floor splashes witness the same. I found the cider to be rather sour, and so prefer red wines or beer.

Also, once again, as in so many Spanish towns, the squares and street corners just are popping with bronze statues, not on pedestals, but situated as if living people. I have included several of my favorite statues in the pics. My all-time favorite bronze has to be the one on a street corner in Oviedo, with a plaque dedicated to “Rufo”, the yellow lab – his head bright shiny from the petting of thousands of hands of those passing by (see pic below). From bronzes switch to street corner ads – in Spain some are pretty wild – check the photo below of the ad for a hamburger joint (I guess sexy can sell hamburgers too; years ago I published a photo of a Burger King Spanish billboard advertising an “extra-long” burger- 3 patties lined up on a hoagy bun, with the caption “Impresiona a las Chicas”).

The Museo Bellas Artes in Oviedo is nice, containing examples of paintings by Zurbaran, El Greco, Miranda and Goya as well as modern art by Picasso, Dali and Miro (works of the last of these may be well known, but never have impressed me). I was delighted to recognize the scene in a wonderful 19^th century painting as being imagined from the 400-year-old book “Lazarillo de Tormes” (which I just read while in Salamanca), where Lazarillo sneaks wine from his abusive blind master through the use of a straw (pic below).

On Monday I took a train to Leon, and from there on to Pamplona – the scene of most of the action in Hemingway’s first and, some say, greatest novel, “The Sun Also Rises”. As I have been re-reading a number of classic novels related to the parts of Spain I am visiting, I have just finished Hemingway. I first read the book over 50 years ago. Although much of the storyline came back to me, I had forgotten how dark was much of the camaraderie of the 5 main characters and how damaged the psyches from involvement in WWI. The book, of course, put Pamplona on the map for the “running of the bulls” during the San Fermin Festival. I first wrote from Pamplona 19 years ago, and mistakenly said Hemmingway wrote most of the novel from the Iruna Café, where I have spent time. Actually, while in Pamplona he spent much of his time with his friends in the Iruna and then relied on those experiences as the characterizations and setting for his novel. Although the book’s forward says nothing therein is intended to represent real people, I understand Hemingway generally lost his friends after the book came out, as the book’s characterizations were less then flattering and too obviously based upon his real friends. He actually wrote much of the book while in nearby San Sebatian and in Madrid.

I have moved on to Burgos and, finally, Spring weather. Will report on that later. Dave

From Pamplona, I backtracked by train to Burgos on May 16. The travel was through green mountains and the curving rail track did not permit high speeds. Burgos, which I previously have reported on, has one of the most impressive cathedrals in Europe. It is massive with multiple towers, and is 100% Gothic, claimed to be a style called French Gothic, and is considered one of the greatest cathedrals in Spain and, indeed, in Europe. That, and the numerous bronze statues in the old quarter of town, make it one of the must-see cities in Spain. I have included a number of photos of the bronzes below. I particularly enjoyed the old couple seated on a plaza bench, and the young “peregrino” (pilgrim) on his Camino de Santiago, seated below the cathedral (joined briefly by yours truly).

I visited again the Museum of Human Evolution, one of the finest museums I have seen, which has 5 floors of exhibits and explanations. It is located in Burgos because the nearby Atapuerco Mountains contain limestone caves with vast amounts of hominid remains beginning from over 1 million years ago, easily the oldest in Europe. Most of the fossils are deemed to belong to the hominid tree which leads ultimately to Neanderthal (called “Heidelbergensis” going back 400,000-600,000 years, with the still older fossils called “Antecessor”), although there are some who argue that Homo Sapiens also shares genes with these remains. The field remains full of differing positions on the ancestry of modern homo sapiens from the various fossil records, both in Europe and Africa. It seems to be agreed that the hominid forbearer’s ancestral line split from that of chimpanzees about 6 million years ago, with all subsequent evolution, leading to hominids, up to 1 million years ago, occurring in Africa. Most believe the evolution in Europe over the succeeding million years led to Neanderthal, our closest relative, but not our direct ancestor; Neanderthal probably was a dead-end concluding about 40,000 years ago; meanwhile Sapien evolved during those million years in Africa, not crossing to Europe until under a hundred thousand years ago.

From Burgos I traveled back to Madrid for a night, and then on to Murcia, capital of Murcia Region which is on the southeastern coast between Andalucia and Valencia. Not as heavily touristed as most of Spain, I can sense why – lots of taverns and cafes, but none serving “menu del dia” (almost everywhere in Spain the “menu del dia” is the best meal deal of the day, a 3-course meal), and Murcia has none of the really “wow” museums or churches of other sites. Still, I was glad finally to have seen the town.

From there I traveled the short distance south to the coast and the ancient city of Cartagena. It has a long history as perhaps the major seaport of the Spanish Navy, and 4 different museums display all manner of military history. The Artillery Museum has the largest collection of artillery in Europe and probably the world, in all sizes, hand drawn to motorized. I had not realized that the city was founded by the Phoenicians and originally was named New Carthage. The town has a very nice Underwater Archaeology Museum, with information on and reconstruction of one of the two almost complete 7^th Century BC Phoenician boat wrecks found just a little offshore.

From Cartagena I traveled for a second visit to Alicante on the coast, where I had spent a couple of days almost 20 years ago. Although not having much in the form of great edifices or museums, it does sport lots and lots of good restaurants and sidewalk beer taverns. And, the beach and promenade are spectacular, as is the Santa Barbara Fortress on a high hill overlooking the town and port. On my last day I climbed the 450-foot hill to get the views from the Fortress. I have included 2 panorama pics below from Alicante, one from the beach looking to the Fortress, and the other from the Fortress looking to the beach. The tourists are largely European, with a smattering of many languages, and lots of shorts and loose tops displaying red sunburned skin. It is here I will mention that the drink of choice in the Spanish sidewalk cafes has changed over the almost 25 years I have traveled here; decades ago the majority drank wine, which is less common now, though still cheaper. Beer, surprisingly, is now the more popular drink, even among elderly ladies seated in the cafes in the early or late afternoons. I have revisited some of my older travelogs, where I bemoaned the rather tasteless blond beers on tap in Spain. Now there is a large variety, and even many of the local brands are much tastier than decades ago.

My trip is winding down, with only two weeks left. I realize this remainder would be considered quite a lot of vacation time for many people, but for me it means nearing the end of my travels. I will go from Alicante back to central Spain for the last couple of weeks in Segovia, Toledo and Madrid. Later. Dave