Paradors in Spain - I

I: Madrid

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:08:22 -0700

Madrid.

On a Sunday in April, 2005, we flew into Madrid with Iberia Air from Miami. The plane was full, the seats were narrow, dinner was OK, but the fruit in the breakfast tray was spoiled. The flight attendants were too busy and too tired to bother. We arrived in Madrid at 6:45 a.m. and took the underground to Nueves Federales station for €1/pp.

left: El Circulatorio in the Nueves Federales station.

From there we took the El Circulatorio, the local train, mostly underground, to Atocha station, which was within walking distance of our hotel, the Hotel Tryp Atocha, a 4 * hotel, which we got through Priceline for $110/night, plus taxes etc $130/night.

Madrid has some very nice museums and in the two days we were there we were able to visit the Reina Sofia museum, housed in an old cloister, with lots of works of Pablo Picasso, including the original of his famous Guernica, depicting the horrors of the Spanish Civil War. The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza has a huge collection of paintings, including lots of Dutch 15th-16th masters, as well as a very nice collection of impressionist art. Then there is of course the incomparable Prado, with its stupendous collection of old Spanish masters, such as El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya, Joaquin Sorolla, and others. Surprisingly, I did only see one Rembrandt. I am sure there were more. An interesting display is of two similar paintings of Adam and Eve next to each other; the first by Titian, the second by Rubens, created some one hundred years later.

There is of course a lot to tell about Madrid and the three museums above, but I will refer you to many better descriptions than this travel journal of mine.

right: A tiled mural in a restaurant in Madrid showing Don Quixote attacking the leather bags of wine under the impression that they were ogres.

When we were in Spain, they were celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote (El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha) by Cervantes, one of the crown jewels in the world literature. Don Quixote is the second-most translated book (after the Bible) in the world. In many paradors they were giving free paperbacks of the book to their guests.

One thing you do not want to miss is the opportunity to taste the many varieties of Serrano and Iberico hams made here in Andalucia.

left: Hams hanging in a restaurant. The little paper cups is to collect any drippings of fat from the ham.

There are many little restaurants specializing in hams. Sit down and taste the large variety of hams available. But also be sure to take a lot of cash along. Some of the succulent and exquisitely good tasting hams are quite pricy.

II: Siguenza and Olite

Tue, 19 Apr 2005 23:22:24 -0700

Siguenza

The very first parador we stayed in was in Siguenza. The town of Siguenza is about 200 km to the northeast from Madrid. As we drove through the hilly landscape of Castile, we suddenly saw in the distance this huge, impressive, medieval castle, complete with ramparts, towers, and high and thick surrounding walls. And like all good castles, this one was built on a hill overlooking the surrounding terrain. In this picture, the town of Siguenza, at a lower elevation, is behind the castle.

Well, Siguenza parador is in this castle, the foundations of which dates back to Roman times; somewhere around the 5th century. The Moors strengthened the walls in 712.

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right: Siguenza castle from the distance.

But Siguenza castle was retaken by king Fernando I and El Cid, probably around 1075. In 1123 it was converted into the palace of the princes of the Catholic Church. It continued to be the residence of bishops and cardinals until the end of the 19th century. Standing in front of the massive stone structure, you know you have gone back into history, even though the 21st century automobiles of the current guests and local delivery vans do give an anachronistic flavor to the picture.

Kings, queens, intriguingly beautiful ladies in-waiting, bishops, and cardinals, have lived, loved, and died in this castle. The most colorful of them was definitely El Cid. You have probably heard of him before, if not from history and literature, then probably from Hollywood.

left: The inside courtyard of the parador of Siguenza. On nice days there is an outdoor café on the right.

El Poema del Cid or El Cantar del Mio Cid is the great epic of medieval Spain. It is a heroic poem of a little over 3700 lines (several hundred lines are missing), the author of which, as is not uncommon with works of those days, is unknown. Many historians place the date of its composition at the beginning of the thirteenth century; but today the best opinion places the poem a half-century earlier. Whoever he was, he has been considered the Homer of Spain.

The poem chronicles the life of Rodrigo (or Ruy) Diáz de Vivar, a commander under King Alfonso VI of Castile. He was the great and popular hero of the chivalrous age of Spain. Born in Burgos in 1040 and died in Valencia in 1099, Diáz de Vivar fought for Alfonso against the Moors, fought for the Moors against Alfonso, and conquered the Kingdom of Valencia for himself; he ruled there until his death. Even his title, El Cid Campeador, reflects his conflicting loyalties: "El Cid" is a Moorish title of respect, from Arabic al sayyid or "Lord"; "Campeador" is Spanish for "Champion".

Like other historical tales whose heroes become the stuff of legends, poems, and ballads, the story of the Cid gathered many fantastical details over the centuries. But whatever may have been the real adventures of El Cid Campeador, his name has come down to us in modern times in connection with a long series of heroic achievements in which he stands out as the central figure of the long struggle of Christian Spain against their Muslim hosts.

The adventures of the Cid have furnished material for many dramatic writers, such as Guillen de Castro, an eminent Valencian poet and dramatist of the early seventeenth century. Corneille's brilliant tragedy, "Le Cid", determined for two centuries the character of the theatre all over Europe.

right: El Cid riding out of Valencia to the battlefield.

Hollywood, not to be outdone, saw the potential for a blockbuster movie and the film El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, was aired in 1961. It won three Academy Awards. I like the story where El Cid came riding out for his last battle from the city of Valencia; he was already dead at that time, but his handlers propped him up on the saddle of his steed. So great was his renown that the enemy fled when they saw him on his horse under his standard.

The rooms of Siguenza parador were actually not very big, but quite adequate. There were austere touches as befitting a medieval castle, and the furniture was traditional Castillian. The few ornaments on the walls were on parchment-like paper. But the rooms were very comfortable with central heating, air-conditioning, ventilation, and a modern bathroom attached. And although hidden from view, there are lots of modern ventilation outlets on the top of the roof. The windows were built in the rectangular old holes in the walls, which were originally intended to shoot arrows at uninvited guests outside. It was a nice medieval touch because in the restoration process it would have just been as easy to put in regular windows. There were two of these windows in our room, which was the standard room. Khoon and Hiang, our traveling companions, had an upgraded room and they had, in addition, a jacuzzi in their bathroom. Inside the medieval stone walls it was definitely 21st century luxury.

Not all of the castle has been restored; it would have required a major capital outlay. But the lounge, shown on the left, is in the restored part of the castle. It was a huge hall, with two very large fireplaces, crystal chandeliers, (now with electric light bulbs), medieval styled chairs, and large gobelins on the walls. It used to be the original dining room of the castle and one can imagine that many centuries ago El Cid was here, in this room, conversing with Alfonso about the best strategy how to combat the Moors.

left: The ancient dining hall of Siguenza castle.

And as you walk along the halls and the thick walls, you feel the centuries go by you. The castle is quite a place. During our stay, there were tour groups in buses coming into the castle just to admire the building, the outside walls, and the inner courtyard. The guest rooms and the lounge in the ancient dining hall were off-limits to them. On nice days one can sit at an outdoor café in this inner courtyard. We had dinner in the parador dining room, which was located in what used to be the wine cellars. The food and the local wine were quite good. And the wines were not that expensive. The most expensive local wine was only about € 50-60 per bottle.

Breakfast was extensive and copious with a huge variety of items, including local specialties. We found these to be the usual case in all the paradors we stayed. There was even an opened bottle of wine, if you wanted wine with your breakfast. The charges for the room, including breakfast for two, was €98 for guests eligible for Golden Days rates. This price included tax and service. Even with the lousy conversion rate of the US dollar versus the euro, it was definitely still a very good deal.

The Parador at Olite.

The parador at Olite is situated in a 15th century castle in the middle of the town of Olite, which used to be part of the kingdom of Navarra. Before that, this area were inhabited by the Vascons, but they were driven North by the Moors. The Vascons are the ancestors of the present-day Basques. In 778 Charlemagne drove the Moors out of the area, but later that year he was driven back north over the Pyrenees. This retreat is the subject of the 12th century French epic “Le Chanson de Roland”. It was several centuries later that the French regained control of the land. But just as the Moors before them, they were occupiers of the land. For three hundred years, the Navarrese noblemen tried to gain independence. Finally, with the help of the king of Castile, the French were finally defeated in 1512, and the area became part of Spain.

The castle at Olite was originally built by King Carlos III of Navarra, who used it as his summer residence until his death in 1425. His grandson, the Prince of Viana, then lived in the castle. The major restoration of these buildings have been carried out in just the last few decades. It has been done very well. Much of the original parts have been conserved, such as the arcades, the windows with the intricate stone carvings, and other medieval touches.

The parador at Olite, which is situated inside the castle at Olite, is situated about 200 km north of Siguenza. We had to navigate through some of the smaller streets of the town to get to the entrance of the parador, which was on a small square with limited parking. Limited parking is a usual problem at the paradors.

Standing in front of the building, the parador is in the extreme left wing of the castle complex. Between the castle proper and the parador wing is a beautiful cathedral. The restored main castle proper is, therefore, on the right and built against the ancient town walls.

right: Second floor view of the Castle at Olite. This floor has the living quarters.

The castle does look like a Disneyland Castle. Or maybe it was the Disney people, who got their inspiration from this castle. The main living quarters are on the second floor of the castle. The picture on the was taken from a tower above this floor.

left: Another view of the second floor of the castle at Olite.

To get to the living quarters on the second floor of the main castle you have to negotiate a winding turret staircase just a few feet wide which makes it difficult for even two persons to climb the stairs next to each other. It is either through this staircase or you have to scale the steep walls to get there. The king was preoccupied with safety, I suppose. Once you are up there on the second floor, things become very pleasant. There are walks along the battlements with views of the town and the surrounding fields; there are little towers with little rooms everywhere for private tête a têtes, playing hide and seek, or even something more intimate or romantic besides coffee or tea.

There is even a secluded, peaceful, enclosed garden on this floor. The building has been well restored, but there is almost no furniture in the rooms. And just to make the visitor aware how much work there is to restore a 15th century castle, there is also a castle wall which had been left alone. The picture of this wall is shown on the left. Note the huge contrast between the ruins and the restored version on the previous page.

right: Part of an original 15th century wall of the castle of Olite

Our room were actually in the annex of the main building, in a building a few hundred years younger, but still maybe a hundred years old. It was on the third floor but an elevator had been thoughtfully provided to avoid having the negotiate the narrow stairs with your luggage. The room did not have a window, but had a big door which led to a narrow wrap-around verandah, which looked rather old and rickety to me. This parador, rated 3 stars, is the best 3-star establishment we have stayed in, on a par with the overrated 5-star hotel Cataratas in Iguazu we stayed in Argentina last year.

For another contrast there is the picture of the dining room, shown on the right. It is a modern venue in what was once the cellars of the medieval building. The ancient form and structure are still there, but substantial improvements have been made. It was a nice and cozy place for dinner. The food was very good and nicely presented. As usual, their menu included some of the specialties of the region. Some of which are not necessarily something we would prefer as first choice.

left: The dining room in the parador of Olite what was once the cellars of the castle.

The staff was most pleasant and the wine was good. We had an excellent red Reserva 1999 Chivite from Navarra, from the Coleccion 125 of the Bodegas Julian Chivite and we ended with an Etxeko Licore de Melocoton (peach). Dinner for four, with wines, dessert wine, tax and tip, was € 158. Half of it were for the wines.

The parador also has a bar, less formal, where you can order finger foods and some simple dishes to go with your drinks. Both these eating venues are easily accessible from the street, since they want to cater to more people than just the guests of the parador. In a town like Olite, there are other accommodations besides the parador, so they have to be on their toes to compete for guests. The paradors do not necessarily have absolute control of the lodgings in a certain area. That also makes for good service, I suppose. And they belong in the top end for lodgings.

In the afternoon, as we were exploring the town on foot we decided, with some trepidation, to step inside a local bar for a drink. Our traveling companions wanted to taste the local wine, they said. This bar, with half a dozen locals drinking and chatting in the small taproom, wasn’t really a venue which would have been touted in tourist guidebooks. We asked for the best wine they had. They served us a red wine and it was only €1 per glass. It also tasted like a €1/glass wine. Apparently the local population in the country does not go for the pricier and better wines we find in the wine lists in the paradors. But I suppose they looked just as happy drinking their €1/glass of rough and uncomplicated wine as we did drinking our €50/bottle nectar of the gods. I have to note that our traveling companions are wine connoisseurs and they insisted on paying for all the (expensive) wines we drank on our trip.

I thought I should also include a picture of the entrance to the cathedral. They had really good and artistic stonemasons at that time. The church was, unfortunately, closed when we were there so we were not afforded a views of the inside. But judging from the intricately wrought stone facades, King Carlos III obviously wanted a very beautiful church to go with his castle.

right: Entrance to the cathedral at the Castle in Olite.

We left Olite just before noon to go to our next destination. On the hills outside the town we saw rows and rows of huge, modern, wind-driven electric generators, their vanes lazily spinning in the breeze. We were back in the 21st century. Nowhere was a windmill in sight. And where Don Quijote used to travel these dusty roads, there are now modern paved highways, on which we could effortlessly traverse, in a comfortable and air-conditioned vehicle, a distance in one hour, which the ancient traveler would need three days to complete.

III: Bilbao

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 21:13:34 -0700

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Well, this is not exactly a parador, but the museum is such an unusual achievement that I feel I should include it in this journal. This spectacular, 32,500 square meters museum, designed by Frank O. Gehry, is built on the banks of the Nervión river in the city of Bilbao. It changed the face of the city and put it on the map. With its stunning and spectacular architecture it is definitely the last great museum of the 20th century.

The museum was opened in 1997. The outside walls are constructed of concrete, specially tempered glass, and thin, curved and bent titanium plates, mounted as “fish scales” on the building and guaranteed to last at least 100 years. On one side the museum runs down to the waterside, 16 meters below the level of the city. The other end is connected to the Puente de La Salve bridge, one of the main access routes to the city. This bridge is visible on the left of the picture on the top..

The building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. There are orthogonal blocks of limestone, and glass curtain walls allow light to enter the building from many skylights. But since natural light tends to damage the art works, the skylights have protective fabrics to control the incoming light.

right: View of a light well from the main atrium.

When you step into the building, the first large space you come into is the soaring atrium, a cathedral-like space 55 meters high. The atrium is the heart of the building. Looking upwards, you see the various floors, windows and the beautifully curved and sweeping surfaces of the building. Light streams into the building from a metal flower skylight at the top to illuminate the space beneath and to relax the visitor. The exhibition galleries are organized on three levels around this central atrium and are connected by curving walkways hung from the roof, glass elevators, and turrets with winding stairs.

left: Entry to the museum from the water side.

There are 19 galleries, distributed over 11,000 square meters of exhibition space. Nine of these are are orthogonal in space; another nine are irregular in shape. The biggest one is a huge space; 30 meters wide and 130 meters long; free of columns. From the outside you can see this gallery sliding below the Puente de la Salve bridge.

On the left is a picture of the outside glass entrance to the atrium. On the top left of the picture is the floating roof sheltering the entrance. Behind it you can see the titanium plates covering the building. Because of their sinuous forms, the stone, glass, and titanium panels had to be computer-designed.

As for the exhibitions, on the day we were there, there was a special exhibit on the Abstract Expressionists, the movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s. Abstract expressionism is also called action painting, or painting of the New York school and it attained singular prominence in the following decade. It was the first important school in American painting to declare its independence from European styles and it had greatly influenced the development of art abroad.

Abstract expressionism presents a broad range of stylistic diversity within its largely, though not exclusively, nonrepresentational framework. The style of the different artists are dictated by personal preferences. For example, there is the expressive violence and activity in paintings by Willem de Kooning or Jackson Pollock, which mark the opposite end of the pole from the simple, quiescent images of Mark Rothko.

The Abstract Expressionists were a group of very different artists, many of whom came together in New York’s Greenwich Village. Among the most famous were Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell. There were paintings of each of them in this exhibition. There were giant canvasses of Franz Kline. Willem de Kooning, who had taught at Black Mountain College, created work around aggressive applications of paint that, through free expressive brush strokes, created emotionally intense images.

right: Willem de Kooning. Woman V (1952-1953)

Basic to most abstract expressionist painting was the attention paid to surface qualities, i.e., qualities of brushstroke and texture; the use of huge canvases; the adoption of an approach to space in which all parts of the canvas played an equally vital role in the total work; the harnessing of accidents that occurred during the process of painting; the glorification of the act of painting itself as a means of visual communication; and the attempt to transfer pure emotion directly onto the canvas.

Having looked through this exhibit and another special on the Aztecs, we also looked at a special retrospective of the conceptual artist Yves Klein. Yves Klein, was born in 1928 in Nice, France, as the son of Fred Klein, a Dutch painter of Indonesian origin. His mother, Marie Raymond, was a well-known abstract painter. Yves Klein was the supreme minimalist. At one time he had exhibitions of empty galleries and sold invisible “zones of immaterial pictorial sensibility” to credulous patrons. He published books of empty pages. He is also obsessed with blue monochrome paintings and objects, of which there were many examples, such as his small sponge sculptures and wall reliefs. Ranging in diameter from 4 inches to 2 feet, each flowerlike sponge sculpture was attached to a wire "stem" mounted on a natural stone base; white pedestals brought the works to the spectator's eye level. He has actually taken a patent on this deep blue color, calling it International Klein Blue.

During the last two years of his life he devoted himself to the creation of large-scale "Fire Paintings", where he used a torch to singe a canvas to create abstract charred works of art. He is also known for his "Anthropometries"--body prints made by nude, usually female models covered in blue paint and directed in their movements by the artist.

left: Anthropometric painting by Yves Klein

The creation of these paintings was sometimes tuned into a performance art where the audience, in formal evening wear, watched the models go about their tasks while an instrumental ensemble played his Monotone Symphony, which consisted of one single, prolonged note.

Klein made waves in the art world for the photograph “Saut dans le vide” (Leap into the Void), which apparently shows him jumping off a wall, arms outstretched, towards the pavement. Klein used the photograph as evidence of his oft-mentioned unaided lunar travel. In fact, "Saut dans le vide" was published as part of a broadside on the part of Klein (the "artist of space") denouncing NASA's lunar expeditions as hubris and folly.

Klein was only 34 old when he died from a heart attack. All that unaided jumping into space apparently had taken its toll on him.

right: Saut dans le vide by Yves Klein

All this art brings us now to the subject of food. Good museums usually have good restaurants and the restaurant here is also quite highly rated. So we tried to have lunch there. But the restaurant was complèt, or full, even though it was not yet one o’clock. We were not the only ones turned away. When the restaurant is full, there is no point waiting, because dining is, in the European style, a long-drawn affair and when the first customers leave, it would be already too late for another sitting. So we went to the cafeteria instead, quite a distance away, halfway that very long gallery. The food in the cafeteria was not too bad. There was just less class to it.

Bilbao.

Since we are in Bilbao, I might as well say a few words about this city even though there was no parador there. From Olite to Bilbao was a few hundred kms and we opted for the road closer to the coast. This was beautiful country, some areas reminiscent of Switzerland, with mountains, green valleys, high-altitude lakes, little isolated homes in the distance, and the roads going up and down a lot. Also, there were a lot of tunnels, many of them quite short. It looks like a beautiful area to go for a holiday, also because it does not look very overrun by tourists.

Bilbao, which is the largest city in the Basque country and one of the most important commercial centers in Northern Spain, looks like a very nice city with many old and beautiful Renaissance style buildings. To the left is a picture of the Estación de Santander, a railroad station. And there are many buildings like these in the city.

left: The Estación de Santander

The Basques are proud of their heritage and the first language you see everywhere on billboards, on posters, on signs, even on the highways, is usually in Euskara, the language of the Basques. Fortunately, most of the time, they were kind enough to add the Spanish equivalent, to make things more intelligible to us common mortals. Occasionally there was even French and English, in deference to the poor and lost foreign visitor. Euskara is not an easy language to learn, because it is not closely related to any European languages we know. The term “the Bilbao cuisine” e.g., is shown as “Bilboko sukaldaritza” and “building”, e.g., is “eraikina” in Euskara.

In Bilbao we stayed at the High-Tech Bilbao Arana Hotel, located at the fringe of the Old Quarter of Bilbao. It was very conveniently located but the rooms were small. The small bathroom attached to the bedroom had a glass door separating the two areas. Not much privacy for two guests in the room. But each room had its own desktop computer connected to the Internet. No hourly charges; it was part of the room furnishings, so we made copious use of the occasion.

Like in most larger cities, driving is no fun and we parked our car in an underground garage for the duration of our stay. We were close to Old Bilbao, anyway, which is a maze of pedestrian streets with lots of shops, cafés, and restaurants, so it was wonderful to have a hotel nearby. Close to the hotel is also the Plaza Nueva, a very large square which is the center of Old Bilbao; where you can sit on a terrace for drinks or food and watch people walk and play on the large square.

Here, on the Plaza Nueva, we dropped in at the Café Bilbao for an afternoon snack at around 6 p.m., together with lots of others having the same idea. We ordered pinxtos, small, open-faced beautifully garnished sandwiches, and zuritos, small glasses filled with maybe 4 ounces of beer. We could also have ordered a poteo, which is a small glass of wine. These are supposed to be the pre-dinner snacks to take care of the pangs of hunger because dinner does not officially start until 8 p.m. at the earliest. Yes, dinner is very late in Spain. Later that evening we had dinner on the square in Restaurant Victor, Plaza Nueva 2. It was a very good restaurant and the service was very personable. We recommend this place and not only because when we left the owner gave us two pocket flashlights (made in China) as gifts. She had a whole box of these little boxed gifts at the door, and she probably got them at a fire sale.

right: Even the apartment houses are tastefully decorated. Well, maybe this was just a nice neighborhood.

Before dinner we attended a performance at the Teatro Arriaga Antzokia, a large theater built in the Renaissance style, and located just across our hotel. The tongue-twister name is Basque. We saw a show called “The Best of Momix” and it featured artistic and acrobatic performances by a group of six or so very talented performers. And even though we could only get into the last row of seats way up, the view and acoustics were still quite good. The price was also right; €7.20 per seat. It was really not much worse than the $75 seats in the San Francisco opera.

Just for the record, the first night in the city we had dinner at the restaurant Amboto, which was suggested by the hotel. It was just a few short walking blocks in the Old City away. I suspect the restaurant owners treat the hotel clerks to free dinners for making this recommendation. The food was passable, the service was poor. They did not have any water when asked, only overpriced small bottles of mineral water, just to gouge the customer.

One breakfast was at the Café Boulevard just a few doors away, a funky and very interesting looking Art Deco place, where a breakfast of orange juice, coffee (or tea), and toast was €3.20. Their furniture is really Art Deco. But on the second day, --it was a Sunday--, this place only opened late, so we had breakfast in the hotel. It was good and copious breakfast, but we thought it was also rather expensive at €11 per person.

From the hotel to the museum we could have walked. It was about 2 miles away along the river, but we opted for a streetcar instead. It was a very modern electrical tram and it was also a nice way to look at the city while sitting down without having to watch the traffic. The tram rides were €1 per trip.

IV: León, Ávila, Chinchón, and Alcañiz

Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:45:02 -0700

The Parador San Marcos in León

The city of León itself is very old; it was founded in the first century as headquarters of the Roman Seventh Legion. Over the centuries the city fell to the Visigoths, then to the Moors, and then back to the Christian kings. In the Middle Ages, the Knights Templars built castles and fortifications in this region. In the 16th century, León became a captaincy-general under a formally unified Spanish kingdom. The modern province of Léon was founded in 1833. The former lands of León are now part of the autonomous communities of Castilla-León. Spain’s fifty provinces are grouped into 17 autonomous regions, of which Castile and Leon are the largest. The three largest cities in this region are Salamanca, Zamora and the provincial capital of Léon. Much of this region has escaped the tourist boom so far.

left: Part of the huge facade of the 5 star luxury parador in the Monastery of San Marcos

The picture on the left is just part of the facade of the parador. I didn’t have a wide-angle lens, and even walking back did not allow me to get the whole facade on one picture.

King Alfonso VII started on this building in the 12th century as his private castle, but the construction of the building as monastery only started in the 16th century. It was, in the meantime, also the former abode of the knights of Santiago. It is not just a simple monastery; it is such a huge and impressive looking building that our cameras could not fit the facade into one picture unless we took the picture from outer space. There was a huge walking area in front of the building. The monastery looks like the Louvre transposed into the Spanish landscape.

And from our rooms in the back of this building we has a good view of the formal gardens. It was a really posh place. There are very few 5-star paradors, so the personnel of this hostel does its best to keep up appearances, as if not believing their luck of having been awarded these many stars.

right: Part of the formal gardens in the back of the building of the Parador San Marcos.

As befitting a 5-star hotel, everything was stately, impressive, and proper. Members of the staff were required to maintain a lofty and haughty decorum and walk ramrod straight on air at all times. I also believe the personnel are not even permitted to smile. The only staff member who did smile during our stay was one junior waiter in the dining room. He was most probably just hired and had not been appraised of the necessity of maintaining a stiff upper lip. He was also very helpful and personable and his smile became even larger when Khoon tipped him 10 euros at the end of our meal. He may have been fired from the parador by now. And as befitting a 5-star outfit, we could not use our Golden Oldies card here and we had to pay full price. It was €132.50 without breakfast, so it was not too bad. You pay that much for a one-star walk-up hovel in Manhattan.

The building itself is a combination of stately medieval and austere modern. The rooms and hallways were embellished with period furniture, gobelins, crystal chandeliers, (fake) old paintings, but also with modern conveniences such as elevators and very modern bathrooms. You can drive to the back of the parador, where there is a ramp to assist you going down with your luggage to street level. It was extremely well done. Many sections of the monastery have not been restored and those areas were off-limits to visitors. The restaurant was also very good, featuring specialties of the area. Many of the dishes were exquisitely presented.

left: A stately formal staircase in the parador San Marcos.

On a rather unfortunate note, they were also busy repairing a rupture of one of their sewer lines when we were there, and in some places it smelled bad. Well, maybe that was the reason they were not smiling.

The monastery itself is separate from the parador, even though they share the same building as the same impressive facade. Guests of the parador cannot enter the monastery grounds, but I could take a picture through a locked glass door of a long hallway with headstones on the right.

right: A hallway adjacent to the inner court of the monastery of San Marcos de León.

The Cathedral of León.

Although the monastery of San Marcos is very imposing, the main attraction of the city of León is definitely the cathedral, also known as the Santa Maria de Regla church, and one of the finest in Europe. It is a huge, magnificent Gothic structure, started in the 13th century and finished 200 years later. Kings of León and Navarra have been crowned here. It is built of golden sandstone and it has a richly decorated West portal. Every tourist visits the cathedral; only a few of them will stay at the Parador San Marcos de León.

An unusual feature of the cathedral is that there was no attempt made to match its many towers and steeples, giving the cathedral a rather jumbled appearance. The inside is huge, cavernous and dark, all the better to appreciate the large number of beautifully stained glass windows.

There are some 250 of these windows, totaling some 1800 square meters of glass, including a large rose window, visible in the left corner of the picture. These windows were superbly crafted.

left: The great Gothic Cathedral of León with the large rose window above the main entrance.

Ávila

Ávila was still a 3.5 hour drive away from Leon. The town is in the south of Castile; it is the capital of the province of the same name, and it is now part of the autonomous community of Castile and Léon. The 4-star parador was located within the walls of the city, built high up on a hill. It is in the 16th century palace “Piedras Albas”, constructed of granite and adobe. There are actually a number of other hotels in this little town behind the city walls. The palace was, as expected, built against the city walls. As palaces go, this one was rather plain, but the main reason we visited Ávila was that the city has the most well-preserved medieval city walls, dating back to the 12th century.

right: The parador was built right against the city walls.

These walls, more than a meter thick, are still in a remarkably good state. One can still walk on many of the battlements. And as befitting a medieval city, the streets inside the walls were very narrow. Good thing we were not there during high tourist season

Although the city inside the walls is very old, --there is even a 15th century cathedral there-- it did not strike us as being very memorable. A lot had not been restored. The modern city, outside the walls, on a lower level, was also rather nondescript. We did observe a large number of stork nests. There are storks everywhere. On the right is the upper part of a gate in the walls with at least 7 stork nests. Now we know where babies come from. All the way from Ávila in Spain.

left: Storks nesting on the walls of the city

This was the last day together with Khoon and Hiang. They were slated to go back to Amsterdam the next day. To start our farewell meal we had a locally brewed “champagne” prepared from Chardonnay grapes. Unusual but quite good. Khoon ordered a very crispy piece from a suckling pig said to be only 21 days old. I had the conger fish; it was one of the best-tasting fish I ever had. The meat was very firm and it almost tasted like lobster. The red wine we had with dinner was also quite memorable; it was a Grande Reserve Especial 1995 Castillo Yray Rioja.

Chinchón

Chinchón itself is a rather nondescript Spanish city and we first thought we may have made a mistake in coming to this place. But then we drove into the older part of the town and there was the 4-star parador of Chinchón, located in a 17th century Augustine convent decorated with beautiful hedges, roses and cypress trees. With its medieval walls, its classical and castillian furniture, it was a serene and quiet place. Our room was at the end of the corridor and our window looked right over the battlements. In the distance we could see the 15th century Castillo de los Condes. At some time in the 16th century the reigning count living in that castle gave the money to build the convent we were in. The parador had several patios and gardens, at different levels; the patios were covered with flagstones, the gardens were simple and quiet.

right: The Plaza Mayor of Chinchón at dusk.

But the treasure of the city is the Plaza Mayor, just on the next block from the parador. It is a classical medieval plaza, but it was oval in shape with arched walkways on one side and buildings with balconies on the other side.

These balconies are from the 15th century, and they stopped building them in the 17th century, so this plaza is rather unique in this respect. There are still 234 balconies, most of them quite narrow and many of them quite rickety by now.

Around the plaza are little shops and restaurants. In season they still hold bull-fights in this oval-shapes plaza. This is bull-fight country, don’t forget it.

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We had lunch on one of these balconies and it didn’t collapse on us. And in the evening we sat at a table outside the Mesón de la Virreina, a café on the Plaza, enjoying the balmy weather, the view, the activities of the locals (the tourist season was not on yet), drinks and tapas. It was still pleasant outside at nine, when we left.

left: A tourist on the Plaza Mayor of Chinchon.

Alcañiz

From Chinchón to Alcaňiz was around 400 kms, so it took us some time to drive there. Alcaňiz is one of the main cities of Aragón. It is located on the banks of the river Guadalope and it has a beautiful collection of medieval buildings, especially in the main square, the Plaza de Espaňa, where one finds the Exchange, the City Hall, --a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture--, and the Church of Santa María la Mayor with its baroque touches.

right: The City Hall on the Plaza de Espaňa

The weather had suddenly turned warm. When we arrived in Madrid just one week ago, it was 50℉ and overcast. Now it was 75℉ and sunny, and as the day progressed, the temperature crept up into the low eighties. About 30 kms before Saragoza we stopped at a decent-looking restaurant, called El Navarro, along the A-2 highway. That was a lucky choice. We just walked to the tapa counter and chose 3 racciones, which are larger helping than tapas. We had pulpo (octopus), large champignons, and croquettes. Bread came with the racciones. With two cups of tea the bill was €11.35, and the food was good.

The landscape we drove through was mostly barren, with small swaths of green. This is the land of Don Quijote de La Mancha, the knight-errant created by Miguel de Cervantes. Together with his squire, Sancho Panza, Don Quijote traveled around the country in search of adventure and to right wrongs for the glory of his ideal woman, Dulcinea del Toboso. This year we marked the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the book which, in the meantime, has been translated into countless languages and is now probably one of the most read book on this earth.

As we drove up, still some 20 miles from Alcañiz, we saw in the distance this huge castle high up on a mountain, several hundred feet above the surrounding landscape. We found out that this was the Castillo Calatravos, a castle cum convent, originally from the 12th and 13th century.

King Carlos II gave this castle to the order of the knights of Calatrava at that time. And the parador was located in this castle. To get to the parador we had to drive through town and then through narrow roads up a very steep hill.

left: Entrance to the Parador de Alcañiz

And there, on the mountain top, you find the parador de Alcañiz, a huge Gothic building constructed of golden sandstone. As can be expected, the views from the castle grounds as well as from our rooms were exceptional, because you can see miles in the distance. And there is not much haze. The buildings were started in 1175, but in the intervening period many portions have been added and/or restored. The renovated chapel, e.g., is now used as a venue for weddings and as a small concert hall. The restaurant was, as is usually the case with the paradors, very good. They featured the cuisine of Aragón.

right: View of the surrounding landscape from the parador de Alcañiz..

From the grounds around the parador high up on a hill one can see miles of landscape below.

But the most interesting part of the castle were the drawings and frescoes on the walls of the Torre del Homenaje; the Tower of Tribute, in the middle of the castle. These date from the early part of the 14th century and they are still in excellent shape, even though they have been exposed to the atmosphere for more than 600 years. Because of its historical value, this part of the castle is only accessible with a guide. Some of the pictures show combat scenes between Christians and Moors. There are also scenes from the Passion of Christ and a rather frightening drawing of the Final Judgement.

left: A 15th century wall painting in the castle

On the wall painting below one can see the tents of Christian soldiers in the background. In the right foreground are Christian soldiers, actually the knights of the order of Calatrava, marching next to the noble families of Aragón. The cross, ✠, as shown on the drawing, looking almost like the Maltese cross, is the heraldic sign of the knights of the order of Calatrava.

The drawing shows a castle on the left, and kitchens with cooking pots in the foreground. The city on the left is Valencia and the picture depicts the taking and the triumphal entry into the city by the king of Aragón with his soldiers after it was liberated from the Moors. The banners are from the royal house of Aragón. It was an amazing piece of art.

This was the last of the six paradors we visited during this trip. In the early afternoon we left Alcañiz and drove to Barcelona. But that is another story.