Category: Spain

Hola Valencia

It was time to go on the next leg of our trip to Valencia, a city that I knew nothing about, apart from my mate Dave saying that it was “nice”. We had breakfast in the wonderful Roccablanca, and had churros and coffee, a breakfast that is both bad and good at the same time.

The train journey was dull, but I had a great book called “10% human” which is about all the bacteria that live inside of us. It wasn’t a page turner, and will never be made into a film starring Jennifer Lawrence, but it’s the nerdy kind of science book I (and a handful of other geeks) enjoy. I kept saying to Julie “did you know that..” and see her eyes roll ready for the next dull fact about gut bacteria. 

From Sorolla station, we got a 27 bus to the Central Market and then found our way (using Google Maps) to our apartment at 12 Carrer de Naquera. In Madrid, the streets are called “Calle” in Valencia they are called “Carrer” because the local language is Valencian, which is a dialect of Catalan. Francisco, the owner, met us outside the flat and showed us up the ninety five steps up in the loft of a Victorian building. I think the phrase “bloody lovely” would be enough to cover the description. It was furnished tastefully from Ikea, had a big comfy bed, an induction hob in the kitchen and a fabulous roof terrace overlooking the Torres de Serrano, a fortified gate to the old city.

We had a late lunch in a restaurant, an indifferent paella containing chicken legs and sea snails of some sort. Valencia is the home of paella because the rice is grown close by, but it isn’t that great in cheap restaurants. The rest of the afternoon was spent chillin’ on the terrace and watching the mortals below.

Since the flat had a kitchen we decided to dine in and got a pizza in the local Carrefour Express, which is like a Tesco Express with more jamon and fewer biscuits. I made us a nice tomato and leaf salad to go with it, but the discovered a basic flaw, in my plan, there was no oven. So I fried the pizza in a griddle pan, which worked until I had to turn it over and the topping welded to the pan. I scraped it off and put it back on again, but Jamie Oliver would have been outraged. The end result was sort-of OK, but I don’t want to eat it again.

Day 10 – Turia Park

Bandera Day

On Sunday morning we had a lazy breakfast in the flat of scrambled eggs, bread, Serrano ham and yoghurt, very tasty. On our walk to the beach, we saw lots of people heading towards the cathedral. I assumed they were all good Catholics going to the Sunday Mass. But they walked past the cathedral to the seafront, where we joined thousands of people on the promenade. The big event was a regatta for traineras, twelve metre long boats with thirteen rowers and a cox steering with a big oar stood at the back. The coastal towns of the Basque Country compete against each other, and with thirteen oars in a carbon fibre boat, they can really make them shift. The course is 5.5 km long and the prize is a flag called a Bandera. The Kontxaco Bandera in San Sebastián was founded in 1879 and is the most prestigious in the Basque Country. This year the Bandera was won by a crew from Hondarribia.

Weaving our way through the crowds celebrating/ commiserating outside bars, we walked through the old town and took a steep zig-zag path to the top of Mount Urgull. It was fortified against the horrible English and there are several old batteries where cannon would protect the port.

At the top, there are more great views over the beaches and the town, with Mount Igeldo at across the bay. Josie ascended the steep path in her Birkenstock sandals, which are not suited for walking uphill, and she let us know that she wasn’t happy. At all. Not a bit. Fortunately, we found a quicker way down and crossed the bridge over to the Gros district of town behind the Zurriola beach and found somewhere for lunch.

After all that fresh air we were (to quote Monty Python) tired and shagged out after a long squark. So I got some food at the supermarket and made a paella for dinner at our flat. We managed to connect up the TV to my Google Chromecast and watched clips from Withnail and I, one of my favourite films. 

 

Day 4 – Surfing Beach

Retiro and Sorolla

Our tourist guidebook in Madrid was an excellent Dorling Kindersley, they are beautifully illustrated books that are a pleasure to read. Other guides have lots of information on restaurants and hotels, which is often out of date by the time you visit a city.  The guidebook recommended the Madrid Historical Museum, which was on Calle Fuencarrel near the Tribunal Metro stop.  Conveniently, the Roccablanca cafe was on the way, so we stopped for breakfast.

The museum is in an old Baroque hospice, and is a real gem. It was almost empty when we arrived and was lovely and spacious and cool. It shows the history through paintings and maps and is the highlight is in the basement where there is a huge model of Madrid as it as in the 19th century. It is a fantastic work of art and a historical record of the old city.

Our next stop was the huge Retiro Park, which is behind the Prado gallery was a former hunting ground of the kings. It is now a great municipal park with strollers, cyclists and people on hired electric scooters. African men sell bags and sunglasses from blankets whilst holding onto ropes tied to each corner. If a police van appears they quickly pull on the ropes to pick up their goods and move to a different spot. 

We ate a picnic lunch and watched the world and his wife and children pass by contentedly. The park has its own Crystal Palace, which I guess at one time was a conservatory for plants, but is now empty apart from some glass sculptures which looked like orthopedic splints.

At the far end of the park, we walked to Atocha station, which was the scene of a terrible Islamist bomb campaign in 2004 which killed 197 people and injured around 2,000. We took the Metro from there to Iglesias station and went to the Sorolla Museum.

I had never heard of Joaquin Sorolla, but he is so popular in Spain that they named a railway station in Valencia after him. He painted many portraits of his family, and his love for them pours out of the pictures. The Prado left me unmoved, I couldn’t connect with the religious art. But Sorolla’s paintings of children playing on the beach and his daughters in long white dresses really touched me, I even BOUGHT A PICTURE! I am very careful with my money but wanted a Sorolla so much I paid seven Euros for a print. The frame will cost me another twenty quid, but to hell with the expense.

Our final dinner in Madrid was at Puerta Rico in Chinchilla street, a short walk up the Gran Via It was very busy because it’s good food and “very reasonable”, a winning combination in my books. To be honest, I can’t remember what I had, but it was definitely Spanish and I had some wine with it.

Day 9 – Hola Valencia

Escalators and Swords

Toledo is the old capital of Spain and is about an hour on a coach south of Madrid. It’s known as the frying pan of Spain, and it deserves the title, it was scorchio! The city centre is at the top of a hill in a loop in the river Tagus, which is why the Visigoths chose it for their capital. The Visigoths were a Germanic tribe (the Western Goths)  who took over Spain after the Roman empire collapsed, and in turn, were replaced by the Arabs. To get to the city centre from the coach park there are six escalators to take you up to the top of the hill, otherwise, half the tourists would expire during the ascent.

It is a beautiful ancient city of narrow winding streets and endless cafes and souvenir shops. It reminded me of York, Dubrovnik, and Carcassonne, which are all exceptionally beautiful cities but are a bit spoiled by their success.

The temperature was about 35 degrees, so lunch in the shade with a glass of cold vino Blanco was a very attractive prospect.  We chose the menu del dia at El Cafe de las Monjas, which was a real belt buster.

The Spanish love their potatoes boiled fried and in omelettes, and have bread with everything, yet most of them are slim and fit looking. It must the magical Mediterranean diet, which so far hasn’t worked on me.

The cathedral is the primary one in Spain and is very big and very Gothic. It has twenty-four chapels around the inside and huge columns supporting a massive roof. There are religious paintings everywhere, in the Middle Ages that was just about the only type of painting people wanted. The interior was quiet and cool, a great place to go during the heat of the afternoon.

There are two main souvenirs available in Toledo, Damascus steelwork and swords. The Damascus steel is black plates, jugs, and jewelry inlaid with gold pattern, very pretty. Toledo steel was the best in the world in the Middle Ages, which is how Cortez and Pizarro conquered South America. These days the shops are full of reproduction swords to hang on your walls, of all shapes and sizes: Spanish swords, cutlasses, Orc swords, Elf swords, Game of Thrones swords. Then there are folding knives and sheath knives of every description and size. I found it all very weird that all that lethal hardware was openly on sale, it was like going to a Walmart in Wisconsin.

Back in Madrid in the late afternoon, we explored the area near our accommodation. Calle Fuencarrel was full of young people trying to get bargains in sales at the many fashion shops that line the street. In the middle of the throng was a haven of beer and tortilla, the Rocablanca cafeteria. It is a very good ordinary bar, nothing trendy about it, just perfect at what it does. The three staff work at lightning speed with practiced efficiency, pouring drinks, slicing tortilla and serving tapas. We drank the ubiquitous Mahou beer with some tortilla and fried squid, it was just perfect. Two of the staff were having a good old row while serving customers, it was street theatre of the finest sort!

Day 8 – Retiro and Sorolla

Exploring Old Madrid

Madrid is a much much smaller city than London, the whole of the historic centre is quite walkable. The city only became the capital of Spain in 1561 when Philip II moved from Toledo to what was then a town centred on an old Arab alcazar (fortress) on a hill in central Castille. The city rapidly grew in importance, and the enormous wealth flowing in from the American colonies enabled the Spanish Kings to build lavishly.

In the cetre of the oldest part of Madrid is the Plaza Mayor, a 17th-century square that looks similar to the Place de Voges in Paris and Covent Garden in London. It was used for bullfights and executions during the Inquisition but is now an empty square lined with cafes and tacky souvenir shops. It is well preserved, but not interesting enough to keep me for more than half an hour.

Close by the Plaza Mayor is Mercado San Miguel which is like Borough Market in London. It full of stalls selling all manner of delicious Spanish food and wine, and we could have spent a long time there, but we were on a mission to see the sights of old Madrid. Madrid has a mix of architectural styles that depend on who was ruling at the time. The oldest parts were built during Habsburg rule, so have a Germanic look to them, whereas the eighteenth and nineteenth-century buildings are under Bourbon rule and look more French.

The Almudena Cathedral looks Baroque and constructed in the 17th century, but in fact, was started in 1883 and finished in 1992. It is lovely inside without being over-decorated, which is often the case with Spanish cathedrals. It has a modern painted ceiling and stained glass windows, and is free to get in. 

The Palacio Real is very very big, a fitting centre of power for what was the biggest and richest empire in the world. Spain imported shiploads of gold and silver from their Peruvian mines, and a good proportion was spent by the King. The palace stands on a hill overlooking the Manzanera river where the original Arab alcazar stood. At the front of the palace is a huge plaza, the size of the Horseguards Parade.

The enormous state rooms inside are sumptuous to the extreme, every surface is covered in gold, silk, carved wood or porcelain. There is one room where every square centimeter is covered in elaborate porcelain created in special royal factories. Indeed for hundreds of years, the only factories in Spain were those producing luxury goods for the King. Philip II was married to Queen Mary, daughter of Henry the Eighth. So for a few years, Philip was the King of England – sort of.

During my travels, I have been to more palaces, castles, stately homes and cathedrals than you can shake a stick at. So I feel a bit like the Queen when she is opening her presents on Christmas morning, “not another diamond tiara”. Basically, I’m not so impressed by unlimited riches anymore and enjoy the contrast of clean modern designs. I think Spanish Royalty might enjoy a trip to Ikea to pick up a Billy Bookcase and some Tea Lights for the chandeliers. 

I thought that the Royal Armoury was very impressive, with enough armour, guns and swords to kit out a battle in Game of Thrones. All that heavy metal gave us an appetite, so we had the Menu Del Dia in the Palacio caff, which was very tasty and good value for ten euros.

Over the road from the palace is the Temple of Debod, an actual Egyptian temple given to Spain in gratitude for the help they gave in moving the Aswan temples. There are so many temples in Egypt they can afford to give them away, especially a temple that will end up under a hundred feet of Lake Nasser. It does look like a municipal ice cream kiosk, it isn’t one of the better-looking temples.

After a hot and sweaty walk down Gran Via, we had tapas in the San Anton market, a multi-story building filled with foodie outlets. We shared a table with a retired professor of English from Kansas City, Missouri. He had traveled a huge amount, mostly on cheap cruises without his wife, and recommended the Baltic cities; Riga, Tallin, and St Petersburg. Julie asked if he had been to South East Asia and he hadn’t been to Asia at all!

Twickenham 1,Kansas City 0.

Day 7 – Escalators and Swords

Hola Madrid!

On Tuesday morning we walked across the river to the Renfe station to catch the 8.58 train to Madrid. In Spain they have airport-style security for long-distance trains, and we had to put our bags through a scanner before we boarded. The train was to Madrid was slow and took about five hours to chug down to Madrid. The countryside was quite dull, lots of low hills, brown fields and small pine trees. We passed through no pretty towns at all, no wonder Don Quixote got bored and chased after windmills.

We arrived at Charmartin station and got the Metro (which is extensive and very good) to Tribunal station and walked to our next AirBnB at 17 Calle Fuencarral. Our hostess Julia had a big flat on the fifth floor above a very trendy shopping street, it was like living above Kingston High Street. Julia was a slightly scruffy and bohemian and worked in a theatre. Her English was poor and my Spanish is non-existent, so we didn’t talk much, but she was kind and helpful.

After settling in, we walked to the Gran Via, which is Madrid’s equivalent of Oxford Street.  The weather was about twenty-five degrees when we arrived and got hotter during the day, which is what happens in a city in the middle of Spain. We walked about a mile from the flat to the Prado art gallery, which (according to the guidebooks) one of the best in the world. In the evenings it is free to get in, so we joined a long queue and waited for the 6pm opening. It’s like London’s National Gallery, very big and very full of old masters. If you like picture of Jesus, Mary and men in frilly collars, then it’s the place for you. The pictures are very good, but the subject matter is limited, mostly religious, mystical or dead aristocracy and their dogs. 

I saw the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch, it had the biggest group pf people looking at it. That Bosch guy must have been on drugs when he painted it, it’s very surreal.

After a couple of hours of high culture, we needed a drink and found our way to Chueca Plaza and sat in the first cafe with a spare table.  I ordered Ham Hock, which was large and filling, but tasted a bit unusual like it had been in the fridge too long before they cooked it. But like most food, if you wash it down with enough beer it’s fine. 

Whenever we visit a new city we are disoriented for the first day or two, and then get our bearings and understand where one part of town is in relation to another. The centre of Madrid is not so big, and most of the main sites are with a half hour walk of the flat. It turned out we were staying in quite a cool part of town, like being in Soho.

Day 6 – Exploring Old Madrid

Surfing Beach

Monday was our final full day in San Sebastián, and the weather was not so good. We walked across the Maria Christina bridge to the Zurriola surfing beach to watch the persistent young folk stand up for about five seconds on their surfboards before tumbling off and being tossed around like old knickers in a Hotpoint. But it’s just so much cooler than riding a bike or climbing a hill, and tight neoprene can look very good if you have the figure for it.

We had lunch in a cafe called Itturioz which is near the cathedral in the centre of the city.  The cafe has the same name as Josie’s friend Amanda, whose family are from San Sebastián. It was recommended as a place with a great menu del dia (menu of the day), but when we got the last table in the restaurant, it didn’t have that menu, darn it!

Tommy and Josie got the four o’clock bus to Bilbao airport to fly back home, whilst Julie and I went to another AirBnB for our last night, which was just a room rather than a complete apartment.

Thriller on Mount Igueldo

On our second day in San Sebastián, we packed our beach gear and went down to La Concha for some marine relaxation. Josie and I swam out to one of the rafts anchored out in the bay, so we could use the slide and jump into the cool waters. Wherever I go I like to have a swim in the sea, even in Brighton!  The fresh air made us hungry, so we walked away from the beach to find somewhere to eat. At the Ondaretta beach end of town there aren’t any cafes on the beach, so we walked inland to look for somewhere on Google Maps. I found Kok, which proved to be a great source of childish jokes, my favourite kind. I can’t actually remember what I had to eat, so it was probably pintxos or tapas.

A short walk from our lunch stop is the funicular railway that was built in 1912 to take fun-lovers the top of Mount Igueldo. It is a single track with a passing place half way up for the up and down carriages to pass. It is delightfully old-fashioned and practical, and considerably better than walking. At the summit is a hotel and cafe, and a small, quaint funfair. It’s a most peculiar place for a funfair and has a tiny boating pond for slow bumper boats that is about three hundred feet above the Atlantic. The chief attraction is the spectacular views over San Sebastián and out into the Bay of Biscay.

Josie persuaded us to go on the little roller coaster which rises and plunges around the park. I said it then, and I’ll say it again, it’s a genuinely thrilling ride which made me squeal like a child several times when we hurtled downhill under a bridge. I thought my head would get knocked off and ducked as I went under!

There is a hotel with a bar giving spectacular views over La Concha, so we had a beer to calm our shattered nerves. We didn’t fancy eating pintxos for dinner again, so we went to La Mafia Restaurant and had a very good Italian meal. When in Spain, do as the Romans do, and eat pizza.

Day 3 – Bandera Day

San Sebastian

Spain is a big country with many provinces and complex history, so it is well worth visiting again. Our last tour was in Andalucia in 2016, just after I had turned sixty and retired from the BBC. That was four cities and ten days, this time it’s three cities in twelve days, a more relaxed journey.

On September 7th we flew from London Heathrow T3 to Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain, accompanied by our son Tommy and daughter Josie. It was our first family holiday together since Lake Garda in 2008. At Bilbao airport, we caught a coach to San Sebastián, a beautiful city that Julie and I last visited in 2013. Josie had been there as a teenager to stay with her Spanish friend Amanda, so it was quite a nostalgia trip for us.

Our accommodation was a modern AirBnB near Amara railway station. The apartment was up a steep hill, and could be reached via an outdoor escalator, which saved our legs San Sebastián is a chic seaside city with three beautiful beaches, Concha, Ondaretta and Zurriola. The sand is soft and clean, and the views are simply gorgeous.

Once we were settled in we walked through the elegant streets to La Concha and found a seat at the Narru bar overlooking the beach for a G&T.  At the end of the nineteenth century, the city was a favourite holiday destination of the Spanish Royal family. So it has something in common with the grander parts of Regency Brighton. The Spanish got the gin habit from English sailors when we owned Menorca after the battle of Trafalgar, and they drink it in small glass buckets with loads of ice. Just for clarity, they are not literally buckets (although they probably do in Benidorm) but big stemmed balloon glasses.

The view is hard to beat, Mount Igeldo on the left, Mt Urgull on the right, and Santa Clara island in the middle of the bay. On a sunny day, the beach is teeming with holidaymakers sunbathing and parading through the surf. It really is my favourite beach in the world, (although I have yet to go to Blackpool).

After loosening up at Narra, we strolled along the beach Tom the Old Town at the foot of Mt Urgull. It was originally much older, but in 1813 the Duke of Wellington with his British and Portuguese troops burnt it down after they took it from Spanish troops fighting for Napoleon. Now it is a grid of nineteenth-century buildings which are mostly pintxos bars. Pintxos (pronounce Pinchos) are Basque tapas, small food to have with your drink. Many of them are cold and come on slices of bread, others are hot and need heating up. They cost two or three Euros each and the bars are covered with them. You help yourself and the barman magically remembers what you have taken. The bars are very lively, but not places for heavy drinking like British pubs. The servings are much smaller, a glass of wine might only cost two and a half Euros, but is only about a hundred millilitres. The beer generally comes in small glasses for small prices, rarely in pints.

We visited four or five bars in the Old Town and ate numerous pintxos made with tortilla, chorizo, cod, ham, anchovies and other savoury delights. If you want a bigger portion your order raciones, which is a plateful of Serrano ham or Calamari. It really is foodie heaven, and if you prefer fine dining there are some superb restaurants.

Day 2 Thriller on Mount Igueldo