For the first time in our lives, a Schengen country had trusted us with a two-year visa. Usually a Schengen Visa expires a few hours before the return flight forcing us to get to the airport and get through the immigration with half a day to kill on the no-man's land, just to avoid an overstay. But, for reasons best known to them,Spain was different. And we are going to make them pay for their temerity. We will force them to host us a few times this year, carpet cover the country in a series of blogs, this one being the first. This debut trip of ours is the standard first timer's itinerary: the two most visited cities - Madrid and Barcelona. Since we had 9 days to spare, we had some elbow room to add bits and pieces in between, enough to christen this trip as: El Corazon de España.
As Madrid airport is fair bit away from the city centre, it was easiest to hire a car right after we flew in and cover one of the non-metro bits first. An hour northwest of Madrid is Segovia, home to one of the most astonishing engineering marvel of the ancient world: a grand aqueduct built by the Romans in the second half of the 1st century A.D.. With 167 arches and a length of 813 metres, it is large enough to be not contained in a building and hence one of the few attractions in Spain that is free and open before 10 am. Since we reached there at 8 am, we could ogle at it for two hours before the next attraction opened its gate, which, by the by, was the city's cathedral, one of the largest Gothic buildings in Europe. It was built to replace the previous one which was destroyed during the Revolt of the Communeros. The Alcázar rounded up the trio of the monuments that gives Segovia its World Heritage status. Romans built the first fort here and the Almoravids expanded it and hence the name. Alcázar comes from the Arabic Al-Qasr ("The Fort"). It was one of the most imposing monuments we saw on the trip with grand interiors matching the exterior. An hour and a bit on the road brought us to Ávila, the city with the best preserved medieval walls in all of Europe. Apart from the walls, which took most of our time, the town also houses a twelveth century cathedral whose retroquire is so impressive that it remains in our memory even after a glut of churches we visited over the following eight days. Among the perishable things are the famous Yemas de Santa Teresa, a sweet dish made from egg yolk and sugar, which, putting it diplomatically, were interesting.
The following day was spent at the famous museums of Madrid starting with the Thyssen-Bornemisza. This Heinrich Thyssen was a Hungarian-German art collector who married the Miss Spain 1961 and it was through her that the collection has remained in Spain. A short walk away is the famous Prado, the largest art museum in Spain and it needs no introduction. Its collection was simply breathtaking. Velázquez' Las Meninas, Goya's Third of May and Zurbarán's Agnus Dei has remained etched in our memory. Unfortunately, that is all we have to rely on as photography isn't allowed inside. The third of the Golden Trio of Madrid musuems is the Reina Sofía which houses the greatest anti-war art to have ever painted - Picasso's Guernica. The painting depicts the horrors that Guernica was subjected to when Hitler used it as a testing ground for the new technology of Carpet-bombing.
After spending an hour rambling around the pretty El Retiro park, we made our way to the final museum of the day: Museo Nacional de Antropología. Visigoths kicked out the Romans towards the end of the 4th century and they were in turn replaced by the Arabs in the 8th century. Before the Arabic invasion, the Visigoths managed to hide away their royal treasures. Known as the Treasure of Guarrazar, these were rediscovered in the 1860s and are now housed in this museum. There are just four crowns lost in some corner of a vast museum and the museum guards were kind enough to run around re-rediscovering them for us.
On day three, we utilised the idle pre-10 am time to get to El Escorial, a sleepy village located 55 kms to the northwest of Madrid. It was here that Philip II, the sixth monarch of united Spain, built the largest renaissance building on the planet, the gigantic Royal site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a monastery cum a royal residence. Many of its royal residents are still here as the building is also the royal burial site housing the tombs of several monarchs. The less somber bits of the building, viz., the Library, the Basilica, the Habsburg residence (specially, the Hall of the Battles), are adorned with breathtaking frescoes.
After spending better part of the forenoon there, we reached Madrid in the early afternoon which gave us enough time to check out three of its attractions. The first was the Temple of Debod, a 2nd century B.C. Nubian temple transported to Spain, a gift from Egypt in return for Spain's help in saving the Nubian monuments after the Aswan Dam flooded the region. Thanks to the prevailing draught, the surrounding pool was bone dry and we could not get to see the famous reflection of the monument. But, thanks to the clear skies, we did get to see the equally famous sight of our next destination, the Almudena Cathedral. The construction of this seat of the Archdiocese of Madrid started in 1883 and was completed rather recently in 1993. The building looks traditional on the outside, but quite modern on the inside. It is home to the famous Virgen de la Almudena, the patroness of Madrid. Legend dates it back to the time of Jesus when the statue was said to have brought here by the apostle James while historians date it back to the 16th century. The final stop of the day was at the Real Basílica de San Francisco el Grande, an 18th century church housing the largest dome in Spain and the fourth largest in Europe after the Vatican, Pantheon and Florence. And the best view of the dome is from inside the Basilica, standing right at its centre, looking up.
Everyone who spends a few days in Madrid, uses one of those days on a day trip to Toledo and that's what we did on our day four of the trip. A high speed train brought us to Toledo in less than 45 minutes and a taxi took us to the best view point of our trip in less than 5. Mirador del Valle is where you get the famous panorama of Toledo, a view immortalised by Toledo's favourite adopted son, El Greco, in his famous View of Toledo. Taxis only drop you at the view point and we had to walk down to the Puente de Alcántara (an arch bridge dating back to the Roman times) and up to the Alcázar, a fort (also dating back to the Romans), the location where Hernán Cortés briefed the emperor Charles I about his exploits in Mexico.
Toledo has too many sites to go through in detail. Just the highlights include the astonishing altarpiece of its 13th century Cathedral, the magnum opus of El Greco, "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" housed in the San Tomé Church, two fine Moorish style Synagogues: Tránsito and Santa Maria La Blanca, the stunning 15th century Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes where sculptures just seem to explode from the walls and the wonderful little Mosque of Cristo de la Luz, a mosque converted to a church where you can still spot many of the original Moorish elements.
We spent the following morning's idle time just recovering from the Stendhal syndrome of the previous day. A good decision in the hindsight as we had to confront the over the top opulence of the Palacio Real, the largest palace in Europe. Among the never ending array of baroque magnificence, the Royal Chapel, Charles III's Chamber, the Dining Hall and the Throne Room were the stand outs. In order to not overwhelm the tourists (or most likely to make more money off them), most of the royal collections that used to be in the palace is now kept in a separate museum where the arts from the Habsburg and the Bourbon eras are kept on separate floors. Within an hour we became experts in telling the subtle differences between the Austrian and the French styles. Two Reals are too little. So we decided to add a third. Right opposite to the palace is the Teatro Real, an opera house built between 1818 and 1850 where the stately rooms were sumptuous enough to impress the fresh off the palace visitors like us. The theatre also offers the best views of the palace from its balcony. We had a couple of hours left before catching our evening train and we decided to visit two bridges which span the same Manzanares river and at the same time also spans five centuries between them. The Puente Monumental de Arganzuela was built recently in 2011 is a famous Instagram point while the Puente de Segovia was built in 1584 by the same king who built the Escorial monastery.
Whenever the Romans conquer a place, the standard operating procedure is to build a Roman city and settle the war veterans there. That was their way to ensure that the conquered land remained Roman. Roman Conquest of Iberia was no different. Following the final phase viz., the Cantabrian Wars, the new emperor built a city to settle its veterans. He named the city after himself: Kaiser Augusta, but spelt it the Latin way: Caesaraugusta (Latin does not have a "K"). The Gauls came along and softened the Latin "C" and the name over time got corrupted to Zaragoza, which is conveniently located half way between Madrid and Barcelona. The person who is credited for introducing Christianity in Iberia is the apostle James and it was here in Zaragoza where he had his famous vision of Mary who appeared to him on a pillar. St James immediately built the first chapel here making it the oldest church to be dedicated to Mary. Over time it grew into the grand Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar that we see today. The current baroque church was built between 1681 and 1686 by king Charles II.
The height of the Islamic occupation of Spain happened during the Caliphate of Córdoba. It disintegrated right after Al Mansoor, (i.e. a little after 1000 A.D.) and was replaced by several mutually warring taifas. One of the bigger taifas was the Taifa of Zaragoza and their seat of power was the Aljafería Palace, located a short taxi ride away from the Zaragoza city centre. The ground floor is the best surviving example of Mudejar architecture outside of Andalusia while the first floor houses the 15th century Palace of the Catholic Monarchs with palatial rooms befitting its title. The remains of the erstwhile Caesaragusta survives as four distinct sections: the ruins of its ancient Forum, its river port, its Baths and the obligatory Theatre. All four can be visited on a single entry ticket with the theatre being the pick of the lot. The first mosque of Zaragoza was built on top of the Roman Forum and the Cathedral of Zaragoza, La Seo was built on top of this mosque. Built between the 12th and the 17th centuries, the cathedral styles spans everything from the Romanesque to the Baroque. Being dazzled by the cathedral's interior was a wonderful way to end this short visit to this fabulous city.
The final three days of our trip was spent in Barcelona and its vicinity. Architecturally, Barcelona is two cities merged into one. First, there is the Gothic heart with its traditional architecture and then there is the Modernist periphery where likes of Gaudí and Montaner have managed to weave impossible curves with mundane materials. Ideally, we would have liked to see each part on separate days. But without the budget of a BBC and with the constraints of the opening times a mishmash is all we could manage. We started off at the most recognised monument in Spain, the majestic Sagrada Família. The construction started in 1882 and is still on going. Gaudí was the most influential of its architects and his tomb is located in its crypt. Its interior is one of the most breathtaking sights we have seen in our lives. A short metro ride dropped us at the gleaming red Arc the Triomf (oui, Paris you are not unique) and a short walk brought us to Parc de la Ciutadella with its magnificent fountain where Gaudí was the apprentice architect.
The gothic heart wasn't far off and we headed first to its 15th century Cathedral. We went down to visit the tomb of St. Eulalia, the city's patron saint and went up to the rooftop to enjoy the bird's eye view of the Gothic quarter. The two Santa Marias (del Mar and del Pi) rounds off the trio of important Gothic churches of the quarter. After letting our breaths taken away figuratively by simply gaping at them and literally by climbing its respective towers, we headed to the sea to see the Columbus Monument. It was here in Barcelona that Columbus reported his new findings to the Catholic Monarchs and the monument was created in 1888 to symbolise this event. This incredibly long day continued onto late afternoon as we headed to Passeig de Gràcia, the avenue that houses all the heavy hitters of the Modernist architecture. We only had the time and means to visit its top two buildings - Milà and Batlló, both designed by Gaudí and both showing his immense dislike of a straight edge. And in both cases, the rooftop took the cake. Gaudí somehow managed to 3-D-fy the surrealistic images of Dalí.
Tarragona and Girona are popular day trip options for anyone with a spare day in Barcelona. Normal people pick one or the other. We are anything but. So we picked both. We first headed one hour south to Tarragona. It was an ancient port founded by the Phoenicians. "Ta Aragona" in Phoenician means "The Aragona", hence the name of the city and the region of Aragon. Rome took it over and expanded it. The sea facing Amphitheater is one of the best preserved from the Roman era. The nearby Circ Romana and the Praetorium offers the best view in town. The city’s 12th century Cathedral used to be a Moorish Mosque, a Visigothic Church and a Roman Temple in its previous incarnations. This Romanesque-Gothic building has an impressive façade, an intricately carved altar and a wonderful cloister. A short walk away is the original Roman walls that protected the ancient Roman city of Tarraco.
One hour north of Barcelona (which translated to two hours from Tarragona and a tight connection in Barcelona Sants) is Girona, another ancient Iberian city taken over by the Romans. At its highest point stands the imposing 11th century Cathedral, the building with the widest Gothic nave in the world. Its cloister is the only one to survive from the 12th century and is hence distinctly Romanesque while the rest of the building is Gothic. A short distance away is the city's Basilica housing some wonderful Roman sarcophagi. Nearby is a 12th century Arab Baths with an impressive central room.
We started our final day at the final Gaudí masterpiece: Park Güell, a public park commissioned by the Catalan industrialist Eusebi Güell. It houses all the iconic images of Barcelona: El Draco, the Serpentine Bench, the Vaulted Viaduct and the Doric Columns supporting the terrace. Since we pre-booked the tickets for the earliest slot and I had the map rote memorised, we could get our dream selfies without anyone photobombing us.
We were now close to Tibidabo, the highest point around Barcelona and we took a taxi to the top. On its top sits an amusement park which we don’t care about and a 1960 Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which we totally care about. The neo-Gothic building was impressive enough, but the highlight was being able to climb all the way to the top, to the feet of the Jesus Statue that sits on top of the building and the dizzying views that we got to enjoy from there. Diagonally across the city sits a much more modest Montjuïc hill. As traversing the city in peak hour would have eaten up all our time, we splurged on a taxi to get there. At the base of the hill sits the best museum in Barcelona, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. The museum is notable for its outstanding collection of Romanesque church paintings which adorned several 11th to 13th century churches located in the Pyrenees and rural Catalonia. All these have been painstakingly removed and wonderfully presented in this museum. The museum itself is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929.
We then took the teleferic up to the top of Montjuïc. The hill's name literally means Jew Hill in Catalan as it houses an ancient Jewish cemetery. On its top sits the 1640 Montjuïc Castle. It was the site of the Reapers' War of the mid-17th century when Catalonia revolted to become independent of the Habsburg Spain. We did not have time to get into the castle as we had to rush to the last site for which we had pre-booked tickets. Palau de la Música Catalana is genuine masterpiece and worth all the running to get here. Designed by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built between 1905 and 1908, the interior is gobsmackingly pretty. A perfect place to end such a wonderful trip.
In 9 days we had walked close to 2,00,000 steps which translates to about 120 kilometers. And we had just seen the smallest fraction of the most touristy bits of the country. Now we understand why Spain gave us a two year visa. That is the bare minimum time that we need to scratch the surface. We can now be happy that our next few travel destinations have picked themselves.
Click here for more photos from Madrid.
Click here for more photos from Barcelona.
Click here for more photos from Zaragoza.
Click here for more photos from Toledo.
Click here for more photos from Segovia and Ávila.
Click here for more photos from Tarragona and Girona.
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