April 2016 – Canada to Spain 2016

Seville

This blog has not done justice to our two-day stay in Seville or the interesting drive from Alcaucin to Seville. This is due to the poor wifi connection at our Seville accommodation.

This will attempt to fill the gaps for April 19 to 21.

April 19

Seville

The capital of Andalusia, Seville is a sprawling historic city on the river Guadalquivir. It is a world heritage site with many places to visit. Like most ancient Spanish cities, its heritage is a mixture of old Moorish architecture and Renaissance Roman Catholic, Gothic and Baroque.
We spent two nights here. Not really long enough to full justice to all that can be seen here.

The day we drove here was a beautiful sunny day. The first part of the journey from the mountain village of Alcaucin to Alquivera was the same route taken the previous day when we went to see the rocks at El Torcin. Everything looks so much better in sunlight.

Driving into Seville was a nightmare because traffic was heavy. The road into the city parallels the river with large bridges crossing it giving a similar appearance to Florence. By more good luck than judgement, we took the right bridge to the Trianna area and found the hotel immediately. We parked outside the door, but were almost ticketed as it was a no stopping road. The hotel staff offered no advice or suggestions, so Mike had to spend about an hour driving up and down narrow streets looking for a parking place. Meanwhile, I had to wait while they cleaned the room. Although the hotel was quite big with about 4-5 floors, we were given a pokey little room near the reception desk. I think it might have once been a broom closet! The space was less than we had in our cabin on the cruise without space under the bed for the luggage. But we are travelling on a budget and all accommodation in Seville is higher than other places. So it was clean and convenient for getting to the cathedral and Alcazar Gardens. But as mentioned, and the reason for this afterword on Seville, is because of the lousy wifi signal. Another reason is because we did so much in a few days.

The night of our arrival in Seville, we strolled around the city area around the cathedral. At this time the main cathdral was closed, but we did have access to the parish church adjoining the cathedral. Parish Church. The size of Seville Cathedral is breathtaking. It is reportedly the largest Gothc cathedral in Europe. Even the attached Parish Church is as big as many other cathedrals.

We strolled along the river and had a meal at one of the riverside restaurants. As we ate, the sky darkened and soon it was raining hard. The rain continued all of the next day and the morning we left Saville for Codoba, where it was still raining since our last visit.

So our Seville visit was all in the rain!
Nevertheless, despite the rain, we did enjoy the Royal Alkazar Gardens and palace, originally built by the Moors and taken over and added to by the Spanish royalty. The top floor of the palace is still a royal residence for the present King of Spain when he comes to Seville.

The pouring rain did not stop people lining up to get in. We did not buy advance tickets, but our line seemed to move faster than the prepaid line. I felt sorry for the horses standing in the rain waiting to give carriage rides. Not so popular in the rain!

Again there is far too much to describe about the palace architecture, paintings, and decor. Similarly, the extensive gardens with fountains and formal Renaissance box hedges are best seen in pictures. I will add some of my pics but recommend you search for Alcazar, Saville for more.

This is the link to Wikopedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcázar_of_Seville

Seville Cathedral

The tomb of Christopher Columbus

Chinchon

After returning to Chinchon from Aranjuez, we explored this attractive city.

The most prominent feature is the circular main plaza, the Mayor Plaza. This plaza has been used in many Spanish films and some American. The most notable, Around the World in 80 days and two directed by Orson Wells, ‘The Chimes at Midnight’ and ‘Immortal History’

They still have bull fights and bull running a in the plaza. The 3 storey buildings form a circle and the balconies at each level form a spectator’s gallery.

The city has a castle which was first built in the late 1400s, but was destroyed by the commoners in 1520. Many years later a Count of Chinchon rebuilt a castle on the same foundations. In 1705 during the war of succession, the castle suffered more damage and in 1808 it was set on fire. It is now closed to the public, but was used as a distillery to make the liquor anise for which this area is famous.

The church reportedly has a painting of Goya whose brother was pastor at one time. But the church was closed when we climbed up.

Wednesday, April 27 2016

Aranjuez

Another Spanish Royal Palace with ornamental formal gardens with fountains galore.

The palace was originally built by Phillip II as a country retreat. Over the years it was extended to the monstrous place it is today.

The interior rooms open to the public have been restored and changed. It seems Queen Isabella made the most changes. Her renovations must have cost a fortune . The extravagant lifestyle of the Spanish aristocracy was coming to am end. Isabella was deposed end of 19th century and spent her last years in exile, dying in 1904.

We were not allowed to take any photos inside the palace .

The gardens are mainly acres of formal box hedges. We have missed the daffodils that I could see had been a stunning show and are too early for the roses. A pretty yellow climbing rose brightened arches encircling a fountain. Also flowering almond or crab apple added to the colour. Some of the trees were majestic in height and must be centuries old.

Our entry ticket was for two palaces but they do give you a map. We are walked off our feet looking for the 2nd palace . We found a signpost to the Prince’s Palace so followed the direction. It must have been 2 miles of gardens and fountains. When we finally found it, it was not included with our entry and they wanted another 5 Euros each. By this time we felt we had had our fill of Spanish royal opulence, so decided not to bother .

I wear a Fitbit and today it records that I have walked over 20,000 steps or 15 miles.

Tuesday, April 26 2016 : Cercedilla to Chinchon

Another sunny cloudless day. Just outside Cercedilla a huge cross dominates a hillside. This marks a memorial raised by Franco to remember all of his Fascist supporters who died in the Civil War. Franco is also buried here. It is now a memorial for all, so we thought we’d visit on our way out.
But they wanted 9 Euros to enter! I think paying to enter a war memorial for Franco’s henchmen is a bit off. So we turned around and drove away.

Returned to El Escorial to see Phillip II’s Royal palace and monastery.El Escorial

The Royal Apartment rooms include the bedroom and bed where Phillip died. He was a very organized king and personally saw to all purchases and plans for the palace. He was also very religious and had a special window from his bedroom looking on to the high altar of the Basilica. When I see the size and grandeur of these Spanish Basilicas, it seems a little quaint to upgrade Our Lady Church in Guelph to Basilica status!

The mauseleum contains the interred remains of all the Spanish kings and queens and their children.

The oil paintings on the walls and ceiling paintings by renownd artists are too numerous to list here. Enough to say that one is saturated with great artistery in all forms. The Hall of Battles is huge with paintings of Tivaldi depicting all the battles fought between the Spanish and the Muslims. I find it difficult to view all the slaughter. I felt the artist shows sympathy for the horses. They all seem to be looking out of the painting to the spectator with expressions of sorrow at the way humans were behaving!

It is too early in spring to see much colour in the gardens, but the box hedges are beautiful. When the roses are out, the gardens will be more colourful. But what a lot of work. Some gadeners were weeding out the thistles and other obnoxious weeds between the rows of the hedges.

See the link above for more on this site.

It took until 2.30 to see everything and we still had a long drive to this charming town of Chinchon. Again, I recommend a Google search for more on this interesting town. I found this account interesting.

Chinchon
Our hotel is very nice with an outside balcony overlooking a patio.

We had our evening meal on the balcony of a restaurant in the Mayor Plaza. The plaza is round and is still used as a bull ring.

Mike chose this place because it is near for the Palace Gardens of Aranjuez and not too far to drive to Madrid airport on Thursday.

Monday, April 25, 2016

A lovely day! Not a cloud in the sky. We got to El Escorial, the city where Phillip II’s palace dominates the skyline. It was built 1563 to 1584 and is one of the biggest Renaissance buildings in Spain, maybe in Europe. One internet site reported it was closed on Mondays, but Trip Adviser did not. We took the risk as we leave here tomorrow for Toledo.

We had the usual difficulty finding a place to park, so had quite a walk to the palace. It WAS closed! Part of the original palace was converted into a Monastry and is now a private school. We walked into the grounds looking for the ticket office and thought hoards of kids had arrived to tour the palace. But when I saw girls skipping with a long rope and was nearly decapitated by a flying football, I realized we were in a school playground.

Must be a fancy school to be located in such grand premises

We will come back tomorrow for a quick tour before we go on to Toledo. But did take some photos of formal gardens seen from the wall.

An adjacent palace of Don Carlos, was also closed. We couldn’t see anything from road.

So we mooched around the town of El Escorial had a coffee with view of palace in background.

The rest of the day we spent driving around the area enjoying the lovely sunny day and views of the mountains and the fresh smell of pine forests, etc. We drove to a forested area north of Cercadilla with trails to different viewpoints. We avoided the ‘adventure’ activities like zip lining and other rope climbing stuff involving a lot of screams from participants. Instead we took a trail to a Roman Bridge.

Later we drove to another ecological site and walked round a lake.

Walled city of Avila in Castile and Leon, Spain

Sunday, April, 24 2016. Avila, Castile and Leon, Spain

Woke this morning to blue sky and sunshine. Made getting out of bed better than yesterday! This hostel is very nice but the heating goes off at 2.00am. This means that getting out of bed stepping on a cold tiled floor is not very pleasant. Memories of childhood with no heating in bedrooms. But, today, not so bad.We had a bacon buttie and coffee in the cafe next to our hostel before driving to Avila, a town 50kms. away from here. On the lovely drive over the foothills we were in Canada for a minute! Have no idea why this tiny town is called La Canada. Something to research, sometime

Avila is famous for its in tact ancient walled city with the medieval cathedral,built into the walls in 1091. About the same age as Durham Cathedral in the U.K. my home cathedral.

There was the usual problem in finding a parking space, but Mike managed to fit our Fiat into a spot I would never have attempted!
We had a lovely day visiting an old church first. Then had lunch at an outside cafe in the main square. After, toured the cathedral and finally climbed up steep steps to walk around the walls. I have to take back some of my comments made yesterday about visiting royal palaces. The cathedral staff were very kind, did not even ask to see documents to prove we were seniors. The audio guide was part of entry fee. We have visited many many cathedrals over the years, but I must say this one at Avila has to be one of the best I have visited. Unlike some U.K. Cathedrals it is not filled with memorials to military victors.

The audio guide was well done and explained the different parts and architectural features very clearly. I am sure a Google search for Avila in the junta of Castile and Leon, Spain will give those interested a better description than I can.

Walking the city walls in sunshine was very pleasant with lots of photo opportunities. Appropriately, a photo of wallflowers growing on the walls is my floral pic. for today.

Tomorrow we are going to another royal palace. The mansion of Phillip II who was for a short time king of England when he married Mary Tudor. Hopefully, we will see some nice formal gardns, although spring is only just starting here. We are north of Guelph, Ontario!

Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso

We will probably return to see more of the sites of Segovia, it’s Gothic Cathedral and its many old churches. While the weather was good, we wanted to get to Ildefonso where the Royal Palace of La Granja is located. This was a palace that was properly finished with French style formal gardens in 18th century style.

It is still early spring, here in the foothills of the mountains. The leaves are not yet fully open on the trees. The beech tree hedges are still bare and the roses are no way ready to bloom.

The big attraction are the many fountains and statues. At 5.30 every day, the fountains are turned on and crowds of people come for the ‘show’

Segovia

After leaving the Hunting Palace, we went on to Segovia. This ancient settlement dates back to Roman times and is famous for one of the oldest and still functioning Roman aqueducts. As usual, finding a parking space was difficult. We had decided to leave and return early tomorrow, when a car moved out.

We walked up to the top for a good view of the city and back down through the medieval Jewish section. Jews were expelled from Spain by the Catholics.