Thursday, 10 July 2008

A week in Scotland Travelogue: caressing the White Rose DAY II (Part II)



The open space in front of St Giles entrance, facing uphill, is occupied by the statue of Sir Walter Scott, and I take a few minutes to enjoy a smoke under its shadow, remembering the great times I had reading the adventures of heroes like Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward. What I did not know, until I got to Edinburgh, was his important social and political influence in the country, widely commemorated. Near his statue a brass heart is engraved in the cobblestones, which, according to tradition marks the location of the Tollbooth, official building that served as administration centre, executions place, prison and tax collecting office. The outline of the building, demolished in 1817, is also marked in the ground. Traditionally you are meant to spit inside the Heart

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Wednesday, 9 July 2008

A week in Scotland Travelogue: caressing the White Rose DAY II (Part I)





I make an early (for me) start at 8, in order to make most of the day, and I go out into the street intending to find a pub and wolf down a huge breakfast complete with bacon, eggs, sausages, etc. I walk up Grayfriars to the Royal Mile and stop to gaze upon Edinburgh in daylight for the first time.
Espectacular. Up to present date Edinburgh is the most beautiful city I have had the honour to visit. The decadent buildings, crammed to each other, crowned by rows of old looking chimneys, look taken right out of a tale, and every façade has its own architectural charisma. Blackfriars opens onto the stretch of Royal Mile called High Street, roughly by its middle point. A few feet uphill, an avenue crosses from New Town


In front of Mercat Cross I find the City Chambers, official building that rests atop what once was Mary King’s Close. All homes in this close, during the plague, were walled and sealed with their inhabitants still alive inside. As it happened, their ghosts (this people can´t take a joke) got a bit miserable about it and it is said they still roam the place, which claims to be the most haunted spot of the U.K (then again, it’s not the only one to claim that title). One of the walking tours involved in the supernatural side of Edinburgh organizes visits to Mary King’s Close.
By the sidewalk outside the chambers there are a few stalls selling souvenirs and jewellery. It turns out a couple of the keepers are Spanish. The girl I cross a few words with confirms our presence in the city.
“Gibraltar may be British…” She says, smiling “… but Edinburgh is ours!”
Next to their stall has its own a lady that claims the Guiness Record of highest number of piercings in the face. Takes me just one look to decide that I believe her, and I don’t look close.
Back across the street and next to the Mercat Cross stands St Guiles Catedral (still coming by the title of Cathedral although it is not one anymore). The exterior shows a beautiful gothic style, with elegant flying buttresses around the apse and the dome. Inside, the main naves are not particularly impressive, but his walls are soaked in history and dozens of plaques pay tribute to those fallen in the Great War, while the bearded statue of John Knox, father of the Religious Reform, stands vigilant to one side. His body lies close by, albeit outside the walls. Much more striking is the adjacent Thistle Chapel (symbol of the most noble knighthood order of Scotland) which, to the right of the apse, contains a kind of round table and a choir with beautiful carvings. It is, I have it, one of the only two places in the world where you can find a piper angel.


Behind this building is the old Scottish Parliament, rendered useless when the Parliaments of England and Scotland were united in the XVIII century. It is curious to find, in the space between Cathedral and Parliament, now a parking lot, a little bronze plaque in the pavement, with nothing engraved on it. John Knox wanted specifically to be buried there, so when the kirkyard was removed from that place, his body was the only one that stayed. Since that space has, in time, been needed as parking space for the Old Parliament, it turns out that the main architect of the Scottish Reform rests in peace under lot 23. Definitely striking.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2008

A week in Scotland Travelogue: caressing the White Rose DAY I

Not much to tell about the flight, apart from some minor setbacks and delay in boarding our plane; flying with a low cost airline these things do not catch me unaware. Already inside the boarding finger and the gate open, they take us out again and walk us around the airport, changing our boarding gate yet another three times. We all take it lightly, some jokes, some more patience, and there we go. Flight is about 2 ½ hours long and crew and commander provide a goodhearted easy going attention, seasoned with some light well taken humour; only my own eagerness to reach Scotland makes the journey feel a little longer than it is: will it meet my expectations? After all the years passed since I last went on a trip like this, how will the backpacking experience turn out? Will I be able to make the most of it?
As soon as we land I direct my steps to the Tourist Info Office

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Monday, 7 July 2008

The Skyline of Madrid: a sculpture museum

I remember, as a child, how my mother would tell me off for not looking at the ground when I was walking and running around. As much as I appreciate (now) her caring for my welfare, it is a piece of advice that I always found very hard to heed. I have been a curious spirit all my life: the kind of boy whose gaze wanders about, absorbing all things around, looking for all new kinds of wonders (and ending up more often than not with skinned knees and dirty clothing after tripping in this or that crack in the pavement). Still that urge and restlessness tends to wear off as years go by and it wasn’t until past my teenage, when life put me up on top of a double-decker sight seeing bus for the first time, in my native city, that I reencountered the pleasure of wandering around looking up high. When you are in Madrid, there are many things that you do not want to miss, and the ceiling of this city is one of them.
The trend started around the XIX century,

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Sunday, 25 May 2008

Betharram Grottoes: best to see in Lourdes

If, like myself, you are not a religious person (much the opposite in my case), the world famous pilgrimage spot of Lourdes, lying by the Pyrinées in the South of France will most likely, tend to dissapoint you. It does have some rural charm, as many other villages in this area, but the incense reeking little town of Lourdes does not have much to impress me: most of the area around the sanctuary is occupied by either homes for the sick and para-clinic church compounds or lots of shops selling religious merchandising and paraphernalia, where the best seller items are plastic bottles to carry water from the Holy Spring (if that is your cup of tea), often shaped like the Virgin Mary or other catholic icons, at the amazing price of 6 dollars for a 25 cc. (empty) flask! Having said this, if you have to go to Lourdes by any particular reason, including faith, or are passing by on your way somewhere else, there is, close by, an attraction which I do encourage you all to pay a visit to: the Betharram Grottos. This place is

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Thursday, 15 May 2008

Gaztelugatxe: the Chapel of the Sea



Myth, superstition and fantasy are basic ingredients deeply embedded in human nature. Some places have an equally evoking and intimidating atmosphere that bring out and excite that old connection, which dwells within us all, with the popular lore of old times when life was harsher and answers fewer. Much of this lore is related to the ocean, a horizon too vast to be tackled or spanned by most simple, mortal souls (including mine), and so many of these wonderful sceneries occur in the confluence of land and sea, be it in battling, tender, or confusing union; it is in such spots where one can let go of logic, science and the constraints of modern life and thankfully yield to feelings and memories of many years and people before us, that seem suddenly much more appropriate to describe and handle these wondrous visions. San Juan de Gaztelugatxe takes me back to

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Saturday, 26 April 2008

The Green Spain: Galicia


International tourism business in Spain started flourishing in the sixties and seventies decade of the 20th century, mainly featuring beach and sunny locations and (at the time) very cheap prices in an economy that fell way behind the rest of the western world. Thus most topics and known images of the country outside of our borders spring from or are related to the areas that offer these particular experiences: the eastern rim with the Catalonian Costa Brava or Valencia (Paella, if eaten everywhere in Spain, is a Valencian traditional dish) to quote just two, and Andalucía in the south coast, with the Costa del Sol of Málaga province as most popular attraction. Most of these areas are, if enjoyably sunny, also dry and arid looking in general to the visiting and local eye. And I get the feeling that such is the impression most tourists, would be and returning alike, have from Spain. They are mistaken. For Spain is also humid, green and deeply forested , as you will confirm if you go


The five Rías Bajas (South to North they comprise the inlets of Vigo, Pontevedra, Arousa, Muros I Noia and Corcubión, all named after the main villages located at their innermost points) present a curious microclimate, pretty mild compared to the rest of Galicia, with as many days of sun per year as the Costa Brava, and quite a few small but nice blue flagged beaches, including the beaches of the Cíes Islands (recently acclaimed by Conde Nast Magazine, if memory serves, as being among the 10 most beautiful in the planet) in front of the entrance to Vigo Inlet, and the beach of La Lanzada, a bit north from there, in the outer side of the Ría de Arousa, very close to the village of El Grove, both still wild. Western orientation provides for the most spectacular sunsets, too. The cultural patrimony of this area includes treasures of architecture and sculpture, mainly of Gothic and Romanesque style and dating, almost everywhere you go, and you should visit and see, to name but a few, the old quarter of the city of Pontevedra, monasteries like San Juan de Poio or San Ero de Armenteira, and captivating old towns like Cambados or Padrón, and the tiny fishermen village of Combarro, one of the most charming places you can find in Galicia and even Spain in general. The Isla de la Toja is also a balneary center of first order in the country, with few but magnificent spas.
A few miles into the coast, and halfway from Rias Bajas to the north end of Galicia you will find Santiago de Compostela, capital of the region and resting place of Spain’s patron saint, St James (Santiago in Spanish). There is a saying in Galicia that might give you a slight idea of the stone engraved beauty of this city: “In Santiago, rain is art”; for in the rainiest city of the country, every falling drop outlines an utterly fascinating compound of medieval dating constructions crowned by St James’ cathedral, standing in the Obradoiro square, one of the most beautiful settings of this kind you will find in the planet.


The north coast of Galicia starts in the west corner with a stretch of wild rocky cliffs and rocks beaten by the sea, known as Costa da Morte (Coast of Death-because of the hundreds of ship wreckages that have taken place in its dangerous waters) that after about 110 miles leads to A Coruña, first of the Rias Altas (west to east, A Coruña, Betanzos, Ares, Ferrol, Cedeira, Ortigueira, Barquero, Vivero, Foz ad Ribadeo). The city of A Coruña, founded, legend says, by Heracles himself after defeating a dragon, is the most modern and cosmopolite of Galicia, mixing modernity, romanticism and pragmatism. Gothic churches share the city with Baroque civil constructions, Modernist and Futurist buildings, medieval castles, French renaissance gardens and a 60 m roman lighthouse dating from the II century. All this surrounded by the promenade along the seafront, one of the longest and most beautiful in Europe, crossing two excellent beaches , the Museum of Man, the Castle of San Anton and the roman lighthouse (Torre de Hércules or Heracles’ Tower, symbol of the city). Although the climate is much rainier and misty and the waters of the Cantabric Sea (mixing the Atlantic with the British Channell’s that come from the North Sea) are pretty colder than the Mediterranean’s or the Atlantic’s you can find wonderful beaches along the Rias Altas, including the spectacular Playa de las Catedrales (beach of the Cathedrals) small in its strands but fascinating in the forms of the cliffs that can be seen and explored during the low tide. In this area you can also find the Cabo del Mundo (World’s cap), with the highest cliffs in western Europe (more than 600 m) except for the Nordic fjords. The cultural patrimony and the stone jewels also abound, featuring monasteries like San Andres de Teixido, second most important pilgrimage in the region after St James or villages like Betanzos.


There are too many charming places in Galicia and as usual the entry is stretching too long. Many of the locations I have quoted will hopefully star a more comprehensive article some of these days. I do not want to finish, though, without suggesting one more location, this time inland: the city of Lugo, in time capital of the roman province of Gallaecia. Patrimony of Humanity like Santiago, it keeps the best preserved roman walls compound of the world (and many other things, but just this is enough to justify the visit).


Final considerations: thanks to heavens above, tourism in Galicia is not a massive thing like it is in other parts of Spain. Urban “development” goes on, but luckily at a slower pace. Tourism is a big source of income in this area which is economically poor compared with others in Spain, but it has evolved through person to person recommendations with the locals realising potential business and setting up small family hotels, instead of huge industrial investments. You can also find big hotels, mainly in the big cities and around Rias Bajas, but that is not the rule. Let’s keep it that way.

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