28 October: Málaga

Morning dawned with a high wind in Cádiz yesterday, though temperatures were mild. We strolled a final turn around the old town, stopping for a bite or two along the way, then headed for the bus station for a 2 p.m. coach to Málaga. Palm trees were bent sideways, and we had to keep a grip on our belongings, lest they blow away!

The bus wound its way southeast along the Atlantic coast, with stops in Tarifa ("very popular for wind sports"!) and Algeciras on the Bay of Gibraltar, from which you can take a ferry across to Morocco. Once past the Rock, the wind abated and we followed the expressway northeast up past Marbella and into Málaga. What would have been 2 hours in a car required 4-1/2 by bus, but it was much easier on the nerves, and we saw a lot of scenery.

We schlepped our bags (welcoming the exercise) from the Málaga bus station to the apartment house where we had arrange for a flat, only to find the door locked and nobody around, and the street in front under construction. After waiting for 20 minutes or so, we cut our losses and went to nearest hotel, which is very nice, modern and comfortable. So much for preplanning.

Málaga is a large city (pop. about 600,000), and the coast on either side is well built up, but we are in the center of town at the edge of the barrio historico, and can see the surrounding mountains from our 4th-floor room. A major Spanish port as well as tourist center, there are few highrises, and an overall sense of intimacy, if such is possible in such an urbanized area.

Our first outing this morning took us to the Atarazanas Market, a glorious big building that started as a 14th-century Moorish shipyard right on the water (the port is now a good half kilometer away). After repeated renovations that turned it successively into a convent, an arsenal, and a hospital (as various ruling governments took over the city), the building was "updated" in the 19th century and made into the market, with high arched windows and roof panels supported by beautiful iron gridwork. One of the original Moorish arched entries miraculously survived. It is a glorious building with a fabulous market inside.

We visited the Pablo Picasso museum and admired many works of his that we'd not seen before, plus a temporary exhibit of the work of Uruguayan painter Joaquin Torres-Garcia (see www.museopicassomalaga.org/en/temporary-exhibitions/joaquin-torres-garcia%3Athe-arcadian-modern if interested) . We also paid Picasso homage in front of the house where he was born on the Plaza de la Merced. Lunch was at a fun upscale hamburger joint filled with local young professionals.

After a late-afternoon siesta, we walked down to the harbor along with many others to take in the evening air. A very small cruise ship was berthed along the quay, as well as two coast guard boats that seemed to be open for public visits, complete with crew in uniform. We wandered along the base of the hill in the middle of town that is crowned by an ancient fort (tomorrow's adventure), and found the ruins of a Roman theater that is also on the agenda for tomorrow. A light-ish dinner at 9 downtown while we watched a soccer game, then home to bed.

27 October: barrios of Cadiz

Small though Cádiz may be, it has distinctive neighborhoods. Each day, we seem to discover a new one, though I think by now we have visited nearly all.

I first oriented myself to the city by thinking of it as a spoon, with the bowl as the old town and the handle as the protective, narrow spit that connects Cádiz to the mainland. As an analogy, it's not quite accurate, but the concept helps. The spit has been built up in modern times to house large apartment buildings, shopping centers, and a couple of wide boulevards that parallel the train tracks leading to the port. The 16th-century Puertas de Tierra (land gates) that protected Cádiz from mainland invasions still form a solid barrier across the spoon's neck at the base of the bowl, though they have been modified to accommodate modern traffic.

Just inside the Puertas de Tierra lie the older, and poorer, medieval (13th C) neighborhoods, now home to the local flamenco culture that is still very alive today. There is a school for flamenco, and one hears locals crooning fragments of the music as they go about town. Evidence of medieval guilds can still be found as well. Streets are narrower than in the "newer" sections of town, and houses and plazas smaller.

As the bowl of the spoon widens, as it were, the main plaza, with the port to the east and the cathedral to the west, stretches across nearly from side to side. A smart shopping district runs from the port northward along the east side of the "bowl." Toward the north, or the tip of the spoon, three large plazas are surrounded by wealthy mansions, reflecting the splendor of Cádiz in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, respectively. Continuing around to the west side, we encountered the Barrio de la Viña where once a vineyard thrived, followed by the popular Caleta beach on the Atlantic. The streets just off the beach are crowded with small seafood restaurants. We had amazing fresh clams cooked in white wine, garlic, and jamón at the Meson Criollo.

The walk from Caleta back to the hotel, cutting diagonally across the spoon's bowl, toured streets of local shops and plazas, and passed the public market with its 19th-century structure but very modern food stalls. Offerings ranged from meats and fish to fruits and vegetables.  I'd never seen quite this layout before: the market building itself occupies a square plaza (not unusual), but the buildings around the edge of the plaza are also colonnaded market stalls. These tended to offer prepared foods; there was even a sushi bar!  We think to come here tomorrow to pick up a lunch for our bus trip to Málaga.

25 October: around Cadiz

This is our third day in Cádiz, and we still have tomorrow to explore the city. We have seldom stayed for so long in one place, and it is a luxury to take our time and poke around. There are few published guides to Cádiz; apparently it has not been discovered by the greater worldwide tourist trade. A cruise ship or two pulls into port every morning, and crowds of (primarily) British, French, and Japanese tourists roam the center of town for the day before retiring to their ship and the journey to the next port. We have had the leisure to walk out to the farthest corners, into neighborhoods where the population is local, where small plazas house corner bars and groceries and hardware stores and beauty salons, and where people walk their dogs and take their children to city playgrounds after work.

On Sunday we wandered the streets and generally oriented ourselves. This was not as easy as it may sound: ​old town Cádiz is small (1.2 km east to west and 1.8 km north to south), but streets take off on diagonals every few blocks (the better to block the wind tunnels that would otherwise result), and they change names just as frequently. The generally low level of buildings (partly due to zoning regulations that seek to retain the historic nature of the casco antiguo, and partly due to the fact that the sand bar supporting the city won't tolerate high-rises) and the narrowness of the streets invite wandering, but it is easy to lose one's way. On the other hand, with water surrounding on three sides, one cannot really get lost for long. 

We treated ourselves to a traditional Spanish Sunday dinner in the mid-afternoon at a lovely restaurant, El Aljibe. Housed in an older building with stone arches and marble floors, the restaurant nonetheless provides a modern cuisine. We both had fresh fish, following an appetizer of asparagus pate.

Yesterday we set ourselves the goal of walking the periphery of the city, easily done by simply following the seawall clockwise from about 7:00 to about 5:00 on an analog face. It was a fairly stormy day, and we were glad to stop for coffee and a pastry when we had accomplished our goal. Along the way we had noted an interesting corner restaurant (six tables) near the hotel, so we returned there for the mid-afternoon dinner, this time both having meat dishes. (Vegetables are hard to find in this corner of Spain.)

This is the sherry region of Spain, and we have managed each day to taste some of the local varietals: Manzanilla, Amontillado, Oloroso. There are two taverns in town that specialize in sherry, and we have visited both. The proprietors are knowledgeable and proud to describe the characteristics of each sherry. It has been a special treat for us, sherry lovers that we are. We assume that the hours of walking are balancing the higher-than-normal levels of food and alcohol consumption.

23 October: Sunday in Cadiz

A four-hour train ride from Madrid yesterday brought us to Cádiz in the southwestern corner of Spain. It is one of our principal destinations on this trip: We were here five years ago for a few hours, and have wanted to return ever since. We are staying in a small hotel on the Plaza de la Catedral, the latter being a massive structure erected over a period of 116 years (1776-1892), as seen below.

Cádiz occupies the oldest continually inhabited site in Europe. Evidence of human habitation dates from the lower Paleolithic age, through the Neolithic and to the present. Early man is assumed to have crossed from Africa over what is today the Strait of Gibraltar. When the Phoenicians came along in the 12th century BCE and established their trading post, they named it Gadir. The name evolved over centuries of changing occupations (the Carthaginians in 520 BCE, the Romans in 206 BCE, the Visigoths in 410, then the Romans again in 550, the Visigoths again 572. The Moors in 711, then the Castilians in 1272.)

The geographical importance of the peninsula cannot be overemphasized. Cádiz sits at the northern tip of a long, very skinny peninsula that protects a large bay on the southwestern Atlantic coast of Spain. It is not far outside the Strait of Gibraltar, easily accessible from the Mediterranean. In the 16th century, the port boomed as trade with the Americas increased. Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his 2d and 4th voyages, and the Spanish Empire used Cádiz as its main port to ship riches from the New World. This of course meant that it was under repeated attack from pirates and other enemies; the English were a constant threat in the 16th and 17th centuries, as was France in the 19th. Several minor Spanish rebellions started here as well. But today the city is firmly Andalusian.

Cádiz is a bit dowdy now, but is rediscovering its past (we came here explicitly to see recently uncovered Phoenician remains, only to find the site closed until the end of the month). We took in the Museo de Cádiz this morning, which provides an impressive collection of items from Paleolothic times forward. We will see Roman and other remains later this week. But enough history for now. 

22 October: around central Madrid

Our small, modern hotel is located in the "Las Letras" district of Madrid, so centrally located that we did not have to wander far today to get to the Prado and Reina Sofia ​art museums and the Atocha train station. Nor to find good restaurants for lunch and dinner!

The Barrio de las Letras is adjacent to many of central Madrid's attractions -- the Plaza Mayor, the gigantic Retiro Park, the Puerto del Sol, in addition to the museums and train station -- but it feels off the beaten path. With narrow streets (many pedestrianized) and small plazas, it is an intriguing neighborhood that w​as​ fun to wander as we shook off jet lag.

Many writers of Spain's "Siglo de Oro" (or Golden Age, roughly 1492-1680) lived and worked here, including Gongora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, and Cervantes. Hence the name, Las Letras. The barrio ​today ​contains a mixture of small museums​ and galleries​, antique, book, and art stores, boutiques, bodegas, and bistros, and funky dime stores, quirky specialty shops, ancient laundromats, and other elderly businesses from a different era. The resulting hodgepodge is delightful, and offers an engaging glimpse into the Madrid of the past and of today. Not a chain store or restaurant in sight.

We targeted Velasquez and Goya at the Prado (the place is way too big to try to see everything), and were rewarded by a recent Richard Serra installation and several Tapies pieces at the Reina Sofia. In between the two museums, we spent an hour at the train station waiting to purchase year-long "Gold Cards" that give us discounts as seniors (humph) on train trips, plus tickets to Cadiz for tomorrow. But it provided great people watching, and we got to sit down​​ for a while​.

​Lunch (at 3 p.m.), ordered from a "menu of the day" at a lovely small restaurant​ in Las Letras, consisted of pasta with a light mushroom sauce for Jerome, and salmorejo for me, followed by a shared paella. Wine, of course, and then light desserts (flan and orange torte) followed by coffee. Classic Spanish fare. Tonight was salad and pizza at 9 p.m., at a small restaurant around the corner from the hotel. We are adapting to the Spanish eating schedule.

Tonight we wandered around the Plaza Mayor, with its arched entries and sidewalk colonnades, crowds of people tapeando and otherwise socializing, mimes miming, musicians serenading. A very lively scene. We each found a hat at a wonderful hat store in one corner of the plaza.

​I spent a semester of college in Madrid studying at Middlebury's campus here, and if I had more time, I would visit the college's still vital program now.​ As it was, I've enjoyed returning to a part of the city that I knew well back then (though it was very different, under Franco's regime). I still love this city. I think I may have to come back again!

​

20 October: from Madrid

As if 24 hours of travel weren't enough, we knew we were in Spain when we saw the "Welcome Refugees" sign hung at the Plaza de Cibeles in the heart of Madrid (see photo attached). It is a mild but damp afternoon; we are checked into our hotel One Shot Prado, and already have had our first tapas snack as we walked off the hours spent in car, plane and bus seats.

The trip over was uneventful, with Delta's usual excellent service on board. The connection in Paris was easy, and we are very glad to be on the ground in Spain. We will venture out again in a few minutes and no doubt find more tapas. We are but a few blocks from the major art museums (tomorrow's destinations), and not much further from the Atocha train station, from which we will depart for Cadiz on Saturday.

Greetings to you all; I'll write as events unfold.

Spain 2016

Nancy & Jerome ~ Spain 2016

19 October SLC-CDG Delta 88

20 October DCG-MAD Delta 8630

7 November VLC-CDG Delta 6754

7 November CDG-SLC Delta 107

Itinerary

20-21 October   Madrid

One Shot Prado 23

Calle del Prado, 23

Madrid

http://www.hoteloneshotprado23.com/

22-26 October   Cadiz

           Hotel La Catedral

Plaza de la Catedral, 9

Cadiz

http://www.hotellacatedral.com/

27-29 October   Malaga 

Santa Cruz Apartments

Alameda Principal, 36

Málaga

http://www.santacruz-apartments.com/

30 October - 2 November  Cartagena

NH Cartagena

Calle Real, 2

Cartagena

www.nh-hotels.com › Spain › Cartagena

3 - 7 November  Valencia

            Valenciaflats Catedral

            Tapinería, 15-17

            Valencia

www.valenciaflats.com/en/apartments/apartments-in-valencia-valenciaflats-catedral/