Religious (In)Tolerance

As with our previous visit to this area back in 1993 the trip to the Mezquita in Cordoba brought on mixed emotions.  Then I felt it was the most extraordinary building I had ever seen and eighteen years on I think I agree with that assessment. The astounding beauty and scale of a mosque built in the tenth century and expanded over the next couple of hundred years is amazing.

The Mezquita

The stunning simplicity and symmetry of the building combines with the beauty of the design to incredible effect, especially in the intricate detail of the decor of the mihrab, which pointed the faithful towards Mecca, and the signature red and white of the arches resulting from the initial construction which combined brick and stone. Outside a beautiful courtyard of orange trees welcomes you in.

The Mihrab

The only problem with this near perfect example of Islamic architecture is that during the 16th century King Carlos V authorised the construction of a Christian cathedral within it. The result is that in the midst of the  spartan Islamic arches is a full-size Catholic cathedral with all the gold and accompanying artifacts that implies. Even Carlos didn't like the result and knew he had destroyed something unique.

The Christian Cathedral inside the Mezquita

The current literature at the ticket office describes the site as "Cordoba Cathedral" rather than the Mezquita - as if anyone would pay €8 to see an average cathedral such as this.  This change of name is accompanied by the literature you receive telling you how intolerant the Moors were of Christianity and how they seized and destroyed an earlier Visigoth church to build the Mezquita.  This is all rather different from the description of the enlightened, tolerant Moors that we were given here 18 years ago  (and which still continues in our latest guidebook). The historical interpretation of how the Moors operated seems to have changed since Muslim-Christian relationships have taken a turn for the worse in the last ten or so years.

For more than half a century Spain was on the front-line of religious tension between Muslims and Christians. Now as the same tensions resurface in the modern world it is interesting to see history being rewritten. But as much as some people want to emphasise the differences, Spain is in fact a blend of Moorish and Christian influences, as demonstrated by the food, the language, the dark complexion of the people, the architecture and many other aspects of culture.

The Mezquita/Cathedral too is a mix and perhaps it is best if we all recognise (1) that were it not for the earlier mosque few people would bother coming here to see the cathedral and (2) that if the cathedral had not been built within the mosque the Mezquita would be long gone by now. The crossing of the two has benefited both sides and that's the reality even if the purists might not like it.

Granada, 1492

Our arrival in Granada reminded me of a dinner party on 31 December 1999 where our hosts had asked us to vote for the most important year of the Millenium that ended that night. I went for 1492, the year that Columbus stumbled upon the Americas and, coincidentally, the Portuguese became the first Europeans to arrive in Cameroon. It was also in January of that year that the Moors surrendered Granada and the Christian reconquest of Spain was completed.

I chose 1492 because it seemed to me important both as an end and a beginning. Columbus triggered off the sequence of events that led to the creation of the USA, the state that would become the most powerful in the world by the end of the Millennium. But that same year marked the end of the Moorish empire which had been the most powerful and advanced state in 1000 AD. It is a good reminder that in time all things decay and pass on.

In January 1492 the last Moorish ruler Boabdil left his palace the Alhambra in Granada and on leaving the city wept for his loss. His mother chastised him for "weeping like a woman having failed to defend his city like a man". Poor bloke. You know things are going against you when even your Mum gives up on you.

The Alhambra

However the peaceful handover at least allowed the Alhambra to survive, which it has despite a chequered history. Now people come from all over the world to see what the Rough Guide to Spain describes as the greatest site in Europe. The beautiful gardens of the Generalife are based on the Islamic idea of paradise - the greenery and running water being the opposite of what medieval Muslims typically found in their lands.

The Generalife gardens

The Alcazaba is a virtually impregnable fortress built on a rocky outcrop above the main city with commanding views and in between lies the astounding beauty of the Palace of the Nisrids which captures even today the sophistication and opulence of the time. Beautiful patios with running water and pools are surrounded by intricate muslim calligraphy and ornate doors, windows and wall decorations.

Patios in the Nasid Palace

We enjoyed the superb views of the city as the sun went down and in the morning climbed up through the old quarter, the Albaicin, to the gypsy area on the hill at Sacromonte where the views back to the Alhambra on the other side of the river are equally memorable. Unlike many Spanish cities Granada still seems to be thriving and it's prosperity is reflected in the extent of refurbishment going on to the many beautiful properties and the lively bars and cafes.  Perhaps Boabdil need not have wept for the future of his city and maybe his mother should have gone easy on him.

The Albaicin from Alhambra

Las Fallas

Mar 18, 2011

Las Fallas is the most famous of Valencia's fiestas (and there are a few)! The event is timed to mark the arrival of Spring and makes the national news as the programme of activity builds to its conclusion on March 19, St Joseph's Day.  There are smaller replicas in our local towns but for the first time we visited Valencia during Las Fallas to see the processions and the statues on the streets.

In each competing neighbourhood there is a Fallas House which is the focal point for the creation of the "fallas" the wierd and wonderful statues created out of papier mache that are erected on wooden stages.  The bigger ones are 20-25 metres high and each tries to send a message, often ridiculing local or national politicians.  Most are pretty hard to fathom but the one chosen as the winner this year has an environmental theme is the work of the Falla Convento Jerusalem based near the main railway station.  They won last year too and their budget is thought to be around a million euros.  The money comes from fundraising dinners (paella of course) held throughout the year and from sponsorship and a massive amount of work goes into creating these monuments. 

On 15-16 March the hundreds of fallas are erected in position on the streets (causing widespread street closures) and the parties and noise begins in earnest for this is the annual opportunity to do what Valencians love most - making an unbelievable amount of noise and setting fire to as much as possible.  The fate of the fallas, after all that work during the year, is the same for all.  They burn on the night of 19 March in a massive party.  The winner and the one in the main square burn last - in the early hours of the morning.  The children's versions also get burned, earlier in the evening, with a few tears from the kids who have obviously become attached to their falla over the previous weeks and months.  The party goes on for days with bull-fighting and daily controlled explosions of fireworks which each group trying to out-do the others in terms of volume.  We observed the burning of the fallas on the TV from the safety of our lounge but could hear the fireworks from Denia (18 km away) with our windows closed. 

Before that final day each neighbourhood parades through the street in traditional costumes accompanied by their own brass band playing traditional music.  Each neighbourhood chooses a young woman to be their "Fallera Mayor", a sort of carnival queen, and one of those is selected from all across the city to light the blue touch paper from the town square balcony on the last night when everything burns.  We saw people of all ages in an endless procession as the Fallera women carry flowers to the centre of town where a huge falla depicting the patron of the city, the Virgen de los Desemperados (the Virgin of the Foresaken) is built on a wooden frame and the flowers brought from all corners of the city become part of her dress.

The 12 pictures in the attached album will give you an idea of what the processions, costumes and falla statues look like.  As is appropriate for a fiesta designed to usher in the Spring, the event was blessed with beautiful warm sunshine.  Let's hope it stays for a while!

The City of Arts and Sciences

We first came to Valencia in November 2004 having already committed ourselves to buying the plot of land here at Monte Pego and building our house. On the previous trip, that September, when we took the plunge, we had travelled via Alicante airport and so when we chose the location of our house we didn't really take the proximity of Valencia into account and nor did we know much about it.

On that first stay in Valencia we fell in love with the city - Carmen (the old quarter), the local football team (with its noisy old concrete stadium) and especially the new museums that had been constructed in the dry river bed that is now a linear park. Our infatuation with the city has deepened over time and we now feel very much at home as Suzanne deftly pilots the car through the local traffic or as we sit listening to the locals barrack the referees at Mestalla Stadium (occasionally joining in and thereby widening and adding colour to our Spanish vocabulary).

More than six years later we have still not been to an exhibition in the museums but it is the architecture of the buildings that most captured our attention.  The buildings are ten years old now but still beautiful. They are gradually becoming an icon for the city in much the same way as the Opera House did in Sydney. The complex is known as La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (the city of arts and sciences) and includes an I-max cinema, science museum, aquarium, arts museum, botanical gardens and exhibition areas. It is built where the Turia river used to snake through the city down to the port until it had to be diverted away from the city after the floods of 1956.

For the tenth anniversary of the complex the landscaping around the museums has finally been completed and when we visited a couple of days ago the futuristic buildings were shimmering in the early spring sunshine, a stark counterpoint to the traditions of the Las Fallas festival being acted out a short distance away in the old town.

Coming from America...and Guernsey

It has been a few months since we have had visitors here at Monte Pego although to be fair we haven't been here much. Like London buses when one set arrive the next one is not far behind and the visit of Niki and Jeff from Guernsey was followed almost immediately by the arrival of Ian and Tess from Minnesota.

Both sets of friends have reappeared in our lives after periods of absence. Ian was a university football team-mate who I hadn't seen in 20 years until last year when he came to visit us in London. We discovered then that 20 year absences don't impact on the ability to discuss football trivia and of course we had a lot to catch up on. We had a fantastic time catching up and meeting Tess for the first time.

With Tess & Ian in Denia

When Suzanne and Niki got back in touch after a mere five years or so it turned out that Niki and Jeff had been over to Monte Pego to look at buying a house here. It's a small world. While they decided not to buy right here it looks like they will be getting somewhere quite close by thereby adding to our growing colony of friends here.

Over the Halfway Line

Today, March 9 is Day 176 of the 351 Days of our career break and we went for a walk on La Marjal (the rice fields below Monte Pego) where we first hit on the idea of a year off.  We reflected on the highs and lows of the last few months - here is a summary of what we said:

View across La Marjal

Su: So what have been the highlights for you?

Paul: From a travel perspective the 2 weeks from leaving Rio, passing through Iguazu Falls, Buenos Aires, the Glaciers of Argentinian Patagonia and of course staying at Torres del Paine, Chile.  If I had to pick a single memorable view it would be the Perito Moreno Glacier but my favourite place was San Telmo in Buenos Aires and the Sunday evening listening to and watching the samba band and the tango dancing.  The atmosphere was fantastic. Spending time with Dad and being able to be together so much has also been great and that was a major objective of this whole thing.  And for you?

S: Similar highlights from a travel perspective - I would say my favourite was the walking and the views at Torres del Paine.  But also just the experience of travelling is so stimulating - meeting new people and experiencing different cultures.  We've made some new friends from various parts of the world and learned a lot about the history of the places we have visited.  Spending time in Cameroon was very different from past trips and much more relaxing.  Obviously reaching the summit of Mount Cameroon was a special moment too! 

P: Yes but Mount Cameroon also had its moments! Which brings me to the other side of the last few months, the low points.  What would you say they have been?

S: Well, there were a couple of moments when I thought we would never make it too the summit and staying at Hut 2 was grim.  Hearing of Rob's death was clearly another low point, as was the trip back for the service in that miserable weather.   

P: Being apart for 5 weeks when I went to Cameroon was difficult and I wouldn't plan to do that again either, although I got a lot out of the trip.  I think, despite our friends here, in the last couple of months especially we have started to miss friends and family in England too.  Don't miss the weather though!  And the next few months?

S: I'm really looking forward to the Peru and Galapagos trip in April/May and to travelling around Spain a bit more.  We have a couple of trips back to London so it will be great to see people and we have a few visitors booked in to come here too.  Warmer weather will also soon be on the way and we've got to do some more thinking about what comes next from September onwards.

P: Which is a whole other story, no doubt requiring several more walks on the beach and Marjal! Lucky we still have 175 more days to go...

Back to work (temporarily)

A first glance at our calendar when we arrived home from Cameroon mid afternoon on Friday 25th told us that we were due to go on a five day road trip around Andalucía starting early the following Monday morning. However neither of us could face more travelling just yet so we opted for staying at home for the week to get a few things done. Sevilla and the Alhambra will still be there in a few weeks time and by then we might even have got over the disappointment of Arsenal blowing the Carling Cup Final.

The house resembled an office last week with the principal task being to build a website for my Dad - something completely new. While in Cameroon we both got slightly frustrated with slow progress on Dad's community health website and I rashly offered to build him a better one. This one is focused on his other main area of work, the provision of medical education in Africa. Dad has been acting as a consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has been funding a study on quality of medical schools in Sub-Saharan Africa and is currently in Johannesburg attending a conference on the subject.  He has many ideas and wants to use the website to progress the debate on getting quality standards in place.  So we've been sitting over our laptops learning how to build a site from scratch. Fortunately some great tools are available and the output is surprisingly good (if I say so myself).  I have sent the output off to Cameroon for approval and when Dad gets back from South Africa it should be ready to launch.  Meanwhile,  as well as acting as my technology consultant, Su has been building a new site for her coaching business.

A stethoscope over a map of Africa -
the image chosen for the Medical Education website

The challenge is to keep momentum going on the projects we have got involved with in Africa and to continue to contribute remotely from Europe.  As well as the websites, last week also brought an investment programme for upgrading Dad's Conference Centre ahead of two meetings being held there in the next month, which will be important for the reputation of the business.  We have also been looking at options for Dad's development site down by the beach which is to be built on using the new family property company that was established before we left Cameroon.

Having made progress on a few fronts with Dad's projects we called a halt to work on Friday morning and headed for lunch at La Seu in Denia where we raised a glass in remembrance of Mum, who passed away exactly 23 years ago on another Friday morning, back on 4 March 1988.  She always encouraged me to learn about Cameroon so the work we have been doing is very much with her memory in mind.