In my new life as retiree my blog is my biggest entertainement and before anything else, I like to thank everyone of my readers and followers to stay with me over the years since November 26 2010 !!! Thank you !!! Especially my first likes from former travel forum friend Jeannette I decided to trim some of my older posts in my series Some news from Spain and condense them as not to lose the most important parts, me think, of them, Therefore, this is my new work, the condense news of my dear Spain, Hope you enjoy it as I
Some news from Spain XLI April 11, 2017
What are the loveliest towns,in my opinion, to see in Asturias! here are some: You go to the Cudillero to breath the sea and the fish on each corner. Here you will see the tradition of Curadillo , created by fisherman in years past. Dehydrated fish in the door of their homes. You have wonderful views from the lighthouse and the high point in the hills; ah and do not forget the palace or Palacio Selgas or the Indian houses.Next, you come to Lastres, one of the most beautiful towns of Spain designation. Very nice streets known for the site of the story Doctor Mateo recorded here Continue on towards Ribadesella , the world capital of umbrellas with a big event on it every August and see the pre historic cave or Cueva de Tito Bustillo. And we reach Luarca, known as the white villa at the green coast, famous for its indian houses like the Mesa de Mareantes, where decision to fish are were made. You come to know historic personages such as Severo Ochoa, Nobel prize in medicine And why not Llanes with its great bean and clams, strong cheese (similar to Roquefort), and red sea bream fish. Right on the mountains of the cordillera del Cuera and the Picos de España. Great beaches too and nice old town with palaces and monumental houses. Here there are great festivities for the La Magdalena, San Roque,and La Guia
And you come closer to the coast of Alicante and see the beautiful Guadalest and the Valley of Nisperos(loquat). where you see the biggest production of loquat. There in the Orient it was used as an ornamental plant until the end of the 18C when Jesuits missionaries discovered the eating qualities of the plant of which fruit ripens quickest. They took some to the Maurice island and then France just before the French revolution for later reach the shores of Levante by a Captain Roig, bringing it from Sagunto and reaching by the early 19C the province of Alicante near the Callosa d’En Sarria. Here it is produce about 75% of the Spanish production or nearly 30K tons. The best time is during Spring and the harvest can be extended to June. The writer Gabriel Miro wrote about it from the name of Sigûenza in his work Años y Leguas published in 1928. There is a museum in Polop Casa Museo Gabriel Miro and free admission.
You will come into the wonderful Hispanic Society of America, early this year they send to the Museum of el Prado one of its jewels, the portrait of the duchess or Duquesa de Alba dressed in black, painted by Goya in 1797. It has been recently renovated to its founding splendor and the star of the exhibition of treasures of the Hispanic Society of America. Visions of he Hispanic world ceded by the museum-library that created Archer Milton to show a chronological trip on thematic works of art that covers from antiquaty to the medieval Spain passing by the Golden century and the end of the old regime to the modern Spain of today. It includes over 200 works from multiples forms of arts; archeological pieces, ceramics, glass, sculpture, paintings, furniture, knittings, manuscripts, cartographies are all included in the exhibition, where you can see work never before shown to the public such as the map or Mapa de Tequaltiche. Showing until SEptember 10 2017 at the Museo del Prado
We come back to Madrid and take a look at one of the most historical and tradition restaurants that I have tasted on a business trip; this of course is Lhardy with 178 years of history The restaurant was founded by a Frenchmen Emilio Huguenin opening at the location in Carrera de San Jeronimo. Since then, its armory of glass and mahagony wood give a glimpse of what to expect here. This restaurant was the first in many things such as separate tables, home delivery, and the menu in French . It’s six rooms smell of wood with incredible clients such as the marques of Salamanca, Queen Isabel II, Primo de Rivera, and Niceto Alcalà Zamora; here was named the President of the II Republic. The kings Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII, bullfighters such as Manolete, the spy Mata Hari, and the literary legends such as Federico García Lorca, Benito Pérez Galdós, Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Ortega y Gasset, Jacinto Benavente ,and Azorín, amongst many more. Lhardy was born when in Madrid you had gas lighting and the Plaza Mayor you have corridas of bulls.
Plaza Mayor ; the 400 anniversary was in 2016 and do you know the floor you step into used to be a lake of Luján that king Felipe II ordered dried to give air to the town that later became the Capital of the kingdom of Spain. Four centuries later this dry land now the Plaza Mayor where king Felipe III in its equestrian statue in the middle of the square done in 1617 that finished the work that his father had dream. You can come to my favorite hangout here with the family on the anecdote of the intrepid bandit Luis Candelas on the Arco de Cuchilleros now a restaurant by the same name. At the Puerta Cerrada, where Madrid claims its origins with a Cross and a mural where you can read “Fui sobre agua edificada, mis muros de fuego son”, or I was built over water my walls of fire are. A legend showing the abundance of streams and water holes that the Arabs found in the city , and the marks on the walls with arrows built on flint. This is my Madrid!
Last year 2016 was the 400 anniversary of the death of Cervantes or Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra; it was April 22 1616, when the world said goodbye to the genie of the Spanish world after his most wonderful work for eternity the ‘El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de La Mancha’, by some the most important work of language in the world and we go to Esquivias. Casa Museo de Cervantes, this a a house of artists from the 16C where Cervantes and his wife Catalina de Palacios lived during part of their married lives. The owner of the house was Alfonso Quijada. He tried to convince Cervantes to name the principal character in the story as Alfonso Quijano ,and maybe why Quijote. You will be able to see a olive oil producing house with a windmill crushing the olives and all! At the Convento de los Capuchinos,a monastery where the humidity draws on the walls dating from the 18C you will see one of the most intriguing collection of mommies in Spain, and in its crypt it keeps the incorrupt bodies in perfect state of preservation of five religious persons from between 1732 and 1735.
Some news from Spain XLII April 20, 2017
San Isidro or Saint Isidore was a farmer, well maker, Mozarabic peasant and miraculous men. He was from Madrid and canonized in 1622. He was born in 1082AD before the territory came back to Christian hands with king Alfonso VI. San Isidro visited the current site of the Church with his wife, also, a Saint, Santa Maria de la Cabeza; here the roots of moors from the Madrid of the 11C blends in. Next door, is the home of his master, Juan de Vargas, where the Saint and his wife lived and died. It is now a house museum. The Saint is credited with many miracles most of them related to the water,and the city preserves most of the spots.One of the most representative is the Church or Iglesia de San Andrés; in its interiors you have a patio and renaissance well, from the same, he gave a miracle saving his own son according to legend. San Isidro saved his son from been drowned when he made the waters rise only to the mouth. His feast is coming in May
Calle de San Justo, where the wonderful Basilica Pontifical of Saint Michael or Basilica Pontifica de San Miguel. A wonderful example of the Italian Baroque of the 18C ordered built by the queen Isabel de Farnesio. The old temple here was that of San Justo built in 1738 and later damaged by fire on the Parish Church of San Miguel. Today ,most know it by the wonderful market or Mercado de San Miguel here. The Basilica at Calle de San Justo keeps very nice historical persons buried inside, such as the father of Francisco de Quevedo as well as maternal grandparents, and a brother. In the parish archives it is kept the death certificate of Rodrigo de Cervantes,the father of Miguel de Cervantes You should not miss coming to the convent garden or El Jardín del Convento, a store selling all goodies done in the convents and monasteries from different parts of Spain
And not many know the underneath the Cathedral of the Almudena you have resting about 1500 souls, all in a gorgeous crypt supported by 558 columns, keeping the soul of many nobles and important families of the time. All at the feet of the Patron of Madrid, the Virgin of the Almudena or La Virgen de la Almudena ( ramparts in Arabic) ,and enclosed in 712 upon the fall of the city to the moors. It was taken back by the Christians in 1085 when San Isidro only was 3 yrs old. The wall or ramparts fell apart and the Virgin was discovered; after many centuries later, She was put in the now gone Church or Iglesia de Santa Maria de la Almudena, the oldest temple in Madrid until it was demolished by 1868. From these ruins, the current Catedral de Santa Maria de la Almudena was built and finally consecrated in 1992. The crypt, that however,was done in 1911. Meanwhile the Almudena was built and consecrated , the Real Colegiata de San Isidro served as the provisional Cathedral of Madrid
Royal Pantheon of the Cathedral of Oviedo or Pantéon Real de la Catedral de Oviedo, where most at least 8 and their families are buried in six baroque niches in the new chapel of Our Lady of the King or Capilla de Nuestra Señora del Rey Casto that was built early on the 18C. The great exception was king Pelayo who was buried in the Holy Cave of Covadonga or the Santa Cueva de Covadonga Royal Pantheon of San Juan de la Peña or Pantéon Real de San Juan de la Peña. They are in the old sacristy of the high Church or Iglesia Alta in the old monastery , where there is a reformed pantheon ordered by king Carlos III in 1770, lies the remains of some of the Navarrene kings of Aragon , the first Aragonese counts and the three kings of the ramirense dynasty such as Ramiro I, Sancho Ramírez, and Pedro I, together with their wives. Then, in the Iglesia San Pedro el Viejo de Huesca you have the continuation in kings Alfonso I el Batallador ,and Ramiro II el Monte (in a Roman coffin from the 2C).
Royal Pantheon of Royal Saint Mary of Nàjera or Pantéon Real de Santa Maria Real de Nàjera. In this Riojan monastery you have the burials of the kings of the kingdom of Nàjera-Pamplona; the predecessors of the Kingdom of Navarra that held power from 918 to 1135. Some of these coffins are in Roman style Royal Pantheon of San Isidore of Leon or Pantéon Real de San Isidoro de Léon. This is romance style that keeps the burials of the reign of king Fernando I in the 11C; the remains of the kings of Leon and their families from Alfonso IV that reigned in the 10C to García, king of Galicia who died in 1090. Nearby in the Cathedral of Léon you have the burial of king Ordoño II that lived until 924AD. The Cathedral of Toledo, also, has burials of six kings of Castille. Three in the old chapel or Capilla Vieja, including kings Alfonso VII El Emperador, and the first three Trastamaran kings in the chapel or Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos:such as kings Enrique II, Juan I and Enrique III The Cathedral of Sevilla, in the Royal Chapel or Capilla Real houses the burials of three kings , the most charismatic of Spanish history such as Fernando III El Santo, his son, Alfonso X El Sabio , and Pedro I El Cruel, as well as consorts and some family members. On the other Church or Iglesia de San Hipólito de Córdoba , it keeps the burials of the successors kings such as Fernando IV ,and Alfonso XI The Monastery of Poblet or Monasterio de Poblet. A Cistercian temple in the province of Tarragona, was the Royal Pantheon of the crown of Aragon until the 15C. There you will see the burials of their principal kings; only kings Pedro III, and Jaime II rests on the nearby monastery or Monasterio de Santes Creus. The Monastery of the Huelgas or Monasterio de las Huelgas. Mostly gothic temple has well preserved burials of the kings Enrique I ,and Alfonso VIII as well as other members of Castilian Royal family of the 12C, 13C, and 14C. Nearby, you can visit the chartreuse or Cartuja de Miraflores , where Queen Isabel Católica, (the Catholic or I) ordered built a wonderful burial pantheon for her parents and brother Alfonso. he Royal Chapel of Granada or Capilla Real de Granada. It was ordered built by the Catholic Kings (Fernando and Isabel ), and represented a trend in the architecture as well as funerary sculptures. The burials of the Catholic kings were done by Domenico Fancelli,while those of daughter Juana together with that of Felipe El Hermoso were done by Bartolomé Ordoñez. They are all surrounded by exceptional works of arts of the times he Royal Crypt of the El Escorial monastery or la Cripta Real del Monasterio de El Escorial, built in the 17C ,and housing all the kings and many of their family members from king Carlos I to Juan III (did not reign). The only exception on this period were kings Fernando VI, and Barbara de Braganza that are in the convent at Madrid or Convento de las Salesas Reales (Iglesia de Santa Barbara); and king José I (Joseph Napoleon) whose remains are in the Les Invalides of París , as well as king Amadeo I that is with his wife at the basilica or Basílica de Superga de Turín (Torino, Italy).
A wonderful event not to missed if in Spain, the 80th anniversary of Guernica by Pablo Ruiz Picasso, and the 25th anniversary of its arrival at the Museum or Museo de la Reina Sofía . It will have a momentous exposition and the exhibition of an interesting documentation that tells us how the portrait was ordered by the II Republic, and the trips the portrait took to raise funds for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. it will be exposed until September 4, 2017.
There you go folks, a big task but a work of love to keep the best, me think of these wonderful older posts over the years, These are what I think worth keeping of my older Some news from Spain series, and I thank you, Again, hope you enjoy this post as I
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 