Cuenca - The Square; Benefactor Zobel

Cuenca, Spain, Plaza Mayor, main square
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The town square at Cuenca. There is our car, at the right. There is a lovely Cathedral dating from about 1170, see ://ezinearticles.com/?The-History-of-Cuenca,-Spain&id=619313

Look well at the hapless little car, because you will not see it again and neither did we until, the next morning, we got to the police impound lot (by taxi, thank you).

Know your street symbols for each country well. We did not interpret the sign we saw to mean no parking for any vehicles at all - it looked like it only forbad trucks. Learn your road signs!.

Also, do not use common sense.

You would think there would be some available short-term parking at the main square after hours, where the only parking lots are far, far away. The lots at Cuenca are at the top of a long hill, a twisting narrow road, like half a lane, and there is no sidewalk down, and the road goes right to the walls of the buildings and is a tight one-lane with cars going both ways.

No, you have to park up there and apparently walk down anyway, life in hands. Jam your bod against the stucco, walk with head swiveling to see which car is coming from where, wheeling around the curves like mad, pack into a doorway, close your eyes, and wait until you can dash to the next door. We did that as far as the hotel a short way down, but then went back up for the car. The risks I want to take with Dan are zero, and that was a hazard. So we drove back down to the square, and you know the rest.
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Daniel Widing conversing Fernando Zobel, we think, Cuenca, Spain

While we were eating, off slipped the car, chained behind the gendarmes in theirs.

Meanwhile, we enjoyed ourselves, in our ignorance.

There is Dan, at the cafe, a little inside open courtyard late afternoon, with who we believe to be Fernando Zobel, 1924-1984, founder of the Museum of Abstract Art, professional painter and member of a prominent philanthropic family - spent much time in the Philippines, came back to Spain and Cuenca.

See more about Fernando Zobel and his family at ://www.march.es/arte/ingles/cuenca/coleccion/abstracto/abstracto.asp; and ://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=381209.

Cuenca is known for its art museums, galleries. It dates from the Iron Age, through the Romans, the Visigoths, the Muslims, the reconquest.

Cuenca - The Gorge, The Monastery, Brother Martin

Cuenca, Brother Martin de Carrascosa y Cabrejas, Monastery

Cuenca - part of Castilla La Mancha - walled city, here on the map://www.donquijote.org/destinations/spanish-cuenca.asp. The medieval houses cling to cliffs. See ://www.spainview.com/cruzquijote.html. There are two deep river gorges - the town was highly defensible. Up a long winding road.

Here is Brother Martin de Carrascosa y Cabrejas - miraculous healing powers. He died 1603. He was a candidate for sainthood, thus there was a dispute who would get the body - the monastery here, or outside town, at Tebar, where he died. See ://libro.uca.edu/nalle/gmc5.htm. There was finally, after many disinterments, a resolution. We believe this is his statue, but the inscription is unreadable. It is at the monastery.

Cuenca, top of hill town

Parking is up here. Long walks from the top, where the monastery is, and parking lots, down the narrow streets to the square.


Here are some of the surrounding cliffs.
Cuenca, gorge, cliffs

And the lake down the gorge - Laguna de la Cruz.
Cuenca, Laguna de la Cruz, lake

Cuenca - cliff houses, art, police system

Dan philosophizing. This is an the inner courtyard at this pub in Cuenca.

Dan also enjoyed sitting with James Joyce. See Croatia Road Ways, Pula post.



Cuenca, Spain, cliffside houses

Cuenca is south of Madrid, heading into the La Mancha area.

It is an arts center, known for its houses clinging to the cliffs. Be prepared to walk. The only parking area is at top of high hill area, with narrow roads back down to the square. See NYT travel section 7/23/06 s.5 p.10. The Times recommends the Parador here (see post on Paradors), the national system of fine hotels reasonably priced, but we liked our little place.

Cuenca is on a clifftop itself -- see www.idealspain.com/Pages/Places/cuenca. Fine art museums, monastery, twisty streets.

Warning for handicapped. If you are handicapped, this is a difficult stop because parking is at the top of the old town, and you have to walk down to the square, pinning yourself against the walls on far-too-narrow walkways, if someone is going up or down in cars too fast. The police station is in the square, so stop there first if you must park in the square, and ask for permission. Most big squares are off-limits to any parking.

Police. They are not greeted as the people's friend. Do not expect helpfulness, just enforcement. Here is an explanatory site on the different groups: www.andalucia.com/spain/police/home.htm. See also www.photius.com/countries/spain/national_security/spain_national_security_the_police_system.

James Michener says in his book, "Iberia," somewhere that there are three powers in Spain - the police, the church, and the landed. And with an independent-minded collection of people of differing historical backgrounds, the stress is on law and order.

Toledo - Ancient Capital, Inquisition, Grand Inquisitors

Toledo, Spain. Street scene

Toledo, on the hilltop, with river below. It was the ancient capital of Visigothic Spain, preceding the Moorish Empire. The Moors invaded in the 8th Century. It became the capital of an independent Moorish kingdom 1031-1085, see ://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/toledo_city_spain.jsp/ and remains the capital of the province of Toledo.

Toledo remained the capital of Spain after the expulsion of the Moors and until 1560. See ://www.red2000.com/spain/toledo/.

At that time, its influence waned when Phillip II moved his capital to Madrid. See ://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Toledo/. Read this old book account, not clear about the Flemish connection yet, at this New York Times archive piece, "Toledo, The Story of the Ancient and Picturesque City of Spain," November 4, 1899, at ://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F00E0DC1530E132A25757C0A9679D94689ED7CF

The Questia site, above, also notes that Toledo was the seat of the Grand Inquisitors.

To learn more about them, read their handbook, the 1486 Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, at ://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/. A good index and summary is at ://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/

Read about the Inquisition, from the perspective that includes its impact on the Jews, at ://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html/ In 1242, the Inquisition condemned the Talmud and bonfired thousands of books. The first killings of Jews, however, took place in France some time later. There, mass burnings at the stake.

The Spanish Inquisition superseded the earlier medieval Inquisition. See that Jewish Virtual Library Site. Do we forget our own history.











The Alcazar, or castle fortress, rebuilt many time, Visigothic days to present. See ://www.virtourist.com/europe/toledo/999.htm; and ://www.travelinginspain.com/toledo_alcazar.htm. Do an Images search to see it at the top of the city, at the top of the cliff.



See map at ://www.world-guides.com/images/spain/spain_map.jpg



You can drive into Toledo, but it is dicey. Find a fast spot to stay, anywhere (the distances are small). is no parking at all allowed on most streets - see the above. the lines are for walkers, deliveries only.

Toledo - Sephardic tradition; and the Visigoths. The Moors

Toledo, Spain, city walls

Toledo is listed as a town as early as the 4th Century BC, as a Roman town, conquered by later "Alans" and Visigoths. It became the capital of the Visigoth kingdom., and was taken over by the Moors, or Muslims, in 711. Alfonso VI reconquered in 1085. , see ://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/quote3.html. History compressed.

The city is prominent in the heritage of the Sephardic Jewish tradition. See muweb.millersville.edu/%7Ecolumbus/data/art/TOLEDAN1.ART. With a car and Toledo, get out of it as fast as you can. Streets too narrow. We stayed at the first little hotel we found that offered parking - in the old Jewish quarter. Perfect location. A view, as here, of only the outer wall area is misleading - inside is a large city with tiny streets, twisting all over.

Cathedral, Toledo, Spain

Here is the Cathedral at the end of one of the little streets. Apparently, vistas of great buildings were not important from a distance.

The city is bounded by a bend in the river and cliffs. Jews, Christians, Muslims lived here peacefully for centuries. ://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Arte%20y%20Cultura/Conjuntos%20monumentales/G/TP/0/Ciudad%20Historica%20de%20Toledo.htm?Language=en

How Toledo fell to the Moors, a/k/a Muslims (are Moors the same as the Arabs and Berbers who initially conquered, or is there a difference with the Ottomans, and is "Moor" any number of those after all the intermarriages who were Muslim?)

. The Visigothic Count Julian had sent his daughter to the palace of the Visigothic King Roderick, where - the King had his way. Count Julian, in his anger, told the Moors who were attacking the city how to get up a hidden path to enter the city. They did, and the rest is history. muweb.millersville.edu/%7Ecolumbus/data/spc/RECON-MD.SPK. Revenge. Other versions have the daughter bathing and the King sees her, etc.

Toledo food: see www.red2000.com/spain/toledo/gastro. There is a fine Parador (government sponsored hotel - see post on Paradors) here, but we stayed in the old Jewish quarter instead in order to be right at street level.

Spanish place names (like Toledo, Ohio) in the US: For anyone with family origins in Spain, look at all the places named for Spain. For a listing of the United States place names from Spain: see factmonster.com/spot/spanishnames.

Seville. Columbus Day update. Colonialism, Christopher Columbus' bones, Cathedral

Christopher Columbus' Bones

The New York Times:  DNA tests are proceeding to find the ancestry of Christopher Columbus, with choices being many - see http:///www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/us/08columbus.htm. "Seeking Columbus' Origins - With a Swab."
Update:  He is there.  Really there.  See http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12871458/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/dna-verifies-columbus-remains-spain/#.UggMa23b38k.

Other issues not resolved by the DNA that simply found that dem bones are those of The Christopher: 

• Was the Columbus name Jewish, until the Inquisition forced his parents to convert.  See CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/20/opinion/garcia-columbus-jewish
•  Or was he from Genoese weaver stock, see http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thevoyagesofcolumbus/p/08columbusbio.htm
• Or a Catalonian rebel, see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/us/08columbus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
• Or a Portuguese prince's out-of-wedlock son. Again, there are DNA tests that affirmed that the bones are indeed those of Christopher Columbus in the Seville Cathedral, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12871458/

Bastards. Was Columbus a bastard? Rights and privileges vary.

Do a search for bastardy in Spain, find at the bastard section of  "The Close of the Middle Ages, 1273-1497," by Richard Lodge, and you will find (more sources in Google books as well) that note that inheritances still went in many cases to the child born of the wrong side of the sheets.
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Western Culture Colonialism.  

Christopher Columbus was not interested in the commons

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Colonialism:  Spain was a major colonial power, as were Belgium, Great Britain, France, and others.  Explore the issue of colonialism as motivating later indigenous persons to take their revenge, their way. Colonialism includes that of corporations, oil companies in particular, taking over areas of indigenous populations and removing them in one way or another, for the profits, and etc.

This topic addresses one group taking what they want from another group, on the other group's turf, and subjugating them in the process, in order to get what they want because they are more powerful and can.

Western Colonialism: Do we all feel entitled, even in our gardens, to force what we want and kill off what is not pleasing. Equipoise in ecology. At what point, if any, does the goal of yellowjackets in the garden, their need for food and life, become less important than my want to garden there under the deck, unstung, where they hive.

Envy Gandhi. Then address rights of immigrants.  What is the morality of making room, or not.

Barcelona. Spain in American History - Spanish-American War 1898

Spain in America.

Barcelona. Monument to Christopher Columbus, pointing west

Review not only Christopher Columbus, but also the Spanish-American War, and how the United States obtained its old interest in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Remember the Maine? This was the battleship that the US sent into Havana, Cuba to show the Spanish who was in charge when an insurrection was going on there.

But Spain sank it. The US rallied public opinion at home (governments are good at that) and declared war.: http//www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/spanishwar

Bullfights Barred - Live Coverage TV

Since 1948, live bullfighting has been broadcast on Spanish TV, TV Espaniola. No mas. Tapes only. News August 24, 2007 - Hartford Courant page D5. Hundreds of bullfights are usually broadcast live March-October.

Those in favor: turning on TV should not mean having to see what bullfights do, especially when the matador is unskilled. Kids see enough violence.

Those against: for those who can't afford the ring (65 million can or do anyway), or watch cable (fees), at least keep this national cultural iconic pastime on the air.

Resolution: do tapes only, on late-night show.

This American bull approves, but is lobbying for a no-kill policy, as in Portugal. See .travelnet.co.il/PORTUGAL/09-Bullfight. The rodeo lobby supports PETA, see peta.org/campaign/army_rodeo, and adds to the platform, no cinching. The slaughterhouse lobby just says enough period. See .indopedia.org/Slaughterhouse.

Bivar. El Cid, at Bivar (a/k/a Vivar, Bevar)

Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. El Cid. El Campeador, or

The Champion.

This heroic, enigmatic figure is well remembered, in this little, off-track town where he was born, withfresh flowers right there.

El Cid, Vivar, Spain. Birthplace.

"Cid" comes from the Arabic meaning "sir" or "lord."  This El Cid was the standard-bearer and commander under King Sancho II, heir to King Ferdinand I. He conducted an unauthorized raid into Toledo, angered the new King Alfonso, brother of Sancho (then deceased), was exiled, and then began to serve the Muslim ruler of Saragossa (Zaragoza).

He engaged in much back and forth between sides, then El Cid aimed for control of Valencia, for himself. See http://www.historymedren.about.com/library/who/blwwcid.htm. 1043?-1099. 11th Century.

El Cid is also of movie fame. See the 1961 film at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054847/. 

He had two swords: Colada and Tezone, see Names of Swords, at http://www.squidoo.com/famous-swords-list.  Colada.  Pina colada?

He is the subject of epic poetry.  See El Cantar de Mio Cid, "The Lay of the Cid,"at //omacl.org/Cid/; and the Arab Alqamah's records of the conquest of Valencia by El Cid. See more on El Cid at ://www.gksdesign.com/atotos/cid/cidhistorical.htm; still trying to find an English Alqamah. Do a search.

In myth, he is a brave knight who fought the Muslims; in reality, probably a mercenary or "soldier of fortune" who was often in conflict with the Christian King. Still, talented, and as honorable as any other good knight of the time. See http://www.enotes.com/middle-ages-biographies/cid-el

Visit his birthplace at Bivar, or Vivar, or Bevar. See www.who2.com/elcid. It will take you up some back roads, and to a tiny village.  There is a well-kept memorial with fine tower to climb up and see the countryside. See historymedren.about.com/library/who/blwwcid.

Some sites say he was born in Burgos, not far, www.azureva.com/gb/espagne/magazine/esmag8burgos.php3, but we found his monument here. Even a Burgos site that claims in one place to be the birthplace later states that Bivar is. See Spain Road Ways, Burgos.

Read about his life at this curriculum site - www.medievaltimes.com/images/Chapter1.pdf

Choose any destination off the beaten track and go there. Best way to learn some history as well. We fill in details at home.

For more on the legends surrounding El Cid, see legends.dm.net/paladins/cid. A paladin is a chivalric model, see http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paladin - and, that site says, the name given to any of the 12 peers of Charlemagne's court. Have honor (?) will travel. See ://www.thrillingdetective.com/paladin.html

Bilbao; safekeeping in parking lots; and Basques (including food)

Bilbao Museum, Frank Gehry, back

This is the back of Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum of Art, design by Frank Gehry. See www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/home. There are surprises wherever you look.

In the front is a two-story huge puppy form, covered with live impatiens plants. We liked the spider.

The guidebook says to beware your belongings in any car left in the lot there, locked or not. Best to park elsewhere and walk, and always keep money, passport and tickets with you. If you lose stuff out of your car, just tell the police, buy more Right Guard and set up a time to meet with the airport people about your passport early, and enjoy the rest of your trip anyway. Happened to us at Blarney.
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Bilbao Museum, Frank Gehry, side
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Basques.The homes look alpine, as makes sense given the Pyrenees mountains; and the geography itself is very different from the rest of Spain.

I understand that the Basques were excellent navigators, and that genetically they match with Irish and Welsh Celts, see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1256894. Other sources say they migrated from Eastern Europe. Their language is different, as are their customs. 

Groups that do not absorb, retain their identity: salute.  How to accommodate a drive for self that wants to live free of intrusion of others, when old territorial boundaries are disregarded.  How to address the rights of those who annex land by invasion, long ago.  Nationhood - a complex concept.

Basques and others that will not be subsumed: a long history to be checked out. 
Coming closer!

For food: try www.buber.net/Basque/Food/Recipes/.

One of our best dinners, going all out with the tablecloths and all, was in Bilbao. Fine dining occasionally is a must, and the skills needed are useful anywhere - practice which fork, where and how to cope with a huge linen napkin. See planetrjl.tripod.com/LaFraughName/id9 - fine Basque menus.