Prades: De tour en France

It’s the unexpected detours that make a trip special. Since we were coming to France in August, the time when everyone goes on holiday, our Francophile friends warned us to book our places in advance. We dutifully followed their good advice and created a route that would take us from San Sebastian to Paris in four weeks. Later when I told my French friend Isabelle about our itinerary she responded “You are nuts to go to Lourdes in July, it will be a madhouse”. Duly noted.

Then, in our first few weeks in Spain, in Delta de l’Ebre, we met David and Simone, a British couple living in France’s Roussillon region, in the town of Prades, near the Mediterranean Sea and the Spanish border. “One can’t travel around the world without seeing Prades.” said David, and the laid out the invitation to visit. Since they were free during the time we had planned to be in Lourdes and detoured to visit them. This meant driving the length of southern France, from San Sebastian, along the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast and then east again into the lee of the mountains. And we were so very glad we did. Not only are David and Simone incredibly generous, funny and interesting hosts, they live in a very rich area of France. 

Prades is the home of the Festival Pablo Casals, started by cellist Pablo Casals. We arrived the day before the opening concert. David got us tickets and we were lucky enough to see the most amazing performance of chamber music in the Abbey Saint Michel de Cuxa, under the shadow of the sacred Mount Canigou. The church was consecrated in 974 and enlarged in 1100’s. The cloisters were dismantled during the revolution and then half were brought to the New York Metropolitan Museum in 1925 and rebuilt there. The other half was rebuilt at the abbey. So we experienced remarkable music in a sublime setting, creating an unforgettable evening.

We left Prades on a rainy morning and drove through Cathar country, through the town of Maury (we live on Vashon-Maury Island) and across some beautiful Napa/Sonoma type country. After a lovely lunch in Limoux, we drove through Toulouse where Airbus is located (our Seattle/Boeing rival) and are now up on the Lot-Garronne Valley, in the Aquataine region. It is an area of rolling hills, Bastide towns along the Lot & Garronne rivers which flow down from the Mastif Central. We are here for a week and look forward to unpacking and relaxing amidst the tranquility of the French countryside.

Abbey at Saint Michel du Cuxa

Inside as the musicians prepare. 

Fort La Libertee build beside Villefranche in 1700's looking into the Pyrenees

Raining morning drive leaving Prades, through beautiful country, well worth a return trip.

San Sebastian: Surfs up

We drove into San Sebastian on a dark, overcast, cloudy day. They say the weather here is like Seattle so we weren't too surprised. That didn't stop surfers, the rough weather brought them out. Wetsuits and boards walking through the city streets along the surfer's beach. The next day, another cloudy day, no problem, we had other things to attend to. Then crystal clear, it was like a clear day in the Pacific Northwest, there is noting more beautiful. That day we drove to Bilboa to see the Guggenheim Museum, retracing one hour of our drive from Llannes. We got to see all the beauty we missed on the way in, stunning hillsides, lush green, steep, sheep grazing and beyond those more craggy peaks like the Picos de Europa. And the museum was an absolute treasure. Great space, amazing art, inside and out. Yesterday we got to discover what a bike friendly city this is as well. Great stay here, topped off with pinxtos, of course. Tomorrow its onto Prades, France tomorrow and hasta luego Espana.

The surfing beach on a calm day

This dog sculpture at the Guggenheim was covered in annuals. 

Guggenheim Modern Bilboa

This guy kept following me on my bike...

North Atlantic Spain: The Coastal Way

In northern Spain, you don’t have to go far to cross one of the many routes of St. James (The Way). This pilgrimage route to the burial place of the apostle St. James has been approached by many peoples, coming from different places and from around the world for centuries. In Ortigueira, we found ourselves along the “English Route” for people coming from the British Isles. At our next stop, Poo de Llanes, in the Asturia region, we found ourselves on the coastal route of St. James. Beautiful trails, coves, swimming beaches and one picture perfect day out of two, we’ll take it. Life is good.

The Mountains looking south. Behind those are the famous Picos de Europa,

A glimpse into Galicia

We left Lisbon and drove north through the rest of Portugal into the far northwestern corner of Spain, a region called Galicia. People had told us how different this part of Spain was, still wild and very wet. After the hot and dry weeks in southern Spain, that sounded pretty good. As we drove into Spain, the terrain changed dramatically to be much more hilly with extensive bays, fishing boats and bridges. It began to look like home.

Our house was near the village of Ortigueira, set up on a hill overlooking the “ria” or bay. Our hosts, Christina, and her family of seven siblings, were renting the house for their cousin who was in Madrid having medical treatments. We couldn’t believe our good fortune, the house was beautiful, a remodeled home from the 1700’s that had been lovingly brought into this century.

The family owns a horse farm that we visited, it was on the property their family had owned for about 6^th centuries. They host family visit for people from all around the world, run a childrens camp, a jumping club that hosts national events and day rides. Check them out if you are ever in the area or interested in working on a Galician horse ranch. http://www.granxadosouto.es/

It was a great location for exploring the area. We went to Cabo Ortegal and some of the bays and hills surrounding us. Very peaceful, very much like home with overcast skies, verdant green hills, and inlets cutting through the landscape.

Turns out we were just a few days ahead of the second largest celtic music festival in the world, festival Ortigueira www.festivaldeortigueira.com. The roughly 7,000 person village was gearing up for about 50,000 visitors. This allowed us a traffic free bike ride to the best beach in the area, the site of camping for this crowd before they showed up. Amazing dune system and a 5K beach, glad to see it before the swarms arrive!

So grateful for this brief glimpse into Galicia and for the context that our hosts set for us. And to cool off a little bit and get away from the relentless sunshine.

The view from our house, O Castro do Africa

Cabo Ortegal

Christina and Jeff with one of the Grainxo do Souto jumpers.

Riding along the bay and dunes before the Celtic music festival begins - tranquilo! 

From Lisbon with love

The first thing we saw driving into Lisbon from the south is a large concrete statue of Jesus inspired by the one in Rio de Janerio. Then you cross a bridge that looks like a smaller version of the Golden Gate. From the highway, we can see how hilly the city is and how much water surrounds it. Lisbon topples down the hill to the bay, jam packed with building, narrow streets, alleys and staircases. Trolleys ply the tracks taking mostly tourists up and around the town. From the vantage point near our apartment, the port looked like Seattle’s with container ships, tour boats and recreational vessels tightly vying for space. We climbed to the top of Castel San Jorge to see all around the city, from what looked like the financial business district of metal and steel to the historical area we had just a walked through and all around the bayfront. Ferries cross the bay to outlying suburbs. This could almost be the Bay Area or Seattle except that this has been going on here for a thousand years longer. There is something rather haunting about Lisbon, it lacks the shiny veneer of the other cities that we’ve seen and perhaps it’s the Fado music. But it would take much more time than we have here to uncover what that is. Onward: Galicia beckons.

A meager attempt to capture a sense of Lisbon

From Paris to Atlanta

In the immortal words of my dear friend Linda Hunt “Life is what happens when you are making plans”. Sure enough, while in Barcelona (6/10) my brother Bill in Atlanta rang me on Skype to say that he was in the hospital. He’d been sick when we were all together in Tahoe and it was distressing to hear that he hadn’t improved and had in fact gotten much worse. Three days later we find out that it’s leukemia. He’s being transferred from the hospital to the Emory University Winship Cancer Center to begin treatment ASAP. A week of 24 hour chemo to start and then determine next steps. There’s been a lot to process, so grateful for Skype, Imessaging and Facetime to be able to keep in touch. Just a few days ago we learned that initial treatment revealed some facts that make this a longer-term treatment. The prognosis is good and we believe Bill will get through this and into full remission with the grace of God.

For Jeff and I, it’s been cause for lots of reflection. When someone you love, who shares your DNA, who’s always been there gets so sick like this, it really causes you to think about what’s most important. Luckily, it’s not a crisis situation, Bill’s in good hands, his wife Lu Anne is incredible, and they have amazing support from their community. They don’t need us. But we need to be with them, spending time, helping out if we can but also just being a part of the healing process. Be a part of Team Rowlett. So we booked our tickets from Paris to Atlanta on 8/25 and will take a break from our trip. We planned this trip loosely so allow for flexibility and are so glad we have it. In the meantime, we will continue through Spain and into France per our initial plans, toasting Bill’s short recovery and long life all along the way.

Team Rowlett in Tahoe May 2014

Alvor, Portugal: A vacation from traveling

Today marks six weeks in Europe. We have six weeks to go before we use up our allowed ninety days and have to retreat to the UK and Ireland. We’ve seen a lot, missed a lot, and put some miles on old Bridget. Indeed, it is such a privilege to have this time to explore and see at our own pace.

When we started looking for a place to explore southern Portugal (the Algarve), the first thing we read about was how over-developed it is. They started building resort condos in the 60’s along this coast and it felt daunting to find the right place. We settled for Alvor, just west of the city of Lagos. From what we could see, it was a small fishing village that still retained some traditional charms. So we pulled out of Seville with the GPS set to our Alvor apartment’s address and took off for Portugal.

Small traditional fishing villages that are surrounded by tourist areas don’t exactly lend themselves to good GPS directions. We pulled into town and got led in circles along the very narrow streets as the GPS kept refiguring to find our street. Finally after getting blocked by a delivery truck, I got out and walked a few yards and there it was! We met our hosts Dulce and her daughter Ines who introduced us to our apartment.

One reason we have loved our stay here so much is because of this apartment. Ines is an architect in Stockholm and they lovingly refurbished an old fisherman’s apartment with local materials and a clean functional aesthetic. “We wanted visitors to be able to look at the sea from all rooms” Ines told me. Mission accomplished. Our windows look over an ever changing view of the harbor, fishing huts, a small childrens park and a beautiful large dune system, interlaced with boardwalks out to the Atlantic Ocean. The city of Lagos is visible in the distance along with rocky bluffs that jut out into the sea. It’s better than TV.

We didn’t realize how much we needed a rest from all that history, beauty, art, architecture, jamon, and just being a tourist. This has been the perfect place to read, relax, draw and bird watch. Alvor is located on Alvor bay, fed by the Alvor river, historically diked for agriculture at one time (WAFO folks: it’s the Port Susan Bay of Portugal). The whole area is now part of the EU’s Nature 2000 program. We’ve seen stilts, cranes and a pair of flamingos. Just quiet, peaceful and beautiful.

Buying fresh fish, a farmers market loaded with fruit and vegetables, a nice kitchen with a view to cook in. Walking in the dunes and estuary, those will be our memories of Alvor. Hope to come back someday and actually see the array of historical sites in this area. Next stop Lisbon for a few days before we re-enter Spain in Galacia, an area touted to resemble home (Pacific Northwest).  

Time traveling in Seville

Time flows so differently on the road. So much is seen and even more is left unseen when you move through three cities too fast. The last city in this tour was Seville. It went by in an instant. Poor travel planning on our part not to give more time to that remarkable city. Seville has too many alleys, plazas and roads to explore and centuries of history for a mere two and a half days.

Historical time travel in Seville is impossible to miss given its role in Spain’s empire from the late 1400’s until sometime in the 1900’s. This is where the plans were made to explore “the new world”. The Seville Cathedral was built to demonstrate Seville’s wealth. As the third largest in the world, it holds priceless treasures such as a 20-foot high silver alter (some of it melted down by Napoleon to pay for that war). Paintings, gold and silver relics. Even some remnants of Christopher Columbus in an elaborate crypt are interred here. The story goes that his remains traveled from Hispanola to Cuba and finally to this cathedral around 1900. A vast, mind-boggling space inside with too many facts and statistics attributed to it for me to bore you with here. That’s what Wikipedia is for.

On day two we explored the Real Alcázar, a palace that is still used today by the king of Spain when visiting Seville. Built on a Moorish palace and revised/added onto by succeeding kings from the early 1400’s is another Moorish/gothic culture clash.  Time got away from us there and we spent the day exploring the gardens and never got around to that bike ride we going to take to see a few more sites. And that was a shame because Seville has an amazing bike trail system.

Then it was time to go, our next stop southern Portugal. So long Seville, we’ll plan much more time for the next visit.

Down by the River... in Cordoba

The second city of this well-traveled arch we are on was Cordoba. We didn’t really know what to expect and had heard from David and Simone how much it surprised them. Looking for surprises is always a good mindset for entering a new place and it served us well in Cordoba. The first, as always, was our apartment. We met yet another wonderful AirBnB host, Juan Carlos (also the name of the former King of Spain) who insisted on practicing his English with us. It was much better than our Spanish. His apartment was on the edge of the old city allowing us to feel like we were in a real neighborhood and be able to get into the old part of the city without much problem.

We’ve gotten in the practice of doing an orientation walk the first night we land in a new place. It was so hot this first day that we waited until 9 pm to get out and we wound our way through the narrow streets and allies. A surprise around every corner: a funeral procession; masses that were just finishing up; small plazas with the ubiquitous cerviceria/bar/café tables filled with people. Our destination was the river. The mighty Guadalquivir flows through here, we’d crossed it twice before in the Alpujarra and along the coast by Nerja.  There is an old roman bridge we wanted to walk across and see the Mezquita from the outside.

The river did not disappoint and the other side of the river was a real surprise. We stumbled up on a street fair with booths of food, families, kids taking rides on donkey’s and a stage with what we think was traditional dance and music from Galacia. The view across the river towards Cordoba was beautiful and the energy of the families and everyone out enjoying the evening was magnificent.

We toured the Mezquita the next day, an amazing Mosque-Cathedral with an complicated history that I can’t begin to write about. The juxtaposing of Islam and Catholicism was simply captivating. And it’s Ramadan now. No Muslims practicing here: banned by the Vatican. Seems unfair given that this was once a rival to Mecca when the Moors owned this part of Spain. Outside this complex a Jewish neighborhood: the religious trifecta is a common history here in Spain.

We visited the river again on our second evening and the street fair was gone but the view was still there. This time there was a Flamenco show on the stage by the bridge, a man with two guitars and three vocalists behind him. Mesmerizing. Another great surprise by the river. 

Cordoba had such a friendly, laid back feel, of a city that’s proud of it’s heritage and comfortable with being the “lesser known” city to Granada and Seville. Once again, not enough time. We are beginning to feel like this is the “taste of Spain”, finding places to return to on our next trip.

(And happy birthday Elizabeth, we are sending you love and feliz cumpleanos from Spain!)