Sweet, sweet Singapore

After the tumultuous events of Madrid and Ireland it was great to arrive in Singapore again. We cleared customs in no time and nimbly grabbed a cab to Lakeview estate. Jen was waiting for us and interested in all our news. After no sleep for about 20 hours I feel we probably made little sense but a visit to the long house for copi and a lazy day, visiting the supermarket with Tim while Jim had a lie down and then a wonderful home cooked dinner and we were almost right again. Sunday we had a really relaxing barbeque picnic by the water with Lee and Chris, two Tim and Jen’s friends. We went for a swim in the salty Singaporean sea.

Monday we stooged around and had brunch at our favourite Indian restaurant, packed and got ready for the overnight trip home to Sydney and Keda and Sanjay’s home for a few days before returning to Crowdy Head. Time to say good bye to Tim and Jen.

 

dreamy, damp Dublin

Dublin August 2012

After waiting in the passport check for an hour we were so excited to get into the airport to see Clare and our brother in law Connor waiting for us. He is a wise and gentle man and it was great to be made to feel so ‘at home’.  We went straight to Connor’s house to catch up with the family and say hello to Jim’s other sister Miriam who was visiting from America Amazing hospitality as Jim’s sister effortlessly effects miracles in her tiny kitchen feeding recurrent waves of blow ins all welcomed with her calm god humour.  A cup of tea turned into lunch and we finally got up from lunch at 7pm so that Connor could take us to our hotel to check in.

 

 

It was the first time I had visited Dublin in summer. Most days we saw patches of sunlight when the clouds cleared but at any time Dublin is a great city. It is full of people from all countries, walking through Dublin is like being at the league of nations.

Meeting with Jim’s eldest brother in a genteel establishment, pitching emotions as we hear the news that can’t be told in letters and even talking makes little sense. Days and nights swirl into meeting with loved ones.

Breakfast at the Castle hotel, a cacophony of European languages surrounding belly’s full of a traditional Irish breakfast. People cheering themselves on despite the pervading grey. Summer temperature hovering around the teens interspersed with light then heavy rain. Quite a change after the 40’s in Spain.

Time out of mind at Clara Cottage in the Wicklow Mountains, shared meals and love surrounded by the beauty of the amazing country.

 

Too soon it is time to go with promises of a quick return.

 

 

Santa Maria de El Paular-Rascarfria

 Rascafria

Course 353 staring 29^th July till August 3^rd 2012.

Rascafría is a beautiful, peaceful town in the northwestern area of the Madrid region. It is set in the amazing Lozoya valley. The area has been settled for a long time.

In the town there is a church of San Andres the Apostle which was built in the 15^th century. It’s central nave has Gothic vaults and coffered ceilings. In the bell tower we saw three stork’s nests. Awesome builders

The monastery at Rascafria El Paular was founded in the 14^th century. It is two kilometres from town. The church is magnificent. The stone façade was worked from stone by Gil de Hontanon.The area we were staying in is run by the Sheraton Hotel and it was originally  part of the monastery. It has fabulous gardens, a great swimming pool and many courtyards and passages and libraries. It was a little like something out of Harry Potter.

The monastery was built in the 14^th Century and is amazing. There is a huge corridor that runs around the church and the 56 huge paintings that Vicente Carducho painted between 1626 and 1632 of the life of St Bruno, Founder of the Benedictine monastery are hung here. They have been collected and restored by the Prad museum and returned to the monastery and were wonderful to see. We went for a tour of the monastery guided by a sprightly monk who had been at the monastery for 53 years and was a friend of the Pope. I think he was amazed by my purple hair as he kept taking me by the arm and propelling me around the cloisters and the refectory. He spoke no English but when he asked one of our Spanish friends where I was from and he answered Australia, he said that he had had a friend who went to Australia to bring God to the people but they weren’t very attentive. Despite the weird interaction it was a great visit and an amazing monastery.

 

Our group consisted of 7 Spaniards and 13 English with our facilitator Merissa, an Australian woman who had lived in Spain for 20 years and Pete, the Master of Ceremonies from the UK also living in Spain. We had English, USA, Canadians, Croatians, Singaporeans and us and of course 7 awesome Spaniards. Like the previous group they amazed and inspired us. The program was roughly similar to the previous program, with lots of theatre sports, walks and laughter. The countryside was stunning and we took every opportunity to go for walks or sit in the peaceful gardens of the monastery surrounded by ancient trees who were wise with the observations of the centuries.

 

 

 

Our Spanish hosts are

Miquel A

Miquel M

Isobel

Laura

Alvaro Loring

Francisco

Estabelth

They are such fun and fabulous people and told us about the Via de la Platz (the silk road) and the amazing fire festival in Valencia in 15^th -19^th March. I would love to go there.

The Anglos were Sally (IK) Hanbin Zen (Singapore via Paris) Nick and Debbie (UK) John (USA) Jenna and Sandy (Canada) Jan (Isle of Wight) Clare and Veronica (Croatia)

On Thursday evening we walked into the town of Rascarfia. There is an amazing natural chocolate shop there where we sampled a number of chocolates (delicious) and also enjoyed beer and tapas by the little river that runs through the town.

Each night brings its own entertainment, We have had a celebration and salutation to the Gods with the creation of some liquor steeped in herbs and orange skins and set alight that is performed in the Basque country where they speak a form of Spanish that no one else understands! An Interesting night held in the courtyard cloisters of the old monastery.
 

 

 

Another fantastic week.

 

 

marvellous Madrid

Madrid

For 8 months of the year Madrid goes without any rainfall, and although there are many, many huge tress and  fountains throughout the city all of them use recycled water. The south of Spain is dryer than the north with a small desert down in the bottom right of the country called the desert of Tabarno. Just near here is where they grow tomatoes. 70% of all tomatoes used in the UK come from Spain and the best variety is Raff.

 As we’ve travelled around the countryside we’ve seen forests of Wind Farms on the tops of ridges and learned that de-salination plants were established on the Canary Islands because there was so little rainfall there. Franco was aware of this and in the last years of his ‘dictatorship’ in the early 70’a he created great reservoirs throughout the country. In Valencia they have a ‘tribunal of the waters’.

We’ve spoken a lot to the Spaniards about the global recession and the particular problems of Spain. Apart from the inequity of the 7% interest rate from the German global banks loans the political structure in Spain has become quite unwieldy.

There are 17 autonomous regions or communities and many of them have their own government with their own laws and languages. Andalucía (south) has 8 provinces each with their own local government. I’ve been told that there are 455,000 politicians on the payroll!

Another reason that Spain is suffering so much at the moment is that it has to support a brilliant infrastructure. It appears to me that all the small time politicians in the provinces stay in power by giving the people what they want, there are 52 airports in Spain as well as high speed trains (RENFE) connecting all parts of the country and fantastic, well maintained highways and historical buildings and gardens. The over abundance of politicians in each local government gains favour with the local people by providing excellent infrastructure. Compare the 52 airports in a country  one fifteenth the size of Australia which has 26 international airports (Ireland has 4) and 15 regional airports. High speed rail projects have been under investigation in Australia since the 80’s although it hasn’t progressed past the planning stage. Spain on the other hand has 9,000 kilometres of fast speed railway!

The payment from the government for unemployed young people is around 1,000 euros a month but this is only paid for 18 months. To rent a modest two bedroom apartment in Madrid costs about 1,000 a month. Most young people live at home until they are 32 or 33 years old.

The economic recession has hit hard and there are now around one million apartments that were in the process of being built but now vacant not so surprising when we were told that 40% of all apartments built in Europe in the last 5 years were built in Spain.

One of our Spanish friends who is an engineer gave us a fascinating talk about building roads in Spain. A normal stretch of road costs 3 million euros a kilometre and bridges and tunnels cost 30 to 50 million euros a kilometre. It gave us all a new respect for roads! Many areas such as Cadis and Seville to Leon are built along the original roman roads.

He spoke about the difficulty of building a road when so many excavations produce remnants of roman ruins. He told us that along that road Merida is a Roman City where you can see the Granite base of the military base which is generally 1 mile long and half a mile wide with manor houses and churches contained within it. Outside are the remnants of the Jewish quarter. Merida also has the best Roman theatre where you can actually watch theatre presentation in the ancient Roman theatre.  There is also a hippodrome nearby.

Our time in Madrid was far too short. Our last night in Madrid we took a tour bus around the city. Sitting on the front seat of the top deck, listening to a commentary with headphones in English at 8pm and 35 degrees was fantastic. We realise that to enjoy Madrid properly would take months. It is a magic city full of green leafy chestnut trees, amazing architecture and fabulous fountains and littered with museums and art galleries that we had no time to visit. It definitely deserves another visit.

Around 10.30pm after our bus tour we went back to our favourite tapas bar for wine garlic prawns and chicken skewers all washed down with a lovely crisp Spanish Verdelho. Sitting at the edge of the park being entertained by roving musicians, talking together and to our favourite Spanish waiter was a lovely end to our Spanish holiday.

Our bright and breezy disposition deteriorated as we left Madrid when we realised that  Jim’s new leather manbag complete with the new video camera (and a week’s worth of photos and video)  and Mukiem our travelling bear companion had disappeared. With no Spanish and a plane to catch we were forced to be philosophical about the loss, but the videos from our English program will be sorely missed.

Awesome Avila (Gredos)

Avila is located at 111km North West of Madrid the Capital of Spain.

Ávila de los Caballeros, the real name of the town, is also the capital of the province with the same name, it is now part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, In Spain few cities, like Barcelona, or Madrid are at the same time a city name and a region or province name.

The city is 1117 meters (3665 feet) above sea level, the highest provincial capital in Spain. It is built on the flat summit of a rocky hill, and is surrounded by a landscape strewn with immense grey boulders, and surrounded by soaring mountains.

This hotel is located virtually in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms and mountains in the distance. It is a lovely calm, rejuvenating place to relax.The rooms are comfortable and most have a spa bath (which they call a jacuzzi, but it really is just a normal bath with jets). The rooms are modern with huge timber beams and all the amenities that go with four star hotels.

Near the main house is an old shearing shed that has been converted into a gym, sauna and huge indoor pool with opening bi fold walls that look out to the mountains. We have set meals, three courses with wine and a salad bar.

  

It's a lovely place to unwind in the clean mountain air and there is a beautiful river within easy walking distance to swim in. We went down to the river and put our feet in and a million tiny fishes nibbled at the dead skin on our feet, so tickly.

We have only six wonderful Spaniards on our program, Fernando, L and Fernando, P, Julian, Manuel, Marissa, and Sol.

We also have thirteen English speakers, Gerry (Ireland) Linda, Barbara, Brandi, Cheri,  and Mary (USA) Taissa,Brazil, Glenys, Karen, (UK) Kaz (NZ) and Jim and I (Aust)

And our master of ceremonies Tom and Carmen the organiser.

  

Our day begins at 9am with a shared breakfast. Small tables each with at least one Spaniard. A smorgasbord of cereals, pastries, croissants, breads, smoked salmon eggs, tomatoes, juice tea or coffee and beautiful fruit, nuts, local peaches and cherries. Delicious!

10am till 1pm are either one to one (English with Spanish) sometimes teleconference or just sitting in the shade or walking and talking. At 1pm we come together for a group activity, which usually involves a lot of laughing and then at 2pm it is lunch for an hour, again a  shared meal with Spaniards.

Lunch is followed by a siesta till 5pm.

From 5pm till 8pm we have group activities, theatres sports, skits, improvisations and much hilarity. This is sometimes followed by a one to one before dinner at 9pm.

From 10pm onwards if free time but often means congregating in the bar for some songs, a game of bingo or just sitting chatting with the Spaniards.

Included in each day is an hour (or sometimes two) of free time where you can rest, do your washing, go for a swim or to the village (or write a blog) or look at stork's nesting on the cathedral.

The one on pone’s are fascinating. I look forward to them even though you must be totally focussed and concentrating for one hour. In these intense discussions you learn so much about the Spanish way of life. The people are warm, interesting and funny and very open to having fun. We have travelled into fragile territory discussing religion, politics, the economy, homosexuality – no subject has been excluded and the Spaniards are open, intelligent and quick to learn. I feel so privileged to have shared this week with them.

As part of the English immersion program the Spanish are required to make a short presentation in English, a daunting task for anyone but a colossal task for a fledgling English speaker. Each of our Spanish friends presented on a different subject.

How stressful presentations are, the stages of road building, a trip by barge along a canal, the history of the town of Avilla, the emergence of a shopping centre built in an old railway station and the annual festival held in Julian’s home town of Seville.

The presentations were great, informative, interesting and funny and the Spaniards were so brave to make them. There was also lots of theatre and skits that had us laughing till we cried. I was so sad when the week came to an end and we had to say goodbye. I will carry such warm memories of the Spaniards and the Spanish countryside from that week forward in my heart. It was an awesome adventure.

Grand Granada

Granada

And here we are in the city of Granada. We have a cool two bedroom apartment. Our first night here we sat on our patio, drank wine with bread and ham and amazing tomatoes drizzled in olive oil, listened to the sound of splashing water from the large pool of gold fish in the courtyard  and gazed up to the amazing view of the Alhambra on the hill at the back of the apartment.

The train trip from Cordoba to Granada was fascinating as we travelled along the tail end of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, many of the peaks rise from the valley floor up to 3000 feet

There are many, many books about the12th century Alhambra and the Generalife, the recreational palace used by kings as a retreat and resting place built in 1314 and some have said it is the 8^th wonder of the world, and I think they have a point. The gardens are spectacular. There are orange groves, sweet smelling herbaceous borders, roses, geranium pelargonium and everywhere there are ponds, channels and fountains of still pools of water or rippling plashing water with convenient marble seats.

We marvel at the masonry and wonder if the masons that built the wall when they created the arrow slits in preparation for war could have imagined that 900 years later their workmanship would provide a refuge for pigeons where we see one sacrilegious pigeon shitting on the head of a long forgotten saint.

The Koran makes bodily cleanliness a prerequisite for spiritual cleanliness and all the mosques we visited had running water for these religious ablutions. The Alhumbra had some serious bathing areas including a steam room (tepidarium), plunge pool room, (caldarium) cold room (firigidarium) and rest room (apoditerium). The link from the furnaces which were fed with aromatic wood to heat these bathing areas was an underground channel through which hot air circulated warming the marble floors. In medieval times there were only two doors to this area for insulation purposes but unfortunately when the Christians came along they got rid of most of these bathing rooms and put in more doors which weakened the insulation properties of the original building.

So far our experience of Spain’s summer has been of a hot dry climate. Most days are in the mid 30’s and delightful with virtually no humidty. Cool mornings 22 degrees, hot sunny days and a cool change around midnight.

The tiny winding streets are all cobblestones, unsuitable for cars so walking is essential and with my new best friend Panadol Oesteo I manage a few kilometres each day.

Granada like other Spanish cities is a city of fountains. Wherever you are, you are rarely away from the sound of running water. It softens the heat and leaves a refreshing impression. No impression of Spain would be complete without a mention of the food.

The bread is delicious. Then there is the ham, many, many different types, Iberian ham made from pigs that feast of the forest acorns is a favourite, and the bread. The olives and the olive oil are delicious and the bread. Tomatoes tasting of my childhood drizzled with olive oil on delicious bread and beer and more bread. I am not losing weight on this holiday.

I’ve begun to think that we of European heritage may see our roots more strongly anchored by a skyline dominated by medieval castles and ancient places of worship. Our Australian landscape lacks those ancient monuments left by our foremothers and forefathers. Without the continual visibility of this history we seem destined to have to learn anew lessons from the past. Everywhere the landscape is steeped in a sense of the past, a pervasive awareness of the long, long history of occupation.

The concept of the quarter acre suburban block seems unknown in any of the cities we have visited. Even country towns the houses are two storeys and huddled against each other. High density, multiple families living in large multiple apartment blocks with cool interior courtyards and a life shared with neighbours in the surrounding cobble stone streets or drinking coffee at these amazing cafes.

Our days are spent up at 8am breakfast and a walk to take in whatever marvel we have selected for the day. Lunch is around two or three and then home for a siesta in the hottest part of the day, admiring the street art on our way home..

Up and shower around 7 ready to go out for dinner and some music till around midnight. Yesterday I was sitting under a sun umbrella at an outside café near a cool boulevard with the requisite fountain and I thought of how amazingly privileged I am. I’ve often seen people sitting drinking coffee mid morning when I’ve been hurtling from one urgent to the next urgent and Now here I am one of the lucky ones.

Consummate Coroba

The train trip from Barcelona to Cordoba was interesting. We caught the ‘fast’ train that travels at 300 kms an hour. It was a smooth and easy ride. 710 kms in under 5 hours through rapidly changing countryside. What we can see from the train tells the story of a long occupied country. Mile after mile of gnarly ancient olive trees standing patiently in still rows confined by mile after mile of long standing dry stone fences that have been gathered from the tilled earth over centuries.

Our journey took us from the lush green populated Barcelona hinterland, through the empty stony desert to the verdant green arising from generations of irrigated plains, past craggy mountain ranges and ruined castles to the ancient city of Cordoba.

Although our sole purpose for visiting Cordoba was the international guitar festival, for us, with no guitar and no English, it is a fizzer. Jim and Clare went to one concert which was a great experience but limited by our lack of language.  We all went to a flamenco concert which we loved. The rhythms and the colour and the dancing had us tap, tap, tapping into the tapas bar and we got home around 2am. This is a city built for my friend Margaret. People rise late; have a siesta in the hottest part of the afternoon and then party till the small hours.

Eating in the city is a great adventure. We have not yet mastered enough Spanish to place an order without some amazing results. The only exception is ham, there is lots of ham, although once we did get peach marmalade!

We are staying in the Hotel Maestre in Cordoba (www.hotelmaestre.com ). It is an hotel and a hostel with apartments and dormitories all built around a series of cool internal courtyards. Cordoba is a place I love. It is very ancient city built along the Guadalquivir River with narrow roads, prolific courtyards and water every where

 The Romans arrived here in 206BC and there is plenty to remind you of their power in the world at that time. There is a large Roman Bridge that spans the river and we walked across delighting in the sound of rapidly running water as it was a hot day. Even the pigeons were taking refuge in the

shade.

We later found out the temperature!

Along the river is a great meeting place and Jim and I enjoyed watching a long conversation take place between Clare with no Spanish and a lovely old man and his dog Pedro  neither of whom spoke English.

 Downstream there is a Roman water wheel that was used to pump water to the townspeople and gardens of the Castle of Alcazar until Queen Isabel irritated by the squeal of the wheel ordered it be dismantled.  

The archaeological museum has been designated as a world heritage site. In the basement is the excavated remains of a roman theatre built in the 1^st century. You can walk along a see through walkway over the excavation and every few metres are modern technological explanations and audiovisual reconstructions so that at the end of the experience you really get an understanding of the enormity of what you are seeing.

The city is dominated by the wonderful Mezquita (Arabic for a place to prostrate oneself) Mosque with its shifting history.  Begun in 785 and continually modified over the next 200 years and then revamped by the Christians in the 1200s to include within the mosque the Cordoba Cathedral with its amazing Gothic cupola soaring up into the roof of the cathedral/mosque. The architecture is awesome and we spent hours wandering about while Clare waited for us by the pool in the orange grove courtyard.

There were so many museums (art, craft, and torture) to visit and we didn’t get to any of them. Despite the heat I could spend a long time just being here. Apart from the pleasure of just walking and discovering amazing views around every corner, one of the other major attractions that Cordoba has is the castle Alcazar of the Christian monarchs. It was built at the beginning of the 14^th century on the site of a previous palace where Julius Caesar had once lived for a short while in 65BC after his defeat of Pompey. It was in this castle that Christopher Columbus showed his plans for his adventure to America to the king and queen. It was also the seat of the holy inquisition from 1482 till 1821. It is now a museum with amazing gardens and we spent many hours during the day, coming back at 10pm to see the wonderful light show.

Definitely a place to spend some time if you ever find yourself lucky enough to be in Cordoba. .

The train trip from Barcelona to Cordoba was interesting. We caught the ‘fast’ train that travels at 300 kms an hour. It was a smooth and easy ride. 710 kms in under 5 hours through rapidly changing countryside. What we can see from the train tells the story of a long occupied country. Mile after mile of gnarly ancient olive trees standing patiently in still rows confined by mile after mile of long standing dry stone fences that have been gathered from the tilled earth over centuries.

Our journey took us from the lush green populated Barcelona hinterland, through the empty stony desert to the verdant green arising from generations of irrigated plains, past craggy mountain ranges and ruined castles to the ancient city of Cordoba.

Although our sole purpose for visiting Cordoba was the international guitar festival, for us, with no guitar and no English, it is a fizzer. Jim and Clare went to one concert which was a great experience but limited by our lack of language.  We all went to a flamenco concert which we loved. The rhythms and the colour and the dancing had us tap, tap, tapping into the tapas bar and we got home around 2am. This is a city built for my friend Margaret. People rise late; have a siesta in the hottest part of the afternoon and then party till the small hours.

Eating in the city is a great adventure. We have not yet mastered enough Spanish to place an order without some amazing results. The only exception is ham, although once we did get peach marmalade!

We are staying in the Hotel Maestre in Cordoba (www.hotelmaestre.com ). It is an hotel and a hostel with apartments and dormitories all built around a series of cool internal courtyards. Cordoba is a place I love. It is very ancient city built along the Guadalquivir River with narrow roads, prolific courtyards and water every where

 The Romans arrived here in 206BC and there is plenty to remind you of their power in the world at that time. There is a large Roman Bridge that spans the river and we walked across delighting in the sound of rapidly running water as it was a hot day. Even the pigeons were taking refuge in the shade.

We later found out the temperature!

Along the river is a great meeting place and Jim and I enjoyed watching a long conversation take place between Clare with no Spanish and a lovely old man and his dog Pedro  neither of whom spoke English.

 Downstream there is a Roman water wheel that was used to pump water to the townspeople and gardens of the Castle of Alcazar until Queen Isabel irritated by the squeal of the wheel ordered it be dismantled.  

The archaeological museum has been designated as a world heritage site. In the basement is the excavated remains of a roman theatre built in the 1^st century. You can walk along a see through walkway over the excavation and every few metres are modern technological explanations and audiovisual reconstructions so that at the end of the experience you really get an understanding of the enormity of what you are seeing.

The city is dominated by the wonderful Mezquita (Arabic for a place to prostrate oneself) Mosque with its shifting history.  Begun in 785 and continually modified over the next 200 years and then revamped by the Christians in the 1200s to include within the mosque the Cordoba Cathedral with its amazing Gothic cupola soaring up into the roof of the cathedral/mosque. The architecture is awesome and we spent hours wandering about while Clare waited for us by the pool in the orange grove courtyard.

There were so many museums (art, craft, and torture) to visit and we didn’t get to any of them. Despite the heat I could spend a long time just being here. Apart from the pleasure of just walking and discovering amazing views around every corner, one of the other major attractions that Cordoba has is the castle Alcazar of the Christian monarchs. It was built at the beginning of the 14^th century on the site of a previous palace where Julius Caesar had once lived for a short while in 65BC after his defeat of Pompey. It was in this castle that Christopher Columbus showed his plans for his adventure to America to the king and queen. It was also the seat of the holy inquisition from 1482 till 1821. It is now a museum with amazing gardens and we spent many hours during the day, coming back at 10pm to see the wonderful light show.

Definitely a place to spend some time if you ever find yourself lucky enough to be in Cordoba. .