Dottore Gianni's Sojourn to Spain: Day 3 in Madrid, and Day 4, a day trip to Avila and Segovia

The great Roman aqueduct at Segovia

Day 3:

On this day Dottore Gianni combined practicalities with interesting sights. I wanted to find out exactly where my tour tomorrow to Segovia and Avila would leave from, so at just about 9 am I walked over to the Plaza de España. Not too

Plaza de España

bad a walk, actually, shorter than I’d imagined, about 15 minutes. It’s a HUGE plaza and it’s good I looked, because there are some roads underground – can be quite confusing. So I found the place and got better directions back to my hotel than the slightly round about route I took to get to the tour place Julia Travel. I also found where I’ll be seeing flamenco on Wednesday night when I return from Barcelona. Feeling somewhat accomplished I next went in search of the Temple of Debod, and found it easily, as it’s closer to the Plaza de España than I’d imagined.

The lovely park in Madrid that houses the Temple of Debod

Sidebar: I’ve written about this in past sideposts, but just to reiterate, when looking at maps of a city the distances can seem greater than they actually are, and of course as one becomes accustomed to a new place one moves with more confidence through it.

The Temple of Debod

The Temple of Debod is a complete oddity in Madrid, in fact in Spain, in fact in Europe. It was given to Spain in 1968 by the Egyptian government. It seems a great dam built in 1960 threatened many Egyptian temples, and the UN put out a call for help in saving them. The Spanish government gave generously and in return Egypt gave Spain this temple in 1968. As a result Madrid boasts what is almost certainly the 

only intact ancient Egyptian temple in Europe! It’s a tiny affair, but this religious space, built in the second century BC, boasts rather well preserved carved reliefs of Osiris, Isis and other ancient deities. It’s been placed in a very pretty park called the Cuartel de Montaña that looks out over a vista in which, on clear day, it’s said that you can see El Escorial, the sixteenth century palace/monastery/ mausoleum built by Philip II, in the distance. Dottore Gianni’s eyes are so bad that he sees very little that is 30 miles northwest of Madrid, or of any city, even on the clearest day! The moral of this story? While for some people it’s true that “on a clear day…you can see forever and ever more…” it is NOT true for the good doctor.

From the Temple of Debod I made a feeble attempt to find Goya’s final resting place, but I decided to put that off until 

The Senate, Madrid

next week when I return to Madrid, as I was a bit confused as to how to get there. Instead I got myself back to Julia Travel and timed a walk back to my hotel. While doing so I discovered the interestingly shaped senate building in Madrid, and next to it what I imagine might have been a medieval wall. It’s amazing the things you find that you were never looking for during solo travel. That’s one of the reasons I’m so fond of it!

Having returned to the Puerta de Sol in 15 minutes I now have a firm estimate of my departure time tomorrow morning, and am very much looking forward to that day trip. BUT! I was far from finished with my agenda. I next went in search of the Teatro Español, which is built on the site of the first public theatre in Spain, the Corral de Principe. I have taught about this famous theatre for more than 20 years, so I was very excited. Unfortunately, as seasoned a traveler as Dottore Gianni is, he occasionally forgets particulars, in this case its address! Still, the good doctor knew the general area in which it stands, and he also wanted to find the Calle de las Huertas, a pedestrian zone that takes one from a spot not far 

the Teatro Español

south of Puerta del Sol directly to the Prado. So off he/I went! And lo and behold, just past the Plaza del Angel I found the Plaza Santa Ana, and at the western end of it I saw my theatre! In fact the street on which the theatre sits is the Calle de Principe, so I knew I was on the spot.  Now this area has been a theatrical center since the sixteenth century, and I have been teaching about it for many years, so you can imagine my pleasure at finding it. I also know that the house where Lope de Vega lived for many years is very near there, but while I wandered for a bit I could not find it and decided to put that too off until next week. There is a small museum there in his honor – Lope, as any schoolboy should know, is one of the very greatest playwrights of Spain's Siglo de Oro, or golden age.

There are two theatre-related statues in the Plaza Santa Ana, one of the important seventeenth century writer Calderon de

 la Barca, whose best-known play, still often produced today, is La Vida es Sueño (Life's a Dream). Calderon wrote many religious plays (autos sacramentales) in addition to the afore-named play that questions how one should behave, even if life is only a dream, and in fact became a priest himself. The other is a lovely depiction of the brilliant modern Spanish poet/playwright Federico Garcia Lorca, who was brutally murdered by Franco’s fascist henchmen in the Spanish Civil War. Lorca too wrote several plays, but his reputation is based mainly on three very dark, poetic tragedies, The House of Bernarda Alba, Yerma, and Blood Wedding, a play every bit as bloody as its name indicates.

Federico Garcia Lorca statue - note that he is holding a dove

I easily found Calle de las Huertas from Plaza Santa Ana, and 

found it a very pleasant calle indeed. It’s tiny, and along it there are some very artsy cafes and shops, but even more interesting to me are the quotes by Spanish writers laid right into the street, one of them from Lope de Vega’s famous play Fuenteovejuna.

And at the bottom of Calle de Huertas – the Prado! I had been warned off trying to just walk up and buy a ticket as there would surely be long lines, but by this time, about 11:30 

The Prado

 am, I found to my very happy surprise, that there was just one person ahead of me. I had planned to leave the Prado for next week, but this was too good to resist, so I saw, I bought, I entered. And what a museum! In the entrance just above the ticket hall the very first painting I encountered was a Titian, then another, and another. I turned to the opposite wall of a very long main gallery with smaller galleries on either side of it, and there, opposite the Titians (there were several more than three, I just didn’t want to keep writing “and another”) was a Tintoretto, (and another, and…) a bit farther down some works by Veronese. For those of you who may not recognize the names (but please! You must! Dottore Gianni insists!) these are some of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Yes, but where were the Spaniards? Oh, just step down the hall a tad further and turn left into an oval room filled with paintings by Velasquez, dominated by his masterpiece, Las Meniñas. And I don’t care how often you’ve seen reproductions, this is…beyond any words I might have to describe it.

Velasquez statue at the Prado

I’ve read, though I can’t find the direct quote, that when Edouard Manet, who was strongly influenced by Velasquez, saw the painting he said something to the effect of “Well, the rest of us may just as well give up painting!”

It was at this point, when I saw Las Meniñas, that I fell into Stendhalismo, a feeling the French writer Stendhal felt at 

Las Meniñas

those few moments when the art he saw was so amazing that he was literally dizzied by it. Fortunately while I fell into the –ismo, I did not literally fall down. Might have been embarrassing! But this was just the beginning, because there were at least three more rooms of Velasquez masterpieces. Then I turned and, looking into another room saw an El Greco. Okay, fine! To use a crude term I thought, “Bring it on!” I can take it! Yes, I’m dizzy damn it, but I can handle it! It was almost a relief to walk into a room dominated by the only slightly less brilliant Murillo, and another with paintings by Zurburan. The lesser Spaniards calmed me down.

And then I came to Goya. I am completely fascinated by this man, who painted elegant courtly portraits, shockingly 

Goya's Naked Maja

straightforward painings of young ladies such as the Naked Maja (this 50 years before Manet painted his Olympia), historical paintings of the murders of Spaniards by Napoleon’s conquering soldiers, and then his later work, the so-called black paintings and the capriccios, frightening but also so far ahead of their time the he is often thought to be the first “modern” painter. And the Prado has them, and has hung them brilliantly.

Goya's Third of May 1808

Oh, and then there’s The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Haywain by Bosch, Breughel’s The Triumph of Death, Durer’s self-portrait, at least three or four beautiful Raphaels, along with Rubens, Fra Angelico, on and on. But paintings by many of these I've just mentioned are easy to see in most major museums. The reason for me that the Prado is the single most important visit I make in Madrid is that Velazquez and Goya have been held onto by the Spanish, and that if you really want to see the breadth of these two masters, you simply must go . And I did. And I’ll tell you what. The Prado is open free to the public every evening from 6 to 8 pm, so I’m going back for another look next week.

Another view of the Prado

Well, I DO go on, don’t I? And I did.

Okay, after the Prado, after heaven on earth, back to practicalities. Day after tomorrow I am catching a train from

The interior of Atocha Station

Atocha Station to Barcelona, and I have not stepped foot into the station, which is of considerable size. So I walked from the Prado to Atocha, got a sense of this amazing place. What other major rail station you know has a small forest of exotic trees and shrubbery smack in the middle of it? With many, many, many live turtles in ponds around the trees? It’s such an unexpected treat! And it so humanizes the place.

Turtles in Atocha Station

Well, I think I have a better sense of where to go when I get to Atocha on Saturday morning, but I’ll arrive early just in case.

I was so tired at this point, on my feet since 9 am except for a small break in the café at the Prado where I had an espresso and a tasty sort of Danish (except of course it’s a Spanish, not a Danish, right?) pastry, that I could probably not have walked back to Puerta del Sol, but yesterday I bought a 10 rides on one ticket Metro/bus pass (for 12 Euros, a great deal) as I wanted to get familiar with the underground system, and made my first use of it at Atocha. I managed to get back to Sol easily enough, only about 4 stops, no transfers, and now I know how to do that!

Feeling pretty sure of yourself, Dottore Gianni? Yes, yes I am. And tired and ready to eat something before calling it a night early as I have a long and busy and I hope exciting day tomorrow!

I went down to what is becoming (but won’t be for long) my usual haunt – the terrazza outside my hotel – I had a very good (better than at Plaza Mayor) salad and two glasses of 

white wine, then strolled a bit. Found one of my favorite human sculptures, put money in her plate, and she beckoned me to pick up a fortune – a quote from Goethe – then bought a gelato, then marched into Plaza Mayor, where lo and behold, a band concert was going on – quite quite wonderful – I listened for a bit, left to the strains of Granada, and finally, thinking that Madrid was really growing on me, went back to the hotel and slept.

A band concert on the Plaza Mayor!

Day 4: The Trip to Avila and Segovia

That morning, after a quick breakfast, I was off to Plaza de Espana, arriving in plenty of time to catch my tour bus. Our guide was Carmen, a compact, tough-looking southern Spaniard (from Granada). She spoke terrific English and had the technique of jumping from what seemed to me very equal amounts of information in Spanish, then English & vice-versa deftly, without missing a beat. It was a bit over an hour by

The Medieval walls of Avila

bus to Avila, and when we neared the city she explained that in 1985 it was made a UNESCO World Heritage site primarily for its amazingly well preserved Medieval city walls – built beginning in 1100, these are the oldest extant city walls in Spain. You can walk parts of them, but sadly, supervised day trips don't take the time to allow this 

activity. Since 1985 of course the walls and the entire interior

 of the city had to be kept the same, and UNESCO funds it for that reason. Rightly so! It’s a compact old town, without 

many bright spots except for a few hostals and restaurants

 and such. After all, this is also the city of St Teresa of Avila – reformer of the Carmelite order, saint given to ecstasy (see the photo of a sculpture in her church in Avila on the left, but if you really want ecstasy, see one of my favorite sculptures by Bernini of her in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome), and writer.  Her mentor, St John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz), whose own poems I have read and loved, is also honored in the city with a statue, across the small plaza from the church of St Teresa. 

San Vicente

We toured a beautiful basilica outside the city walls, San Vicente, which honors three martyrs whose lives were ended 

Our guide Carmen, center, in light blue

during the Roman Empire. The was begun in the twelfth century, thus partly built in the Romanesque style, but not completed until later in the Middle Ages, so also partly Gothic. Carmen explained the story of the three saints involved, and also noted that you can tell a martyr immediately because the all images and statues show them carrying a palm in their hand – Dottore Gianni didn’t know that, and remains skeptical. But it's a lovely church.

San Vicente interior

Then we walked through town, stopping at the church where St Teresa was baptized in 1515 –  birthday number 500 

How about those peppers!

coming up soon – past the central square with a lovely veggie market, and to the church of St Teresa, placed where she lived. Perhaps a tad weirdly for some people, Teresa's finger is preserved for us in a tiny museum at the church built on the spot where she lived. It's a relic, and relics were and remain treasures to remind us of saints and martyrs of the church. The finger is more than a little worse for wear, but the emerald ring on it still looks pretty fine, and it's Dottore Gianni's opinion that, all things considered, the finger stands up literally and well after 500 years.

The Church and Convent of St Teresa

Altar, Church of St Teresa

We left Avila after the interesting visits and walk, and headed on to a city I was even more excited to see -- Segovia!

The aqueduct in the distance

The first thing on the agenda in Segovia is the astonishing structure for which the city was made a World Heritage site

A look back at the elegant street leading to the aqueduct

by UNESCO: the Roman aqueduct, my prime reason for taking the day trip. We approached it along a broad avenue featuring many shops and restaurants, and as we neared it, the massive aqueduct became more and more eye-boggling. I couldn't get enough of it, but our second agenda item kept us at the wonderful site for only a few minutes. 

The Roman Aqueduct, up close and personal - for scale, see the tourists and cars
in the lower left of the photo

That item was lunch, for which Viator Tours, the company I opted to trust with my day trip, offers options - no lunch (so you can wander the town while the others are eating - in younger days that would have been my choice) the tourist

Our restaurant in Segovia

 lunch (two courses, a local soup and a stew - not bad...but no wine!) and Segovian lunch, which is the most expensive, but hey, I'm only old once. This lunch came with the same soup - granja, a wonderful bean soup, simple but delicious, but instead of the stew I was served roast suckling pig, a specialty of the area - YUM! (as long as you don't think about sweet little baby piggies while eating it).  I was surprised to be offered, in addition to baby pig, lamb as well. Both lamb and suckling pig were just delicious...and then they asked if we wanted more! I should add that there were nice mixed vegetables served with it, and a salad. Dottore Gianni couldn't have possibly had more meat, though he DID take seconds on the soup, as did everyone, but this one small woman at the table took seconds on everything and wolfed it all down! THEN dessert - two slices of delicious local cake, one apple based, one lemon based, and some ice cream to go with it....oh and a pretty tasty red wine to wash it all down. 

On this busy day we had two more stops. Segovia's cathedral and its Alcazar, but I bolted my dessert and refused coffee so I could get a few more minutes at the aqueduct. I'm glad I did, and found myself wishing that I'd have visited Segovia on my own, to have more time to explore. Now, after the trip is over, I find myself wishing I'd spent one night in the city, as it has a lot to offer.

The stunning exterior of the Cathedral at Segovia

The cathedral is not one of the largest in Spain, though it may seem so from the photo above, which looks at the apse end of the building. While some think the number of towers overdone, Dottore Gianni rather likes them all. In fact he prefers the exterior to the interior, although there are several reasons to admire both inside and out. The photo is taken from Plaza Mayor, the pleasant square at one edge of which sits the cathedral.

The cathedral from the pleasant Plaza Mayor.

Our guide Carmen pointed out that while earlier in the day we had seen the first use of the Gothic in Spain (portions of the interior of San Vicente in Avila) we were looking at the last cathedral in Spain to be built in the Gothic style. The building replaced an earlier cathedral which sat just next to the Alcazar. The current one was built in the 1520s. Some of its finest features are the choir area and the cloisters. 

Gothic vaults and tracery in the cathedral

From the cathedral we trudged along a shopping street and nearly lost some of the members of the tour. The only times marked out for shopping on the tour are the rest stops which, in addition to toilets and small cafes also feature large and relatively tacky souvenir shops. Of course if you take the no lunch option, you have time then to wander the streets. At any rate, the Alcazar was the last stop on a long and for some of the people on the tour rather tiring trip, so  little retail therapy might well have tempted some of them - not Dottore Gianni!

The Alcazar, Segovia

There are Alcazars in many Spanish cities, but the one in Segovia was a favorite with the Castilian monarchs and they spent a good bit of time there. In fact Isabel (of Isabella and Ferdinand - or Fernando - fame - the Catholic monarchs who 

Moorish-style ceiling work in the Alcazar

united Spain in 1492) took refuge in the Alcazar when she learned of her predecessor's death, and was crowned queen in Segovia shortly after. The exterior was considerably re-done and exaggerated after a fire in the nineteenth century, but the idea is right. It is thought to be one of the sources for the castle at Walt Disney World, but there are other contenders as the source for that dubious achievement. The Segovia Alcazar IS a fairy-tale style castle on the outside, and inside it is noted for Moorish architectural touches on some of its walls and on many of its ceilings. 

A view from a window in the Alcazar - in the opening on the left
you can just make out a Templar church, where those famous knights
often came for prayer and contemplation

While any guided tour has its limitations, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, even more in Segovia than in Avila. Both towns are well worth visiting on one's own, but the excellent Carmen made history come alive in each place. A very fine way to spend a day in the area northwest of Madrid.

Looking back at Segovia from the Alcazar